Vegas Settings in Windows for smallest file sizes?

[tkhayes 124]

Trying to get our tandem videos out to Mpeg or similar format. One videographer is producing on his Mac with Movie App, and regularly pumps out Mpegs, 720p, with less than 500Mb file size.

Works great.

Sony Vegas, 2 video guys cranking out videos, but basically the same video comes out to over 1Gb.

Basically we want 720p at 30fps

what are the best camera settings and what are the best editing settings to reduce file size?

[RMK 3]

Attached is a screenshot of Sony Vegas Pro render output settings. Without making any personal setup changes the default for 720p 30fps will be variable bit-rate of 16Mbs. If you lower that number, you will get resultant lower files sizes.

Experiment with it to see the quality and also always use square pixels (1:1) for proper playback on YouTube or Vimeo.

"Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

[tkhayes 124]

thanks very much sir - we will play with that.

[Coreeece 2]

RMK

Attached is a screenshot of Sony Vegas Pro render output settings. Without making any personal setup changes the default for 720p 30fps will be variable bit-rate of 16Mbs. If you lower that number, you will get resultant lower files sizes.

Experiment with it to see the quality and also always use square pixels (1:1) for proper playback on YouTube or Vimeo.

Yes, I would definitely use the Main Concept .mp4 at a variable bit rate.

However there are a few issues that you need to understand in order to control the file size without playing guessing games all day and wasting time.

In RMK's screenshot is shows a max of 16mbs and an average of 8mbs by default. It really should read a max of 16mbs and a minimum of 8mbs, because when you render a video with those settings, you'll end up with a video that's between 11-12mbs.

If you want to control file size, you have to control the bit rate.

Ideally, it would be nice to just input a constant bit rate. (which is right above "variable bit rate" in the screenshot) However, Vegas doesn't give you an option to input a custom value, so you have to use variable bit rate.

In order to get a constant bit rate using the "variable bit rate" section, you have to input the same value for max bit rate and average bit rate. So if you want to encode at 8mbs, you will input 8,000,000 for max and 8,000,000 for average.

Now, how do you know what bit rate to use?

The file size of the video will depend on the length of the video and the bit rate with which you choose to encode it.

If you have a 10 minute video and want it under 500MB you'll have to encode it with a bit rate 6.5mbs - so you'll input 6,500,000 for the max and 6,500,000 for the average and it will produce a file of around 480MB.

Here is a table for other lengths:

15 minute video - 4,000,000 bps = 450MB (approx. file size)

20 minute video - 3,000,000 bps = 460MB (approx. file size)

25 minute video - 2,500,000 bps = 500MB (approx. file size)

30 minute video - 2,000,000 bps = 480MB (approx. file size)


Please remember that a lower bit rate may reduce quality depending on the source file. You should be fine with 4-7mbs even though those aren't optimal bitrates. 2-3mbs may get a bit sketchy, but for the most part they should be ok - just double check. I really wouldn't go below 2mbs, but it's up to you. If you have a video longer than 30 minutes, it's probably best to just encode at a higher bitrate and have a larger file size.

For videos under 10 minutes, a bitrate of 7-8mbs will be fine.

Hope that helps.

If you're still having trouble I could walk you through it given more info - or you could send the video from the mac guy so I can look at his settings and find something comparable in a PC environment.

Never was there an answer....not without listening, without seeing - Gilmour