Codec H264 on a PC at DVinfo.net
DV Info Net

Go Back   DV Info Net > Windows / PC Post Production Solutions > Non-Linear Editing on the PC

Non-Linear Editing on the PC
Discussing the editing of all formats with Matrox, Pinnacle and more.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old January 9th, 2006, 05:38 PM   #1
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Madrid, Spain
Posts: 187
Codec H264 on a PC

Can i create quicktimes with h264 codec in a PC?
can i do it with vegas video?

Thanks!
Miguel Lopez is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 21st, 2006, 12:45 AM   #2
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hollywood, CA
Posts: 293
Miguel -

I am struggling with this right now. From what I can tell, there is no direct output to h.264. The Sony Vegas forums seem to confirm this at sonymedia.com

My current theory is to output uncompressed .avi and export it to h.264 from within the QT7 player (choose Export...)
__________________
==========================
Brian Valente
Redrock Microsystems
Brian Valente is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 21st, 2006, 07:18 AM   #3
Trustee
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Brookline, MA
Posts: 1,447
"Yes" to both questions. You need Quicktime 7.0 and Sony Vegas 6.0c. Quicktime H.264 Tutorial.
Emre Safak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 21st, 2006, 11:40 AM   #4
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hollywood, CA
Posts: 293
Which is great - except QT7 consistently blows up with a buffer overflow error every time I select "Export..." SD or HDV.

Frustrating.
__________________
==========================
Brian Valente
Redrock Microsystems
Brian Valente is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 21st, 2006, 03:54 PM   #5
Trustee
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Brookline, MA
Posts: 1,447
Does it do that with 7.04?
Emre Safak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 21st, 2006, 03:56 PM   #6
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hollywood, CA
Posts: 293
yep - latest and greatest. 7.04 QT and vegas 6.0c. If I open an uncompressed HDV out and choose export, it just crashes... no warning or anything
__________________
==========================
Brian Valente
Redrock Microsystems
Brian Valente is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 21st, 2006, 04:52 PM   #7
Trustee
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Brookline, MA
Posts: 1,447
Does this thread help?
Emre Safak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 21st, 2006, 05:42 PM   #8
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hollywood, CA
Posts: 293
That's great - thanks for the lead. I don't know, but I will give it a whirl in Sorenson and report back the results.

I would say the QT Pro 7 (7.04 at least) on PC crashes consistently when trying to export anything (buffer overrun).
__________________
==========================
Brian Valente
Redrock Microsystems
Brian Valente is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 23rd, 2006, 04:02 PM   #9
Trustee
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Suwanee, GA
Posts: 1,241
And yet another thread points to this application... http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/streamclipwindows.html
George Ellis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 23rd, 2006, 05:24 PM   #10
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hollywood, CA
Posts: 293
Results report: Sorenson 4.3 does the trick. I earlier assumed h.264 would be under Quicktime and actually say "H.264", but as pointed out elsewhere you need to use the settings of MPEG4/AVC. They are all there!

So the workflow for creating h.264 from PC for me is:

Import HDV footage into vegas using CineForm intermediate
edit/grade
export as uncompressed
open in Sorenson Squeeze
Squeeze using MPEG4/AVC1080i (or whatever format I want)


Thanks - I hope this helps someone else in a similar predicament
__________________
==========================
Brian Valente
Redrock Microsystems
Brian Valente is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 23rd, 2006, 07:02 PM   #11
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 2,488
Brian: have you tried comparing the results you get that way with H.264 to what you can get by encoding directly to Windows Media with a similar bit rate? If so, what specific differences do you notice between these two options in terms of video image quality?
Kevin Shaw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 23rd, 2006, 07:06 PM   #12
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hollywood, CA
Posts: 293
If anyone is interested I can try that out and let you know the results
__________________
==========================
Brian Valente
Redrock Microsystems
Brian Valente is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 23rd, 2006, 07:17 PM   #13
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 2,488
Brian: please do, and while you're at it let us know how long each approach takes (from start to finish) to output a minute of your typical edited video.
Kevin Shaw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 23rd, 2006, 07:17 PM   #14
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. John's, NL, Canada
Posts: 416
I got the sorenson trial and some HDV footage from the HD100 and sorenson does a pretty good job. Unfortunately I was looking for h.264 in a quicktime mov container, but the sorenson encodes some nice h.264 in an mp4 container so I shouldn't complain.

I just wanted to do a raw hdv encode, so i used mpegtohdtv to convert the m2t files to mpg, loaded up in sorenson squeeze 4.3 trial and fired it off on some encodes.

It's great for exporting to several formats. I used cleaner before but I like sorenson squeeze now and think its a great program.

For HD I found that h.264 looked really good and so did wmv, but at similar bitrate I think h.264 looked shaper but it also changed the colours, it made it more vibrant and seemed to increase the contrast while wmv seemed to keep the colours much more accurately. It might just be it stretching the NTSC white and black to computer white and black but it still seems to be changing the colour. Anyone else have this problem? I think I'm going to try and do some more footage to recreate this problem.
Keith Wakeham is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24th, 2006, 02:23 PM   #15
Trustee
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Carlsbad CA
Posts: 1,132
if you are serious about creating h.264, you need to check out the nero encoder... it does a really good job.

wmv vs. h.264... can you create vbr footage with the h.264 encoders? it can make a big difference in quality and file size... h.264 will take more computing horsepower to play, so it won't be as compatible as wmv, on slower computers.

if you look at the nero encoder settings, there is a "quicktime compatability" setting, that apparently disables bidirectional prediction, in order for the clip to play back well with the qt player... at least i think that's the reason.

so you could be trading off quality over compatibility with h.264, because the qt player may not be able to handle the full h.264 standard.
Dan Euritt is offline   Reply
Reply

DV Info Net refers all where-to-buy and where-to-rent questions exclusively to these trusted full line dealers and rental houses...

B&H Photo Video
(866) 521-7381
New York, NY USA

Scan Computers Int. Ltd.
+44 0871-472-4747
Bolton, Lancashire UK


DV Info Net also encourages you to support local businesses and buy from an authorized dealer in your neighborhood.
  You are here: DV Info Net > Windows / PC Post Production Solutions > Non-Linear Editing on the PC

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:36 AM.


DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network