I don't understand why the size of the imported movie is twice the size of the file on my drive. Why is it making the file so much bigger, and how do I get it back to the actual size?

Is DVDA re-encoding your mpegs? Even if not, it may be over-estimating their size on disc. You could try preparing and see what size it then reports.

If you want anything like decent quality you'd be well advised to use a dual layer disc.

Mike

Everything's getting compressed, and it's still 5.5G.

I just found the Optimize DVD window, and I think that's what I need to fiddle with to get things to fit.
thx

I think you're better off going back to wherever those files were encoded (Vegas?) and encoding them properly.

If DVD Architect is reporting file sizes that much larger than your originals, that most likely means that it intends to re-encode them and that your original bitrate is much, much lower than the one DVD Architect plans to use. (DVDA's default is 8Mb/sec, though you can change that.) And the most common reason for DVD Archictect to re-enecode an MPEG is that it is not yet DVD compliant.

If you are rendering your files in Vegas, choose MPEG2 for the type of file and an appropriate DVD Architect Video Stream template. After that's done, encode your audio using AC3 or WAV.

If you just plunk a non-compliant MPEG2 (or, worse, an MPEG1) into DVD Architect and let it re-encode it (which it will have to do), you're going to end up wasting a lot of time and get worse looking video than you started out with. Not because DVD Architect has a bad encoder (it has the same one as Vegas, a very good one), but because that's what you have to deal with when an MPEG2 gets decoded and re-encoded unnecessarily.

Rob

My suggestion is to forget about putting more than 2 hours on a standard DVD.
At 4Mbs, you can already see degradation from the MPEG-2 compression.

Render your original material at 6Mbs and put it on two standard DVDs.

I need clarification of:
"an appropriate DVD Architect Video Stream template. After that's done, encode your audio using AC3 or WAV."

In Vegas, I go to 'make movie' and select mpeg2. Then which template would I use? I was using the one that gave the smallest file size (PAL). Audio settings can't be independently set here.


There are so many DVDs that fit far more than 2 hours on them (a TV series for example), I find it hard to believe I need to limit my DVD to 2 hours.

There are templates in Vegas specifically identified for DVD Architect.
They render video only.
You then render the audio separately as AC-3 and introduce both files into DVDA.
Read the help and any of the excellent tutorials since you are unsure of this.

"There are so many DVDs that fit far more than 2 hours on them (a TV series for example), I find it hard to believe I need to limit my DVD to 2 hours."

There are single layer and double layer DVDs. Single layer discs are 4.7GB. All commercial DVDs are double layer and hold 8.5GB. You can burn double layer DVDs using Architect or another program, however DVD R DL discs do not play reliably in all players, thus most people have chosen to just burn them for their own use. Hope this explains it more clearly.

Ah, you're using Vegas Movie Studio, not Vegas Pro. You didn't mention that. To get to the options I mentioned, use File > Render As instead of Make Movie.

That said, though, if you're hitting Make Movie and choosing DVD in the dialog boxes, VMS should already be creating DVD compliant files. So something else is going on here. The 500MB and 800MB files you mentioned in your first post, are those the ones you got out of VMS or ones that you brought into it? If the latter, than it's VMS that's "increasing" the size, not DVD Architect Studio.

I was using the one that gave the smallest file size (PAL).

PAL is a specific video signal format meant for DVDs being viewed in specific countries (mostly European ones). If you intend for your DVD to be played in North America, don't use PAL -- most North American DVD players / televisions can't read PAL DVDs properly.

I find it hard to believe I need to limit my DVD to 2 hours.

You don't. You just need to keep in mind that a DVD couldn't care less how much "time" you want to put on it. It only cares how much data. A single-layer DVD is not limited to "2 hours" -- it's limited to 4.7GB. How many "hours" you an fit on that disc depends entirely on the bitrate(s) (bits per second) used to encode the video(s) on it. A video of 2 hours encoded at, for example, 4Mb/seconds is going to take up less space than one encoded at 8Mb/seconds.

Rob

Rob, his reference to two hours was a direct response to my suggestion that he not try to put more than two hours on a SL DVD, because of quality considerations only. I can see how it would be easy for the OP to take my suggestion as a reference to capacity if one did not have knowledge of the relationship between storage area and bitrate.

So, to clarify, I recommended not trying to fit more than two hours of material on a SL DVD, because the quality loss at or below 4Mbs is noticeable and objectionable, to me at least. If the OP can live with the significant visual quality degradation of material encoded at 2-3Mbs, then there are no other constraints preventing him from doing so.

"My suggestion is to forget about putting more than 2 hours on a standard DVD.

That being said, my post was stated as a suggestion only, not as a physical limitation.

Ah. Understood.

Rob

"Ah. Understood."

I sometimes tend to forget just how hard it was for me to wrap my head around this stuff when I was new at it. As such, I sometimes tend to "overcompress" my responses (pun intended) ;?)

I import the raw footage into VMS, then make an edited mpeg from these. Those resulting mpegs show up with 500 and 800 mb sizes (roughly). So I guess you'd say I got those out of VMS. Then I import into DAS, where it shows up much larger.

Here's what I custom set rendering to:
Audio: 224 Kbps, 44,100 Hz, Layer 2 (mono)
Video: 29.970 fps, 720x480
Rendering quality good.
The b/s was something like1,700,000 by default. I changed that to 8mb/sec and will see if that helps.

I did all of the above and now the file (video only) is 2.84G. It won't import into DAS because the file "is not of the required type." It's an mpeg-1. Mpeg-2 doesn't permit making custom changes.

I import the raw footage into VMS
What type of raw footage?

then make an edited mpeg from these
What type of MPEG do you make. You should do your editing and then render to Main Concept Mpeg2 DVDA compliant video stream and a second render for the audio into AC3. DVDS ARE MPEG2 only.

Those resulting mpegs show up with 500 and 800 mb sizes
Not knowing what type of MPEG they are this means little. And where do they show up as this size?

DVDS ARE MPEG2 only.

Nope, according to the specifications MPEG1 is allowed as well.

Regarding the "more than 2 hours on DVD" thoughts: There is a lower bitrate limit for MPEG2 files below which many hardware players won't play back such a DVD. I'm not too sure but believe that the bitrate should not drop below 1500kbps (for MPEG2, for MPEG1 that's perfect) or you might run into trouble. Anyhow, 1500kbps for MPEG2 will cause eye cancer ;)

Cheers

darkframe