Hello,

A client of mine is providing me with footage they shot on HD Panasonic P2 media. I need to take this and edit it, and then provide their IT staff with a file to be converted to Flash for their website.

What format should I provide to their IT person to provide the best quality for Flash delivery? This will be delivered on the web.

Please provide specific setting (bitrates, etc.) if I need to dial up any custom settings.

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

I just determined that my client wants the file in either uncompressed AVI or .mp4. I don't see a way to render to "uncompressed" .mp4. What settings would give me the best quality .mp4 for conversion to flash?

Thanks, and my apologies if this is a dumb question. Greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

MP4 is always compressed.

First off, you will need Raylight Ultra to edit the P2 .mxf clips natively in Vegas. You can then render uncompressed .avi (huge file size) to send to client or .mp4 (smaller file size but compressed). I use Adobe Media Encoder to transcode to flash from P2 generated .avi's without a problem.

So to clarify, I cannot edit P2 media files in Sony Vegas? I don't need to do anything major other than some minor color correction to an interview. Thanks.

Jerry, to clarify - you CAN edit those files in Vegas - it just requires RayLight to do so.

Just out of curiousity, why doesn't Vegas play well with Panasonic P2? One of the biggest advantages with using Vegas is that it normally doesn't care what you put on the timeline. It's just a bit of a bummer having to spend another $200 to edit P2, which is a fairly common format. Unlike Red, which Vegas does edit but is a more obsure format. Is this because you essentially have two camera manufactures that don't particularly like each other? ;)

ding, ding, ding, ding.... yes it's a licensing issue.

Ed,

Thanks for the confirmation. I purchased Raylight and I'm up and running.

Going back to my first question, what would be the best format to provide my clients IT staff for them to convert the file to flash? I'm looking for a decent compromise between file size and quality.

Thanks,

Jerry

For about $30 you can get ON-Flix (Flix Standard) and convert to FLV yourself) then FTP the files to them in finsihed form. I do it all the time and it works great plus the FLV files are a lot smaller then an AVI which IMO is the best way to convert to FLV so you're not taking up a lot of bandwidth and waiting for a long period of time to FTP to them.
Works for me. Simple fast and clean.

I don't know much about Panasonic P2 media, but it sounds like others have posted the Raylight solution.

As far as Flash based web posting, I'd recommend using Handbrake to produce mp4 videos. Here's a tutorial on the full procedure.

Vegas-to-Vimeo Tutorial - A Better Method on Vimeo

The tutorial is somewhat focused on posting to YouTube & Vimeo, but the procedure is identical for locally hosted flash players (e.g. JW Player). Here's an example of using this procedure to for JW Player (Flash) viewing: HD Video for the Web - Guide for Vegas Users (http://www.jazzythedog.com/testing/dnxhd/hd-guide.aspx#JWP)

...Jerry

I agree with Don. If you can get them to provide final spec's for the .flv then you are better off doing the conversion yourself and posting the finished flash files. Unless you plan on shipping the client a hard drive, you are never going to accommodate electronic transfer of uncompressed .avi's.