Also, and someone correct me if I'm wrong... Why render it to MPG in Vegas and then bring it into DVDA? You can just bring the AVI ( if it is a DV AVI) right into DVDA. If it isn't an AVI, render it as a DV AVI in Vegas, then bring into DVDA.

I might be missing something. I used to do the same thing and cut my render time in half by doing it this way (because it avoids DVDA recompressing the MPEG):: capture to AVI, edit, render to NTSC (or PAL) DV AVI and bring the DV AVI into DVDA. Then DVDA will compress.

If the original is not an AVI, you may want to try to render to DV AVI in Vegas, then work on the AVI and render back to DV AVI (if needed).

Why render it to MPG in Vegas and then bring it into DVDA?

1. Vegas gives you more control over the render process than DVDA does.

2. Many have found that Vegas renders MPEG2 files faster than DVDA does.

3. If you render it in Vegas, you have the MPEG2 file to use again in the future. If you render in DVDA, you don't. So if you prepare your project but then decide to make some changes (or you want to use the same video in a different DVDA project later), you'd have to sit around and wait for DVDA to render the AVI [into an MPEG] again. If you do this all in Vegas, you've got your MPEG2 file all ready to go.

I used to do the same thing and cut my render time in half by doing it this way (because it avoids DVDA recompressing the MPEG)

If DVDA was recompressing the MPEGs you made in Vegas, then something did not go right. Maybe you used the wrong template, or maybe your video was too long for the default bit rate. Starting with the templates in Vegas and making sure that the resulting file will fit on a single DVD, and adjusting settings if necessary, I have never had DVDA recompress an MPEG2 file that I rendered in Vegas.

All of this applies to rendering AC3 files from Vegas and using those in DVDA projects as well.

Rob

The second-to-last paragraph of Rob's post suggests that a fair amount of experience is needed in order to take full advantage of the "render in Vegas" strategy, and it does take some getting used to if your projects are long and/or have complex motion menus and thumbnails. It's easy enough to use a bitrate calculator to estimate disk usage, but you also have to account for menu & thumbnail overhead. Until you get a really good handle on that, you could well overestimate bitrate and wind up with files that are still too large to fit on your DVD. Then you'd have to tweak encoder settings and render a second time.

The easy way out is to take the AVIs into DVDA-2 and use "Fit to Disk", but, as Rob and others have mentioned, there are good reasons for rendering in Vegas, and I think it's worth the time to learn to do that. They are different means to an roughly-equivalent end, and it's up to the individual user to decide which path to take. More discerning users probably wish to exercise more control over the process and will take the two-step approach of rendering in Vegas/buring in DVDA-2.

Well, this is the problem I have: Even something under 2 hours, set for VBR 2-pass NTSC DV HQ, etc. Is often larger than 4.7G. Add the menus, backgrounds (motion or static, although motion menus of course make the project even larger), then it will have to recompress. And I think a recompressed MPG is not as good as the original and also takes more time.

I can use separate software if I want to turn the DVD back into an MPEG file (or AVI).

I guess the trick is to figure out decent MainConcept encoder settings in Vegas that will give me a file that will fit on the DVD with the menus and such. I tend to go for high-quality, but again, this tends to make MPEGS too large for the DVD, hence the recompression. If I work mostly with 2 hour AVI's (of a little less), then I still think the best option is to use the AVI and fit it to disc. If I want an MPEG file as well, I can make one from the AVI, but usually I just burn to disk.

I guess it depends on what you're doing.

If anyone wants to save me some time playing with the encoder, please let me know what settings will give me decent quality that will fit on a DVD (with menus).

... NTSC DV HQ...

Sorry, haven't come across that...what's HQ? If you're referring to best video quality, don't bother. That's really only necessary if you're putting stills in your video (and even then mostly if you're panning / cropping them). For regular video, it's wasted render time, doesn't make a bit of difference over "good."

Are you using the NTSC DVD templates? Those are always your best options, preferably the NTSC DVD Architect video stream template for video and the Dolby Digital AC3 template for audio, just to make DVDA happy.

Rob

That may be the problem. I have it set to "Best" (Video rendering quality), that's what I meant by HQ, as u guessed.

Also, by doing seperate streams, do you think that will save me space?

I'll try it. I just have problems fitting 1:30:00 to 2:00:00 Avi's to reasonably sized mpg for DVDA. I often wonder how Hollywood does it, but I suppose it's that 2-layer media they have.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'll figure it out, and once I do, boom, a preset for what I am currently working on and that's that.

Thanks again all.

- jim