Yes that is exactly what I am doing. I wasn't sure how to render for blue Ray disc but since the blue Ray disc contains . m2ts files, I thought that would be the way to go. I see that VMS10 renders and send the audio and video file separately to DVDAS 5 when I choose make DVD from the VMS menu. I have not figured out how to add the video and the associated audio file in DVDAS5 and have it recognized as one title. Dragging and dropping creates two separate titles. I am just stumbling thru DVDAS5 and just trying to make simple menu blue ray and DVD disc. I need to explore the help section more.

I see the blue ray .avc video stream option in VMS 10 when rendering but since I want to add two separate titles, I did not use the make blue ray disc option while in VMS 10.
Thank you for your help. Let me see if I can figure it out playing around with DVDAS 5 and rerender the projects.

"I have not figured out how to add the video and the associated audio file in DVDAS5 and have it recognized as one title.

If the AC3 audio file has the same name as the Blu-Ray video file, it is added automatically when you load the video.

Right click on the Menu icon and choose Insert->Media.

Thank you. I did a small 30 secs clip with still picture on my 3 year old laptop and render the video using the blue ray setting and then render the audio with the ac3 setting. I then open up DVDA5 and insert the blue ray .avc file and the corresponding audio was added automatically. This is definitely not in the online help manual. At first I was scrambling to select only the audio for rendering but now I know I don't have to, just select the ac3 audio under the render option. It seems intuitive to experienced user but a bit confusing for me.

I search DVDA5 on how to add audio and video as one title and finally see automatically link similar files under the preferences/general tab.

You saved me lots of time. Thanks again musicvid.

One quick question. Since the ac3 audio is converted to LPCM when DVDA5 is preparing the blue ray disc image, why is there no option to render the audio as LPCM in VMS 10? Never mind, did not realize .w64 is PCM audio.

Choosing to let VMS 10 prepare the blue ray project to send to DVDA5, I realized that it rendered the video as .m2v and the audio as .w64. I also see the option to choose the highest 1920x1080 60-i at 25Mbs under the MainConcept MPEG-2, something I did not see with the Sony AVC profile which max out at 16Mbs. Here I thought VMS10 maxed out at 16Mbs when creating blue ray disc. I thought I have to change from 24Mbs on my camera to 17Mbs but now I know I don't have to.

Now it only makes sense to render to .m2ts only if I want to make small (under 2GB) 1920x1080i slide show for the PS3. And the .m2ts file won't play correctly in the PS3 unless I run it thru tsMuxeR first. I tested a 10 minutes unmuxed .m2ts files and the PS3 lost track of the audio after 7 or 8 minutes.

Now I am crystal clear on what format to choose when rendering and preparing one or more titles for DVDAS5 when creating DVD or blue ray disc. As you can see, your little help went a LONG way to clear things up ;). Thanks again.

Since the ac3 audio is converted to LPCM when DVDA5 is preparing the blue ray disc image,

I really don't understand. DVDA obeys its Project Properties. Are your DVDA Project Properties set to prepare AC3 or PCM?

I don't see any option to choose AC3 sound on a Blu-ray project in DVDAS 5. Am I missing something?

I really don't understand. DVDA obeys its Project Properties. Are your DVDA Project Properties set to prepare AC3 or PCM?

I did not make it clear, I meant DVDAS 5. Maybe the pro version of DVDA 5 has the option for ac3 audio for blue ray project.


In VMS10, I did not realized that I should render the audio to .w64 format when preparing blue Ray video to use in DVDAS5. So I rendered the audio as .ac3. Later, I manually start DVDAS5, it added the .avc file and the corresponding .ac3 files. Since I set the project to blue ray, it converts the audio to LPCM during the blue Ray disc image preparation.

Now I know to render the video as .avc or .m2v and the audio as .w64 for blue ray project. In DVDAS 5, there is no option for ac3 audio for blue ray project. Maybe the ac3 option is available in the pro version of DVDA5. The one bundled with VMS 10 only has the LPCM option.

Can someone (Musicvid perhaps?) describe when it would be appropriate for a user should choose the MainConcept MPEG-2 template versus the Sony-AVC template? Is it when the user wants the higher bitrate of 25 versus 16?

In particular, my footage is HDV so I want the optimum template.

Here is a huge thank-you to all the Gurus and Musicvid in particular for helping the rest of us learn the ins and out of this software.

Kim

Just my opinion, but I feel the MPEG-2 template is more appropriate with HDV footage, at the same dimensions and bitrate it was shot. Saves some of the reprocessing since they are the same codec.

The one bundled with VMS 10 only has the LPCM option..
Oh, I didn't know that. Seems odd that they would do that. Does your version of DVDA permit multichannel (5.1) PCM?

Oh, I didn't know that. Seems odd that they would do that. Does your version of DVDA permit multichannel (5.1) PCM? .

I am not sure. I don't know even know if they support multichannel ac3 for regular DVD authoring.

I have this question:

My camera is a Canon HFS 10 which I shot at 24Mbps. It is an AVCHD camera and the clips are in .m2ts. The audio inside the .m2ts is two channel ac3 if I remember correctly from the manual.

Right now, I am rendering the video using Sony AVCHD template(blue ray .avc at 16Mbps) since I need to fit 2.5 hours onto a 25GB blue ray disc. Rendering to .m2v at 25Mbps would be ideal for project that are about 2 hours but I would be going from AVCHD to MPEG 2( although at 25Mbps). Is there lots of loss there during the conversion? Should I just change to shooting at 17Mbps instead and keep the rendering using the Sony AVCHD template(blue ray .avc at 16Mbps) ?

EDIT: My apology, I meant type Sony AVC with Blue Ray as the templates. I confused others and myself with my mistakes above. VMS 10 was doing a long rendering so I couldn't check my wordings.

I notice very little loss from the original 24Mbps .m2ts clips when compare with the rendered 16Mbps blue ray .avc files.

I am going to experiment with short 24Mbps .m2ts clips and render them to 16Mbps.avc and 25Mbps .m2v and see how they compare.

As I said, using the AVCHD templates is at your own risk.
The Blu-Ray templates were designed to work seamlessly with DVD Architect.
AVCHD may (and has) caused problems in DVD Architect (handling of B-Frames I suspect).
However, if you are aware of the issues, and want to let DVD Architect do the rendering, you are welcome to do so.
The fact that I do not have your version of DVD Architect available for testing makes it difficult to work through some of your questions.
Best of luck to you.

My mistake, I am confusing types with templates. I meant types Sony AVC(.m2ts, .avc) with Blue Ray as the templates resulting in .avc files OR type MainConcept MPEG-2 with Blue Ray templates resulting in .m2v file.

No more rendering to AVCHD unless I plan to create some .m2ts files for the PS3. Thanks again for all your help. Now let me go and experiment and learn some more.