Its a misconception that DVD can only be MPEG2.
You can have a fully compliant DVD that uses MPEG1 video. Please see for yourself at www.dvdrhelp.com
I am annoyed that Architect seems more advanced than TMPGENC DVD Author yet will not allow me to create MPEG1 DVDs.
I've only got v1.0 so could someone let me know if this issue has been adressed in v2?

The reason I need to do this is I have a lot of VCD footage that will actually deteriorate rather than gain in quality by being re-encoded to MPEG2 (granted the audio must be re-encoded to 48000khz but I'm doing that). Also I should be allowed to get about 5 hours onto a single DVD at this resolution. Architect is simply not allowing me to do what TMPGENC DVD Author does.

Can't you encode in TMPGEnc and import into DVDA?

You are right, also the DVD spec supports 1/2D1 res which is interesting in that it's the same res as CVD. Result should be about the same quality as VHS.

The DVD-video spec allows MPEG1, as you've stated. However, neither DVDA1 nor DVDA2 support no recompress of MPEG1 source.

Yes farss you can encode in TMPGENC and import into DVDA but for some reason DVDA insists on recompressing it as MPEG2 so its pointless, you may as well use TMPGENC DVD author if you want MPEG1.

I find it very strange that DVDA is considered a high end DVD authoring program yet it does not address MPEG1 that is within the DVD specification.
I'm still with DVDA1 and it is also insisting that all files I import with MPEG audio have their audio converted to PCM.
Why should this be? MPEG audio is also part of the DVD spec is it not?
Has the issue been rectified in DVDA2?

Does it help that you can burn an Mpeg1 VCD right from Vegas?

Gary

You are correct: MPEG audio is part of the DVD spec. However, DVDA1 and DVDA2 do not support creating a DVD with MPEG audio. DVDA only supports PCM and AC-3 audio.

Gary I already know that but the point I am trying to do is to burn DVD-Video discs that contain MPEG1 video (you can get upwards of 4 hours) with MPEG Layer 2 audio. DVD- Architecht plainly does not allow this which I find extrememly strange.
SonySDB is only confirming my findings that I have painstakingly taken hours to try and experiment with.
SonySDB I don't mean to be rude but so far you are only agreeing with me and telling me what I already know about DVDA, but the point of posting on the forum was to find out WHY this is the case and the reasons behind these issues not being addressed in DVDA2.
TMPGENC DVD Author is a very cheap and fairly basic DVD Authoring software but at the moment it is working better towards my needs than DVDA which costs substatially more, and does offer a lot more advanced features which I would love to make use of (but am not being allowed to due to its limitations with MPEG1/MPEG Audio).

There is no big reason why these aren't supported by DVDA: MPEG1 video and MPEG audio are just not highly requested features. I know this doesn't help you out. Sorry.

"I find it very strange that DVDA is considered a high end DVD authoring program yet it does not address MPEG1 that is within the DVD specification."

Because "high end programs" are geared toward creating "high end products," and MPEG1 is not "high end"?

Rob

I managed to get half a season (11x45 min episodes) of the West Wing onto one dvd using TMPGEnc DVD Author. The quality wasn't great admittedly, but when I tried reencoding an episode from MPG1 to DVDA's MPG2, the quality was terrible. The argument that as DVDA is high-end it should only be used for high-end sources is ridiculous. For the cost, it should do pretty much what I tell it to do. If it's high-end it should accept all a/v sources and give us a choice of what we want it encoding as. Even Vegas admits in it's manual that a low resolution or low bitrate source shouldn't be encoded at a higher resolution or higher bitrate, so why does DVDA automatically do what Vegas tells you not to?

What would happen if you import those mpg1's into Vegas, Video Factory, or Movie Studio......do your editing or what ever, then save them as a DV-AVI.

Now with the DV-AVI, import it into DVDA and burn a DVD.

It has been my understanding that DV-AVI is about as good as it gets, and that a Mpg1 or 2 rencoded as a DV-AVI should not loose hardly any quality.

Am I missing something here?

Not to be confrontational, but going from mpeg1 to dv-avi to mpeg2 would require two transcodings, resulting (most likely) in an even worse looking end product. For example, taking a highly compressed jpeg at 353x240 (mpeg1)and changing it to an uncompressed bitmap (dv-avi) at 720x480 doesn't make the picture look better. You can't make chicken soup without the chicken--you can't create pixels that weren't originally there. Taking that bitmap and compressing (mpeg2)it again only results in even further image degradation.

The problem with re-encoding mpeg1 to mpeg2 in DVDA is two fold. One, the transcode itself will result in significant loss of quality. Second, since the bitrate will be higher, you won't be able to fit as much video on a disc as you would with mpeg1 only--which defeats the reason why the original poster wanted to do this in the first place. It's too bad that DVDA doesn't support the full range of accepted dvd formats. We make instructional dvd's at work using half D1. With low motion video content, the resulting mpeg2 (half D1) files look quite good, and we can fit much more per disc (nearly double). DVDA competes with the likes of ReelDVD, Ulead DVDWS, etc for the prosumer niche, and most of the competing apps support the use of these types of files. Even 'lowly' SpruceUp (when it was available) did a great job of making these kinds of discs. Maybe if Sony 'hears' that there are those that actually use mpeg1/half D1 for professional reasons they might actually think about including it in future releases. This exact same question was asked back when Sony didn't own DVDA--too bad they weren't listening then.

Jim

Jim,
I agree that it requires 2 encodings, but what do you do if you've got a Sony Mavica Still Camera that also records those short mpeg clips (Mpg1's I think)?