Why Render?

MartinKoss wrote on 8/1/2005, 2:31 PM
Please excuse me for being a virtual rookie with DVDA.

I just finished creating 15 seperate MPG files from Vegas Studio. The total space these 15 segments take up on my HD is 4.1Gb but if I drag them all into DVDA it comes out at 5.7Gb and therefore I go into Optimize and set the bitrate to 4.6 so it can compress and get all 15 parts on one DVD.

So now its going to take about 5 hours to re-compress when it was already perfect size for a DVD in the first place? And 5 hours... it that a joke?

In the manual it clearly says if the files created by Vegas are of the preferred type then DVDA should not need to re-render or compress...

So... I'm confused then. Using MPGs surely I should be able to get 2 hours onto a DVD but DVDA wants to keep it to about an hour unless I let it take 5 hours to compress the files to the same quality they were to start with?

Am I missing something?

Cheers for any advice.

Martin

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/1/2005, 3:22 PM
you use DVDA 3 or the version that comes with Vegas Studio, NOT Vegas 6

What are the render setting for your mpeg that gets re-rendered?
bStro wrote on 8/1/2005, 3:34 PM
The total space these 15 segments take up on my HD is 4.1Gb but if I drag them all into DVDA it comes out at 5.7Gb

Two possible reasons:

1. DVDA is lying. It's notoriously bad at estimating the final project size, and it always overestimates. If your content was around 4GB before you brought it into DVDA, chances are it still was afterwards.

2. At least part of the difference may or may not be because of the audio, depending on what format you rendered it to in Vegas Movie Studio. If you rendered it to MPEG audio, then DVDA is going to take that audio and make it PCM, which takes up much more space than MPEG audio. DVDA will not produce a DVD using MPEG audio because that is not kosher with the DVD specifications (in the states). If your audio was already rendered to PCM (WAV), then you can disregard.

Most likely #1 is your answer. Forget the Optimize step; if you have a rewriteable DVD, then go ahead and prepare / burn the project -- it will probably fit just fine. If you don't have a rewriteable disc (get some, you'll need them), then just prepare but not burn the project and check your prepared DVD files to see if they're under 4.7GB. If so, go ahead and burn them to a disc.

Rob
ScottW wrote on 8/1/2005, 4:14 PM
Just to add a little to what Rob shared. Just do the prepare step, then go into the prepare folder and add up the total sizes of all the files that you find. As long as these files altogether don't exceed 4.37GB you'll be fine for getting everything on a DVD.

Btw; while many DVD's claim you can put 120 minutes of video on them, the truth is that in order to do this you must lower the bit rate down below what many people feel is acceptable from a quality perspective. Offhand I don't remember what the settings for VMS are, and I don't think you can control them anyway, so with PCM audio I wouldn't plan on putting much more than 1 hour 15 minutes of video w/audio on a DVD.

-_Scott
MartinKoss wrote on 8/1/2005, 11:44 PM
Hi, I should have said what version I'm using. It is the DVDA that came with Vegas Movie Studio 4.0 - I think it is the cut-down version of 2.0

I bought it when 4.0 came out and as I only use it a few times a year, I don't see the point spending a few hundred dollars getting Vegas 6 and the latest DVDA - I think I can get what I need from the version I've got.

Martin
MartinKoss wrote on 8/1/2005, 11:46 PM
Thanks for that good explanation Rob.
I think, to be safe, I'll do as Scott said and stick to about the hour mark for a DVD.

Thanks for all replies.