I know vegas 8 can't simply join files together and render them in their native format with no signal loss. So, I'm trying to find the best option to render them with the least amount of signal loss.

So, how come if I choose a blue ray option, it does not render sound? some options, even non blu-ray ones, don't render sound and you have to select it separately so it 'includes the audio'. Sometimes, the 'include audio' section isn't even click able...

I don't know if it's the trial version that has this limitation or not, but is there any way to make sure that audio is render able with ALL possible choices?

Which is your source format for HD? AVCHD or HDV? If it's HDV, Vegas is a great editor, if it's AVCHD, unless you plan on delivering the content on regular DVD, Vegas is not for you.

In this case, AVCHD. For the Sony SR11. Why isn't it great for that format?

Which is your source format for HD? AVCHD or HDV? If it's HDV, Vegas is a great editor, if it's AVCHD, unless you plan on delivering the content on regular DVD, Vegas is not for you.

Please explain the content you mean and what a regular dvd is. This statment is to vague.

In this case, AVCHD. For the Sony SR11. Why isn't it great for that format?

Well, I own Vegas Pro 8 and I like it very much, but support for editing AVCHD is far from finished. First of all, it doesn't smart render that format, which means that not only you will lose quality, but also that you will waste a lot of time re-rendering all your footage.

Also, it won't even let you render to 1920x1080 in AVC, only 1440x1080. Then you have to render the audio as AC3 and find an authoring program that will mux them to write to BD format, whether it's on a DVD or a real Blu-ray disc.

I just bought a Canon HF100, also AVCHD, and for editing my home video footage just for myself I use the bundled software, which is total crap but at least it smart renders, so for most of the timeline it will just copy and leave the quality intact.

Please explain the content you mean and what a regular dvd is. This statment is to vague.

I mean just that, 480p or 480i standard Mpeg-2 DVD that will play on any DVD player. Obviously not useful if you want to watch the content on your HD TV set, but if you are editing an event, a wedding or something similar, which for now is delivered on DVD, then you can use Vegas and just encode to that format.

Well, I've been told the picture motion browser will smart render with no quality loss 3 or more files joined together..but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Right now, all I'm trying to do is join 7 files totalling two minutes, into one mts file with no quality loss. I've tried 4 times in an hour long render each with vegas 8, and no go. 50% of the time, the option I choose won't let me save sound...and the video has no audio.

Well, I've been told the picture motion browser will smart render with no quality loss 3 or more files joined together..but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Right now, all I'm trying to do is join 7 files totalling two minutes, into one mts file with no quality loss. I've tried 4 times in an hour long render each with vegas 8, and no go. 50% of the time, the option I choose won't let me save sound...and the video has no audio.

Did you say you're using the trial? I know it has some limitations, although I'm not sure which ones. If you want audio in an AVCHD file, you have to choose render as from the file menu, select Sony AVC as the type, and then press custom. A new dialog will open. In the last tab "System" you have three choices, one of them being MPEG-2 transport stream (.m2ts). Select that one, and you will be able to include the audio, although for stereo it won't let you do more than 256 kbps, which is what camcorders use. However, in the video tab, you can't select 1920x1080, it's only 1440x1080 and it's grayed out, and for bitrate you can't go higher than 15 Mbps, if you enter a higher number it will revert to 15.

Now, since you're using the trial, perhaps you don't even have that. But, as you see, Vegas is not that great for AVCHD for now. Hopefully the next version will be.

Did your camcorder come with a software called Pixela Imagemixer 3? That's what mine came with, and it's garbage, but it does smart render.

Yeah, that's the problem. The silent wait from studios hoping the next version comes soon. I'm REALLY hoping Adobe Premiere 5 comes out soon, as 4 came out pretty quick.

Anyone here from Adobe or Sony that can help out with an answer on when Vegas 9 or Premiere 5 might come out with these features?

I was thinking of biting the bullet for now and get Vegas Plat. edition for Version 8, saving some money, and hoping Vegas 9 is full featured for aVCHD.

There is a bit of false information in this thread.

Sebez: Also, it won't even let you render to 1920x1080 in AVC, only 1440x1080. Then you have to render the audio as AC3 and find an authoring program that will mux them to write to BD format, whether it's on a DVD or a real Blu-ray disc.


