What are the best settings to use when capturing and rendering video in Sony Vegas?

Question

I'm making a movie which is to appear as professional as I can make it since it is going to a film festival. This is a student activities college project & my role is camera operator & editor.

I need advice on the best settings to use. I'm using a Sony Handycam DCR-HC96. We were using a Canon XL1s but it wasn't holding up to par with the quality of the handycam.

I'm recording in 16:9 and progressive record is off (should I use this?). Editing with Sony Vegas 7. For capturing and project properties, I need to know what I should use for the following template - NTSC DV widescreen (should I use 24p or not?). 720x480 is the resolution. Feild order - progressive scan, upper, or lower? Pixel aspect is set to NTSC DV Widescreen. Frame rate - 29 or double NTSC? Motion blur is Gaussian, what kind of deinterlace method should I use?

Basically, I need detailed advice on the best settings I should use to make the best looking movie with the equipment I already have. It'll go on DVD

Answer 1

The easiest way to set your project properties is to have Vegas decide, based on the media you're using.  When you create a new project you have the option of specifying a sample video.

Progressive scan should be clearer if there's little movement, but not so good with movement or under artificial lighting - you need to experiment to see how pronounced the effect is.