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HaroldC wrote on 1/24/2006, 3:35 PM
Hello everyone. I have read a large number of postings on this forum over the last couple of months. I finally decided that if I couldn't contribute much at least I might be able to learn something.

As far as my setup. I have a Sony Desktop. 2.66 gig Intel 4 processor. 512 mb memory. Which I look to upgrade to 1 or 2 gigs before long. Two internal hard drives with 120 gigs storage. One external Western Digital hard drive with 250 gigs of storage. It is connected by usb and firewire. My computer being older has video input of a tv tuner card and the Sony gigapocket software. The tv signal is boosted by an amplifyer, plus the directv signal is also run through a dvd/vcr player. I also have tivo, which is somewhat redundant considering the gigapocket, but redundancy is good. The video editing software is Screenblaster Movie Studio 3.0. I don't currently have a camcorder, but I will probably get one at some point. Those Sony HD's look sweet. But I'll have to figure out some way to make it a business expense before I can drop that amount of money.

What I'd like to know, if just what benefits would come from upgrading to VMS. What I really want is to be able to control the bitrate, so as to maximise the image quality. But from what I understanding that would require DVD Architect.

Thanks,
Harold

Comments

jtfrazer wrote on 1/24/2006, 4:42 PM
Hi Harold,

DVD Architect is included If you upgrade to either Vegas Movie Studio or the Platinum version.

Jim
HaroldC wrote on 1/24/2006, 5:28 PM
Jim
From the product descriptions, only the Vegas+DVD has DVD Architect. Which is the full version of Vegas. It is also the expensive one; $675 if you're not upgrading.

Harold
Tim L wrote on 1/24/2006, 6:26 PM
Both Vegas Movie Studio products include DVD Architect Studio -- a "home" version of the full DVD Architect, but it still does most of what most people want to do. Want to have multiple languages and multiple camera angles? You'd need the full version DVD Architect. But just about everything else -- menu's, with video buttons and backgrounds, etc, -- you can do with DVDA Studio.

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/vegasfamily.asp

The Movie Studio and Movie Studio Platinum packages both indicate "+DVD".

Unfortunately, you can't directly control the bit rate from within VMS, but if you render in VMS and send the file to DVDA Studio, you can set the bit rate there manually, or you can use a "fit to disc" option, in which DVDAS will examine the all the video, audio, and menu items in your project, then calculate a bit rate for you that lets the result fit onto a DVD. Of course, DVDAS will have to re-render to accomplish this.

If you're working with std definition DV info, you can render to a DV .AVI file from VMS, with essentially zero quality loss, then have DVDAS render to MPEG2 for you, using your manually specified bit rate, or the fit to disc option.

Note to Sony Madison Media guys reading this: Can we just get the bit rate option directly in VMS? Please? Pretty Please? Or maybe just a couple more templates -- one to specify max bit rate, and another to specify a lower bit rate for people trying to fit 2 hrs on a DVD? Rendering twice is kind of a pain.

Tim L
HaroldC wrote on 1/25/2006, 2:20 PM
I don't anticipate needing multi angle or language options. So I'll look into upgrading.

Thanks Tim, Jim.

Harold