My PC and editing HD with Sony Vegas 8 Platinum

[OU812]

Okay, I'm new to this video editing game and I have a Sony HDR SR7E and Sony Vegas 8 Platinum. My current PC specs are:

AMD Athlon X2 3800
2GB RAM
8800GT GPU

Will I be able to carry out HD editing without my PC grinding to a halt? Also if I save the finished edited file to a recordable DVD will it play back in SD or HD? (If I play it on a PS3?)

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[StevieBuck]

I'm not an expert on this software, but I have used it to do simple editing on short AVCHD clips from my own sony hd camcorder.

To get HD playback on a PS3 etc, you obviously need to render your project at an HD resolution. I'm not sure if you can use this software to encode straight to a Blu-Ray player compatible format, but I do know that full Blu-Ray authoring is only available with the Pro version of Vegas.

As far as I can tell, you can use vegas to create an HD .avi file of your edited video, then convert again to Blu-Ray using another piece of software.


What I have learned so far though, is that editing, converting & burnig is quite a long process!

[senu]

You can use it to make a 1080i mpeg2 . which is what HDV camcorder output
Saying that, BluRay supports mpeg2 1080i
However you need the likes of UleadMovieFactory 6 plus to do that
Your PC is OK for the software but I have no experience of playing AVCHD with ease on any non core2 duo machine

[OU812]

Originally Posted by StevieBuck

I'm not an expert on this software, but I have used it to do simple editing on short AVCHD clips from my own sony hd camcorder.

To get HD playback on a PS3 etc, you obviously need to render your project at an HD resolution. I'm not sure if you can use this software to encode straight to a Blu-Ray player compatible format, but I do know that full Blu-Ray authoring is only available with the Pro version of Vegas.

As far as I can tell, you can use vegas to create an HD .avi file of your edited video, then convert again to Blu-Ray using another piece of software.


What I have learned so far though, is that editing, converting & burnig is quite a long process!

Does anyone out there know the name of the software I'd need to buy to be able to convert the HD .avi file to Blu-Ray? I'm off to the states next month, so would probably pick up a copy there (as the exchange rate is so good at the mo). Alternatively, would I be better off biting the bullet and buying another HD editing programme like Pro or similar?

[senu]

Originally Posted by OU812

Does anyone out there know the name of the software I'd need to buy to be able to convert the HD .avi file to Blu-Ray

Hi def files dont tend to have the *.avi extension. To which do you refer?. Vegas did have an intermediate codec cineform which was designed to allow easy editing of HDV files , was DV like and has an AVI extension but it is not meant to be an output format
This was in the early days of HDV but newer software and hardware have meant that interframe formats like mpg SD and HD(1080i) , h.264 can be edited as they are

The ones from tape are mpeg2 transport streams ( m2t) but can also be mpg
And the HDD/SD variety AVCHD : m2ts or mts

As I stated in my earlier post, Blu Ray movie disc specification supports these 2 as well as AVC ( a subset of wmv-HD)
You should not need to convert as such: Which ever software you want to make BD disc with should accept as input any of these
Some Sanyo 720p camcorders output a form of mpeg4 ( not AVCHD as in H.264 ) and there are quicktime-HD and Divx HD formats but AFAIK they are not directly Blu Ray compatible
Buy the Pro ( it now has BD support in its latest version of DVD -A) if you must, but I did also suggest that many users of SVMP8 used Ulead Movie Factory 6 plus which is easily affordable and here in the UK
I found that you may need the HD add on pack but that can be downloaded from the US site... the last time i checked it would appear the UK site still wants to sell it to you!

[OU812]

Just for clarification, as I'm a novice at all this, if I saved my AVCHD clips (after editing) as MPEG-4 and then burn that to a standard recordable DVD would this file then play back in HD on a PS3? (or would it be standard def?). Sorry if this is a stupid question, but as I said, this is all new to me!

[dave_bass5]

Im pretty sure that Vegas MSP will not output 1920x1080 files, only 1440x1080.
I believe thats good enough as it uses a pixel AR of 1.333 but you will need to full Vegas Pro to get 1920x1080.


Just thought i would poin that out.

IME studio 11 and 12 (pinnacle) run a lot slower on my PC's than MSP so i would try and keep away from those for now.

[senu]

Originally Posted by dave_bass5

Im pretty sure that Vegas MSP will not output 1920x1080 files, only 1440x1080.
I believe thats good enough as it uses a pixel AR of 1.333 but you will need to full Vegas Pro to get 1920x1080.

Are you sure ? I thought the most recent patch fixed that with Sony camcorders, but then maybe not..!

IME studio 11 and 12 (pinnacle) run a lot slower on my PC's than MSP so i would try and keep away from those for now.

Vegas ( MSP or even the Pro ver ) are very efficient and manage to use modest PCs where others may grunt..Not just Pinnacle

[dave_bass5]

Originally Posted by senu

Are you sure ? I thought the most recent patch fixed that with Sony camcorders, but then maybe not..!

Vegas ( MSP or even the Pro ver ) are very efficient and manage to use modest PCs where others may grunt..Not just Pinnacle

Im sure that MSP 8d wont output my HF10 files at 1920x1080. In fact if you try you get a message saying "this format (or resolution, im not sure now) is not supported and will be removed from the list"
One of the more useful features they have cut down on IM and one that forced me to use the Pro version.