2 follow up questions to your answer:

1. I remember reading that you shouldn't exceed 8,000,000..is that not true?
2. " Variable bit rate files can produce higher picture quality and smaller file sizes than constant bit rate files."......this quote comes
directly from the vegas help section.......As you can see, it sais that variable bit rate files can produce higher quality....?
Oh, 1 more question:
If i can exceed 8,000,000, why not use the 9,800,000 setting?

Thanks again

Personally I like to stay below 8 for constant bitrates. The help is referring to better quality when you are throttled back. For example, a 7,5 Max with a 6,0 average is generally better than a constant 6. Once you get to wide open, if the file will fit on the disc which 15 minutes certainly will, there is no benefit and actually may produce lower quality. It certainly takes longer.

If you want to use a variable bitrate, use the stock template from Sony. It is very high bitrate and produces a nice outcome. No Mess, No Fuss.

KK

9,800,000 is the maximum by the spec. However, lots of DVD players start having issues above 9,000,000. Leaving some room for the audio and a little extra just to make sure you're under that limit is why i recommend 8,500,000. It's up to you to decide if you like that advice or not. Feel free to try encoding the video at 9,600,000 and the audio at 192,000 and see how well your DVD player plays it. Just remember that even if yours does, the people you give copies to might not be so lucky.

Variable bit rate achieves it's higher quality by using lower bitrates when it doesn't matter, such as stills and scenes with very little detail or action. It then saves up the bandwidth not used during these times for the bursts when there is a lot of action. The idea here is that you could use a maximum bitrate of about 8,500,000 a minimum of 1,500,000, and an average around 5,000,000 to achieve a result that looks as good as the maximum, most of the time, but only uses as much space as the average. Such a file would probably look a lot better than a constant rate of 5,000,000.

However, with your short video you can use a constant bitrate that is the maximum since you don't have to worry about saving space. A variable file of 1,500,000 / 5,000,000 / 8,500,000 is going to look quite a bit worse than a constant rate of 8,500,000.

Why not use 9,800,000? Because you risk having a lot of players not being able to keep up and result in skipping or even rejecting the disk.

Chien,

Ya, what he says...
That was a much more understandable explanation than I wrote. I think my fingers are getting tired today and I am talking in circles.

Smiles,
Keith