capture vs render files - HDV

[Durny1]

Hi, folks.

I've been playing with the new toys (HV20+Vegas Movie Studio 8 - aka VMS8) for a few days, trying to learn what workflow works best for me.

VMS8, when it comes to HDV capturing and rendering, has presets for 1080 60i and 24p, with very few possible variations. Capture variations for 60i are simple: no interlace, alternate, or blend. I've been using the blend variation.

The 60i HDV file captured seems to have varying Mbps (seems to be between 26.x and 27.x.) Then rendering produces the standard 25 Mbps file. When watching both the captured file and the rendered file in a large DLP HDTV (65 in), the captured file seems to have a slight sharpness edge compared to the rendered file. The captured file is also about 3% bigger than the rendered file. Rendering has the advantage that I can add titles, markers, and so on, otherwise I'd stick to the captured files.

I gather this is probably more of a VMS8 question, but maybe has some more general answer: is this quality difference something that is unavoidable, or is there a way (preferably in VMS8) to get a rendered output with the same Mbps spec as the captured file?

Thanks,
Durny1

[SenorKaffee]

With MPEG2 some lossless operations are possible - cutting complete GOPs for example. But as soon as you change the image itself you need to render again.
If you start with deinterlacing all is lost - you need to render a completely new file.

If the output is your final step that´s fine.

[Durny1]

With MPEG2 some lossless operations are possible - cutting complete GOPs for example. But as soon as you change the image itself you need to render again.
If you start with deinterlacing all is lost - you need to render a completely new file.

If the output is your final step that´s fine.

Thanks for the response. If I read it correctly, my best bet would be to keep the interlacing upon capture? I imagine that would be the "alternate" option in VMS8...

Cheers,:hv20-smilie03:
Durny1