GUIDE:Rendering with Sony Vegas 6 / 7 *Please read*
 

this started out as a post just to answer some questions in this forum, but I got carried away and let myself go with it... so I figured i'd post it in a seperate topic.


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=== Rendering an acceptable size/quality movie with Sony Vegas 6 or 7 ===
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If your rendering it with Sony Vegas... once the movie is ready, render with these steps:

Step: 1) Go to File.

Step: 2) Select Render As.

Step: 3) Your best bet for this try (u can experiment with other types later) is to set the file type to AVI. It will be listed as: Video for Windows (AVI)

Step: 4) Now where it says template, were not going to use their templates, although they are good, theres one for better size and high quality. So click Custom to the right of it.

This is where it gets tricky so pay attention:

Step: 5) You'll see 3 tabs at the bottom: Project, Video, Audio.

Step: 6) What you need to do is start on the Project tab, you'll see an option called Video Rendering Quality: This is your quality. The higher the quality, the higher the file size will be, but I recommend using Best anyways, most people do, and the movie size will still stay pretty low.

Step: 7) Now move to the Video tab. Even more tricky here;

Step: 8) Find where it says Video Format. There is a LOT of formats, I highly recommend using Divx; its labeled DivX(R) 6.6.1 Codec (1 Logcal CPU) or something close to it. You do NOT want the Decoder of Divx, you want the Codec. It might be a different version # or whatever.

NOTE) If you do not have DivX, get it, trust me you want it, its the highest quality and best software and codecs you could get for movie making.

Step: 9) Once you slect the codec, you should be fine, HOWEVER, there is a few more options you can mess with, like the Interleave.... it improves the quality of your video, at the cost of much slower rendering process, and higher file size... so its something to keep in mind, for now dont worry about it.

Step: 10) Look up now, you'll see an option called Frame rate: This option is what it says it is, teh frame rate control. I recommend 29.970 (NTSC) if this option is available for you. If it is not, try to find something close to it, NTSC is best if you have that option, if not find a close frame rate.

------FAQ)Can I Go higher than 29 frame rate? Answer is yes, you can, again its going to effect the file size of your movie, but the movie will be higher quality, you can go double ntsc if you wish, but remember that if you fraps'd at Half-Size with a low fps, then going double ntsc might actually kill some quality rather than give you some. If you frapsed full size with a high fps, then go for it, the quality will be outstanding.

Step: 11) What about Frame Size? I wouldn't touch it, it should be fine for whatever video clips you started putting into sony vegas. However, you can always change the frame size if you wish, that changes the actual size of the movie screen your watching. Once again though, higher frame size means a higher file size and slower rendering, but could mean higher quality if you frapsed high enough.

Step: 12) Audio tab, LEAVE IT ALONE. Unless you know what your doing with Hz settings and the bit depths and channels of the sound waves, leave it alone... The sound should be absolutly fine, besides people don't really look for super high sound quality, they wanna see you go own face in a pvp video... erm.. they want to see the high quality video :)

Step: 13) now save your settings by going to teh top of the window where it says Template. Type in an name, any name, like "wow video settings" and press the disk save button.

Step: 14) Now press ok to exit that window and go back to the render save window.

Step: 15) Select those settings if they arn't already selected in the Template and press ok.

NOTE WHEN RENDERING) If your computer is a beast (fast motha) then feel free to do it whenever you please, but dont expect to be able to do much like play wow while its rendering. - If your computer kinda sucks, I recommend letting it render while you go away, such as going to school or work or out wherever... let it render then... BUT TURN OFF YOUR SCREENSAVER. - A screensaver running in the background can hinder the rendering performance, also so can a high scale program thats writing to the drive, such as WoW, limewire, so on. Any small programs should be fine, but remember, you render faster if your computer has more of it's memory accessable to use.


Step: 16) Wahalaa! You now have a divx AVI movie rendered. The quality should be decent or better, and the size should be acceptable now. Go watch your movie and make sure it all rendered correctly and that it's all set.

