Making DVDs - Best to render AVI or MPG?

skinned_knee wrote on 8/16/2006, 8:26 PM
Just in reference to making a DVD - is it better to render a project to MPEG (letting Movie Studio do the "conversion") or create a full res AVI for DVDA to deal with (letting DVDA do the "conversion")?

It appears that either method is doable - which will produce the best results? I assume this would depend on which app does a better job of turning a DV-AVI into an MPEG file...... So from experience, which is the better way to go?

Comments

HaroldC wrote on 8/17/2006, 5:05 AM
I would think most of the time that it would be better to have DVDA render the avi file to mpeg2. The primary reason is that it is going to fit the dvd media you use. If you use VMS to render to mpeg2, DVDA may not be able to burn the dvd without recompressing the video to fit the disc. Recompression causes a loss in the video quality. It also takes substantial time. Recompression can be overcome by not burning the disc. You could then use dvd shrink or some similar program to fit the video to the dvd. But why add another step.

But should you want to save the video as an mpeg2 on your computer then use VMS. You might want to do this if you intend to share the movie over the internet or if you want to burn the movie as a dual layer dvd for yourself and a single layer for others.

As to a difference in quality, I haven't noticed any. The most important thing is you only want to render the video as an mpeg2 file once.
IanG wrote on 8/17/2006, 6:28 AM
>The most important thing is you only want to render the video as an mpeg2 file once.

Agreed, but that means planning ahead. I only ever make short films, so getting things small enough to fit onto a DVD isn't a problem. On the other hand, I'm forever tweaking the DVD layout to get the menus right after I've burned the DVD and viewed it on a TV. If I had to do the mpeg encoding every time I changed the menu it would take me forever! For me, encoding in VMS is a much better option.

There's a free tool called Rejig which shrinks mpeg2 files down to whatever size you want before you start the authoring process. I've used it exactly once, about 5 min ago, but it seems to work well and it ran at about 10X real time on my 3 gig pc. At least it gives you another option!

Ian G.
Andy C wrote on 8/18/2006, 1:43 AM
For large projects (>1.5hours) I tend to agree with HaroldC. I'd far rather let DVDA tell me what it's going to do with my AVI to make it fit on the DVD.
The thought of two MPEG conversions makes me nervous. Perhaps it's just me...
IanG wrote on 8/18/2006, 7:08 AM
>The thought of two MPEG conversions makes me nervous. Perhaps it's just me...

No, I completely agree! Sometime's it's the lesser of two evils though.

Ian G.
Tech Diver wrote on 8/18/2006, 10:10 AM
Hi Skinned Knee, hope you are enjoying your new SW. I'm not sure if the following is applicable to your product since I am a Vegas6 user. In any case, Vegas6 has an option when rendering as MPEG2 to create an output format for DVD Architect. This is a video-only rendering and you must also render the audio separately (again, this may be specific to Vegas6 and DVDA3). When following this approach, DVD Architect DOES NOT re-render the MPEG stream. If these rendering options are also available in Movie Studio, it is the preferred approach.

Peter
Malcolm D wrote on 8/18/2006, 12:45 PM
Hi
The difference between Vegas and VMS is that Vegas allows you to select a data rate for MPEG2 and VMS does not. The default data rate in VMS only allows about 1 hour on a DVD.
So, if your duration is under 1 hour it is OK to render MPEG2 in VMS but if it is greater render to AVI and let Architect do the MPEG2 render using 'Fit to Disc' option or a suitable data rate.
4MB should give you a little over 2 hours depending on Audio.
PCM audio is 6 times as big as Dolby or MPEG audio.
Do not re-render an MPEG2 file if you can possibly avoid it. It can result in strobing and takes ages.
I have no problem with DVD Shrink (I use it for ripping) but to use it unnecessarily in your workflow is pointless.
skinned_knee wrote on 8/22/2006, 8:48 PM
Hey techdiver - I'm rctoyguy from "the other place" LOL - thanks for showing me the light of Sony Vegas.... but.... see this thread:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=476737&Replies=1

If I can verify that I have a bad DVD drive, I'll make HP swap it for me - If I find that this drive just won't work - what is a recommended, known to work, make/model?