Seamless?

mokipono wrote on 8/20/2008, 4:08 PM

I have been struggling with the Vegas 8.0 and the architect studio 4.5
I've had it for a couple of months and have been able to burn one video which starts in the middle and has missing clips. I have about 20 edited videos I want to burn, but the architect studio won't do it. The rendering is crazy. The last time I tried to render a 20 min. video it took over 2 hours, I tried to burn.... but nothing happened.
I thought it was me, but I've had 2 professionals here trying to use it, which set me back a couple hundred dollars. they both said it doesn't work. I've read the tutorials 7 or 8 times, and followed the directions to the letter it still won't work.
Is there a way to redownload the programs??? Pleeeease help me!

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 8/20/2008, 5:10 PM

I'm not too sure what to suggest. It sounds like perhaps you are missing an important step.

The usual workflow for creating a DVD is as follows.

1. Edit your video in Vegas. Make sure you note what type of video you have on the timeline. Are you using DV, HDV, AVCHD and -- this is the important part -- is it NTSC or PAL, and is the frame rate 29.97 NTSC, 25 PAL, 24p, 23.976 film, etc.

2. Set your project properties to match your source video.

3. In Vegas, render the video using one of the DVD Architect templates. Choose the template based on #1 above. For instance, if your source video is NTSC DV 4:3, you would choose the "DVD Architect NTSC video stream" template. If your video is either DV Widescreen or HDV, and you live in the USA, you would choose "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream."

4. Before you render the video, choose the average bitrate. 7,000,000 is a good average bitrate, and you can encode up to about 75 minutes at this bitrate. If you want to encode more (longer time) video, choose a lower bitrate (use a Bitrate Calculator to figure out what bitrate setting to use).

5. Render your audio separately. Use AC3 and choose the Stereo template (unless your project uses 5.1 audio).

6. Place the video file you just encoded into DVD Architect. If you chose exactly the same file name for your audio file and put it in the same folder (which is recommended), DVDA will automatically find the audio. Otherwise you will have to specify the audio yourself.

That's about it. You can spend lots of fun time creating fancy menus and chapter stops and all that, but these are the steps needed to get perfect quality.

As for rendering time, that all depends on what you have done in Vegas. If you add lots of fX and composites, etc., it can take many times longer than real time to do the video render. The audio, however, should render quickly.

mokipono wrote on 8/20/2008, 7:03 PM

Dear John Meyer.
Thank you a million times for you knowledgeable reply. I only have a few more questions:
How do I know what type video I have in the timeline?
I used a sony camcorder with an HD.
How do I find out if it is NTSC or Pal and the frame rate?
How can I choose wide screen for TV viewing? I live in USA.
How do I render the audio separate from the video?
Where do I click? I have no FX on this video.
My last question:
Isn't there a standard template with no frills to start with?
I've edited on Movie Maker many times, I never had to know bitrates, and all this other information.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Terje wrote on 8/20/2008, 10:29 PM

Hi, I am not John, and I hope you will not take this the wrong way. Using fora like these to get help is great, and I hope you continue to do so. Many things about video editing is hard and some things are not 100% intuitive. I have two comments about this posting however.

Firstly, these are questions about Vegas Movie Studio 8, and you should therefore ask questions in a Movie Studio forum, not in the DVD Architect forum.

Secondly, many of these questions are questions that are covered in the manual that is shipped with Vegas (I would expect, I haven't checked the Studio help files lately, but they used to be OK). Before you ask questions in fora I would recommend trying to find the answers in the manual, and also in other postings in the fora available (use search). The reason I recommend this is that if you ask very many basic how-to questions that are answered in the manual many people will ignore you, and they will continue to ignore you in the future when you have real questions to ask.

Finally, if you are unable to find the answers in the included help files of Movie Studio, I would recommend the following DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Editing-Videos-Vegas-Movie-Studio/dp/B000YFSZ1M/ref=pd_bbs_sr_7?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1219295953&sr=8-7.

Please note, I have not this lecture my self, but it gets good reviews on Amazon, and I believe the author is a strong contributor to the Vegas fora.

Later, if you want to learn more advanced stuff and you upgrade to Vegas 8 Pro, I would recommend Spot\s book, which I have bought and read: http://www.amazon.com/Vegas-Pro-8-Editing-Workshop/dp/0240810465/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219295953&sr=8-2

mokipono wrote on 8/20/2008, 11:05 PM

Terje,
I have no trouble with the Vegas, my problems seem to be with the DVD architect. It's in the rendering where there is a problem.
I understand what you are saying about going to search first before asking questions. It is the proper thing to do. I am sorry, and stand corrected. I've had absolutetly no luck in contacting Sony Vegas Software technicians. Maybe you know if there's a way to redownload the program? I've been reading but have found nothing regarding this question.

mokipono wrote on 8/21/2008, 1:56 AM

I forgot to mention, the DVD Architect did make one copy. But that's all it would do. I tried to make copies of the one video...........nothing happened. This is why I posted in DVD Architect. I've not been able to find anywhere in forum search, or sony website a link to remove and download the program again.

Terje wrote on 8/21/2008, 11:12 PM

I have no trouble with the Vegas, my problems seem to be with the DVD architect. It's in the rendering where there is a problem.

The rendering should be done from Vegas, not from DVD Architect. I am sure the tutorial I refer to in my posting above will cover that. This is also covered in numerous posts in this forum over the years. Render the video from Vegas as MPEG-2 (using DVD templates) and then import into DVD Architect.

I've not been able to find anywhere in forum search, or sony website a link to remove and download the program again.

I am not at all sure why you would want to remove and install the program again, but you remove all programs from a Windows computer in the same way. If you need to download the software again, you do this from this site, under "My Account".

Terje wrote on 8/21/2008, 11:13 PM

I forgot to mention, the DVD Architect did make one copy. But that's all it would do. I tried to make copies of the one video..........

I am not sure what you are saying here. Are you trying to make more than one DVD? You just go and burn again, and that should work fine. But, again, take a look at the Amazon link I gave you above.

mokipono wrote on 8/23/2008, 1:02 AM

Terje, Thank you for your response, and the link. It was very kind of you, and I learned a lot from it.