Vegas won't let me render QT.mov

[Paul Fierlinger]

I used to be able to make QT movies from Vegas, now nothing happens. I have Vegas 8b and QT 7.4.

Is this happening to anyone else? Does anyone have any ideas for what I might do to correct this situation?

[Jason Boyette]

I ran across the same problem...
I was trying to convert some .mt2 clips to quicktime, it would render until 80% and then just sit there.

Jason

[Paul Fierlinger]

I don't make QTs that often so it is just mu guess that this started after V 8b. I have no problems creating QTs from other applications or importing QTs into Vegas. When I attempt to render any of the Vegas QT templates and click the Save box, the box vanishes in the direction of where the progress bar would normally appear.

[Bill Westbury]

Same thing happened to me this past weekend. Tried to render about 5 minutes to QT and it hung at about 80% and the time left would count down to about 1:20 and then jump back up to 1:50 and start counting down again. After about 20 minutes of this nonsense, I cancelled it. Fortunately, the QT was not a requirement, it was just an extra I was trying to do for the customer.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I work around the problem by exporting my timeline as a single uncompressed avi to my other application from where I can render it not only into a QT file, but as an H.264 QT, which Vegas can never do as far as I know.

[Greg Boston]

Well gentlemen, it may have more to do with the QT 7.4 update. There are widespread problems being reported with the latest QT update on many different applications.

-gb-

[Paul Fierlinger]

That helps to know; thanks. Is there a way to step back to the previous version?

[Paul Fierlinger]

I rolled back to QT 7.3.1 and everything is back to normal and working as it should.

[Michael Wisniewski]

Paul I had to do the same, rolled back Quicktime and it's working fine. Had numerous other problems with render & playback on the PC.

Originally Posted by Paul Fierlinger

... I can render it not only into a QT file, but as an H.264 QT, which Vegas can never do as far as I know.

In Vegas 7/8, H.264 can be rendered using the MainConcept AVC/AAC or Sony AVC encoders. Are most people initially heading to the Quicktime encoder like I did?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thanks Michael, but how can I tell it's H.264? I followed your directions and in both cases there are no special codec selections listed that I can see.

[Michael Wisniewski]

H.264 is also known as MPEG-4 AVC, or simply as AVC. Unfortunately, in Vegas, neither the MainConcept AVC/AAC nor the Sony AVC encoder options say "H.264". Many people are very confused (myself included) because were all looking for the "H.264 encoder" and Vegas is calling it "AVC".

If you use either encoder, it only creates an H.264/AVC/MPEG-4 file.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thanks... so far the results don't look that great -- I wonder what people see in this, but I'm still fooling around with settings.

[Michael Wisniewski]

Here are some settings to create a 720p file (recommended for Vimeo). You have to set the bit rate to "see" better results, preferably with two-pass VBR. If you're just comparing the same resolution, the main benefit of H.264 is a smaller file size at the same bit rate - with theoretically similar video quality.

1. H.264 - use the MainConcept AVC/AAC or Sony AVC encoder in Vegas 7/8 (.wmv if using an older version of Vegas)
2. 1280x720 - set as a Custom Frame Size (this is 720, 16x9)
3. 3000-5000 kbits/sec - bit rate in Vegas will show as 3,000,000-5,000,000 bps
4. AAC 128kpbs stereo - 48,000 Hz, 128,000 bps

Here's a test 720p video I put up on Vimeo. Shot with the XH A1 at 1080i, 24p & 30p.

Eugenia Loli-Queru also created a very nice write up on using Vegas to create an H.264 file for Vimeo.

Hope that helps.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thanks so much for your advice. I found a useful setting to be 2,000 kbits/sec. The file came to 16MB, which is really light for a one minute spot. If you want to see it, I uploaded it here:

www.video.paulfierlinger.com/Vegas

It's WIP but it serves my purpose, which is to FTP it to my composer, who's the one who likes H.264, since his setup is all MAC. This quality is good enough for him to work with and it took me just 3 minutes to upload. I'm beginning to see the merits of H.264.

[Michael Wisniewski]

Glad that helped. By the way, I thought it was a great spot, my Dad's from Phillie and he's a vet.