Step: 17)Anyone with a Divx codec can watch this movie (probably about 95% of the internets population has this, so no worries, a majority of warcraftmovies.com movies have this or similar codecs, so go upload it and have a ball!)

STAGE6 Uploading Tip: *Removed* [ Goodbye stage 6 :( ]

But thats for another topic, enjoy your movie!

Nice guide Sticked!

I changed the title abit so it stands out more.

Promoting wrong res, wrong fps and using uncompressed audio and CBR video quality I see.

Also negative on the part with stage6, avi's worked fine for me.

Yes, I'm grumpy, I just woke up. But it had to be said.

Add to the guide if you would like Thiras, I have no problem with that. I've experimented with every setting possible on sony vegas 6 and 7, and I found that these are the best settings for someone who wants to make a movie, render it quick, but still have good quality and size. I didn't promote any resolution, I stated that anyone can use any resolutionthey wish.

The fps I said is the default, and most efficent with almost any video footage.
The audio quality I dont mess with because to be completely honest, I'm not an audio guy, I have little experience with messing with audio settings.

As for stage 6, ive tried 9 different common codec's of AVIs, and stage 6 says "This video is incompatible, please use blah blah program.. to convert it to a .divx file" I know other people who have the same issue with stage 6, so its a fix for those people who gets the problem at least.

But again thiras, if you want to add to the guide, edit the post and add another section to my post with your own opinions, I always welcome outside information no matter if I agree or disagree with it. We all have our own ways of doing things.

Yeah sorry for the harsh post, erm.

A movie explaining it perhaps. I'm hosting a lan atm, later :P

followed several guides for both divx and xvid, but either premiere crashes or, if I try virtualdub, I'll get squares, black screen or some other random error :/

Sounds to me, teh_taco, like your drivers or computer are not up to date.

Are you running windows? Is all your graphic and sound drivers up to date? Are your windows updates up to date? Do you have enough memory to render a movie (some people have such little ram, rendering a movie goes so slow it can crash)..?

windows xp, 2gb ram, dual core cpu.. haven't checked for driver updates that sounds like an idea

Taco, try uploading a render from virtualdub to filefront please :)

I'll upload a short filefront stream these days.. thanks in advance

Trouble
 

:confused:

Hi,

First, thanks for the guide. I found it pretty useful. However, after doing everything that you said i seem to be running into trouble.

When i try to render the film it get this error: "An error occured while converting with a codec".

Any thoughts on that one?

Am i missing something on my laptop?

Thanks in advance. :top:

I'm trying to make a movie explaining all of it.

Problem is I suck at speaking like that. It doesn't turn out good. Didn't know I had such a nerdy voice. :(

Erm.

Does it say anything apart from "An error occured while converting with a codec"?

Well Yes, But HAY. I think i figured it out. After Putting on my Thinking cap, i went to "Configure" for DivX and found out that i had it on "Home Theatre" setting, and i had to switch it to the "High Definition Setting"

Because the Frap'd Footage was 800 x 600 and home theatre only supports up to 720 x 480 i believe.

So now, i think i'm A oK

d=(^_^)z

I had the same problem.

I'll try and play with the resolution when I get home, but I think I had it set to custom size, and my video is at 840x524 (half of 1680 x 1050).

hi, im having some trouble running vegas, i've made movies before and had no problem, the issue is that i try to run Sony Vegas 6.0 and it just freezes on the loading window, when its loading all the plug ins and stuff, i uninstalled the software and tried reinstalling it, but that didnt fix it. Anyone know what to do?

my videos are always super dark after rendering... any ideas?

With divx or wmv?

i just downloaded divx codec, but i can only choose DivX(R) 6.6.1 Codec ( 2 Logcal CPU)

does this make any difference if i choose that?

