issues rendering to AVI (and WMV)

[Federico Perale]

hi there
I have 1920X1080 clips and I am trying to render both to AVI and WMV9

now...when I set the renderting to WMV the best option I have is 1440*1080 25p -why don't I have 1920*1080? is it because WMV doesn't handle full HD?

the file size is for this particular test clip comes out at 37MB and the quality is OK__ but I want full HD!

now...
when i try for AVI I select 1080 50i YUV and the output file is HUGE (more than 4GB) and the playback and audio are both stuttering....totally unusable......what am I doing wrong?

can someone explain me what's the logic in choosing the output parameters, especially if your source file is 1920*1080 50i?

thanks
Fed

[Seth Bloombaum]

Although premade templates only provide up to HDV resolution, you can go beyond this by using custom templates, selecting custom pixel sizes, framerates, etc. Please note that 1920x1080 is a square pixel (1.0 PAR) format, you have to specify that as well.

Once you have settings you like, you can save them as a template, too.

[Federico Perale]

Thanks I will try that. What about the avi settings?
How come the file I get is bigger than 4GB while on wmv they are less than 40Mb?
Also the avi file doesn't play back well

[Vincent Mesman]

I'd suggest you start reading a manual or Wikipedia.

[Federico Perale]

Is this supposed to be a helpful comment?

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

Federico,
Unless you choose otherwise, the AVI export setting will give you an uncompressed large file.
I've got Cineform's Neo Scene which I use for converting files and this shows up in the AVI export dialogue box as a choice. The Cineform AVI files are smaller (still large by comparison to the highly compressed WMV files) but very good all the same and excellent for keeping as a master or for doing any conmpositing work on.

[Federico Perale]

the test clip I am using is 43 seconds....

at 35mbs source bitrate, how the can AVI output file be 4.4GB?

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Federico Perale

Thanks I will try that. What about the avi settings?
How come the file I get is bigger than 4GB while on wmv they are less than 40Mb?
Also the avi file doesn't play back well

As Robin noted, it may be that your AVI render was with no codec, that is, uncompressed. This is useful sometimes for exacting graphics and keying work, but is not suitable for distribution. As you found out, in HD it can be more than a standard hard drive can keep up with for real-time playback. People who need to work in uncompressed frequently use RAID disk arrays to get enough throughput for realtime play of uncompressed HD.

WMV, on the other hand, is a highly compressed distribution codec. Its intended use is fundamentally different, it's meant to be small yet easily uncompressed on the fly during playback, and it is an excellent example of this type of codec.

There are lots of other codecs in use both in Vegas and for distribution.

Try this article in wikipedia (and the many references) for the basics of codecs - this is indeed something any digital video editor needs to understand.

As for your AVI settings, what are you trying to accomplish with AVI? There are many codec choices available within the AVI container as well, but you would set up the frame dimensions the same way as a WMV render.

[Federico Perale]

well i chose 1080 50i YUV so I guess it was supposed to be compressed?
I also tried to select "uncompressed" but size-wise it's almost the same.

But AVI is a codec or a container?
I guess that's the part I don't understand.

What I'm trying to do is find the best output for web distribution, but also to understand well all of Vegas rendering options.

So far I haven't been able to understand AVI and also, for some reason Vegas doesn't allow me to output to DivX directly: says the codec doesn't work with the selected settings

[Edward Troxel]

Originally Posted by Federico Perale

But AVI is a codec or a container?
I guess that's the part I don't understand.

AVI is a CONTAINER that can hold many different CODECS.