You can shoot in the 1440 mode and edit the AVCHD with smart render ie no rerender of clips that do not change in the timeline. If you render in MP4 option you can edit that to 1920 from the original 1920 clips but the MP4 does not yet support DD5.1. Once you have the MP4 rendered you change the file name to *.m2ts in rename and then burn to DVD-r in PMB. Vegas has a BluRay DVD burn option within Vegas 8b but only to BluRay burners and this is an mpeg 2 render. AVCHD must be burned at this time by the Sony PMB or a third party solution. DVDA5.0 will change all that. 8c will add D5.1 and 1920 options to the AVCHD menu options, so they said at NAB. I saw the options in the pull down menu so if it passes testing we will have it.

Sony Vegas can render quite fast a simple AVCHD clip with no recompression which would show lossy and with artifacts. I have done it and found it is indistinguishable from the original clips. If you shoot in full HD (1920 ) the rendering will take long because the editor does need to switch the output to 1090 x 1440. This is a limitation of the current vegas 8b. Keep in mind 8b is the first introduction of AVCHD offering and does have it's limitations, but 8c is underway and soon to be in beta testing. The VP of Sony creative software has stated that this will be corrected in 8c.
Presently with 8b you have the option to render out to 1440 with DD5.1 or mp4 with 1920 and DD2.0. We expect this to be fixed in 8c.
When does Sony release V 9? Normally, Sony releases new number versions in the Fall. The current rumor as indicated by a call for beta testers is that V 9 will support 64 bit OS and more than 4 core processors. Today it is a 32 bit editor and will use 4 core processors for faster rendering and timeline playback.

For those who have to have good editing preview of AVCHD now and want high quality 8b works with moderate duo core 2 processors and even single core pentiums using proxy clips. This permits real time editing as we have with SD but makes the process of rendering using the original video in HD do-able on a slower machine. There is no loss of quality in this process.

Besides, the work flow promised in 8c as well as the free release of DVDA 5.0 for this summer will make for an extremely robust package to edit and make DVD's using the AVCHD full quality these camcorders offer. I'm excited about the possibilities. If full featured AVCHD isn't released for 8c, I'm sure it will be in 9 but 8c is the target. Note that the feature is already there in 8b, just no options allowed. It is grayed out. So, you know what direction it is heading.

There is a bit of false information in this thread.

You can shoot in the 1440 mode and edit the AVCHD with smart render ie no rerender of clips that do not change in the timeline. If you render in MP4 option you can edit that to 1920 from the original 1920 clips but the MP4 does not yet support DD5.1. Once you have the MP4 rendered you change the file name to *.m2ts in rename and then burn to DVD-r in PMB. Vegas has a BluRay DVD burn option within Vegas 8b but only to BluRay burners and this is an mpeg 2 render. AVCHD must be burned at this time by the Sony PMB or a third party solution.

I didn't know it did smart render 1440 mode, but I bought a 1920x1080 camcorder, why would I want to shoot in a less than optimal mode?

Also, the mp4 mode does not allow you to render audio back to AC3 format, only to AAC, so it doesn't produce a file with the original format the camcorder used.

The "Burn to Blu-Ray" option in Vegas is not only for Blu-ray burners, I have burned timelines to DVDs in BD mode, and is not only an MPEG-2 render, you can do an AVC+AC3 render, although if you want a specific bitrate or other specific option you have to set it even before you select "Burn to Blu-ray", in the format options of the "Render As" dialog. Of course, it will not let you burn to 1920, only 1440 with a max of 15 Mbps. And when you put the disc in the Blu-ray player, in my case a Sony BDP-S300, it plays, but the time and chapter information is messed up.

Hmmm.... with all the information above I'm trying to figure out why I dropped money on Vegas Pro when I already had Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate. From reading all the articles and people using it here, Vegas sounded like a more professional editing program and I hated Pinnacle's bugs that seemed to be everywhere (I get too many crashes, finding out the latest can be caused by transitions.) But then again, I've heard that Pinnacle can't do chapters for blu-ray although I'm told it can do a great deal for a "lower end" video editor and is a steal at its price point. Go figure.

