I have MS Platinum + DVD A
(I have ordered MS 9 Platinum Pro Pak upgrade )

I read in the manual that only full version has AC3, so....

(The manual is not very imformative....)

I put chapter markers on 4 of the 5 segments in my project, leaving off a marker for the first segment and got audio only on the first segment with no video. The rest of the segments had video and no audio. I will re-render... Duh. (Is that something anyone else has experienced?)

I did find out that with MPEG2 you do get audio ...which was my original question.

I had been doing WMV renders but I read that for DVD you should do MPEG2. Why is that?

If WMV will work on a DVD just as well as MPEG2.... what is the difference?

Hi, studioLord : I can answer some of your questions. Regarding MPEG2 and AC3 (sounds like one of my posts), I can do them and I have VMStudio Platinum V9 (upgraded to 9.0b) with DVD Arch St 4.5 - none of the Pro versions.


About not seeing ac3 as an option :
"I see the MPG2 render option, but I do not see the AC3 option"
"I read in the manual that only full version has AC3, so...." :

When you click on Project / Render As... , amongst other things there are the three horizontal fields called "Save as type:", Template" and "Description". For me, on "Save as type", when I click on the down arrow to the right that brings down the drop-down menu of types, I get:

ATRAC Audio (*.aa3)
Dolby Digital AC-3 Studio (*.ac3)
FLAC (*.flac)
(some more)
MainConcept MPEG-1 (*.mpg)
MainConcept MPEG-2 (*.mpg;*.m2v;*.m2t;*.mpa)
(some more)

About being able to get audio with MPEG-2 :
"I did find out that with MPEG2 you do get audio ...", this is not always true :

When you select in the "Save as type:" "MainConcept MPEG-2 ...", depending on the "Template" selected, you either will or will not get audio with the video for MPEG-2. With "Default Template", you'll see both Audio and Video available in the "Description" field. With "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream" as the template, you'll see "Audio: None" in the "Description" box, along with "Video: 29.97 fps, etc.". So far I've only used "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream", because the "Description" field also says "Use this setting to create an NTSC Widescreen video-only MPEG-2 file compatible with DVD Architect." I'm not sure why Sony went to the trouble of phrasing it like that, but it may be that the Default Template, when used with MPEG-2, and provides both audio and video, is just as "compatible" with DVD A. I'll have to try that some day.

In fact, any Template that includes the phrase "video stream", will not render audio. In addition, any of the Blu-ray Templates (which all include the words "video stream") won't even include the words "Audio:None" !!!

"(The manual is not very imformative....)" :
Amen!

As far as what format for a DVD, I've read here that the format depends on whether they're played on a PC's DVD player or a stand-alone unit. I've been told here that starting out with .avi is better than .mpg, but I have no choice there. So far my originals are .VOB, and can only be imported as .mpg. I then edit all as .mpg (rendered as MPEG-2 /ac3), and for now they are acceptable on TV and PC. A little bit of the sharpness is lost, but you have to compare to the original to tell. On my stand-alone, I'll play the orig DVD, then my creation. E.G., one of my recordings at an airshow there was a 757 fly-by. It was mostly-partly cloudy, but as the plane flew by, you can see a small bright reflection from the sun move along the top of the fuselage from front to back. On my final "DVD Arch" video, the reflection is not quite as sharp, but still pretty. I've not rendered any as .avi, .wmv, .mov, so I can't compare quality yet.

Cheers - Dave H.

Are you related to Ultra Lord ? (must watch Jimmy Neutron to get this).