Yes, it says 2.1 GB in the bottom right corner under Disc Space Used. But when I remove the clip from the menu it goes down to nearly zero. So it is not any extra music, menu stuff, or pictures that is added to the clip, but instead the clip itself that registers approx 40% larger than its rendered size....

In optimize I am looking at the "general" tab--and again the only clip is an MPEG2 with both video and audio being part of the entire, approx 1.5 GB clip.

Any ideas????

This is frustrating.

Don't concern yourself with the Estimate.
Did you render separate video and audio to the DVDA templates in Vegas, as recommended, or something else?
Prepare your project, and see what the finished size is.
Why are you concerning yourself with "Optimize," when either figure is well below the capacity of as standard DVD media?

Hmmmmm? I a concerning myself with the estimate because I figure that it is close to the final size, and if so--my other clips will not fit on this DVD, putting it well over 4.7 GBs (though added up together, outside of Vegas they equal only about 3.5Gbs).

I will "prepare" the project and see if that changes!

But I do not, and have not rendered into separate audio and video? Is that better? It seems complicated. No? I have always rendered down to MPEG2--with audio. And then DVD Architect renders the sounds. Is this inferior?

Anyway I will "prepare" and see what happens. What confuses me is that in the past I always had approx 120 minutes of room for clips, video time per DVD. And the only thing that allows me to fit my 120 minutes now is to fiddle with bit-rate on the optimize disc option. But I never fiddled with bit-rate before, and would like the end product to have good-enough bit rate to make the project look as good as it did on the Vegas timeline, etc.

Confusing. Also, I wonder if optimizing in "progressive" is the problem as interlace would probably be more efficient, smaller in size---yet don't I want my end product to be progressive if I shot in 24p and editing in 24P mode????

wheel

I a concerning myself with the estimate because I figure that it is close to the final size,
The estimate is always conservative, meaning too high. This is even more true when there is a rendering step, as in the case of your audio.
The way to get an accurate size is to ignore the estimate, Prepare the project without "Optimizing" (takes 5-10 minutes assuming no "extra" renders), and check the finished size in Windows Explorer.

But I do not, and have not rendered into separate audio and video? Is that better?
Yes, for several reasons.

It seems complicated. No?
Not really. The audio render to AC-3 goes rather quickly, and DVDA finds the audio when you load the video, assuming it is named the same.

And then DVD Architect renders the sounds. Is this inferior?
Inferior is a strong word, but the answer is yes, for several reasons.
1) The MPEG audio you are rendering with the video is inherently lower quality than AC-3.
2) The workflow you are using adds a second rendering step, which lowers the quality even further.
3) A separate audio track gives you the advantage of being able to quickly swap it out if you don't like it, without rendering the whole video over again, a huge time saver.
4) DVDA pro allows you to have multiple audio tracks, like second language, director's narrative, alternate music, whatever you want.

And the only thing that allows me to fit my 120 minutes now is to fiddle with bit-rate on the optimize disc option.
How are you rendering it? What settings? Did you prepare it first to see, or did you just look at the estimate?
The custom settings in Vegas Pro allow you to render at whatever bitrate you want in order to obtain the optimum file size. In order to calculate this, you could use a bitrate calculator such as this: http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm

would like the end product to have good-enough bit rate to make the project look as good as it did on the Vegas timeline
Then don't render it again in DVDA.

Also, I wonder if optimizing in "progressive" is the problem as interlace would probably be more efficient,
You should set your Properties the same as your already-rendered video, period. If you produced interlaced, prepare interlaced. If you produced progressive, prepare progressive. The consequences of not doing so, again, are that you will have introduced significant quality losses and a heck of a lot of wasted time.

"Optimizing" isn't going to make anything in your rendered video better.
It's only a last resort if the material really doesn't fit or was rendered incorrectly!

By overthinking the process and focusing on the size estimate, you have introduced several steps into your workflow that will consume lots of extra time, and noticeably lower the quality of your finished DVD. Just follow the steps, and allow yourself time later (much later) to figure out how each one works.

There are lots of good tutorials online and books available to learn DVDA. Read them, but don't try to second-guess them, at least not yet.

For what it's worth - and I might be way too late but most importantly for readers of this thread who went searching for an answer (just like me) ....

I had forgotten some time ago I uninstalled & re-installed DVDA and I was getting the exact same problem. And going nuts.

File-Properties-Video Format - changing back to PAL reduced a 5GB file but to it's original 3.8GB.

Silly simple mistake - but most mistakes are!

~having the same issue. i drag a 1.5G file into the project box and the disc space used jumps up from 0.5MB to a whopping 6.8G! i didn't uninstall or reinstall anything at all. the format is ntsc and always has been. very bizarre. it's almost like it's including a previous project in the equation even though i've started a new one several times. anyone have any other ideas?

t h a n k s

If you are bringing something other than a DVD compliant MPEG-2 file into DVDA, the disc space used is totally meaningless, as DVDA must render the file anyway.

~so you're saying that DVDA will turn it into a mpeg2 file?

Of course. That is what a DVD is.

Something is still amiss. whether i drop a 1.5G mpeg1 file into the project box or a 4.5G mpeg2 into it, the "disc space used" jumps up from 0.5MB to 6.8G. Would appreciate further help.

t h a n k s

There is a bit of a bug in DVDa. If you DRAG a clip to the time line or to the menu then the disk space usage will be noted as inaccurate. However if you use the ADD MEDIA button then the disk usage will be quite a bit more accurate. I'm not sure why it's this way... but hey... as long as there's a workaround....