Is there an advantage in rendering for DVD Architect, and then doing the sound as a separate file VS. just rendering as MPEG-2 with sound (all one file)?
Thanks and happy holidays
Gary
If I understand your question correctly, you are asking if there is an advantage to have the audio in a separate VMS project rather than in your video VMS project?
There may be an advantage in the big-time motion picture industry -- that I do not know. But for our purposes, I don't know how a person could quickly and easily synchronize the audio with the video if they reside in two separate projects. I'm sure it could be done, but quickly and easily? Not by moi anyway : )
In any event, you would probably want to render your audio as a Dolby Digital .ac3 file with the same name as your video file so that DVD-A will pick it up correctly. For example the video would be turkey.mpg and the audio would be turkey.ac3.
Yes, there is an advantage. If you render the audio out to AC3, DVD Architect will use that file with no recompression. You've compressed it once and it's used.
If you render to an MPEG2 file with audio, the audio is compressed to MPEG, then DVD Architect will DECOMPRESS the audio before RECOMPRESSING to AC3. So you will get quality loss because of all the decompressing and recompressing.
"Is there an advantage in rendering for DVD Architect, and then doing the sound as a separate file VS. "
Yes, several.
-- No recompression, shorter prepare times as Edward just mentioned.
-- 5.1 Surround audio on your DVD.
-- If you don't like your audio, you can replace it in a jiffy without rendering your whole darn movie again.
-- Your DVD can have multiple audio tracks, foreign language, narration, karaoke, commentary (DVDA Pro only, iirc).
-- Inherently better AC3 quality and dynamic range.
I think I have misunderstood the original post . . .
Are you all talking about having one or more audio tracks in your Vegas project and then rendering the video and audio separately? This is how I do it.
Or are you talking about having one Vegas project for video, and a separate Vegas project for audio? If yes, how do you keep them syncronize, especially if you have voice or events tied to certain parts of music?
Often, I have several projects with the same video and different audio. But I always render the video and audio as separate files for DVDA. Remember, projects are cheap. I sometimes have 15-20 incremental versions saved, and they have proven to be a lifesaver!
Project 1 = Video and Audio mix A
Project 2 = Video and Audio mix B
Project 3 = Video and Audio mix C
etc.
If I want three selectable audio tracks on my DVD, I render the video, then Audio A, B, C as separate AC3 files.
Yes it was one project with two audio tracks. Really I was just wondering why I would want to render the sound as a separate file (ie why go with an extra step) if it was un-necessary. Now I understand the reasoning.
Regards,
Gary