I've gotten that message in DVDA after rendering in Vegas to MPEG-2 and AC-3. It turned out, however, that DVDA was telling me about the audio for the background audio for a menu, not the audio for the main video. Click on the Optimize tab (under the file menu) in DVDA and see if there is a check mark or a warning mark next to the audio for your movie.

I have the same question. I can't find where in DVDA to tell it to expect AC3 audio rather than PCM, so when I feed it AC3, it always recompresses it to PCM. Where is that change made? I can see on the Óptimize' tab where you can switch audio to AC3, but that seems to be too late. If I do that and continue it still tells me it is going to recompress. It seems that we need to tell it earlier, but I can't find where.

File>Properties.

No, it's not under file/properties on my copy of V4.0d. That's the first place I looked. I have now found that I can change each stream individually under make dvd/optimise., but where can I set AC3 as the default?

If the mpg file does not have an audio stream and the AC3 file has the exact same name (except for the extension), it will automatically be used.

If you double-click on the menu item after adding the MPG file, you can specify what audio file to use on the right-hand side of the screen.

Thanks. That seems to work.

No, it still defaults to PCM audio, so I have to go in and change it via optimise. Isn't it possible to set the default to AC3, particularly as V 4.0d doesn't have a PCM render option? It seems like a strange contradiction.

I thinnk jetdv (as usual) got it right. I think you are rendering an MPEG file that includes audio. If you then render an AC-3 separately, DVD-A will not use it unless you explicitly replace the audio that is included in the MPEG file. There are two solutions. If you have already rendered the MPEG file that includes audio, you must replace it in DVD-A by double-clicking on the main movie file that you have placed on the opening screen. This will give you a series of boxes on the right side of the screen, one of which shows the audio source. Click on the Open File icon next to this box, and find your AC-3 audio file and put it there (you can also drag it there).

The other option is the one jetdv mentions, namely to render the MPEG file using the DVD Architect template. There will be no audio at all in the resulting MPEG file. Then, render the AC-3 file, using the same file name as the MPEG file, and in the same folder. When you bring the MPEG file into DVDA, it will automatically find and use the AC-3 file.

Yes, been there and done all of that. All of that is correct. The issue is that when you do all of that, DVDA is still expecting to see PCM audio, so it tells you it is going to rerender the AC3 to PCM. Then you go into optimise and tell it you want the audio as AC3, not PCM. The question is, How do I tell DVDA that I want the default to be AC3, not PCM in order to avoid having to go into optimise, every time I want to build a disc? Thanks for everyone's assistance and persistence.

See if I can explain it in a little different way.

DVD-A doesn't expect anything. It does CHECK to see if the files you plan to use are "legal" for the type of DVD you plan on making. If you're in NTSC land a MPEG-2 audio stream isn't legal according to the DVD specs. So DVD-A says to itself, hey, wait a minute, you can't do that and WARNS you its will convent to an acceptable format.

The simple solution is let it.

If you want to avoid then while you're still in Vegas, do this:

a. Render the VIDEO portion with the special DVD-A template provided.
b. Render the AUDIO portion as AC3 in VEGAS.

As others already said, use the same file name.

You'll have:

mymasterpiece (video) --- this is MPEG-2 type file
mymasterpiece (audio) --- this is a AC3 file

Go to DVD-A. Drag and drop the rendered file in the work space. If you've made two files, one the video, the other audio, select the VIDEO.

On the OBJECT tab at right you'll see LINK information. A file name and location will be referenced for both the video and audio IF the file contains both. If it isn't what you wish, click on the MODIFY button. The video will open, timeline below, on the right will be details for both the video and audio steams. If you followed the above so far the correct files should be listed. If not, click on the explorer icon and change. DVD-A will use whatever files you specify IF they are of legal format for type of project you're trying to make.

If you changed from the improper MPEG-2 to AC3, all is well. DVD-A shouldn't warn about anything being wrong.

That's about as slow and detailed as I'm going to explain it.

Thanks for that detailed explanation BillyBoy, but it wasn't necessary. I am right with you (and have been all along) right up to the point where you say, "DVD-A shouldn't warn about anything being wrong". It does! It says it will recompress the AC3 audio into PCM. This has been the whole point of the question. If I then go to 'optimise', I can tell DVDA that I don't want my AC3 recompressed to PCM Stereo, I want it to stay as AC3. The question is, 'How do I tell DVDA to default to AC3, rather than to PCM?' It isn't a major issue, it's a minor inconvenience, but I would expect it to be possible to tell DVDA to default to AC3, rather than PCM Stereo.

btw, I am working in PAL. And under Project>Properties the only setting I can change is 'Project Video Format', which I have set to PAL Widescreen. There is no audio format I can set. This was the first place I looked.