Rendering times

[phillips719]

Anyone know how to speed up rendering and transcoding? My computer is quite powerfull with a 3.4ghz Pentium 4, 2 Gigs Ram at 500mhz, and a 256mb Nvidia 6800GT, but still my transcoding and render times are absolutly horrible and slow to the tune of 200% of the actual video length. I’m using Nero software for burning. Do I need to trash Nero for another program? Any suggestions?

[alohrey]

My suggestion would be to do your rendering in you NLE program, and don’t use nero for it. I don’t like nero at all, but that’s beside the point. What editor are you using? You might think of rendering as mpg2 from the editor, it will usually go faster. Still, depending on what your video is, rendering might take significantly longer. For example, I am doing a video with a small transparent (green screen) logo in the bottom right, that quadruples my rendering time! 18 hours for a 1.5 hour video. And that’s on a 3.6ghz Pentium 4 with 800fsb and 2 gigs ram. My poor processor hates me! heats up like crazy, I had to mod my case with two more huge fans and a killer heatsink. Let me know if you have questions about rendering from NLE and formats, it can be tricky.

Later
~Adam

[phillips719]

Thank you alohrey, yes I agree with you about Nero, although I still consider myself a beginner after 2 years,I was beginning to think there was something wrong with my computer. I too find Nero frustrating. For editing, I’ve been using a combination of Windows Movimaker and Nerovision express 3. Since both of these programs are increasingly frustrating because of a lack of flexibility (especially with titling and audio)I am considering a more robust NLE Package, I am looking at Ulead Media studio pro 8, and Sony’s Vegas 6 software. I am leaning towards Ulead because I have used the free 30 day trial of Media studio 7 and found it quite easy to use and very flexible, although the trial did not include a working DVD Burning feature. What do you think about Media Studio?

[alohrey]

I have never used media studio, but I do use sony vegas 6. I would promote vegas all the way. I use final cut pro on the mac and vegas 6 on the pc and I really like working in both. Vegas is the best editor out there for someone wanting to get more invested into editing. You will need sony’s dvd architect that comes with the vegas+dvd bundle to author dvd’s but you can render your mpg2 files directly from vegas, works great. If you get vegas let me know I will give you rendering recommendations.(you will want to render .ac3 audio separatly from the video stream for dvd). Anyway hope my input helps.
Later
~Adam
http://www.inmotionvideo.biz

[phillips719]

Thanks Adam, that definately scores points for Vegas. I do need a program I can “grow” with that won’t limit my future progress. Thanks again.

[phillips719]

Adam, just wanted to let you know I ordered Sony’s Vegas+DVD bundle tonight. After reading your post and then doing some research, I decided to go for it. It cost’s a little more than Ulead’s Media Studio, but from what I’ve read already, it has features that Media Studio does not, I especially like the “scrubbing feature” how cool is that? I just can’t wait to get my hands on it now!! I have to anxiously wait 8-10 days for it, but it will be worth it. I ordered direct from sony, it cost more than Videoguys price, but I’ve never done business with them so I didn’t want to take any chances.
Now that I have this killer NLE on the way, I’m working on my wife to approve purchase of a dedicated video PC, and after that an HD cam. In the meantime I’m working on my story for a short film to produce I have 45 pages of story line, 6 pages of scripting, and am working on budgeting also. It’s definately hard to juggle everything!! it started as a single hey that would be neat thought, but now it’s starting to grow, and I haven’t even scouted film locations yet!. anyhow, I’m trying to figure all this out as I go and I definately appreciate your recomendation for Vegas.

[alohrey]

Definately, if you are going to be working on a short film vegas is what you want all the way! Go to http://www.sonymediasoftware.com and download the trial versions of vegas and dvd architect, they are actually the full versions just require a registration code. You could get your registration code from sony, or just wait for the software to come in the mail to get the code, either way you can have vegas installed in 10 min and be up and running with it. You’ll just need the code for rendering and such options. Have fun, let me know if you have questions.

Later
~Adam

[phillips719]

thanks for the retail recomendations. and it looks like I need to accept the fact that rendering takes time instead of being frustrated by it, but like most things, acceptance doesn’t equal happiness.

good, day!![/quote]

[alohrey]

Yeah, I haven’t tried it yet, but I know that vegas 6 will do network renders. That is, it will farm out pieces of the rendering job to computers networked in order to complete the render more quickly. I hope to try it out soon, should significantly improve workflow.

Later
~Adam

[phillips719]

Thank you Hank, I’ll be sure to check that out, I’d be completely stoked about 1:1 render times.

[phillips719]

just remembered that videoguys.com offers a card, maybe it is a package with software, that gives 1:1 render times. You might want to check it out.

Hank, were you refering to the Matrox RTX.100 Xtreme Pro card?

[phillips719]

I want it too, but I have that Vegas6 bundle on the way, and matrox makes no mention of it being compatible with vegas software. If I find out it is though it will definately be on my wish list

[Captured-Films]

I’ve been working with vegas 6 for a while now and have been trying different rendering settings for best quality, I usually only have about 30 to 40 minutes of video on the dvd’s so the space isn’t really a concern. Just wondering what some of you use for best quality.

Thanks a lot

[alohrey]

Of course you will be using Mpeg2, and you will definately want to render the video separately from your audio. Render the audio as AC3 stereo DVD audio. If you are going for best possible quality with DV footage the bitrate is what you need to look for. Choose the custom button to the right of template. Make sure video rendering quality is set to best. click video tab, move video quality slider up to best make sure variable bit rate is selected and make max at 8,500,000 and average 6,000,000 that should get you some pretty good mpeg2 dvd video. Don’t mess with the other stuff unless you really know what you are doing. Make sure thought that under the audio tab you unselect the include audio stream, like I said render audio seperately as ac3 or you could do aiff if you wanted, but ac3 will leave more of the dvd player’s bitrate free for the video, and you can get away with the highter 8,500,000 bitrate for video. Hope that helps.

Later
~Adam

[Captured-Films]

Thanks a lot Adam. Ill try that next time I’m putting a movie onto dvd.

Nick

[SteveMann]

Pokerface Wrote:

I want it too, but I have that Vegas6 bundle on the way, and matrox makes no mention of it being compatible with vegas software. If I find out it is though it will definately be on my wish list

Vegas is a software only product – it’s not tied to any hardware product, which is one of its main selling features.

Rendering Times: You can have fast, or you can have quality. Choose one.

Vegas is not the fastest rendering tool in the box, but the quality will stand up to any other, anytime. Someone did a test once of rendering and re-rendering a few seconds of footage in different NLE’s. Most started to crap out after the third or fourth generation. Vegas was still looking good after the tenth re-render.

Steve Mann

[Author]

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