If you don't mind my asking, what type of poor results? I've used Mainconcept, TMPGEnc and CCE Basic (doing 2 pass VBR) and I've not been able to detect any significant differences between them (using he frameserver to go to TMPGEnc and CCE). Well, maybe CCE was able to squeeze a little more data on the DVD doing 2 pass VBR, but I'm not sure it was worth the increase in time.

Also be aware that you may have to do some playing with the resultant files from TMPGEnc in order to get DVDA to handle them. It's been awhile but I think you'll have to use one of the multiplex utilities in TMPGEnc to re-mux the result into a program stream with an empty audio stream.

I've actually found it's worth having TMPGEnc around just for the mux/demux utilities, especially when mixing/matching various types of files.

Scott,..no prob. I have noticed that when I render from Vegas as an uncompressed DV NTSC AVI, the end result is beautiful!! UInfortunately I cannot use that format in DVD Lab. So,..when I render out of Vegas using the plugin MConcept (v.1) MPEG 2, the end result is noticeably comprimised in terms of quality(no matter what I do). I just cannot accept that anymore after putting forth so much effort in the editing process and then losing quality in the rendering mode.

Jetdv,..thanks..I will try this.

Well, on the plus side - using the frameserver to output to TMPGEnc should at least get you a file that you don't have to demux in order to use it in DVDLab - thus saving an intermediate step (not that demuxing with TMPGEnc is all that time consuming anyway).

Wjhat is frameserving? I dont understand what you are talking about. Is there a tutorial for this?

TMPGEnc is dramatically slower then any incarnation of Main Concept I have seen.

Main Concept has always given me stellar results.

>>...CCE was able to squeeze a little more data on the DVD doing 2 pass VBR...

The standalone Main Concept encoder (1.4) will do 2 pass VBR...

Just an FYI...

Took me a while to get the idea of frameserving too. Just trying Satish's tool I found it was not that difficult.

After installing the frameserver add-on there is a new choice in the render-as selections. One is for the frameserver. When you select this form of render, it creates a pseudo-filename that is not really a file on your drive (although it looks like one). You can then open the "file" as input in a different application and VV supplies the data that the second application reads.

Hope that is clear enough. Reading the descriptions of Satish's work (thanks again for this great effort) and trying it, should make it all clear.

So does vegas have to be open when i'm rendering, so I've got vegas and my other app? Why do you want to do this anyway if vegas renders to mpg already. I thought its one of the best encoders for software?
Sorry Im so dumb about this. thank you for your pateince and help

I'm not sure of the technical details and haven't used it all that much, so someone may correct me if I'm wrong.

When you create the framserve file by "rendering" it doesn't really render anything. It just creates the "tag" filename which is visible to the OS. If you close Vegas or the project, reading from the file tag will give an error because there is nothing to get. When everything is open, as the file is read, Vegas gives frame-by-frame data as the file is read.

You could render to a real file and open that, but it requires time, disk space, and can have formatiing issues between applications.

Oh, as far as using this so you can use TMPGEnc to encode mpg, I can't see the point. There must be another problem to make the OP think it might work better that the Vegas encoder. That seems very unlikely to me.

One reason to fileserve is to use some VDub filters that won't work within Satish's adaptations that allow them to run inside Vegas. I was just trying to answer your question about what frameserving is.

Of course, the end result varies more with the quality of the original material than with the chosen encoder. No mpg encoder will "save" you. Try to avoid dissolves and fade to and from black (or any other color). These things are usually difficult for the mpg format. Also, green grass or filming through a wire fence while panning, zooming or moving. Basically, avoid video with excessive amounts of moving detail if you're going to render out to mpg or any web format.
Theoretically you should be able to frameserve to the standalone mpg encoder 1.4 and this would be quicker than using the one in Vegas, right?
Best/Tommy