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Rending HD to DVD
I am trying to figure out how to get the highest quality final product from the HD footage I’ve shot. All of my footage comes from my Sony HDR-SR11 camera in mt2s format. Once I have imported it and edited it into a movie, I render it as Main Concept MPG-2 with DVD NTSC Widescreen Video Stream. And then render the audio. My issue is that I really like the video wall option for the main menu screen that Windows DVD Maker offers. When I pull in the video and burn the DVD (which seems so much easier than the DVD Architech) the final product isn’t the highest quality or at least doesn’t look HD. Can anyone offer any thoughts, or can someone give me a download app or something that will allow DVD Architech 4.5 to create a video wall like in Windows DVD Maker?
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10 Replies
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You would have to create the video wall in Vegas using Track Motion and assign that small clip of video as your background in DVD Architect.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
That sounds more complicated than I’d like. If I wanted to just go the route of using the Windows DVD Maker, can you offer steps to keep it in high-def (NOT Blu-Ray though)? What I have done already is created my project in Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9, rendered it to MPG-2 (using the DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen Video Stream template) and WMA audio. I then took the project to Windows DVD Maker and love how it looks with the video wall which cycles screen shots through random block window appearances from the movie – a really cool affect that Sony should have. The issue is that when it’s played on the HD tv, it doesn’t really seem all that crisp. Did some compression or something happen when I went to Windows DVD or have I lost quality somewhere else along the line? Again, shooting HD footage on my Sony HDR-SR11; importing MT2S files. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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I’ve never seen Windows DVD Maker so I can’t comment on how it works or what quality it is capable of producing but once you render to DVD MPEG2 you are dealing with standard definition and it is not going to look like HD because it has 5x less resolution than HD (655×480 instead of 1920×1080).
If you want the footage from your SR11 to look it’s best, you should consider buying a Blu-ray burner and player. They are not that expensive anymore. You could also look into buying a Media Server like the WD TV HD Media Player. Otherwise, you’ll have to be happy with the lower quality of SD DVD’s.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks for the input. is there possibly a better render option that I should be choosing, and …what about preferences? What are the optimum settings for creating the highest quality DVD from this HD footage under my current configuration, without Blu-ray?
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Using the DVD Architect MPEG2 templates in Vegas will give you the highest quality possible.
Obviously Windows DVD Maker is taking this footage and making a special menu out of it which means that it is re-encoding it for the menu. You would get better quality if it was re-encoding a DV Widescreen AVI file but then you might compromise the quality of the entire movie because it would have to re-endode the DV to MPEG2 for the movie too. I’m guessing that DVD Architect would do that better. Personally, I would forget about Windows DVD Maker and just use DVD Architect the way it was intended.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
I can definitely forego the Windows DVD for DVD output. With that in mind, I just want to know what should I set me preferences to from the “file” menu for each new project (see attached screen shot
) and which “render as” setting to in order to get the utmost highest quality video without going Blu-Ray? (also see screen shot 
).
I thought that this Vegas program and DVD Architect was supposed to allow HD DVD’s without Blu-Ray. -
> I thought that this Vegas program and DVD Architect was supposed to allow HD DVD’s without Blu-Ray.
Do you have a Blu-ray player? If not, the only thing you can watch is regular DVD’s, and MPEG2 DVD Architect widescreen video stream is as good as it gets.
I’m not sure what you are trying to make so let’s get a few terms straight:
There is the DVD format and the Blu-ray format. This format determines the layout of video on the media.
Then there are shiny discs known as DVD discs and Blu-ray discs. These are just media devoid of any format.
You can burn HD Blu-ray format to DVD media but it’s no longer a DVD formatted disc that can be watched on a DVD player. It is a Blu-ray format on DVD media and requires a Blu-ray player to watch (even though the physical shiny disc is a DVD).
What exactly do you want to create? (which goes back to my first question… do you have a Blu-ray player?)
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
No Blu-Ray. What I have is high-def ACHDV camera footage from a Sony HDR-Sr11 camera that I was told by Sony would process in high-def through Vegas MSP 9 and be able to be burned in HD on a regular DVD for standard DVD players in DVD Architect 4.5. So basically a standard DVD disc that plays in HD quality on HD Tv’s – but not quite Blu-ray quality. I’m not interested in spending more money buying a blu-ray player, blu-ray burner etc. I’d like to be able to work with the tools and configuration I have (which Sony told me I should be able to do when I was considering the Vegas software) without dumping more money into the whole thing. Most the folks I know and share the videos with do not have Blu-rays so I don’t want to be limited to that.
PS Thanks again for your continued insight in this forum! -
I was told by Sony would process in high-def through Vegas MSP 9 and be able to be burned in HD on a regular DVD for standard DVD players in DVD Architect 4.5.
You may have misunderstood what you were told or you may have been given inaccurate information, but a DVD player is incapable of playing HD. Period… end of story. They only play 720×480 Standard Definition DVD’s.
What you can do is process in high-def through Vegas MSP 9 and be able to be burned in HD on a regular DVD for viewing with a Blu-ray player or Sony PlayStation 3. But a DVD player can only play standard definition DVD’s.
Now if I read what you were told another way, you can take HD and burn it to DVD and watch it on a regular DVD player… it’s just not going to be HD anymore. It’s going to get converted to SD DVD. So what you were told is accurate, you just assumed it would still be HD and it won’t.
So just to recap: You can take the HD footage from you Sony camera and burn it to DVD and watch it on a DVD player. It just won’t be HD at that point. If you want to it be HD then you’ll need a Blu-ray player or PS3 to play it.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
That pretty much clears it up for me. I am disappointed that I can’t get HD with the standard DVD player. It’s all a learning process I suppose. I do very much appreciate your insight and forums like these as a way to get answers that we can’t get from the vendors themselves.
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