I know, and I would use that, but I prefer to encode AVC at 1920x1080. DVDA 5 does a pretty good job at that, but Vegas, at least for now, can't encode AVC at more than 1440, or even at more than 15 mbps. Anything over that and it gives you an error.

So I don't see why DVDA 5 can't save the conversion it already made before in a previous prepare, instead of compressing the same clips each and every time you want to prepare a test BD. If it has the feature for DVD, why not for BD?

tsMuxeR will strip out your media files from the BD layout if that might help avoid re-encoding.

"Vegas, at least for now, can't encode AVC at more than 1440, or even at more than 15 mbps."

Well, that is not correct completely.

1) you could use the Mainconcept AVC-Encoder in Vegas, to generate 1920x1080. To do so, you have to generate a template for yourself - so, custom frame size, profile main, PAR=1, UFF and 1920x1080. Frame rate 25 for PAL, or 30 for NTSC.

However, that material will be recompressed in the DVDA5 also in future, since the Mainconcept AVC encoder will not be supported in DVDA5 really, also not in future.

2) a better choice will be to use the Sony AVC encoder - for the Blu Ray templates 1440x1080 you see no recompression. You can generate 1920x1080 Blu Ray templates with that encoder, if you switch at system to mp4 in an exisiting blu ray template, and go to a PAR=1 and 1920x1080. Also, then you can go up to 20 mbps in that encoder even now. Vegas exports that, but the bad news are that this footage will be recompressed in the DVDA5 at the moment. Either you accept that at the moment, or you wait for Vegas 8c (as said somewhere in the launch papers).

3) you can encode to 1920x1080 in 50i, 60i, 23.796p or 24p the Mainconcept mpeg2 encoder, using Blu Ray or modified Blu Ray templates. This footage will not be recompressed in the DVDA5 even now. At the moment, the mpeg2 encoder is the only way to bring 1920x1080 footage in the DVDA5. Here you can go up also with the data rate.

That is what is possible at the moment.

Thing is, if I use the Mainconcept encoder and DVDA 5 doesn't accept it, then it's totally useless.

Also, with the Sony AVC encoder, if you use 1920x1080, it does encode but DVDA doesn't accept it, whether it's an elementary AVC stream (it says the file is not recognized) or a MP4 without audio (it wants to recompress it). As for 1440x1080, it won't let me encode anything over 15 mbps, I tried both 16 and 20, and it gives me the error: "No compatible video codec was found"

I could encode to MPEG-2, but since I'm burnng to DVD media, the high bitrate required for MPEG2 makes it less than practical, since it would take at least 25 mbps to achieve the same results of AVC at 15 or so, and DVDs choke at 25 mbps, at least in my Blu-Ray player. Not to mention that the higher the bitrate, the less material you can fit on a DVD in BD format.

"tsMuxeR will strip out your media files from the BD layout if that might help avoid re-encoding."

I tried that, and when I import the avc stream, DVDA still wants to recompress it, even though it created the stream.

"As for 1440x1080, it won't let me encode anything over 15 mbps"

But that is high enough, and would be compareable with 25-30 mbps with mpeg2-HD (you do not have more with HDV-camcorders, only camcorders like the EX1 has a higher datarate). Hopefully Vegas 8c will improve that.


"I could encode to MPEG-2, but since I'm burnng to DVD media, the high bitrate required for MPEG2 makes it less than practical"

What you can do, is to reduce the data rate down to 18 mbps maybe, if your BD-Player is able to read such a 002-BDMV-DVD based on mpeg2-HD (not every BD-Player accepts that). Would bring you something up to 30 minutes with a 4.3 GB DVD. Theoretically you could use DL-DVD, but that does not work with HD for DVDA5 too at the moment.

"What you can do, is to reduce the data rate down to 18 mbps maybe, if your BD-Player is able to read such a 002-BDMV-DVD based on mpeg2-HD (not every BD-Player accepts that). Would bring you something up to 30 minutes with a 4.3 GB DVD. Theoretically you could use DL-DVD, but that does not work with HD for DVDA5 too at the moment."

18 mbps, for MPEG2, is rather mediocre quality. It's about the best you can get from network TV, but you still see pixelation in fast moving scenes.

You're saying that DVDA 5 cannot produce DL DVDs in BD format? Even though the option shows in the project and the manual?

I notice a difference between 25 mpeg Mainconcept and 15 AVCHD when I render footage from my HV20. The 25 mpeg from mainconcept looks much better than the 15 AVCHD. Others on here have reported similar findings.

"I notice a difference between 25 mpeg Mainconcept and 15 AVCHD when I render footage from my HV20. The 25 mpeg from mainconcept looks much better than the 15 AVCHD. Others on here have reported similar findings.

I had an HV20 for a little while and I agree. The source footage in MPEG2at 25 mbps got degraded when converted to 15 Mbps AVCHD. I don't know what would happen if you recompress the footage using 25 Mbps MPEG2 though.