Sony Vegas 9 rendering help

Broome wrote on 1/24/2009, 11:04 PM
working on a DVD gift for my brother. Movie is about done. Rendered with what I guess is not the right choice. The movie is soft and the text too.
Editing in Sony Vegas Platinum 9.0 I would like the end results to be like a high quality DVD. Like I would get at any Blockbusters. I know this is possible. I'm obvious new to this. Would like some help in the rendering aspect of it. Along with helpful suggestions. I read that people render only a small portion of their project to see the results. (I though what I saw on the Pre View is what I'm getting...not) If this is a "check" that I need to but in practice, then what DVD should I use? And forgive me on this...but I don't want to go through a whole sleeve of DVD's, can I re-use the DVD I'm checking. ie re rendering on the same DVD.

Thanks for any helpful advice.
Captured on JVC Mini DV

Project Properties::
Template: NTSC Standard (720x486, 29.97 fps)
Width: 720
Height: 486
Pixel Ration: 0.9091 (NTSC DV)
Field Order: Lower Field First
Frame Rate: 29.970 (NTSC)
Full Resolution Rendering Quality: Best
Deinterlace Method: Blend Fields

Audio::
Master Bus Mode: Stereo (can I do Surround Sound in SVM 9?)
Sample Rate: 44,100
Bit Depth: 16
Resample &Strecth: Best

Comments

Ivan Lietaert wrote on 1/24/2009, 11:40 PM
If you want to try out the final look on your tv, render, prepare and burn a short portion on a rewritable dvd. You can re-use them again and again.

As you will burn this to dvd, there really is no other option than to render to the mpeg2 format (Sony MainConcept mpeg2 codec). This one comes with some templates, but the templates cannot be customized. Look at the templates to find out if you have surround audio).

To see the highest possible quality in the preview windows, hit the 'preview quality' button above it and select 'best < full'. This setting will show you what the video actually will look like, but if you used processor intensive effects, there will be a framerate drop (which you won't have after you have rendered).
Dave22 wrote on 1/28/2009, 7:40 PM
Broome, I'll address your specific symptom in the 2nd paragraph, but I stumbled upon something similar to your problem while trying various rendering options. The problem I initially had when learning this program in the last 30-40 days, rendering to MPEG2 resulted in no audio. I thought MPEG-2 should include audio also. Someone else pointed out that in fact, when selecting "Save as type: MainConcept MPEG-2...", in the "Description:" below "Save as..." and "Template:", it says "Audio: None" "Video: 29.97 fps, 720x480". I've been told this is a bug in the MainConcept MPEG-2 codec, so I've been told by others in this forum, and SONY -- to be fixed later someday. On the other hand, the template I selected was "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream", which, when selected, also contributes to wording in the "Description" field, "Use this setting to create an NTSC Widescreen video-only MPEG-2 file compatible with DVD Architect". So, I'm not sure if it's a bug (need to reread posts), but this does not include audio.

Now for your symptom. I tried rendering using MPEG-1, and I got both video and audio saved, just like it says in the Description window, but the video was not as clear -- this sounds like it might be your problem. I was not happy with the result, and it was noticeable in the playback before I made the DVD.

A solution is render the video as MPEG-2 with a template of "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream" (or non-Widescreen) (neither of which saves audio), and the audio as a separate render, using "Dolby Digital AC3 Studio (*.ac3) as the "Save as type:" (which saves no video). When you access these two files in DVD Architect Studio, just click and drag the video file to the timeline window, and it will auto-create the audio peak files, as long as they were both saved/renderd into the same subdirectory. If the audio file does get created, you can click and drag the ac3 file to the audio portion in the timeline. The default template provides both video and audio even with MainConcept MPEG-2, but I don't know the quality of that.
As I said, I chose the template of "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream" because it said it was "...compatible with DVD Architect."

Even after all this, the video on the finished DVD is not quite as clear/sharp as the original (which a file on a mini-DVD disk), but it's pretty darn close.

As far as re-using, like the other poster said, use re-writeables, like DVD-RW or DVD+RW. When you're happy with the results, then create the DVD to a DVD-R or DVD+R. Then re-use the -RW/+RW.

You know what? After looking at your "Project Properties", "Full Res Rendering Quality: Best", I checked mine, and it was set to "Good". It's "Best" now. I'll see if that makes a difference for me. Thanks for indirectly helping me by including your settings!!!

Hoped I've helped you - Dave H.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 1/28/2009, 9:12 PM
1) Some (widescreen) mpeg2 templates do only render video. You have to render audio separately and then combine the two in in DVDA. I always use 'dvd pal', which renders video and audio together.

2) It is quite normal for your mpeg2 files (or dvds) to have lower quality than the original files (or HD files), espacially when you watch them on a high res computer screen. Mpeg2 files are to be watched on tv. For better quality than mpeg2, opt for WMV or MP4 templates.

3) Mpeg1 is a fossil and is bad in video and audio quality. Stay away from it.
musicvid10 wrote on 1/28/2009, 9:23 PM
Uhhm, sorry to sound like an idiot in the company of all of these "enlightened" responders, but what is the length of your dvd?
Dave22 wrote on 1/29/2009, 6:44 AM
Well, Broome, it turns out that the choice that's set in "Project Properties", "Full Res Rendering Quality: " can be overridden by the template values when doing the actual rendering. I rendered an existing video with the "Project Properties", "Full Res Rendering Quality:" set to "Best", and compared it to a previous rendering with the setting at "Good", but saw no difference when viewing them in DVD Arch Studio.

The help file in VMS 9 explains this. Perhaps that setting is used when only the default template is chosen.

Ivan123: Regarding 2), I'll need to experiment with the other templates - thanks for the WMV/MPEG4 suggestion.

Regarding 3) - "fossil" - good one - yeah, it didn't take long to figure that wasn't a good choice.
ritsmer wrote on 1/29/2009, 8:30 AM
Take care about WMV as the rendering codec gives rather pale colours compared to i.e. m2t.
Of course you can spice up the colors before rendering but then you loose a noticeable part of your colour-space.