Follwed the advice on this forum, but ...?

dukerss wrote on 11/8/2004, 9:53 AM

I dont know what is happeneing. I have been following the threads on here to optimize what I have been doing but am running into a wall. All I want to do is render my avi captured file in V5 but must be missing something, or mabye I have a bug in my system?
Here is what I do to render (I thought as informed on here)
1) Open up my captured .avi file in V5
2) Edit cut,clip etc then click "render" as under "file"
3)Choose-> Render as DOLBY DIGITAL AC3(*ac3) use -> default template click "save"
This creates an .ac3 file
4)Next, Render As ->MAIN CONCEPT MPEG-2(*mpg) and use DVD ARCHITECT NTSC video stream click->"save"
This creats a .mpg file
I now have 2 files (.ac3 and .mpg), when I open up the .mpg file... NO SOUND
I just dont get it, I thought this is the exact way I was told to render on this forum. Is their a bug in my system or am I missing a step??

Also,
I have troubles capturing in V5 it works less than 1/2 the time without locking up.. frustrating.

Thanks for your help..... James
P4 1024 RAM

Ok this is bizarre now and makes me thinks somethings really amiss.
After writing above I tried rendering my .avi file with Roxio. The avi plays and sounds fine, but once I render into mpg... NO SOUND again.
I sure hope a computer wizard out there reads this (gulp)

Comments

cbrillow wrote on 11/8/2004, 10:46 AM

The mpg file will not have sound. That's what the separate render to ac3 is for.

If both have the same filename with the exception of the extension, when you open the .mpg file in DVDA-2, the .ac3 file will automatically be read in as well.

If you want an mpeg file that includes audio, you must use a different template.

dukerss wrote on 11/8/2004, 2:59 PM

The last question I had similar to this issue said the sound should follow the mpg file. It did not follow. The only way I can see, is to use the default template with mpeg2 and render only once... I guess I'll see how it works
Is this the best way?

ScottW wrote on 11/8/2004, 4:01 PM

If the file names for the audio AC3 file and the MPEG-2 file are the same and both files live in the same directory, then DVDA will automatically include the audio file when you pull the video in. If it doesn't, then double click on the movie so that you navigate into it, and on the right hand side you'll be able to pick the audio file - just click on the Audio area and then click on the button with "..." - this will bring up an explorer window and you can select the audio.

At the point you should be able to click "preview" and see the video and hear the audio.

You absolutely DO NOT want to use the default template for MPEG-2 rendering.

dukerss wrote on 11/9/2004, 2:34 PM

Thanks Scott,
The files were not connected but I was able to just add the ac3 after opening the video-only mpg.
I rendered and burned a 2 hour video this way, the file said it was over 13gb so would be compressed. It took about 4 hours to render/burn etc and the dvd came out horrid.
By the looks of the dvd, it looks like it only used a little more than 1/2 of the space though the prepare said it was going to use around 4.5gb of the disc. It wasn't even close. You could see squares all over the video. It's junk.
I have messed around so much with just simply trying to burn vhs tapes with a menu onto a dvd, just keep having problems after problems.
The only video I hav that came out good was a 1/2 hour video that I burned about 3 weeks ago.
This mpg rendering/re-rendering/compressing/recompressing/fit to disc/is crazy to me.
I wish there was a simple step by step formula to simply make a 2 hour dvd from a vhs tape here in the USA without buying a vhs-dvd converter player.

ps. why is it bad to combine the audio and video into 1 mpg render using the default template? just curious ...... Thank, James

ScottW wrote on 11/9/2004, 4:08 PM

If you're going to let DVDA optimize the project, then don't bother to render from Vegas - if DVDA optimizes, it must first decompress the video, then recompress it at a lower bit rate according to what it estimates. Not only do you lose by going to a lower bitrate, but you lose quality in the decomp/recomp step.

In order to get 2 hours on a DVD you are going to have to seriously drop your bit rate. Assuming AC3 audio you'll need to be down around 4,800 Kb/s - which means your video quality may take a hard hit. You can change your bitrate by clicking on the customize button and going to the video tab.

As for DVDA's size estimates - DVDA is really, really bad at estimating a project size, especially if you have any menus, etc. If it's just a simple single clip movie, it's usually not too bad though (well, 2.0 isn't too bad) - so if all you want to do is put the disk in and play, do a new project in DVDA, specify a single movie and specify your AVI file for your source - let DVDA do the compression.

The reason you don't want to have A/V together in the same file is this will force DVDA to decompress and then recompress, which means you'll take a quality hit.

dukerss wrote on 11/9/2004, 10:27 PM

Thanks Scott for taking the time to answer :-)
I will try again .............. James