Neo Scene - Converted File Significantly Shorter
 

Hi,

I downloaded the Neo Scene demo and ran an HDV file through the converter. My original .m2t source file was 30:02.49 (60p - ~3.6gb)

After the conversion, the .avi file created by Neo Scene is 26:02.16 (~17.5gb)

I just dropped both files onto Vegas 8.0 timelines and immediately noticed the difference. Any ideas on this?

Also, I was somehow under the impression that playback of the .avi would be faster than playback of the .m2t file. As a test, I did this:

- Imported just one source file and played the file back at "Preview-Auto". I playback at the same frame rate (~18fps) using either file as the source (32 bit floating point - I can play back at 29.97fps using the 8-bit profile).

(System note: Vista 64, Intel quad core, 4gb, RAID0 - If I try to playback using a non-RAID drive, 7200rpm drive, it's about 5fps in "Preview-Auto" for both source files).

Before anyone says anything, Vegas 64-bit is not an option for me at this point. I get the most aberrant behavior every time I try to use it that I finally gave up. (Not to get off-topic, but as an example: I will create a project in 8.0, open it in 8.1, and some of the media simply doesn't appear on the timeline. It's in the media bin -- as it should be because it's just a saved project file -- but I'll get to a clip in the timeline and it will simply be blank, even though everything seems to be in order when I right-click on the clip on the timeline and examine the properties. Learned this the hard way after editing in 8.0, opening 8.1 to take advantage of the faster rendering time, and when I watched the rendered footage (42 minutes of HDV footage rendering to .wmv....ugh! -- took forever) , stuff simply wasn't there....neither the video nor the audio. Almost kicked the dog......j/k)

Sorry for the slight ramble...been up awhile ;)

Best ~ Lee

I just tried the Neo Scene demo and found the transcoding app to be somewhat unreliable with my HDV footage. It would suddenly stop encoding in the middle of a batch, usually just short of completing whatever clip it was transcoding. Everything up to that point was transcoded properly, though.

As for your vegas questions, it sounds like something isn't quite right with your system. I too have a quad core and looking at the clips I transcoded into cineform HD (Best quality) yesterday, in a 32-bit project I get full 29.97 frame rate with all of them if I have it set on preview/auto. At good/auto, the framerate fluctuates between about 9.5 and 10fps, but will jump up to 11.5 fps or so. At best/auto the framerate in the preview window is very steady at about 9.2fps. At best/full I get 5.6fps. (By the way, all of these framerates I'm quoting are on a non-RAID 7200 rpm SATA drive.) At 8-bit pixel format, I get 20-22 fps on every setting but preview/auto or preview/half (both get 29.97fps). Interestingly, of all the settings where I don't get full 29.97 framerate, best/full delivers the top framerate, hovering closer to 22fps.

as for the hdv content, it plays back at exactly 29.97fps at best/full in 8-bit pixel format, but in 32-bit pixel format, that number drops to about 6fps (just slightly better than the cineform's performance). But as you've observed everything else is pretty close between the two in terms of preview playback rate.

Shorter conversions, any scene break involved? NEO Scene uses the same HDV conversion engine as NEO HDV/HD, and they have been around for years. We have no reason to believe the is a bug introduced, likely an outside issue, so it is worth discussing with support.

David:

Hasn't automation been introduced to NeoScene ? We used to have a choice of parameters to invoke during capture or conversion. From my trial of NeoScene, it appears we have no choices of any signifigance. In NeoHDV, for the Sony Cineframe24 on the FX1 for instance, your recommended settings were different from those for my HV20. So it would seem the automated process could create some kind of issue. Are we getting that same treatment as recommended for NeoHDV in the automated settings for NeoScene ?

That has nothing to do with the HDV transcoding engine, only how 24p is extracted (HV20, Sony CineFrame 24, Canon 24F) or created (FX1 and 60i sources.) This is part automatic.

David - there was no scene break involved - it was just one long-ish take. I'll try with another file and report the results.

Thanks ~ Lee