Avid DNxHD Template
Create a QuickTime Avid DNxHD Render Template in Sony Vegas Pro
Quite often I'm asked what's the best format to work with in
Vegas Pro when you need to collaborate with Final Cut Pro
editors on a Mac. The best codec I have found is the free
Avid DNxHD QuickTime codec. The reason I use this codec in
addition to it's superior quality for mastering, is because it
doesn't suffer from the gamma shifts that some other PC codecs
have when transferred to the Mac. With Avid DNxHD, you get the
gamma levels you expect, and the quality you need.
Avid DNxHD can be downloaded free from Avid:
Avid QuickTime Codecs LE 2.3.2 Once you have downloaded the
installer you must run it to install the codecs. Make sure that
Vegas Pro is not running when you perform the installation. Next you'll need to create
a render template in order to use it for
output. This tutorial will show you how to create an Avid DNxHD
template for rendering.
Important Note: Throughout this tutorial I assume your
project is NTSC HD which is 1920x1080 @ 29.970fps. If your
project is different, select a different frame size and frame
rate when you create your template to match your desired output
format.
Follow these steps after you have installed the free Avid
DNxHD QuickTime codec:
- Start by bringing up the Render As Window
in Vegas Pro using: File | Render As... and select
QuickTime 7 (*.mov) as the Output Format and
3 Mbps Video as the starting Template.
- This template is just a starting point and we will need
to modify it to match our HD project properties so press the
Customize Template... button to open the Custom Settings
window.
- In the Custom Settings window, (1) select High
Definition (1920x1080) as the Frame size, (2)
select 29.970000 as the Frame rate, (3) select
Upper filed first as the Field order, and (4)
select Avid DNxHD Codec as the Video format.
Finally (5) press the Configure... button to set the
Avid DNxHD codec settings. It's important to point out
that if you want you render to be progressive, 24p, or a
different dimension, then select those settings instead.
- In the Avid DNxHD Codec Configuration window, select
709 as the Color levels if you are working in HD.
Select None as the alpha channel unless you need to
preserve alpha transparency, but for normal video this is
not needed. Finally under Resolutions select
1080i/59.94 DNxHD 145 8-bit or whatever setting matches
the resolution and frame rate of your desired output. It is
important that what you select here matches what you
selected in the rest of the render template. Note that the
145 designates the data rate of 145 Mbps which will produce
large files. Other data rates like 220 will produce
absolutely huge files. Remember, if your camera acquired at
25Mbps you probably can select the lowest data rate of 36
and still have outstanding quality. Press OK to accept the
changes.
- Click the Audio tab and make sure that your
Sample rate is set to 48,000 and that the
Audio format is Uncompressed.
- Finally, give your new template a descriptive name and
save it for future use by pressing the Diskette
button. Press OK to return to the Render As
window.
- You now have a new template to render your project as
Avid DNxHD QuickTime files.
Hopefully this will give you a good
starting point for creating more templates of your own. It's
always best when creating templates to start with a template
that's close to what you want and then just change the video
format to the codec you'd like to use.
Happy Editing,
Johnny
“Roy” Rofrano |
