Using Smart Render & Same as First Video Clip

[bstuartb]

I have used VS for many years, and recently had to upgrade to VSx9 due a Windows 7 update.

I have just bought a Phantom Drone which take excellent HD video. But it makes hd MP4 at 25000kbps and the VS Smart Render just doe not work.

1. Choosing "Sames as First Clip" re-renders (painfully slowly) to a file with a lower bitrate and artefacts all over the fine detail

2. Any audio added eg music with "same as first clip" results in a totally silent re-rendered file. [the drone file has no audio, so presumably VS slavishly eliminates my sound track]

3. Efforts to specify a custom output format always fail to smart render because you cannot specify more than 20000 kbps bitrate.

The help person seeming failed to understand the problem, sent me a screen image showing he ticked smart render with a 15000kbps bitrate !!!
I asked him to get help and he just closed the chat down with no comment or explanation. When did Corel scrap the handy diagnostic that used to show which parts of a project would be smart rendered??

I am disgusted.

[Ken Berry]

First off, X9 is certainly capable of making mp4 video with a bitrate higher than 20 Mbps. I make them all the time with my GoPro footage which comes usually at around 29 Mbps, and my output footage from X9 (and X8) comes out with the same bitrate. However, I seldom use Same As First Clip, though that should work if indeed the first clip in your project is from your drone camera.

Instead, I tend to use Same As Project Properties. So can you look in your X9 Preferences and make sure the box beside "Insert message when inserting first video clip" is ticked. Then, starting a new project, when you insert your first mp4 clip, you should get a message asking if you want the Project Properties to match those of the clip. Say OK to that. Then you do your editing, and when satisfied you go to Same As Project Settings. The resulting video should have the same bitrate (and other properties) as your original.

As for SmartRender, that only works if you have not edited the video clips. If you applied filters etc to particular clips, those clips will be fully rendered instead of passed over by SmartRender. Same goes for those small bits of the project where you may have inserted transitions. Note, however, that adding music to one of the audio timelines, does not appear to stop SmartRender from operating.

[lata]

Hi bstuartb

First are you still running the pc shown in your profile to the right of your post.?

It may be a codec issue, can you provide full details of your video files properties, right click a clip and choose properties, what are they?
You mention the frame rate but not frame size, if that’s 3840 x 2160 then 25000kbps can be achieved.
Can you share a sample from the camera.
You would have to upload to a sharing site such as Google Drive, One Drive, then we could test the video on our computers?

If your video does not have an audio stream, rendering to Same as Video Clip would have no audio as you are rendering using the properties of the video.