Satish just announced this on the Sony Vegas forum and, for all of you who have been waiting patiently, it's here at last :-)

Debugmode Frameserver is now available with VP9 support and you can download it for free at Debugmode FrameServer Homepage (http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver)

Along with VP9 support, this version has a couple of bug fixes for earlier versions so is a recommended download.

This version also adds an update check feature that checks once in a while if any new version of the frameserver is available (no automatic download, just checks and informs you if an update is available). This will help in distributing the message about future bug fixes and new releases faster. If your editing machine is not connected to the internet this will stay disabled, so no worries.

Thanks to those who helped with beta testing.

Thanks for the heads up, and a MILLION thanks to Satish for making this happen! I'm just updating to 9.0a now, can't wait to try it out with Frameserver. I had actually gone back to using v8 for most of my projects solely for the frameserving ability, so needless to say this makes me happy.

Could someone explain what this software does? Thanks.

A frameserver allows you to pass your Vegas project on to another application without first having to render it out to an actual clip first.

An example use for this is to send projects to TMPGEnc for MPEG-2 encoding. This is the main thing I use it for.

To use it, you simply "render" your project to the frameserver. What happens when you do this is that in seconds, you have a signpost file. This is a fake AVI with the name of your veg.avi, just like you had rendered to an actual .avi.

You leave Vegas and the frameserver running, then launch your AVI reading application and load the signpost AVI as if it was a real AVI. To the other application it looks like, and seeks like, a real AVI.

This is a very powerful capability to have, and I also thank Satish for updating it for VP9. I had also gone back to VP8 to not lose this capability till now.

Eugene, I occasionally render .avi files with Vegas to use with Adobe Flash Encoder for making .flv files. Would there be any advantage to using it this way? Could it be used in this way?

If Adobe Flash Encoder could use the signpost file I could see a benefit of saving time and HD space.

Your thoughts?

Beyond the advantages of saving time and hard drive space, there's also the issue of saving quality. Unless you are rendering out to uncompressed, rendering out to any type of lossy codec, like DV, will result in a small quality loss any time you do it.

I haven't used the frameserver with anything but TMPGEnc, but I know others use it with other applications. I encourage you to try it, the frameserver is free, so you have nothing to lose. :)

Be sure to read the instructions on the website, some programs don't have a problem with the video but may have a problem with the frameserved audio. If you hit an application like that, there is an option on the frameserver where it renders your audio out to a wav to fix that problem automatically.

Eugene, thanks for that very clear and concise explanation. Am I right that this would be a great tool for using After Effects with Vegas?

It takes 40 min to burn 1 min of a HD Vegas 9 project on the time line to blu ray when using Frameserver and DVD architect( rendering the Vegas time line with frameserver then using DVD architect). Isn't it taking too long. Thanks, Bill

It takes 40 min to burn 1 min of a HD Vegas 9 project on the time line to blu ray when using Frameserver and DVD architect( rendering the Vegas time line with frameserver then using DVD architect). Isn't it taking too long. Thanks, Bill

why are you frameserving to Architect Bill?

Yes Paul excellent for AE.

Thank you Satish. I would also like to make a financial contribution to you for this tool.

What is the easiest way to get a Vegas project into sony's DVD architect and then burn a blu ray? I've rendered an AVI then taken that AVI into Architect but that consumes a great deal of memory. Frameserver does not consume harddrive space but takes a long time to burn a blu ray. Thanks, Bill

For going from Vegas to Architect for Blu-ray, I would recommend encoding your MPEG-2 and AC-3 in Vegas, and then just drop that into Architect.

I know nothing about the program, but I agree that using Frameserver for burning DVDs doesn't sound right. I wouldn't do it. No disrepect intended, but it doesn't make sense.

Using frameserver, Vegas and dvd architect(all running at the same time) burns a flawless, super sharp blu ray. Without the need to render the Vegas timeline to anything( except using framestore). Just takes a long time. 40 min for every min on the vegas timeline. Bill

William, would you please explain the workflow for using this method? Or point me to printed instructions.

Also, what is the benefit - is it that Vegas Mpeg2/Mpeg4 encoding is not as good?

Eugene, I occasionally render .avi files with Vegas to use with Adobe Flash Encoder for making .flv files. Would there be any advantage to using it this way? Could it be used in this way?

If Adobe Flash Encoder could use the signpost file I could see a benefit of saving time and HD space.

Your thoughts?

I do this all the time. It is usually my preferred method to get to flash from vegas. Saves you an entire intermediate render, so it saves both time and quality. Now, if you are rendering to multiple formats, there could be some benefit to rendering a master, then encoding to multiple formats from there. But for straight to flash, hell yeah, frame serve for sure!

Also, what is the benefit - is it that Vegas Mpeg2/Mpeg4 encoding is not as good?

The encoding in Vegas is better than in Architect, not worse. Vegas lets you do 2-pass encoding, Architect does not. Not to mention all the tweaks available in Vegas encoding versus Architect encoding.

What I do is take my vegas timeline (currently using P2 HD footage 23.97fps 1920x1080 and raylight ultra1.1)and then use frameserver to render to my hard drive, which appears instantly. I minimize vegas 9, launch Sony dvd architect, set it using avc 23.97fps 1920x1080 at 28Megabits per second, attach the frameserver AVI and burn to blu ray. Great image... but again, it takes 40min for every min on the time line. But no hard drive space for the render. Any faster or better way of going? Thanks, Bill

AVC is hard to encode, so it may not be that much quicker doing it directly in Vegas. But I would expect it to be at least a little quicker, all else being equal.

But I think it's worth a shot to try rendering to that same Blu-ray AVC template in Vegas and see how long that takes.

And honestly, at that high a data rate, I wouldn't think there would be much difference going with MPEG-2 instead, which would encode a lot quicker.

I use Particle Illusion. Clients love the effects I can get. BUT, there ain't no plugin for Vegas. Soooo..... I do a FS into Pi and use the AVI as the background "Plate" to do my Pi effects > Save with Alfie Channel > Bring into Vegas and Robert's yer mother's Bruvver!

So, for FrameServing to another s/w option - FrameServer is a "Mean Machine"!

Grazie

Hi has anyone tried this with 9a as i am getting a crash.

vegas 9a 32bit
vista 64
intel quad core
8 gb ddr

Hi has anyone tried this with 9a as i am getting a crash.

vegas 9a 32bit
vista 64
intel quad core
8 gb ddr

I just tried with a short (24 sec) clip and it served to PI and opened as background no problem. Tried with a much longer 40min veg and just got a black screen in PI. Have to dash out now but will have another check tomorrow.

Win XP
Intel Core 2

Eugene, I tied your suggestion of rendering to Mpeg first(best HD quality) and then burn to blu ray... the frameserver works faster. But it's still too long. A 100min project would take over 66 hrs !!!! Any suggestions? Thanks. Bill

Interesting results, Bill. If it was in a 2-pass mode, that would explain it, since Architect doesn't do 2-pass. Beyond that, could be some different settings I guess.

Anyway, I agree that's too long. So I would say try encoding as MPEG-2 instead of AVC.

In my own tests, my AVC encoding was a 12:1 time ratio and my MPEG-2 encoding was an 8.5:1 time ratio. (My system's pretty slow, I'll be building a new computer sometime soon.)

Once you get to 25Mb/s or higher, I've never seen anyone see a difference between AVC and MPEG-2 for HD footage.

Eugene, the encoding time ratio is in the same ball park as yours, but add the burn time to blu ray and then your computer is done for long while.

Several times now frameserver caused vegas 9 to crash and close down. Any ideas why? Thanks