Yes. As a follow-up to my own question, it appears the only setting I can use is Windows Media Video V9 using the 4.8mps HD 720-24p video setting. That keeps the correct aspect but it sure is slooow! Is there a better way? Thanks.

How slow is "slooow"?? That's a meaningless term without a reference point.

AND .. while we're at it .. what are the specs of the computer you are using?

I do not see a "AVCHD" 720p24 template. Is that only in Vegas 9?

Hey Doofus,

You can change most any template by clicking the "custom" button.

Thanks for the tips. I went into the "custom" menu and played around and was finally able to come up with settings that worked (sort of) but it will need some tinkering. The file size compared to the Window Media template is about 3 times the size and to be honest, didn't look as good.

Thanks again for the advice.

WMV is very good, but it's 2-pass, that's why it takes so long.

Keep tinkering and learning. It's fun and useful.

Select Main Concept AVC/AAC (*.mp4)

Select Template (custom)
Project: Best
On video tab:
Frame Size: Custom
width 1280
height 720
Profile Main
Frame Rate 24.000
Field Order None
Pixel Aspect Ratio 1.000
VBR and tick Two Pass and Use deblocking filter.
Set
Max to 10,000,000
Average to 6,000,000

Audio Tab.
Make certain Sample Rate is 48,000
I like to change the bitrate to 192,000, really depends how vital your audio is.

Now save this as a template ready for use in the future.

This will take a while to render as it's a 2 pass encode but more time = better quality. This is a quite high average bitrate, should be fine on an Intranet, could be problematic on a WAN but 720p does need a fair bit of bandwidth. If your video was shot under low light and looks noisy it may pay to use some form of noise reduction, noise eats up bandwidth.

For flash encoding I use the On2 Flix Pro encoder. Certainly not cheap but it does a very good job, will batch files and hey first job I did with it more than got me my money back. If you're going to be doing a lot of this it could be a good investment.

Bob.

"{6,000,000 avg bitrate} ... is a quite high average bitrate, should be fine on an Intranet, could be problematic on a WAN but 720p does need a fair bit of bandwidthThe OP indicated he wanted to post this video on his website. I've found that bitrate setting for personal website posting is somewhat of a trial-and-error process. I render the clip, upload to my website and go to my old/slow laptop and see how it plays. So - bitrates in the 1,500,000 range seem to be about as high as I can go and get a relatively smooth playback. On the other hand, if all your users have Intel i7's with 20Mbps download speed, go with a higher bitrate.

The other option is to upload to YouTube/Vimeo/others at a very high bitrate a and let their processors optimize you video for playback - then embed the video in your own website.

Good Luck!
...Jerry

You can buy the ON2 standard encoder for $39, has the same outputs but less options. The biggest thing missing in STD vs. Pro is alpha channel support.

The biggest thing missing in STD vs. Pro is the ability to do 2-pass encoding which gives you a higher quality image and smaller file size.

If you aren't going to use a service such as Vimeo, I would suggest using Bob's settings, with a player that will play the .mp4 natively such as the JW player, or EasyFlv. I haven't been able to convert an .mp4 to an .flv without losing a fair amount of quality.
James