Thanks alot for responding!

The AVI files did originate from a DV camera and were then edited in Vegas 8 and re-rendered again as .AVI. Just to be clear, you're saying that they MUST be MPEG-2? Will they differ in quality from an AVI file? Oh and what should I do about sizing them JUST right?

This sounds like a problem I've been working tracking down re: cineform. In fact that's the exact results. Avi files using different codecs should look good played/opened anywhere else, and work great in DVDA. Run a short test file/clip or render a short loop in Vegas, see how it looks, & run it as a test through DVDA to see how the DVD looks. Avoid cinepak & cineform - there are several codecs available at videohelp.com.

For mpeg2 I like to use DGIndex if you wanted to check it out at doom9.org.

OK, so you have standard DV AVI files. The usual workflow is to edit these in Vegas and then, when you want to make a DVD, rather than render to an AVI file and import this into DVDA, you instead render, from Vegas, to an MPEG-2 file, and use the appropriate "DVD Architect" template. This eliminates the unnecessary step of first rendering to AVI and THEN having DVD Architect render to MPEG-2. When you put the MPEG-2 into DVD Architect, it will NOT re-render that and things will proceed very quickly once you start the "prepare" operation.

Ahh. That makes so much more sense. I always thought that MPEG-2 lowered the quality. What do you suggest as the right template?

What do you suggest as the right template? As I said in my last post, one of the "DVD Architect" templates. Which one you use depends on whether your video is NTSC or PAL, and on whether it is 4:3 or 16:9. That gives you four choices. Just pick the one of those four which matches your video. Then, set the average bitrate (use the Custom button in the Render As dialog) to match the length of ALL the video in your final DVD. If the total video is seventy minutes or under, use something like 7,200,000 (you can go up to 8,000,000). For longer videos use a lower bitrate. Use a Bitrate Calculator to determine the appropriate bitrate for longer videos.

But don't you have to render twice with those templates? Once for video and once for audio?

**But don't you have to render twice with those templates? Once for video and once for audio?**

Yes, and the advantages of doing it this way are many. You can have dvd's with multiple audio tracks -- narratives, a second language, 2.0 stereo, etc.

It only takes a few minutes to render the audio track separately, and AC-3 audio is far better than integrated mpeg-audio, so it's a winning situation all the way around.

How would I go about being able to play AC-3 files though? I tried to render a file as it, but it said that my registered player does not support it. And it won't show up in Architect either. By the way, my media player is Windows Media .

If you have the "Pro" version of Vegas you also got Architect (unless you got that funky B&H version). Registering both will register an AC3 player that works within Architect (I don't know if it works in anything else). If you then render the video as MianConcept Architect compliant MPEG2 video stream without audio and a second rendering of AC3 audio and both files are named the same and placed in the same folder, when the video is placed in Architect it will automatically briong the audio along with it.

1) Render the Video to the appropriate DVDA template in Vegas.
2) Remder the Audio to the appropriate AC-3 template in Vegas.
3) Give the AC-3 file the same name as the video file, only with the .ac3 extension.
Place the .ac3 file in the same folder as the .mpg file.
4) Create a project in DVDA, using the appropriate AC-3 audio setting and the appropriate video format in the Project Properties.
5) Add your menus and titles
6) Prepare the DVDA project to a folder. You can also burn DVD discs if you have a burner.
7) The prepared files will play just like a dvd in Media Player or any other that supports dvd playback.
8) The Vegas and DVDA help files contain really useful instructions for steps 1-6 above.

Good Luck!

If it helps at all...
Nothing really wrong with encoding your video to mpg2 in Vegas, then letting DVDA encode the ac3... DVDA & Vegas use the same encoders - you just have less control over the settings, and as John pointed out, you avoid the use of an intermediate video file. So no problem at all creating an un-compressed wav file in Vegas, importing that into DVDA, & having DVDA do the ac3. It takes next to no time for Vegas to write the wav file, it's uncompressed so, unlike video, you won't lose quality, and there's usually not a lot you'll mess with in the settings.

