Oh yes. No problem rendering to AVI.

There seems to be a substantial picture quality loss when I render to AVI and burn the dvd through MyDVD, so I thought that it would be #1 to render to MPEG-2.

I was under the impression that MPEG-2 was dvd quality and AVI was VHS quality.

And since I have to convert my avi-files from my digital camera before I can use them in Vegas, I thought that MPEG-2 would be best to convert to using ShowBiz thinking that the better quality you have in source files the better quality one can produce in end product.
Unfortunately ShowBiz doesn't work anymore with MPEG-2 after install of Vegas.

I don't have CD Architect and am using Sonic MyDVD to make the actual dvd.

Ayath

A DV 25 AVI file captured from your camcorder is higher quality than the resulting mpeg-2 encoded video no matter how you encode it. Some editing system can come close to lossless editing of mpeg-2 (not Vegas though) but even so there's no reason to convert to mpeg-2 and then try to edit that and then render to an AVI file again. The overall loss at anything less than high bitrates will as you've seen be pretty bad.
And no, AVI files are NOT VHS quality, than can contain anything upto full broadcast and beyond high definition material.

Bob.

Beginning to understand - I think.

Is what you are saying something like this:

Continue working with AVI.
I don't need to convert to MPEG-2 - AVI will be fine
BUT keep the bitrate high.

So I shouldn't be concerned at all with the lack of MPEG-2 rendering ability?

Ayath

This is what I do:

1/- I use Vegas Capture program

2/- I place captured events/clips on to my Timeline

3/- I edit my piece

. .and this is my way

4/- I then RENDER an AVI - others don't, they render straight to MPG

5/- Placing this newly created AVI into a new instance of Vegas, I then render into the same folder with the same names for each of the 2 renders below:

a: For Video: MPEG and use 2-Pass Video for DVDA Video stream only
b: For Audio: AC-3

6/- I then author/create my DVDs through DVDA3

That is what I do. I don't edit in MPEG, I create a finished AVI first, then I render the 2 files for DVD authoring and then create the DVD through DVDA3. If I'm doing long form DVDs >80mins I change the VBR,CBR and the like.

This works for me.

What HASN'T/DIDN'T worked for me nearly 4 months ago was that my MPEG rendering was falling over at around 50% > 70% was hanging and finally crashing my PC. This was due to very dirty dusty cooling fans - the whole cooling system had to be vacuum out! I;m not suggesting that this is your issue, but try and follow a straightforward workflow using Vegas throughout. Oh, BTW, I asked about if you COULD render AVIs was because that was one render I could achieve. I'm presuming less CPU power needed, hence less work resulting in a cooler CPU=PC . .that's why AVIs worked in THAT scenario.

Grazie