I created a menu with DVDA3 into which I had inserted 3 copies of the same media (to create play all, play first half, and play second half options on the menu). DVDA said disk space used was 4.6GB.

I ended up tweaking the underlying video, so I re-rendered and used a slightly lower bitrate. Since the menu layout didn't change, I opened the DVDA project with all media offline, deleted the media from the project, put the media back online, and inserted new instances of the media into the project.

The old media and the new media were rendered in Vegas 6 using the DVDA template to mpeg (I changed the variable bitrate), and audio was rendered in Vegas to ac-3.

Now DVDA says the disk space used is 3.5GB, and tells me it is going to recompress all the video and all the audio. If I go into the media properties pane and remove the audio, the disc space used jumps to 6.7 GB.

I went into the Project Overview pane and deleted all the media, so now I have a menu shell with broken links. Disc Space used is 1 MB, which makes sense.

If I insert the media (mpg file) or drag it from the explorer onto the main menu, the Disk size used jumps to 3.5, and if I go to Make DVD, DVDA says its going to recompress.

BUT, if I open a new project, and drag the media to onto the central pane, Disc Space shows 4.6GB used (which makes sense), and if I go to Make DVD, DVDA says it will make the project without recompressing

So what the #%@%@ is going on?

Is there any way to force DVDA not to recompress the assets? I have demonstrated that the a/v is compliant and does not need to be recompressed.

Alternatively, is there any way to start a new project, import the video and copy over the menu structure and inter-button links, etc.?


I have hours invested in this menu, and I can't afford to start again from scratch.