Hello Rodnich:

Congrats on your purchase of Movie Studio and welcome to the Forum!

I'll give you the general workflow that I use so you can get an idea of your options. The actual workflow you use will depend on your camera and the kind of footage you have.

First you should check your project settings to make sure they are correct.

From the main menu, choose
Project
Properties

You will see 5 tabs. On the Video tab the first line should say Template. That is the template that controls how your footage displays on your timeline. Over on the far right you will see a folder icon (that's what it looks like in VMS 9, not sure about 10). Hover your mouse over this and it should say Match Media Settings. Click this icon and it will guide you through choosing media. Once you click your example media, it will select the correct template based on your media. Your template may already be correct, but it doesn't hurt to verify this. Make a note of the height and weight of your media. You will need this for your render.

From the main menu, choose
Project
Render As

In the pop-up window you will several options that control how your output will be formatted. I don't know what kind of footage you have but my guess is AVCHD. Does it record on a hard drive or media stick? If yes, it's AVCHD. Does it record on a mini DV tape? If yes, it's HDV. Anyway, I have HDV so I will describe what I do. Then you will have to figure out what kind of footage you have and adjust accordingly.

In the render window you will see a Template option. I shoot my footage in hi-def and downgrade to standard def when I make a DVD. You may be doing this too. I burn my DVDs from DVD-Architect, so I choose the option DVD Architect NTCS Widescreen Video Stream. You may already know this, but NTCS is North America. PAL is UK, Austrailia, etc. Choose the template that fits your region and aspect ratio.

Now take a look at the Save As Type. As I said, my footage is HDV. Yours may be AVCHD. This template chooses the codec that processes your video, so it's important to choose the correct one. I'm afraid I cannot tell you which Save As Type is best for AVCHD. I choose MainConcept MPEG-2 for my HDV footage. You could try that and see what happens.

In the bottom if the Render page, make sure your check the box on "Stretch output to fill frame." Now choose Save.

Depending on how long your video is and the speed of your computer, it will take a few minutes to render. For example, my computer takes about 10 minutes to render a 3 minute project.

Once this is done, you will need to render your audio. Remember we choose the Template DVD Architect Widescreen Video Stream. This creates video only and you need the audio stream. Go back to your template and choose the Save As Type as Dolby Digital AC-3. The template will pop up as Default. This is okay for now. Be sure to name your audio file the same as your video file. Choose save. Normally this takes about 15 seconds.

Don't forget that the above instuctions dicuss how to do this for HDV footage. You may end up choosing different options if your footage is AVCHD.

Now you must go to DVD-Architect and set-up a project there. I won't go into all the details, but generally speaking you can set-up menu buttons and all the things you would expect of a DVD.

There are some good tutorials on the Vegas website. Take a look at those and see if they are helpful:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids.asp?prod=moviestudio

Good luck with this and be sure to post back with your video details in case you need additional help.

Kimberly