Re-Compressing

[Edward Troxel]

No, it is not normal. It can be caused for a few reasons:

1. The MPEG2 file is too big so it must be recompressed at a lower bitrate to fit.

2. The MPEG2 file is not DVD compliant so it must be made compliant.

3. The MPEG is not actually going to be recompressed but the audio *IS*. (i.e. you included audio in the MPEG2 file and it’s going to be recompressed into AC3).

You didn’t give your normal procedure so I’m not sure where you fall in the above possibilities.

Edward Troxel

[Hoodlum]

#1 The MPEG2 file is 3.8MB so no problem there
#2 Not sure what you mean by ‘DVD Compliant’. Shouldn’t rendering out of Vegas to, MPEG2 (PAL Widescreen DVD Architect Stream template),already be compliant?.
#3 I think this may be the issue. I didn’t render a second audio file to AC3 as the audio came with the render into Architect. What confuses is me is that advice from here, and other places, suggest rendering once for video and again, with exactly same file name, to AC3 and Architect will automatically find the AC3 file. Will the original audio then be replaced by the AC3 audio in Architect?.

[Terje A. bergesen]

I am a little curious about your answer to the last one. You say that the audio was included in the render, and that you used the DVD Architect template. These are two contradictory statements, the DVD Architect template doesn’t render with audio, so you must have changed at least some things after choosing the template.

Also, are you sure the video file is 3.8M? That is a very short video.

[Edward Troxel]

Using any of the DVD Architect presets will give you a DVD Compliant file so that will eliminate #2.

The DVD Architect presets DO NOT include audio so you must have turned that back on. Realistically, it’s better to render the audio separately as you’ve now compressed the audio to MPEG, uncompressed the audio, and will then recompress the audio to AC3.

If you render the MPEG2 and AC3 files to the exact same file names (except the extension, of course) and in the same folder then DVD Architect will automatically pick up both files.

Edward Troxel

[Hoodlum]

Yes indeed gentlemen. I had inadvertently checked the ‘include audio’in the audio tab and yes terje…typo there should have been 3.8GB. I wish I could get a 50 minute documentary down to 3.8MB!!. Many Thanks.

[Dv Memories video]

So, in this respect, what is wrong with rendering the entire file to an AVI (overnight, not having to worry about waiting for MP2 to finish, then having to go back and render the audio. Why do twice the work, besides hard drive space savings, of course?

I always render to AVI, then pull it into DVDA, and let it do everything at once. Then i already have an AVI that is already rendered which I can easily print to tape for a master. It will also create other file types faster/easier such as WMV or MOV for web or whatever.

Eric Blissmer, Owner/Producer
DV Memories Video, Inc.
Your Local Videographer
http://www.dvmemories.us
Business Promotional Video, Weddings, Events, Editing, Transfers, Duplication and more!

[Hoodlum]

I may be wrong but I was led to believe that Vegas makes a better job of rendering than Architect.

[John Frey]

I agree, Eric. We always have the client’s project in several stages in their folder on our hard drives. Several versions of the veg file, a rendered avi, a DVDA prepared folder and project and a print-to-tape for backup. Letting DVDA do it’s thing is a simpler method and hard drive space is cheap. If changes need to be made, we go through the process again and DVD picks up the changes preparing the new folder and only deals with the changes. We recently upgraded our workstations to Intel Core 2 Duo procs, etc. Things render much, much faster now!

John D. Frey
25 Year owner/operator of two California-based production studios.

Digital West Video Productions of San Luis Obispo and Inland Images of Lake Elsinore