Are you sure about that?

Just downloaded the trial version, created a project, changed the project properties to widescreen, and did Make Movie. Chose MPEG-2 for the format, and the widescreen template was the first one to show up, as shown in this screencap. I can't render it to an MPEG2 without buying the full program, but the template is there alright. Maybe you need DVD Architect or DVD Architect Studio (trial) installed (I have DVDA 2)?

Rob

I, too, do not have the new product yet, thanks to the geniuses in the shipping department who can't seem to remember to process my order. Anywho...

It looks like from the screencap that this would work. However, you would have to render the sound seperately, since this is a video stream only. But since DVDA supports seperate streams, this may work out ok. Just render the sound as a wav or PCM file and add to the project.

I'll let you know if it works, if I ever get my product.

yes, i'm sure. that's the video stream only template, which was also in MS3. it renders the widescreen video without audio. a separate audio rendering is then required. and then the individual video and audio streams are imported into the dvd authoring application.

but there's no technical reason to have to do it this way. i'm not sure of the reasoning behind importing the video and audio separately into the authoring tool (and seems like a recipe for out-of-sync sound to me).

there's clearly no technical reason that MS3 or VMS4 can't have a template called "DVD NTSC Widescreen". indeed, the existence of the "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream" proves that both MS3 and VMS4 are capable of setting the 16:9 aspect ratio bit in the MPEG-2 file header, which is all that's required.

no, this seems to very definitely to be a purposeful oversight. sony has had ample opportunity to make this trivial fix. this has been discussed here many times before and i filed enhancement requests 6? 8? months ago.

it certainly makes me less excited to upgrade since the main functionality that i missed from MS3 has not been fixed in VMS4.

Movie Studio 4, when registered, will give you the option to export widescreen (16:9) MPEG-2 files for use in DVD Studio and other DVD apps. Both NTSC and PAL are supported.

As far as I can tell, though, you still have to export audio and video streams separately. I know some DVD apps like having them separate, but would be handy to have the choice of just creating one file with both the video and audio...

hi SonyEPM, thanks for the reply. are you sure?

i am skeptical because the trial version of VMS4 that i downloaded had exactly the same MPEG-2 templates that MS3 had. there was no "DVD NTSC Widescreen". just "DVD NTSC" for 4:3 videos with audio and "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream" for widescreen video without audio.

please give detailed instructions on exactly what i would do to export widescreen MPEG-2 files with audio in VMS4. assume that my project properties are already set to "NTSC DV Widescreen".

if it turns out to be true, i will upgrade immediately and i will definitely retract my "jerks" name-calling from earlier in this thread. i already feel like it was kind of harsh. please prove to me that it was!

SonyEPM, are you still there? please don't hit-and-run, particularly if you are hitting with incomplete/incorrect information.

please explain how to export widescreen mpeg-2 with sound in VMS4.

Maybe if you didn't call them jerks they would get back to you sooner.

Version 4, as far as I can tell, does NOT allow you to render a 16:9 MPEG with both video and audio in one file.

You can render them at the same time, but they end up in two separate files (an MPEG2 file for video and a PCM file for audio). Why might Vegas Movie Studio only allow you to export video only MPEG2 files?

The answer would most likely be found in the DVD Architect Studio manual. On page 13 for those following at home:


"MPEG elementary streams are not supported. Even if you plan to replace the audio with PCM, you will need to import muxed MPEG files."

"The precise settings to produce DVD Architect Studio-compliant (ie, do not require recompression by DVD Architect Studio software) MPEG-2 and PCM files are listed below:"

"PCM Audio- Sample size - 16, 20, or 24 bit / Sample rate - 48 or 96 kHz / Number of channels - stereo / Compression - uncompressed"

"NTSC MPEG video- Frame resolution - 720x480 / Aspect ratio - 4:3 or 16:9 / Frame rate - 29.97 fps or 23.976 fps + 2-3 pulldown / Maximum GOP - 36 / Maximum bit rate - 9.8 Mbps No low delay"


So - even if Vegas Movie studio allowed you to export 16:9 MPEG2 files with both video and audio, you couldn't use them to make a DVD in DVD Architect Studio anyway.

> Maybe if you didn't call them jerks they would get back to you sooner.

i want to apologize for that, particularly if SonyEPM is correct. if only he'd come back and complete his posting. as it is i suspect he is just plain wrong.

> You can render them at the same time, but they end up in two separate files (an MPEG2 file for video and a PCM file for audio). Why might Vegas Movie Studio only allow you to export video only MPEG2 files?

VMS4 allows exporting a single MPEG2 file with video and audio if you want 4:3 aspect ratio. why shouldn't it do the same thing for 16:9? iVMS4, like MS3, has templates for widescreen everywhere (e.g., project properties, cropping), except in the MPEG2 generation step. by the way, how do you render video and audio at the same time into separate files?

i don't understand your posting. i'm sure i am misunderstanding. first you wonder why VMS4 would export video-only MPEG2 files. then you include a quote that indicates only muxed MPEG files are supported by DVDAS. this info seems to be contradictory, if i am correct in thinking that "muxed" means "video and audio together in one file". it sounds like you're saying that DVDAS doesn't take video files and audio files separately but requires them to be in a single file. which brings us right back to: why can't i generate a single MPEG2 file with audio and video in VMS4 in widescreen?

