Project and Render settings for Blu Ray burn

[John Rofrano]

[Dan Akins] “my internet searches seem to say, for Blu Ray, I need to render the audio and video separately. Is this true?”

Yes, and this is also true for DVD’s as well.

[Dan Akins] “My initial attempts at this have either produced excessively large file sizes (far beyond the 25GB the BD-R holds), great video but no sound, or choppy audio with ok video.”

Render your video using MainConcept MPEG2 and the Blu-ray 1920×1080-60i, 25 Mbps video stream template.

Render your audio as Dolby Digital AC-3 Pro using the Stereo DVD template. If you give them the same name just with different extensions, then DVD Architect will know that the files go together. Then just author your Blu-ray in DVD Architect.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Dan Akins]

Thank you John!
Regarding the project settings, based on your response I assume I’m to use: HD 1080-60i (1920×1080, 29.970 fps)

Do I simply leave the defaults for such things as the Pixel Format, Deinterlace Method and Full-Resolution Render Quality as is? I seem to notice folks uprating these 3 the most on video tutorials.

The Defaults are as follows:
VIDEO
Template: HD 1080-60i (1920×1080, 29.970 fps)
Width: 1.920
Height: 1.080
Field order: Upper field first
Pixel aspect ratio: 1,0000 (Square)
Output rotation: 0º (original)
Frame rate: 29.970 (NTSC)
Pixel format: 8-bit
Full-resolution rendering quality: Good
Motion blur type: Gaussian
Dinterlace method: None

AUDIO
Master bus mode: Stereo
Number of stereo busses: 0
Sample rate (Hz): 44,100
Bit depth: 16
Resample and stretch quality: Good
Enable low-pass filter on LFE (surround projects only): is OK
Cutoff frequency for low-pass filter (Hz): 120 (Dolby pro/film)
Low-pass filter quality: Best

Thank you!
Dan

[Matt Paul]

My initial attempts at this have either produced excessively large file sizes (far beyond the 25GB the BD-R holds), great video but no sound, or choppy audio with ok video.

Depending on the length of the video it may well be in excess of 25GB. I created a ~ 2.5 hour wedding video and it was ~ 32GB from memory. You may need to use DL Blu-ray discs which can hold up to 50GB.

[John Rofrano]

[Dan Akins] “Do I simply leave the defaults for such things as the Pixel Format, Deinterlace Method and Full-Resolution Render Quality as is? I seem to notice folks uprating these 3 the most on video tutorials.”

Here is what you should change:

VIDEO
Dinterlace method: None <– Should be Blend Fields

AUDIO
Sample rate (Hz): 44,100 <– Should be 48,000

Other than that your settings look good.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Dan Akins]

Thanks again John.

Regarding your comment that DVD require the video and audio files rendered separately as well, I fear I’ve been using the wrong approach in Sony Vegas for DVD burns. Although I’ve been successful in editing, rendering, and burning the DVDs with the same Canon HD20 video, I’m wondering if this might explain what I thought was simply the best quality I could get for 720×480 rez.

For DVDs, can you tell me if I’m wrong using the following project and render settings?

Project Settings:
VIDEO
Template: NTSC DV (720×480, 29.970 fps)
Width: 720
Height: 480
Field order: Lower field first
Pixel aspect ratio: 0.9091 (NTSC DV)
Output rotation: 0º (original)
Frame rate: 29.970 (NTSC)
Pixel format: 8-bit
Full-resolution rendering quality: Good
Motion blur type: Gaussian
Dinterlace method: None

AUDIO
Master bus mode: Stereo
Number of stereo busses: 0
Sample rate (Hz): 44,100
Bit depth: 16
Resample and stretch quality: Good
Enable low-pass filter on LFE (surround projects only): is OK
Cutoff frequency for low-pass f

Rendering:
I’ve typically bounced between MPEG2, WMV, and AVI (Probably went with the largest file size I could squeeze onto the 4.7GB DVD+R at the time. However, regardless of the type I’ve selected, I’ve never had to render a separate audio file. Audio was always present when I pulled the file in to DVD Architect.

I’m truly a “green-horn” but am enjoying the learning process so thank you for your patience!

[John Rofrano]

The only thing you can put on a DVD is MPEG2. If you render WMV or AVI, DVD Architect will quietly re-encode your video as MPEG2. Every re-encode looses some quality so you will get the highest quality by rendering in the correct DVD Architect MPEG2 format to begin with.

The same is true for audio. Whatever you give DVD Architect, it will re-encode it as AC3. You will get the highest quality by giving DVD Architect an AC3 file directly from Vegas to begin with.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Dan Akins]

That’s great info John, Thank you! That gets me straight on the render process for DVDs.

Can you touch on my question regarding the appropriate DVD project settings (featuring my prior use of the NTSC DV (720×480, 29.970 fps example settings)?

[John Rofrano]

[Dan Akins] “Can you touch on my question regarding the appropriate DVD project settings (featuring my prior use of the NTSC DV (720×480, 29.970 fps example settings)?”

For DVD I like to edit my HD projects in HD even though I might be making a DVD. This way I can go back and make a Blu-ray later if needed so keep your project setting the same.

For rendering to DVD you want to always output the full 16:9 so when creating a DVD I use the MainConcept MPEG2 template: DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream. Then I use the same Digital Dolby AC3 Pro template with 48K audio (which is the default). You can reuse the one you rendered for Blu-ray.

Hope that helps,

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Dan Akins]

Fantastic John! Can’t tell you enough, how helpful you’ve been.

I look forward to giving things a go this week.

I’ve tried pulling in the Dolby Digital AC-3 Pro, as you suggested but I got an error message saying the plug-in was unavailable and that installation/registration of DVDA would free it up for use. (Very odd considering I’ve been using Vegas 9.0 and DVDA for over a year now and already registered both)……any thoughts?

Dan

[John Rofrano]

[Dan Akins] “(Very odd considering I’ve been using Vegas 9.0 and DVDA for over a year now and already registered both)……any thoughts?”

That is strange. You may have installed some software that registered another AC3 encoder. Try re-installing DVD Architect Pro because DVD Architect contains the Pro AC3 encoder.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com