Simple trim of videos and/or conversion?

illusory wrote on 4/24/2011, 12:13 AM
Hello, the manual to DVDA states that's you can use in and out points set in the timeline of a video to determine what portion of that video you want to burn to the DVD. Well, that appears not to be true, unless someone can enlighten me :). 

The in out markers work just fine to determine what you see when you press the menu button for that video. But when you go to burn that video, it shows that the entire file will be burned to the DVD! Which takes all the space even when it isnt being used! That's just crazy, when you've set the in/out points! 

Clearly if I am to be able to use DVDA I will need something which can trim long mpg2 files, and not reencode them. Since they are already in the correct format for DVD. I dont want to degrade the video or audio quality. What can I use for this? I'd also like to be able to do the same thing for vob files -- cut a piece out of it to use, but not reencode it, as it is already suitable for DVD. 

And I ido need to recode movs, flvs, and some other formats to mpeg 2 so they will work in DVDA. 

So, what can I use to trim and only reencode when necessary, video files so they can  be used in in DVDA?

Anyone have a good system/answer for this?

Thanks,
NJ

Comments

Richard Jones wrote on 4/24/2011, 3:02 AM
A partial answer.

If you want to play the DVD to a TV through a DVD player you will need to use the MPEG2 codec (probably with the audio as AC3).

To burn only part of a project, select that part as a Loop Region in Vegas and have that rendered out as MPEG2 (bearing in mind the diffrerent sizes in the drop down menu) and as AC3. Dragging one of these rendered files to the blue scree in DVDA will automatiocally take the other with it if they have the same file name, allowing you to burn or add chapters as you wish (although chapters are more easily created in Vegas using the M key for a marker with the markers then acting automatically as chapter points.

Hope this helps but someone may well come up with a more comlete answer.

Richard.
Steve Mann wrote on 4/24/2011, 2:29 PM
DVDA is not an editing program. You can create the in-out points for the chapter buttons, but it's not an editor.

You don't really want to use DVDA as an editing program, anyway. You have much more control using Vegas to create the MPG and AC3 files for DVDA to put on the DVD. You have total control over the file size this way.
illusory wrote on 4/24/2011, 7:51 PM
I downloaded the trial of Vegas, and trimmed a file down and exported it as an mpeg2. DVD NTSC. In Architect it now says it plans to recode the audio. Why? This came from a vob file into Vegas. It was previously on a DVD. Why should the audio, which was always DVD compliant, need to be recoded?!

How do I get Vegas to out put an mpeg with ac3 audio? Or use my standard mpeg layer 2 audio to burn to the DVD?

The manual says "The Sony Creative Software Inc. Dolby Digital AC-3 Studio and MainConcept MPEG-2 encoders provide templates that will produce files that do not require recompression (unless the file size is too large to fit on a DVD)." So, where is this AC3 Studio encoder and how do i access it? The manual does not mention that... Or PCM audio, or ANYTHING ELSE THAT WILL WORK.

There seem to be lots of options to encode video, but none for audio.

any help deeply appreciated,
Steve Mann wrote on 4/24/2011, 8:43 PM
"I downloaded the trial of Vegas"

Uh, you should have received DVDA *with* Sony Vegas. They aren't sold separately.

When you do a "Render As", select the file type "MPEG2" and the "DVD Architect" template. (I don't recall the exact wording). Then you do another "render as" and select the AC3 file type.

When you import a DVD, the audio is converted to a proxy. I am not sure of the reason but I strongly suspect there's a licensing issue with Dolby because Vegas cannot import AC3.
musicvid10 wrote on 4/24/2011, 9:01 PM
DVD Architect accepts separate MPEG-2 video and AC-3 audio files for a number of very good reasons, which I won't go into here (for obvious reasons).

This knowledgebase article will shed some light on your questions about avoiding recompression in DVD Architect:
http://www.custcenter.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/84/kw/dvd%20audio/related/1
Steve Mann wrote on 4/24/2011, 9:06 PM
Make sure that Direct-X is OK, go to Start Run and type "dxdiag".
TOG62 wrote on 4/24/2011, 10:23 PM
Uh, you should have received DVDA *with* Sony Vegas. They aren't sold separately.

DVDA Studio is sold separately (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/buy/dvdastudio?disp=1).
Steve Mann wrote on 4/25/2011, 5:55 AM
OP had a DVDA problem. You can't buy DVDA alone.
PeterDuke wrote on 4/26/2011, 1:32 AM
One is DVDA Studio (available separately) and the other is DVDA Pro (only bundled with Vegas Pro).
illusory wrote on 4/26/2011, 11:29 PM
Thanks for the link.

First question: I've found that I can save out the mpeg2 and the audio separately from Vegas. But I think it is re-encoding it. Should it take the same amount of time to save it as the video clip is long?

Second question: I saved two files' audio as pcm(wave), and two as ac3. Burned them all to the same disc in Architect. When I looked at the optimize, it stated that none would be recoded. Now that is good news if true, but i'm wondering how files containing wav audio can be burnt to the same dvd project as files with ac3 audio, without recoding?

I'm starting to like DVD Architect and think i will buy it. Not as sure about Vegas, or which version....

thanks for your answers
PeterDuke wrote on 4/27/2011, 5:04 PM
Are you saying that Vegas is recoding MPEG2 files? If so, where were they generated? What resolution, what frame rate, and are they interlaced? Mediainfo will tell you these things.

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en