My comment is to just wait until April when the new version of Vegas comes out. (I don't know, I just use the NAB common sense strategy). I'm sure the latest version will be included.

Patience little grass hopper.

I am NOT affiliated with Sony.

Thank you both very much - I can wait, no problem. I read that the 1.4 version has better quality and double-pass encoding for even better than better quality.

Forgive me, SonyEPM, but I wonder if you understood his question. As I interpret what he is asking....can the Mainconcept Encoder v1.4 be accessed via the third party codec option, "render as"/MPEG2/custom/...etc"

>>...I read that the 1.4 version has better quality and double-pass
>>encoding for even better than better quality.

I use it as a standalone app and it works terrific.

The reason I was asking, is that when I render right out of Vegas's timeline, I don't have to render an .avi first, then re-encode to mpeg2 for DVD authoring. I could use 1.4 as a standalone, and probably will if the quality is that much better (doing some tests now). Yet, it would be nice to render right off the timeline, saving time and disk space.....

>>...can the Mainconcept Encoder v1.4 be accessed via the third
>>party codec option, "render as"/MPEG2/custom/...etc"

I tried the tweks listed elsewhere in this forum, and none of the render options were available. It did technically work though.

I just decided to use it as a stand alone app.

>>...I don't have to render an .avi first...
>>Yet, it would be nice to render right off the timeline...

It sure would be. It would eliminate a step.

I found it faster even to rendering as an AVI, then to MPG2; faster than straight Vegas render to MPG2.

Plus, I prefer to have it all as one nice AVI package before going to MPG2, but that's just me.

I have read that some advise to go to AVI first anyways. It is reportedly faster.

can you frameserve to the app without rendering out to avi first?
I think Satish's frameserver may work.

Bill, I don't know, I am unfamiliar with Satish, and frameserving in general. Wouldn't I be frameserving (bridging frames from one app to another) from the timeline when Rendering-As from within Vegas? If so, Satish might be the bridge I need in order to "serve" the MC 1.4 encoder? I will try to research Satish. Thank you.

Ah! I see!

"Another useful program is PluginPac FrameServer, a software utility that allows exporting Adobe Premier, Vegas, and Ulead video to other programs without creating intermediate AVI files. This is very useful when using a separate program to perform MPEG-2 encoding. For example, exporting a one hour Premier timeline to the TMPGEnc program to produce a high quality MPEG-2 file for DVD."

Thanks again, I will check this out!

I have downloaded and tested Satish’s frameserver with “success”, which apparently resolves this issue. I just have one remaining question. Why, when rendering both as a Video for Windows (*.avi), and via the frameserver, have I lost my Project Markers? That is, they are missing (Mpeg2) in DVDA. I have had the box ‘Save project markers in media file’ checked.

Sorry if this is off topic, but I felt I’d try here before starting a whole new topic.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure, but, it may very well be that Satish's frameserver doesn't keep the project markers. It merely serves up the video frames.

Bill, I lost the markers in a regular .avi render, before using the frameserver, as well. Any help from anyone would be appreciated! Thanks to all and to this great forum.

Markers are back in rendered mpgs, so long as I bring the .avi back onto the timeline, and frameserve from there.