Same thing yeah.

i was following this guide, and i got the same error as rcloud22

http://i10.tinypic.com/4udynuc.jpg

thats the error, and when i open up the converter it says missing an unknown codec

i have k-lite codec pack as well divx codecs installed, am i missing a codec? or did i just fail at rendering with divx
thanks

EDIT: after watching the stage 6 tutorial, i changed some things, and now mine works too, thanks anyway ^^

great guide thanks

I'm having a little problem. I have put in all the vids and the music and all the edit text. Now I followed the guide to render with Sony Vegas and I was hoping it would work. All I get saved is only one part of the movie, but nothing else. I'm not sure what I did wrong.

Please make a new topic about your problem.

I have the same problem when i render a movie. It's too dark to be watchable. When i watch the original movie (the one created with fraps) there is no such issue.

Advise please.

Thanks in advance :D

Render something short (a few seconds) & put it on filefront please

Here you go and this is an image taken with sony vegas of how the original video looks like.

Looks fine to me, dont use codec packs :/ (your problem is that your computer doesnt decode the video properly, the actual file is ok)

I am not using anything else. Just XVid codec downloaded from here

Star menu -> programs -> xvid -> decoder settings -> crank the brightness value up

Whenever I try to render it with the codec it says : An error occurred while creating the madia file *Name*.avi. An error occurred while converting with a codec.


Any ideas? I can't find it anywhere..

Change the audio codec, mp3 doesnt work well in vegas

im recording my movie with fraps at 1024x768 resolution. in vegas the default for NTSC is 768xSomething, it looks fuzzy and everything is like crushed together and if i try to use a custom resolution it just gives me a error. any way to avoid that? without using a different resolution ingame.


EDIT: Actually, it was a codec problem. I tried rendering with WMV and everything was okay, i think that the avi+Divx ruins it for me. I really don't know why, but wmv works, it's a little blurry though.

Heya,

I upgraded my monitor and am using 1680x1080 resolution now.
So naturally, my FRAPS material is in that resolution too. Now my question is: Vegas won't let me select the resolution (max goes to 1440x1050).
Should I start frapsing in half screen resoltion or encode at 1440x1050?
Any tips? :<

where do i get the DivX codec for sony vegas 7 or 8 got both, cant find it anywhere.

When I try to render an error message appears and it says:
An error has occured while creating the media file untitled.avi.
An error occured while converting with a codec.

Well, I can't say for sure if you've already tried this, but the obvious answer is the official site:

http://www.divx.com/

You need only the free download, unless you want DivX Pro for some reason (from my experience, it's not really necessary). Once you have installed the codec from the official site you should be good to go.

I'm gonna try this settings soon to test it :)
Right now I'm using a 3mbs per second wmw codec render, and it takes a looooong time rendering! My movie is 10 minutes long, and it takes so much time rendering..
I wish I could find a good program that is better at rendering and a fast and good quality codec for rendering. My computer got good ram, and a pretty good processor, and is not slow what so ever. Even so the rendering takes alot of time, and I don't know what to do to make it go a bit faster. I can check the internet, and have msn running and everything goes smooth, so I don't hink my computer is affecting the rendering so much.

Anyone that can give me some advice on what to do, to get a good quality video, a good size and a faster rendering? I mean 10 minutes is not that much, but still it takes hours to create it. And you guys are making like 20-30 minutes videos. Are you having some problem with slow rendering?


Would be very VERY happy for an answer, because you guys have alot of experince with this!

Thanks alot!

Edit: I rendered my first movie today and It's 10 minutes long and took about 2 hours to render, but with a awesome quailty, best I have ever get when rendering. Is 2 hours much for rendering a 10 minute long movie?

I just started to use sony vegas and i followed this guid but what ever i did the vidoe was 7 Gigs for about 5 min of video.. nothing in here shows how to make that smaller. I sa somone post about the virtualdub program but not how to use it.. :confused:


If anyone could help it would be great!

would sony vegas movie studio 9 do the same job?

I get the same thing...

An error has occured while creating the media file untitled.avi.
An error occured while converting with a codec.

I've noticed the error only seems to be if I try making the video in HD quality. The sound codec has nothing to do with it because I've tried all of them. I have the DviX codec as well as CCCP. That is it.

Does anyone have an idea as to how to fix this issue? :(