codecs

neil_k wrote on 12/29/2005, 6:53 PM

I'm not sure that I fully understand my own question, so feel free to set me straight if I am not making any sense.

When I created my first movie with Movie Studio, and I looked at the preferences, I could find no way to choose what encoder I wanted to use to create my DVD output.

This came up because I had a 15 minute movie and I wanted to produce the best quality video output I could that would fill the DVD. But, when I finished, using Movie Studio, my ~4Gb AVI file was spit out as less than a 1Gb MPG and Wave file combination.

Are there options that allow me to output a higher quality result? Can I purchase a 3rd part codec and have Vegas Movie Studio use it? Do I even need to be thinking along these lines? (last note - it wasn't just the fact that I only quarter-filled a DVD - the image quality on the final mpg left much to be desired, when compared with the AVI footage. But I was tryign to produce a DVD compatible result to give to others to play in standard DVD players.)

Thanks for any insights you care to share. :)

Comments

jrazz wrote on 12/29/2005, 7:40 PM

Use the DVDA Template for Video and the ac3 for audio and do a search on here for a "bit rate calculator". You don't want to adjust your bitrate too high as some dvd players won't play it, but you can definitely increase the quality by raising the bitrate.

Edit: I don't think that the studio version has ac3 as an option, so you would need to use pcm for audio. Then again, I have never used the studio version so it might be an option for sound output.

j razz

musicvid10 wrote on 12/29/2005, 9:54 PM

** I could find no way to choose what encoder I wanted to use to create my DVD output.**

DVD's are encoded MPEG-2 by default. There are no other choices available.

jrazz wrote on 12/30/2005, 12:54 AM

I believe he is referring to something other than the Main Concept codec for encoding to mpg-2. I personally would stick with the encoder as I find it produces great results, it is just in need so some tweaking on the bitrate side of things and again, don't use the default template.

j razz

neil_k wrote on 12/30/2005, 9:13 AM

So, I gather I must be in the wrong forum? Vegas is different than Vegas Movie Studio?

I am using Vegas Movie Studio 6.0c. And yes, I am looking to either replace the encoder that Movie Studio is using, or tweak it so that I can get better output.

Thanks,
-Neil

jetdv wrote on 12/30/2005, 9:28 AM

neil, the Movie Studio forum is here:
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowTopics.asp?ForumID=12

There is no such thing as Vegas Movie Studio 6.0c. Looking at the update list, there have been no updates to Movie Studio 6 yet so you're using Vegas Movie Studio 6.0.

Vegas, the full version, is currently on 6.0c.

To further answer your question, the MPEG2 encoder in Vegas and VMS is the MainConcept encoder. One advantage of the full version is access to more of the settings for tweaking the output.

You could always look at standalone encoders as well. For example, a very affordable one is TMPGenc. There's even an inexpensive CinemaCraft Encoder option (but also more expensive ones with more features).