Firstly, thanks for your answer!
My projet is almost 92 minutes and I live in Turkey. How can I set custom settings please describe it in details consider that I am really beginner on the subject.

Thanks,

First, make sure that you set the project properties (File -> Properties to match the properties of the video on your timeline. If you are shooting widescreen DV and you have a camera that you purchased in Turkey, you would use this preset:



[Edit]
If you are unsure of what preset to use, click on the little file folder in the upper right corner of the dialog and use it to choose the video file whose properties you are trying to match. Vegas will then automatically set the project properties to match the video file you've chosen.

Next, you go to File -> Render As, and you choose Mainconcept MPEG-2, and then select the appropriate DVD Architect Template, as Kelly has already told you to do. If your video is either DV Widescreen or is HD, you would choose the template show below:



Finally, you click on the Custom button in the Render As dialog. On the Video Tab, you leave everything alone, but if your video is longer than 90 minutes, you'll need to reduce the Average bitrate.



You'll have to find and download a Bitrate Calculator that tells you what setting to use for Average Bitrate.

For 92 minutes, the default setting shown in the picture above is exactly what you need.

Render the video using this template, and then render the audio (which is a separate render) to AC-3 using the Stereo template.

[Edit]For AC-3, do NOT use the presets, but instead set a custom preset (one that you should use with ALL stereo audio). Change both Line Profile and RF Mode (the Preprocessing tab in the Custom dialog) to None. Set dialog normalization to -31dB.

A really helpful, quality tutorial John. Clear and straightforward. It SHOULD become a sticky on this Forum. We're very fortunate to have Mr Meyer here with us.

Grazie

hear, here.

great idea - a sticky page for basic tut's - then i wont have to keep telling students and people to RTFM!

good work john.

Two things typical of this forum are on display here, the quality of advice and the low theshold for invoking them.
Tor

Thanks for all the kind words. Your words encouraged me to go back and add two things to the tutorial (since you are making it an honorary sticky): instructions on how to use the file folder in the project properties to match the source file, and instructions on how to get the proper levels in an AC-3 stereo render.

I do not understand why it is necessary to render the audio file separately. In Vegas 9, under render settings, custom, there is a tab labeled audio, that has a checkbox to include the audio stream. Please advise why this will not work. Thanks.

Because DVD Architect expects two files, one MPEG-2 and one AC-3.

This is so you can replace audio, give your DVD multiple audio tracks, etc., with ease and best quality.

If you give it one file with audio and video, it will render it rather than prepare straightaway, which is a lengthy and unnecessary step.

Or a simpler answer.

This is an Mpeg-2 encoder. DVDs do not use Mpeg2 audio, they use AC-3 or LPCM. So you must use a different encoding method to make a file suitable for DVD use.

DVDs do not use Mpeg2 audio, they use AC-3 or LPCM.

Perrone, that is simply incorrect.

Many DVDs use MPEG audio. This is especially true of those authored in consumer applications. It is very common, although not supported in DVDA. Correctly, the format is MPEG I Layer II Audio (sometimes abbreviated "MP2"). DVD spec also supports DTS as well as PCM.

It is inherently lower quality, allows for only one audio track, and doesn't support 5.1. Thus the superiority of AC-3 in DVD authoring.

There was a MPEG2 DVD file I made out of PremierPro a while ago with the audio included. I brought it into DVDA and I don't think DVDA re compressed it. It was just a fluke thing I was doing, but it seemed to work, so I'm sure you could set up a template to include audio with MPEG2 straight out of Vegas?

kairosmatt

A compliant .vob file with AC-3 audio will not recompress in DVDA. That may be what you are remembering.
Once again, you can't render an MPEG-2 with AC-3 in Vegas (unless something is different in 9).
Even HDV is MPEG I Layer II audio.

Thanks musicvid, can Vegas do that?

kairosmatt

Nope, but DVDA can!

(See edit just above).

Thank you!

I like it when I learn new stuff!

> DVDs do not use Mpeg2 audio... Perrone, that is simply incorrect.

Actually it is correct for NTSC. The NTSC DVD spec does not allow MPEG2 audio. The PAL DVD spec does. Any DVD authoring program that allows MPEG2 audio on NTSC DVD's does so at the expense of the DVD not playing in all players. This is common practice with inexpensive consumer programs that don't want to pay AC3 license royalties. Many NTSC players work perfectly fine with MPEG2 audio but it's still not required to be supported (it's only required of PAL players) so use at your own risk.

So for NTSC, Perrone was correct, MPEG2 is not "officially" supported by the spec and should be avoided for professional use (i.e., you don't want to give your customer a non-supported DVD disc format).

~jr

"The NTSC DVD spec does not allow MPEG2 audio."

John,
The NTSC DVD spec does not mandate MP2 Audio.
That is quite different than saying it is not allowed. It is most definitely allowed, and it is very commonly supported. I just don't recommend it.

In practice, MP2 was at one time the most common form of audio for home-burned DVDs, and I haven't encountered any players that don't support it, from several projects I burned and distributed before I got DVDA and learned the right way to do it.Although I rarely cite Wikipedia as an authority, I believe this information to be correct:
The audio data on a DVD movie can be PCM, DTS, MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2), or Dolby Digital (AC-3) format. In countries using the PAL system standard DVD-Video releases must contain at least one audio track using the PCM, MP2, or AC-3 format, and all standard PAL players must support all three of these formats. A similar standard exists in countries using the NTSC system, though with no requirement mandating the use of or support for the MP2 format. DTS audio is optional for all players, as DTS was not part of the initial draft standard and was added later; thus, many early players are unable to play DTS audio tracks. The vast majority of commercial DVD-Video releases today employ AC-3 audio.[citation needed]
EDIT: I've just checked back on several of my pre-DVDA projects, and yep, they're all MPEG I Layer II, using at least three or four different apps. It is my impression that it was DVDA that broke the mold for consumer authoring.

> John,
> The NTSC DVD spec does not mandate MP2 Audio.
> That is quite different than saying it is not allowed. It is most definitely allowed, and it is very commonly supported.

Yes, it is different and my bad for not being more precise but that was my point. You said it better but what I was trying to convey is that NTSC DVD players are not mandated to support MPEG2 therefore the disc might not be playable on all players so why temp fate? I don't think you could find a player that doesn't support it today but a customer with a really old player might run into this problem.

~jr