That said, when it comes to players, Wmplayer is about the worst for DVDs, & won't handle them without supporting files installed. You can go about getting those files to get things sort of working in Wmplayer, pick up an OEM disc with PowerDVD for $2, use VideoLan, KMP, or similar more or less self-contained media players. For ac3 playback/handling/encoding/decoding, you can pick up free software if needed at videohelp.com.

Vegas/DVDA only makes their mpg2 decoder available to Windows, & it only handles files - not DVDs. So if your version of DVDA handles ac3, it won't help outside of DVDA. If your version doesn't do ac3, you could of course upgrade, swap out whatever format audio is used to an ac3 file after the fact, or continue using whatever format you've been using up to now.

I'm an idiot. It plays fine in Architect, it just won't show up in VegasPro 8 (The video stream too, for that matter) and won't play in WMplayer.

I just have 1 more question. Is there any way to make AC-3 louder? So far, it's pretty quiet when used in Architetc. Should I just stick with the sound from the AVI files?

if you read my thread within the dvd architect forum called "bad encoding issue with DVDA5", i've been having the same issues.
MPM has been quite helpful.
I have also been going back and forth with Sony IT about this, so it is nice to know more then myself have been having issues.
I used to import my hdv 1080i video into a hdv 1440x1080 60i 29.97fps template. At the end rendering everything to the 1440x1080 60i uncompressed avi format. I would then import it to DVDA to burn out to a 720x480 16:9 project, I could adjust the "optimizing bitrate" from there. I have been doing this for over two years without a problem. Now I am forced to do it as the .m2t and .ac3 template.
Only problem being is that I can't combine more then one .m2t file without having to adjust each bitrate as I render them from vegas to all fit on one DVD if nesessary. It is many more steps and considerations that I had to face before.
I am very annoyed at this point that I have to do all this extra work to achieve the same thing I did in one step before.

Yeah, it seems 4.5 was better than this stuff when it came to encoding. Do you suggest ac3 for sound on this (it's so quiet), or should I just stick with the sound of the .AVI files?

To get right volume in AC3 make a new template as follows:

In the render ac3 window/Audio service tab
Change dialog normalization to -31.

in preprocessing tab
set Dynamic range compression and Line mode profile to none
save as yor own ac3 template
/Aje

Thanks alot to everyone who's helped! I just have one more question (hopefully). Do safety areas matter all that much. I remeber someone telling me they don't really account for much when you actually make you DVD due to every TV having a different ratio. What do you guys suggest?

There is no standard display on a regular TV with a picture tube... On a standard TV with a picture tube, the edges of the display are covered by the case, & at the same time the electronics vary so you have in effect different levels of zoom. The safe areas are a guesstimate of what should be visible on most every TV, so you want to place anything that *has* to be seen, like any titling, within those borders. Otherwise you want to fill the whole area with your picture or video.

RE: AC3... I'm not sure AC3 is always that much quieter itself, but decoding the AC3 for playback often alters levels, & as already posted, the Vegas/DVDA templates may be on the quiet side. You want to test your levels on a set top player to a TV (or more than one if you can),if that's how most people will watch your DVD. Software players like Cyberlink's Power DVD have several choices for audio processing, altering how AC3 sounds on playback. Remember that a quiet track is less objectionable than a loud, even blaring one - turning the volume up at your leisure is better than grabbing the remote and turning it down in a panic.

Most retail movie DVDs use the theater soundtrack, which has surround levels boosted - set top players know this and usually compensate by default. If you have room on your disc, generating a 5.1 or fake 5.1 AC3 track can really boost the clarity from the TV, even if it's mono or stereo - http://www.stevethomson.ca/vi/ has a plugin set that works pretty good, & is easier than faking it using the pan controls in Vegas.

You can change the template settings in Vegas as already posted, and you can also just turn the volume up on the far left of your audio track(s) - I'd suggest trying something in the +1.5 to +1.8 range to start.

I have VS Platinum 8. When I've tried to save as DVDA MPEG-2, or any other format, the Customize button is ghosted. Is there some other way to change the bitrate in VS? I can change it in DVDA4.5 but then aren't I recoding the MPEG-2 I created in Vegas?