Solved Recommended format, picture size and frame rate of movie clips for use with Movie Studio Platinum 14

I have recently bought a new digital camera which can take movies in a bewildering range of formats. This includes AVCHD and MP4.
The AVCHD is in a picture size of 1920x1080 in a choice of bit rate and sensor output.
The MP4 is available in 2 options of 4K recording plus another 4 options of Full High Definition 1920x1080 and 2 options of High Definition 1280x720.
I took a couple of clips, one in AVCHD and another in 4K, and imported them into Movie Studio. The AVCHD worked fine but the 4K seemed to freeze and then jump and was not at all clear and vivid.
I simply want to make a DVD to play on a widescreen TV. When I create the new project, the specs for PAL DV Widescreen shows as 720x576, 25.000fps.
What is the most appropriate setting for my camera for movie clips.
I have set the still images to 16:9 aspect ratio with the highest quality.
Thanks.

Hi Scobie

Which exact brand and model camera did you buy ?
Once I know your camera model, I can give you a better answer.

Your message contains a couple of different topics.

1. If you want to shoot video in 4K, you need to have plenty of Hard Drive space and a CPU that is powerful enough to handle 4K video processing. If you don't have a computer that can handle 4K video, I would advise to only record using AVCHD, until you buy a more powerful computer.

2. A lot of video editors do record in 4K, but deliver their final project at 1080p resolution. When you edit this way, you can zoom in and re-frame any shot and not lose resolution. This type of editing still needs a powerful computer.

3. Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 14 is set to automatically create Video Proxies when you import any 4K videos into a new project. Video Proxies are easier to play copies/versions of your original 4K videos. However for the Video Proxies to work during editing, you need to set the Preview Window = Draft or Preview Quality. This forces the "video proxy" versions to play instead of the 4K versions, which means the Playback should be much smoother and not lag.

4. If you are using a low powered computer, I recommend you set your camera to record in AVCHD mode and set to the highest quality setting for AVCHD. This is perfect for making DVDs or Blu-ray discs.

5. Final comment. I highly recommend you make Blu-ray discs instead of DVDs. Blu-ray will capture the quality of the video images from your camera and they will look great on your TV! DVD is a very low resolution format and will look blurry on your TV.

Regards
Derek

Derek

Thanks so much for your very prompt reply.

Your point 3 may explain the poor result when I played the 4K clip.

The camera I have bought is a Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ90 with Sandisk 64GB Extreme Pro SDXC Class 10 UHS-1 (marked U3).

My computer is a Toshiba All-in-one 64 bit operating system with 8GB RAM and an Intel i7 CPU @ 2.20 GHz and plenty hard disk space.

Thankyou for your advice. I'm actually wondering whether I will be able to pick the difference between FHD and 4K !

David

I would be interested to see the actual model CPU you are using.
Intel i7 could mean anything.
Go to your Windows Start button and enter "dxdiag" in the Windows Search box.
Run dxdiag
In the window that opens, it will list the full name of the processor.



You have a large range of different recording options available to you.
I would do some experiments and record to many of the different modes and see if you can tell any difference.
The MP4 mode on this camera, is probably the best setting to use, now that I can see the Bit Rates available.
For 1080p recordings, you can select 25p or 50p.
50p is better for recording fast moving objects like Sport - you can also use 50p recordings to create smooth slow motion effects in Vegas.
25p is better for a more filmic look and things that are more stationary.

Derek

Here is the info on the CPU.

System Information

---

Time of this report: 5/29/2018, 20:56:06
Machine name: DAVIDBEASLEY-PC
Machine Id: {1CB53D05-ADE1-4EF3-A279-4601D5B7BD8E}
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134) (17134.rs4_release.180410-1804)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: TOSHIBA
System Model: QOSMIO DX730
BIOS: InsydeH2O Version 03.61.081.30 (type: BIOS)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8174MB RAM
Page File: 3292MB used, 13073MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, no HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DxDiag Version: 10.00.17134.0001 64bit Unicode

David

The reason I asked about your CPU model, is because trying to edit 4K video on a low powered computer is just about impossible.
Your CPU is a 4x Core i7 2011 model, so you could edit 4K video, but it would be a bit of a struggle.
The idea of editing 4K video hadn't arrived in 2011 yet. More modern 6x Core and 8x Core CPUs are better suited for 4K video editing.
You will have a better experience working with 1080p video on your current computer.