Codecs
 

Hi all this only vaguely relates to my last thread where I aws having issues with certain files. I went and wiped out most of.. well.. a BUNCH of my codecs to eliminate them as potential problems and I see this as maybe an opportunity to have a smarter installaion of codecs.

So, if you are using Win 7 with 64 and 32bit vegas... what codecs do you install, for both audio and video, specifically for use within Vegas?

Personally, I use the ones that came WITH Vegas! My needs are fairly simple, though.

I'm with Edward, generally speaking.

It's my feeling that Vegas has had all the distribution codecs I needed, just not all the DIs, specifically to include an HD codec that supports transparency that other programs can see.

For particular projects I've needed more.
Cineform, which came with Vegas in v6-8 is a great DI, but doesn't do alpha-channel transparency.
Fooled around with DNxHD and Lagarith, they're both good at what they do.
Purchase of the Microsoft Expression encoder has given me some new WMV-family codecs.

I avoid free-ware "codec packs" at all costs. Lots of people have reported sinking serious time into troubleshooting, only to eventually find that the codec pack was the root problem. There also were a couple of packs a few years ago that were mal-ware, but I've not heard of that problem recently.

My files are mostly DV, so that is usable straight up. I have installed DNxHD, and am playing with ideas of improving the colour sampling to help some of the effects I'm trying to do. Maybe with the NeoHD or something.

I also definitely have and use Lagarith, primarily because of it's support for alpha but still being compressed, although Vegas frustratingly and stupidly refuses to render alpha to anything except uncompressed. Hate it when programmers make such decisions with no thought, or very limited at best.

However, if I want it with alpha and compressed, other FX programs do alpha with Lagarith just fine, and Vegas reads it just fine.

I use Xvid for somethings, youtube stuff. But that might be as it was the only one I could configure in VMS 9, seems like I have the ability to create better templates in VMS 10 now. Although I do like Xvid.

I have one of the freeware packs installed, and don't have any problems, that I've found at least.

Aside from those two though, I only use the Vegas internal ones.