I am currently experiencing some persistent problems in making my movie with Sony Vegas. What I am trying to do is use virtualdub to compress the videos that were recorded with fraps into xvid avi files. Whilst I know that the uncompressed fraps videos are of better quality, the file sizes are extremley high due to the lack of compression, and, after seeing the resultant videos from virtualdub, I felt it was worth the sacrafice. Despite the decreased file size, these xvid videos were still of extremley high quality and almost matched that of the videos from fraps.

However, rendering these xvid videos, using the default uncompressed setting in Vegas, does not result in the same high quality, as there is a strange blurring present in the video that was not there before in the xvid files, as demonstrated in this screenshot:

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/9065/86896921ex1.jpg

I would also like the video to play in a widescreen aspect ratio, which is not being achieved when saving it uncompressed in Vegas. I have the project video properties set to PAL DV Widescreen (720x576), yet the video does not render in widescreen as you can see in the same screenshot.

Any help would be appreciated

This is what u need.

View attachement

Unfortunately this didn't change anything

Does it look strange only when paused or in motion? If only paused, i think it is ok...

That's the "FIELDS" you tit.

when compressing - make sure to set it to progressive scan if you don't know whether it's upper or lower fields first...

also there should be a button "deinterlace video"

It happens in both motion and whilst paused, and those settings were already applied in the project properties.

Quote from Start Wars :

It happens in both motion and whilst paused, and those settings were already applied in the project properties.

Are you trying to say that those are not "fields"?

I know what they look like and that's them

No, but the settings you suggested didn't change anything unless they are not being applied?

Ok, let's go the advanced way.

There's an option which allows you to select upper or lower fields first, try rendering in the first, then in the other. See what happens.

(just had an idea (how rare). It could be your first attempt to compress the video files with vDub was done without these settings checked, in that case try manual deinterlacing (method written above)

I have tried it with each available option in Vegas but still to no avail Do you know how to set it in virtualdub? Also another bizzarre problem is that to compress the videos in virtualdub xvid needs to be installed, yet they will not play in Vegas. Uninstalling xvid fixes this...

Have a look if the raw video clips you got from dub have this "blurring".
it is noticeable when in motion. If they do - vDub has spoiled the quality.

in vdub to get your hands on the compression settings

1 video - full processing mode
2 video - compression - xvid - settings

No, there is no blurring at all in the videos that were first compressed with dub. It is only after rendering with Vegas that this occurs.

try to change to codec from xvid to divx

I had also tried this before xvid, but divx videos came out rather pixellated. Only xvid seemed to retain a high enough quality which is somewhat confusing as I know other users have used divx.

Like i told you before starwars, i thought those were fields, thats why i told you my project settings.
Squid maybe me right about the full processing in Vdub, maybe check out the divx compressing settings.
Put a screenshot of it here, for us to see, because if you cant manage the uncompressed avi's disk space, i running out of ideas...

Cheers...

What exactly do you need a screenshot of? The problem is that the fields are visible even when a video from fraps is rendered uncompressed in Vegas, and converting to divx makes the video pixellated compared to xvid, so is there any settings I need to configure?

Quote from Start Wars :

The problem is that the fields are visible even when a video from fraps is rendered uncompressed in Vegas

Fields have absolutely unrelated to compression. If they are appearing - you're doing something wrong

Quote from Start Wars :

converting to divx makes the video pixellated compared to xvid

I heard about that behaviour before, quite a long time ago.


The thing is - you're clearly doing something wrong (trying to compress before editing for example), which causes all the problems

I know, which is why I tested it with the videos saved from fraps as well, only to result in the same problem

I don't know, progressive scan worked every time before. Your case must be special... Show some screens of the compression settings windows... maybe it will help

Wish I would have saw this thread earlier...

If your using Sony Vegas you have 4 quality settings to adjust, regardless of the codec. These settings are Draft, Preview, Good, and Best. If you don't know what I'm talking about you must be using a really old version of Vegas. Preview and Best are the only two quality settings you should use. If you set your quality setting to preview the video will become crisp and clean. If you set your quality to best the video will become fluid, but unrealistic.

You might notice that if you watch some of my old works for LOTA such as the BF1 Championship and the SSC Championship, I used best, which gives it that fluid look. The Formula BMW Challenge however is with preview, so it's much crisper.

I think Sony's idea behind the Good/Best quality setting is if you have a video of lower FPS than which you are rendering it to. IE the uncompressed video is 15 FPS and your rendering it to 30 FPS. This way it looks less jumpy.

See attached photo.

P.S. Everything I'm stating is from experience and logic, so not everything mentioned is 100% scientifically correct.

what the hell? Sony Vegas can overrun custom settings in the codecs?

That's the most stupid thing I ever saw implemented in a software...

Surprisingly this actually worked, the blurring no longer appears with the quality set to preview, so thank you for that However, the rendered file is now not playing in media player - it states that is searching for the codec and that it has been acquired but there is no video present when it plays. Xvid is still installed. So close...

Edit: going into the properties of the file reveals the codec to be SFDB?

Quote from Start Wars :

Surprisingly this actually worked, the blurring no longer appears with the quality set to preview, so thank you for that However, the rendered file is now not playing in media player - it states that is searching for the codec and that it has been acquired but there is no video present when it plays. Xvid is still installed. So close...

Edit: going into the properties of the file reveals the codec to be SFDB?

I don't know what the codec thing is all about. I usually just reinstall the codec if that happens. P.S. Go with DivX.

As for the blurring it is because of the quality setting. Yes I know squid, it's dumb as hell. Sony's slogan: software for the beginner in you.

Quote from BigTime :

Sony's slogan: software for the beginner in you.

Imagine the advert

Sony Vegas, making a knob out of you, for the past 8 versions...

Looolll