Am I getting the best possible image quality with my settings?

[Don Kimball]

Hi Mike:

1. Okay to answer your first question. In the Sony Vegas timeline the project says one hour. However the finished rendered mpeg file says: 7.44 Gigabytes

2. I first created a New file in DVD Arch using the option for a Menu based project. Then added the files in DVDArch by using the commands: insert : Media – This allowed me to follow a couple of steps to add in my preferred mpeg file and the sound PCM file tagged along without me having to do anything.

Mike if it helps perhaps this is a tip that might help us. A few days ago a similar file that I successfully burned in the bundled Sony Vaio software called Click to DVD easily fit on a 4.7 Gig Sony single DVD. I always burn my DVD’s using Click to DVD rather than DVD arch but I want to get the best quality in the future. I guess there must be some sort of built-in compression with Click to DVD. I just assumed that DVD Arch would do something like that as well.. hmm…

I hope this clearly explains what I did.

[Mike Kujbida]

Don, DVDA will function like Click to DVD only if you give it an AVI file because it will do it’s own calculations to make the file fit ona DVD.
Most of us feel that doing the work from Vegas will give us a better quality DVD.

To get back to your problem, you appear to be doing things right but I do have a question or two.
Did you use the settings I gave you when rendering the MPEG-2 files from Vegas?
If you did, how large were the MPEG-2 and WAV files?
Knowing this answer will tell me if it’s a DVDA problem or not.

[Don Kimball]

Thanks Mike:

Yes to the best of my ability and knowledge I specifically used the specific numbers/calculations throughout the project. Just like in your screenshot I selected the opportunity to re-render for poor quality footage and use those settings. (most of it is fine except a couple not so crisp video clips)Basically Mike I totally aped what I saw in your screenshots for everything.

Here are the descriptions and sizes of the resulting two files:

7,810,758 KB’s Mpeg File and size is 7.44 Gig

Bitrate 1536kbps .wav File and size is 1.51 Gig

These are the 2 that I loaded into DVD Arch

[Mike Kujbida]

Don, I have to admit that you have me truly stumped 🙁
There’s no way a 1 hr. DVD with the encoding (i.e. rendering) numbers I gave you should end up with a file size of almost 8 GB.
If you could post a few screen shots of the various tabs of your render settings, that would help a lot.
You can use IrfanView (it’s free) to do screen captures.
To upload the images to here, click the Image Upload icon (3rd from the right) and follow the directions.

[Don Kimball]

Hi Mike:

I downloaded Infranview and activated the screenshot command but nothing happened at all. Didnt see anything in the FaQ either. hmm..

I did create screen shots in adobe photoshop but not quite sure how to impregnate jpegs into a message like this. Thanks Mike!

Don

[John Anderson]

This somehow reminds me of when I by mistake rendered past the finish of the video.
Could it be you haven’t set the render to only the 1h you want to render?
It would explain the file size.

[Mike Kujbida]

Don, here’s a screenshot of IrfanView that I used to do this capture.

And here’s the first screenshot of how to upload here on the Cow.
Note that the cursor is pointing to the Image Upload icon.
Step #1 is to browse to the folder location, click the image and click Open.

Once that’s done, click Upload Image.
You’ll see the file name in the top right corner (it’s VERY small).
Click on it and you’ll now see it an the left side of the window.
Copy the text in the Embed box into your post and you’re done. Repeat as necessary.

[Don Kimball]

Okay Mike and all the others that have suggested some things I could do to help with the gigantic file. I think things are under control and I will now show what I did using screenies.

First note in the timeline that the file is just below one hour

Super important but in my previous attempt with the gigantic file problem, I neglected to check the “render the loop only” area (whoops! still learning)

I used exact numbers suggested by helpful guy Mike and since my footage had some clips with poor image I used the variable bitrate/two pass option

Here I gave my file/template a name: BestrenderforDVD

I rendered my mpeg file and then went back and selected my .wav file/PCM option and rendered this

The result was a dramatically smaller mpeg file size

and a very tiny by comparison .wav/PCM file!

Okay now all I have to do is head off to DVD Arch and see what happens. The great news is that the mpeg file is nice and small now and only 3.27 Gigs and the accompanying PCM file is only 635 MBs

Now for the challenge of learning how to use DVD Arch properly but thats for another post!

Many thanks Mike et al.

Don

[Mike Kujbida]

Hallelujah!!!
DVD authoring will be a piece of cake in comparison to this 🙂

[Don Kimball]

Okay the award for one of the most helpful people on a forum goes to
Mike Kujbida. Can we say enough good things about screen shots? I hardly think so! Special thanks also to John Anderson for his suggestion as well! DVD Arch performed flawlessly and the end result is very comparable to what I was getting in Sony Vaio’s bundled Click to DVD software. Hopefully with Architect I can use my own intro music rather than Click to DVD’s slightly annoying elevator intro music (grin)
Thanks again Mike!

Don