MPEG2 is the only choice for DVDs. If you render to MPEG1 then DVDA will re-encode to MPEG2, which will be an MPEG to MPEG encode and will drastically lower the quality.

When rendering for DVD in Vegas you will render the audio and video separately. After using one of the DVD-Architect templates to render the MPEG-2 video file, render again to AC3 using the the DVD template for the audio. Save the .ac3 file as the same file name and folder as the .mpg file, except for the .ac3 extension. Then when you drag the .mpg file into DVD Architect it will find the audio file and include it automatically.

Kelly why do you render the audio separately? I always render them together and it works out fine. Does this reduce the size of the file? Thanks in Advance.

Billy

billynmi, well, mostly because that's the way things were in Vegas 4 and DVDA 1. In fact, i still think there isn't a template that includes MPEG2 and AC3 together. I suppose i could try making one and see what happens.

Hi Kelly,
I was a little confused by your post (go figure ;) ). Do you render to MPEG-2 in DVDA and not in VMS? And what is the best format to render to in VMS if you want to go to DVDA, with the final project being MPEG-2? Sorry if I misunderstood the obvious. Thanks. Cin

Since i use the full version of Vegas i do my MPEG2 rendering in Vegas. I've got complete control over the rendering parameters there and can choose the bitrate i need to get the file to fit on the disc. Unfortunately Vegas Movie Studio users don't have that benefit so it often makes more sense to render to DV AVI in Vegas and then use DVDA's fit to disc option to create the MPEG2 file.

So, for Studio users ....

If your video is short enough, say, under 80 minutes, your best bet is to render to MPEG2 and AC3 separately in Vegas. This avoids the conversion to DV and then to MPEG2.

If your video is longer then render to DV AVI in Vegas and use DVDA to convert to MPEG2. This uses the highest bitrate/lowest compression necessary to fit the movie on the disc. If you have many tons of free drive space and a few extra hours to spare, render to uncompressed AVI instead of DV as this will avoid the conversion to DV and then to MPEG2.

Why would one want to avoid the DV to MPEG2 conversion? Well, it's because those two formats both reduce the color resolution to create smaller files, but both do so in different ways. Each loses color somewhat differently and the loss is cumulative. Now, this doesn't matter at all if your original video was shot on DV and your editing was nothing more than cuts. In this case Vegas is smart enough to render to a new DV file by simply copying the original video bit for bit. There is no additional loss by rendering to DV first. However, if you've added any crossfades, titles, generated media, compositing, effects, color correction, still photos ... basically done any editing at all besides split/trim ... then rendering to DV degrades the quality of these items. True, rendering to MPEG2 also degrades the quality, but if you can avoid doing the DV degredation on top of the MPEG2 degredation then you'll be better off.

However, in the long run, chances are that almost no one will ever notice one way or the other. You might not even notice unless you knew exactly what to look for. So, probably the best advice is to do whatever is easier and faster for you.