If you export from Vegas as a DVD-compliant mpeg Architect will write the disc without re-rendering. This saves a considerable amount of time.

Mike

Thanks bStro. Sometimes the simplest answer is the hardest to see.

What is the best format to render to out of Vegas? I am taking old pictures and video clips and creating a file from them in Vegas. Then I am taking that file(or files) and making menu-based DVDs to send to various family members.

Should I render from vegas as a mpeg or avi? If I render from vegas to an mpeg wil it save me more time when I make the DVD in architect? Or does it even matter? Ultimately I just want the DVD to be able to play in as many DVD players as my family has across the country. If picture quality is sacrificed to make a file format that is more widely recognized by the DVD players then so be it. I would hate to hear that the DVD wouldn't play in somebody's DVD player.

Shannon

What format you render to out of Vegas really depends on your own situation. Particularly, how close your project is going to be to the size limits of a DVD (once it gets to MPEG2) and if there is a chance you'll need something other than an MPEG2 down the line. In general, there are three paths you can take:

1. Do your edits in Vegas, and render (encode, really) directly to MPEG2 using one of the DVD Architect Video Stream templates and then encode the audio to AC3 or PCM. DVD Architect can handle a single file made up of both audio and video, but it prefers they be separate. If they have the same name (other than the extension, of course) and in the same folder, DVD Architect will find the audio automatically when you add the video. Give DVD Architect those files, and it will not have to do much of anything to the files other than add some DVD headers.

2. Do your edits in Vegas and render to an AVI complete with audio and video using a DV template. Give this to DVD Architect, which will compress the file to MPEG2 and add the DVD headers in one swoop. With this method, you do not end up with a regular MPEG2 file -- only the final DVD files, which will be split into 1GB chunks as required for DVDs.

3. Do your edits in Vegas and render to an AVI as described in #2. Instead of giving DVD Architect the AVI, put the AVI in a new Vegas project (or even on a new track in the same project, so long as it's solo'd or above all other tracks) and render to MPEG2 and AC3 as described in #1. With this method, you will have an AVI if you ever need it and an MPEG2 if you ever need that.

In the end, it depends mostly on what you may need in the future. If there's a chance you'll want to do a re-edit or make a version suitable for the web, it'd be good to have a DV AVI to work from. Or if you might make a compilation DVD of your past work, it'd be good to have the MPEG2 on hand so you don't have to re-encode the project all over again.

As saving time, I suppose it depends on how you look at it. The bottom line is that your Vegas project is going to go through a render (turning your content into a complete video) and an encode (picking the important frames and filling in the ones between with information describing the changes between the important frames).

If you get an AVI out of Vegas and give it to DVD Architect, Vegas does the render, and DVD Architect does the encode.

If you get an MPEG2 out of Vegas and give it to DVD Architect, Vegas does the render and encode at the same time. But note that this will take longer than just a render or just an encode.

If you get an AVI out of Vegas, put it back into Vegas, and get out an MPEG2, then it does the same as above -- just in separate steps.

If anyone's done any comparisons of how long each of these takes compared to the others, I don't recall the results.

If I render from vegas to an mpeg wil it save me more time when I make the DVD in architect?

Sure, it'll save you time in DVD Architect. But that time will simply be transferred over to Vegas because the encode still has to be done somewhere. ;-)

Rob