i'm new to the vegas software. in vegas5, i'm trying to configure how to use the mainconcept mpeg encoder. i know it's installed on my system. i want to render video so i want to make sure the mainconcept encoder is being used. any suggestions would be appreciated.
Assuming you have V5 AND DVD A2, which includes the Mainconcept MPEG-2 encoder(MPEG-1 might be in standard Vegas), it should be very easy to tell. When you choose the "Render As..." option from the file menu, you will get a dialog box. In the dialog box there is a field called "Save As Type". This tells Vegas what you want to create from this project right now; a single project can create different types of output just by selecting what you want to render here. This drop down list clearly lists "MainConcept MPEG-1 (*.mpg)" aqnd "MainConcept MPEG-2 (*.mpg)". If you choose one of these, you are definitely encoding with the MainConcept encoder.
Vegas by itself also comes standard with the MPEG2 encoder - it just has to be registered separately.
To use it, just go to File - Render As and pick MPEG2 as the format and then pick the desired preset. You can then click on Custom to change any settings as needed.