Best Rendering Format

PhilHemel wrote on 4/10/2003, 1:53 AM
I'm creating DVDs of home movies, but also want to keep a high quality rendered copy of each movie on my hard disk (for convenience of watching on the PC and as a backup).

Which format(s) would be most suitable for this purpose and what bit rates etc would give a reasonable balance of quality and filesize? There seem to be SO many to choose from!!

Also, it would be good if Vegas's markers could be included in the file and recognised by the player (WMP9 unless anyone's got any better ideas!) in the same way that they can become chapter points in DVD Architect.

Comments

yirm wrote on 4/10/2003, 2:04 AM
For convenience of watching on the computer, I recommend Windows Media. You'll have to fool with the settings to determine what is a good compromise between file size and quality.

But for backup, I'm doing two things.

1) DV copy printed to tape.
2) Rendered MPEG2 files (used for burning the DVD) on a data DVD. You'll want to do your MPEG2 rendering from Vegas, and not do it from DVDA, since DVDA doesn't save the source files for you.

-Jeremy
PhilHemel wrote on 4/10/2003, 2:40 AM
I've tried rendering to MPEG-2 in Vegas, but DVDA always wants to re-compress the Audio and I don't like the idea of compressing it twice. Have you found a way around that problem?

I have been making a second copy of the DVD as my main backup, assuming (stupidly maybe!) that I could grab the video and audio back from it if I ever need to do anything else with it. Is that foolish?

What WMV settings would you suggest? Can WMV achieve similar file sizes to DivX or does the quality suffer if you go that small?

Thanks for your help!
Mr_Plant wrote on 4/10/2003, 2:42 PM
To stop Vegas recompressing the audio, I've been rendering my source files out to uncompressed WAV format as well. That way when I read in an archived MPEG-2 file, I can replace the audio with the uncompressed WAV version in DVD-Architect and as long as its set to Stereo-PCM mode, it doesn't recompress the sound.

So, I am backing up to DATA DVD, my finished MPEG-2 files and seperate uncompressed WAV tracks for the sound. I hate the idea of my audio being recompressed!!
I dump my DV workfiles but save the original source DV tape as it is...
Seems to cover most bases...
RixWare wrote on 4/10/2003, 7:46 PM
For archival purposes only (that is, no further production will ever be required, just storage for occasional viewing later on the computer), I usually render to WMV (Windows Media) using the 512Mbps template. It compresses to about 4Mb per minute of video, meaning that I can fit about 19 hours worth of archived footage onto a single DVD data disc.

How I got to this solution was a very long and painful process, during which I learned a lot about video compression, though I still feel like I only scratched the surface...

+
PhilHemel wrote on 4/11/2003, 11:50 AM
How do you replace the audio in DVDA? I thought it could only handle muxed files?
PhilHemel wrote on 4/11/2003, 11:52 AM
I can well believe you've spent a long while on it - I've spent DAYS experimenting and still feel none the wiser!

Thanks for that, I'll try the 512K template and check the quality
jetdv wrote on 4/11/2003, 1:51 PM
It cannot handle an elementary stream video file but it can handle separate files. After double-clicking on the link, look at the right-hand side of the screen. There should be two text boxes - one for video and one for audio. Just change the audio box to the other file.
PhilHemel wrote on 4/11/2003, 4:16 PM
Yep, just tried it - perfect - thanks!

So (showing my complete ignorance here I know!) what is the difference between an elementary stream and seperate video/audio files? I've searched the help files of both Vegas + DVDA for 'elimentary' but found nothing.
jetdv wrote on 4/11/2003, 4:25 PM
An elementary video stream contains ONLY video (a .m2v file). Vegas can create them but Vegas and DVDA can't read them.
PhilHemel wrote on 4/12/2003, 1:55 AM
Ah! So it can use JUST the video of a combined file, but not a video only file. Thanks for the clarification.