Questions about Vegas+DVD

[Edward Troxel]

[Carson Hamlin] “1. I need to combine and edit .WMV files into one .WMV and export it as a .WMV file. Can Vegas do this?”

Yes but EVERY frame will be decompressed and recompressed upon rendering.

[Carson Hamlin] “2. I may need to load Vegas on to one computer and the DVD architect onto another PC. Can I do this?”

Yes but you’ll probably want to install DVD A on both machines to enable AC3 on the Vegas computer.

Legally, you can install both on both – you simply can only USE one at a time.

[Carson Hamlin] “Does the DVD software come on a separate disk from the Vegas software and can they work independently?”

Yes they do and yes they can.

Edward Troxel

[Carson Hamlin]

Thanks for the info. What are the issues with “EVERY frame will be decompressed and re-compressed upon rendering.” Is there a quality issue or just rendering time issue? Some of the .WMV files I have to edit are very long. 5 hours!
What do you think?
Thanks,
Carson

[Edward Troxel]

You will potentially have a slight quality loss because of the decompressing/recompressing cycle. However, depending on what you’re doing to the video, that may be required anyway. You’ll also have a lower framerate when previewing because of that format.

Typically, I start with DV-AVI and stick with DV-AVI until the final render at which time I go to MPEG2 or WMV (or whatever the needed destination format is).

Is WMV your only option for the source files? The original source isn’t floating around somewhere?

Edward Troxel

[Carson Hamlin]

The reason I’m stuck with .WMV is because I’m editing pieces for video on demand for our web site. We have an encoder that encodes programming real time and turns it in to .WMV files automatically. I need to sometimes take these files and edit them or combine multiple files into one .WMV file and then upload it to our streaming server. They’re usually long meetings so the files can be as long as 5 hours of content.
I want to use a product like Vegas if it can do this?
Thanks for any ideas.
Carson

[Edward Troxel]

Vegas can handle it.

Edward Troxel

[Kevin Wood]

You could always get another encoder that goes directly to DV format. You’ll probabbly come out way ahead on the time vs. money equation.

For suggestions, look at the ADVC-300 or higher from Canopus.

[Carson Hamlin]

Thanks.
I’ll give it a try.
Carson

[Michael Shive]

It depends on how pleased you are with how the re-rendered .WMV file looks. If it looks OK then just stick with WMV as the source. Going to AVI is ideal but it will introduce other possible issues into your workflow such as file size, the stability of creating 5 hour AVI files, integrating the additional hardware, etc. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

[Carson Hamlin]

Good to know. I think I’m going to be sticking with .WMV format because of other equipment issues.
Thanks for the input.
Carson