>>VMS4 allows exporting a single MPEG2 file with video and audio if you want 4:3 aspect ratio. why shouldn't it do the same thing for 16:9?

Yes, VMS4 does allow you to export to a 4:3 MPEG2 file with both the video and the audio together (multiplexed). However, if you bring the resulting MPEG2 file into DVD Architect, it has to recompress the file when compiling the DVD. I would assume that most people would prefer to have a workflow in which the same file is not comressed twice. Not only to save time but also quality.

The DVD Architect manual states that you should ALWAYS render the video and audio into seperate files, no matter the aspect ratio.


>>VMS4, like MS3, has templates for widescreen everywhere (e.g., project properties, cropping), except in the MPEG2 generation step. by the way, how do you render video and audio at the same time into separate files?

When you click "Make DVD" the project properties templates are used. So - If you selected widescreen under the project properties, when you click "make DVD", a widescreen MPEG2 file will be produced (along with the seperate PCM audio file, by the way).

This would be how a single step would create two seperate files. The software doesn't render both at the same time, per say. It is renedered one after the other without user intervention.


>>i don't understand your posting. i'm sure i am misunderstanding. first you wonder why VMS4 would export video-only MPEG2 files. then you include a quote that indicates only muxed MPEG files are supported by DVDAS. this info seems to be contradictory

I was asking the question that you would ask. It was not a question that I wanted answered.


>>if i am correct in thinking that "muxed" means "video and audio together in one file". it sounds like you're saying that DVDAS doesn't take video files and audio files separately but requires them to be in a single file. which brings us right back to: why can't i generate a single MPEG2 file with audio and video in VMS4 in widescreen?

DVD Architect Studio prefers to have the files seperately. If you place a MPEG2 file with both video and audio (no matter what the aspect ratio) into the program, they MUST be recompressed during DVD compiling (wasting time and quality).

So - the point of my first post was:

If DVD Architect studio works best (does not need to recompress the souce files) with seperate video and audio files that comply with the standards listed in the other post, why would you want it the other way?

The manual wants users to create seperate video and audio streams for all projects to be worked on in DVD Architect Studio whether or not the files are 4:3 or 16:9. DVD Architect will work with a MPEG2 file with both video and audio, just not as well. Some DVD creation programs do not work with MEG2 files with video and audio at all.

I think SonyEPM just did not understand your question. He states that you can make a widescreen MPEG2 file (which it can). He probably did not undersand that you were asking about a combined file (which, as it appears, it can't). If the combined widescreen MPEG2 file would not work well in DVD Architect, why would Sony change the program so that you could create a file that doesn't work as well?

Download the manual for DVD Architect and give it a read.

Good luck-

thanks for the info and detailed explanation. i obviously haven't used DVDAS yet because i haven't upgraded. i didn't know that it really likes separate video and audio files.

i'm used to using the MyDVD that was bundled with MS3. i think MyDVD required a muxed MPEG2 file and would transcode the audio only but leave the video untouched. so i was just assuming that i would need the same thing (muxed widescreen MPEG2 file) for DVDAS.

thanks again for the explanation.

I hope i'm not intruding here--but--my Panny GS400 just came today, so i need to buy software to do some editing. i haven't d/l the trial yet, but VMS V4 is my first choice.

For sure all my shooting will be in widescreen with the gs400. i have an HDTV widescreen TV.

I would like a "complete" package but i'm really concerned about using this software to generate and burn DVD's in widescreen. i guess i don't care if there are a few extra steps involved, especially if it means higher quality pq.

my question is--- Will V4, from Captur to finished DVD, create a WS with audio? and if not, what additional software do i need?

thanks much,
ron

my question is--- Will V4, from Captur to finished DVD, create a WS with audio?

Yes.

Rob

the GS400 is an excellent choice for widescreen camcorder -- i have a PV-DV953 (last year's model). i think the GS400 has even better widescreen than the 953.

MS3 and VMS4 are excellent choices for movie editing software. they have an (almost) complete understanding of widescreen video, including capture, project properties, and crop masks in case you want to include still images in your videos. the missing link comes at MPEG2 generation time.

the MPEG2 files are generated according to templates, and the template to create a widescreen MPEG2 file with audio and video is missing (in both MS3 and VMS4). this is very annoying (this is the subject of the this thread) but also easily worked around. you should not let it deter you from purchasing VMS4 for widescreen editing.

MS3 and VMS4 will not allow you to create an MPEG2 file in widescreen format with both video and audio included in the same file. you can create a widescreen video-only file and an audio-only file. i've recently learned that this may be better anyway for working with DVD architect studio.

the workaround for a combined audio and video file is to create a file that is not widescreen, and then using a free program called dvdpatcher, change the aspect ratio bit in the file from 4:3 to 16:9. that's all there is to it and it just takes a moment.

How do you render a separate sound file?

>>Yes, VMS4 does allow you to export to a 4:3 MPEG2 file with both the video and the audio together (multiplexed). However, if you bring the resulting MPEG2 file into DVD Architect, it has to recompress the file when compiling the DVD.<<

Well, it doesn't have to recompress the video, just the audio. I just burned a project, NTSC 4:3 single MPEG2 file from MS3, and it didn't touch the video, only the audio.