Hmmm.... with all the information above I'm trying to figure out why I dropped money on Vegas Pro when I already had Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate. From reading all the articles and people using it here, Vegas sounded like a more professional editing program and I hated Pinnacle's bugs that seemed to be everywhere (I get too many crashes, finding out the latest can be caused by transitions.) But then again, I've heard that Pinnacle can't do chapters for blu-ray although I'm told it can do a great deal for a "lower end" video editor and is a steal at its price point. Go figure.

Well, if it's any consolation, at least you will be able to pay upgrade price when Vegas 9 comes out, hopefully with full AVCHD support.

Vegas has a BluRay DVD burn option within Vegas 8b but only to BluRay burners and this is an mpeg 2 render. AVCHD must be burned at this time by the Sony PMB or a third party solution.



Sorry, but this is not true. Vegas at present has a Blu Ray template which can be used to render to a file to the hard drive for a third party authoring system for Blu Ray burners. Vegas is not capable of burning to a Blu Ray burner at this time.

Vegas does have a AVCHD burning system that allows you to create a AVCHD disk on normal dvd media with no menus (and I think this is what you are talking about) There is a bit of a bug here though.... it will not create a avchd disk that automatically starts when placed in the PS3. It has to be treated as a data disk and the actual m2ts must be clicked on. But vegas can not do true blu ray disks at all right now. DVDa version5 is supposed to change this.

At present (I am sorry to say) Pinnacle does a better job with avchd disks as does Ulead Movie Factory 6 (Ulead will also do TRUE blu Ray disks with blu ray burners complete with menus). Bang for the buck with maximum options and minimum bugs... Ulead MF6 (with the HD add-on package) is the best deal in town right now for avchd/Blu ray authoring work

Sebastian: I didn't know it did smart render 1440 mode, but I bought a 1920x1080 camcorder, why would I want to shoot in a less than optimal mode?



Sorry for the bad info on the Vegas blu ray burn to DVD option. I actually never used it and was going on other sources of info. I should know better to repeat what I was told before checking into it. If desiring to work in Vegas, the answer may be to just wait for the compklete package when Vegas 8c is released and DVDA 5.0. While I have seen the DVDA 5.0, I have to rely on claims from the Sony people at NAB that it is going to open up the grayed out dialog box for selecting 1920 pixels.
In a quick look at Blu Ray burn option, I do see it allowing the lower render and bit rate for AVCHD. When I looked at it before the default setting of mpeg 2 was up at 1920 and 25 Mbs so I never looked beyond that. What puzzles me is why do we even have this in Vegas when it will be in DVDA 5.0. Maybe because they were able to get it into 8 wheile DVD5.0 wasn't ready yet. When it comes out this will be redundant in the package.

Currently, I'm really happy with the 1080 x 1440 DD5.1 render although I agree, I'd like to have 1920 as that is what my camcorder can do and what my player HT system can do. But it is not stopping me from creating finished DVD's of <30 minute programs now. I think when DVDA 5.0 comes out, I will buy a new quad over clocked computer with BD drive writer and I can wait until the end of the summer if necessary for that upgrade. BTW- I use the Sony PMB software to burn my disks from the Vegas edit timeline render.

Another consideration for me is that I also shoot HDV which is limited to 1440 and have lots of footage on tape so at this time not everything I have is in Full HD. Both formats are so clean, I am happy with both.

What puzzles me is why do we even have this in Vegas when it will be in DVDA 5.0. Maybe because they were able to get it into 8 wheile DVD5.0 wasn't ready yet. When it comes out this will be redundant in the package.

I guess they put that option in Vegas because DVDA 5 was just a project back then. I'm happy to see that Sony Creative is working on giving consumers a significant upgrade to DVDA for free, I just hope that it gives the option to burn BD to regular DVDs, like you can do with the Burn to Blu-ray option now, and some other programs allow. I wouldn't mind paying $400 for a Blu-ray burner if the media wasn't so expensive, but to me it just doesn't make sense to spend $15 to $20 on just one disc. And also, I don't even think they're offering printables right now, so in the rare case that a customer asks me to deliver on Blu-Ray, I'm not going to give them a disc handwritten with a sharpie.

BTW- I use the Sony PMB software to burn my disks from the Vegas edit timeline render.


What's that exactly? I never read about it.

What's that exactly? I never read about it.

it's the proprietary software bundled for free with the sony hd camcorders

it's the proprietary software bundled for free with the sony hd camcorders

Oh. I have a Canon HF100, so that's why I hadn't heard about it.