[Louis Zano]

Just an update Stephen:

The video file described above (I haven’t heard back so I hope the settings are right on it) has fully rendered. I am now rendering the AC-3 audio. However there were two different AC-3 options. One of them wouldn’t work unless I installed DVD Architect…the other (I think it said “AC-3 studio”) does work and that’s what is rendering as I write this. Am I doing everything right so far? Thank you!

[Louis Zano]

Try going to:

MY COMPUTER
USERS
OWNER
APP DATA
LOCAL
SONY
VEGAS PRO
9.0 (or your version number)
and open a few of the “resotred’ projects and see if the one you are after was autosaved at some point. This worked for me in a similar situation.

[Louis Zano]

Thanks Stephen…so here’s the scoop.
I just started a render with these exact settings…

Used DVD ARCHITECT NTSC template

Set bit rate for

High 6,100,000
Avg 3,500,000
Low 2, 100,000

No audio

Checked “Use 2-pass”

Rendering as Main Concept MPEG-2.

Am I doing okay so far? LOL!

[Louis Zano]

Hi Stephen,
I don’t have Architect, just Vegas. TNPGENC is quite good, I just don’t know the ins and outs of it in too much depth. So a lot of my problems aren’t the program, it’s user error, especially after reading all this great advice here.
Anyway,since my last post I opened my master project. I set the render template as instructed by Mike above…

Your bitrate is far too high for a 2.5 hr. video.
I used Mark’s Bitrate Calculator and got the following numbers:

Low: 2,104,000
Avg: 3,512,000
High: 6,152,000

This assumes AC-3 for your audio at the default of 192.

For this long of a program a 2-pass render is, IMO, a necessity.

Use the DVD Architect NTSC video stream template (24P and widescreen are options as well) and customize it.

Now I notice there is an option in the audio tab to “include audio” which I assume is meant to be unchecked since you mentioned I have to render just the audio separately right?

So I used the DVD ARCHITECT NTSC VIDEO STREAM TEMPLATE. I set my bitrate exactly as Mike said. Anything else I should do before I hit the render button? Also I assume after the video is rendered that I have to then render an audio file AC-3? I assume that’s straight forward then? Just pick that output during the rendering?

[Louis Zano]

Hi There Stephen,
Thanks again for your replies and your time. Yes you are 100% correct. As soon as I import the MPEG-2 the authoring program makes me change the audio to Dolby Digital before it will accept it. As shamed as I am to say this…the reason I don’t do it any other way is because I don’t know how. I know, I am shamed but I don’t know how to do it that way sadly. I am still learning many new things in Vegas, thanks to this great site and reading through some of the threads.

[Louis Zano]

*Postscript:
I should add that I only use Verbatim blank media. I realize there’s probably cheaper DL DVD’S but I am devoted to Verbatim for my projects.

[Louis Zano]

Well that certainly makes sense however since this is a 2 1/2 hour project in Vegas…is there really anyway to make it “truly” DVD compliant since the DVD authoring program needs to compress it down to fit? I must’ve rendered from Vegas at least 10-15 times all different ways to try and prevent the DVD authoring program from doing it again…but I think the length is killing me. Sadly DL DVD’s aren’t an option because this film needs to be duplicated and distributed to people and the blank DL DVD’s are too expensive. I also have cut the film down as lean as I possible can…in fact it was almost 3 hours long initially and I chopped a half hour out of it.

[Louis Zano]

I think you’re right Stephen. Also, the DVD authoring program is taking Vegas MPEG-2 and compressing it further to fit on a standard DVD…considering all that…it still looks pretty good. It’s just hard to see the beautiful raw footage and then see it compressed but alas, that’s all you can expect after editing it and compressing it twice. It was rendered once from Vegas to MPEG-2 and then imported to TAW where it is compressed further automatically by the DVD authoring program. I’ve adjusted to the lower bit rate settings in TAW for a render try I am doing now just to see if lowering the bitrate cuts down a bit on the already Vegas compressed compression in TAW. If this one looks worse…or the same…I think I need to stop being such a perfectionist. It really doesn’t look that bad on my big screen considering it’s SD on a widescreen TV on top of it all. Thinking of it that way, I’m actually surprised it looks as good as it does.

[Louis Zano]

So are you guys basically saying that instead of rendering the project I can just burn a DVD straight from the Vegas edited timeline? I don’t understand what you mean by Main Concept, isn’t that just a template to render with? I render the finished timeline into MPEG-2 using the DVD template in Vegas. Then I import that MPEG-2 into TMPGENC Authoring Works, make chapters, menus, and render. Then I wait. However I didn’t know that TAW is actually “re-encoding” the video again, it actually says “writing track 1” (which is the aforementioned MPEG-2) then when that is done a few hours later it starts burning the DVD.
I guess what confuses me is why there are settings for bitrate and such in TAW when that was already done during the Vegas render. Maybe TAW is re-encoding so that’s why I was curious about Main Concept you guys keep talking about. It sounds like you can burn a DVD straight off the timeline in Vegas unless I am totally misunderstanding this. Obviously I would prefer to render a DVD straight from the Vegas timeline only if it was possible to somehow use the menu design I have created in TAW.

[Louis Zano]

Hi Stephen,
I am trying the lower bitrate settings now. The only reason I haven’t set them that low is because I am assuming that will make the final DVD’s quality much poorer than it is now. Even though I have higher bitrate settings, the picture on the DVD looks pretty good and the 2 1/2 hours fits on the DVD. I even tested the DVD in different players because I understand if the bitrate is too high, some players struggle to play the DVD. The DVD workes fine in different players. As it is now, I have a final DVD I am relatively happy with. I do still see one scene that appears nice and clear and then another that gets a tiny bit grainy which is strange as they are scenes shot with the same camera and in the same format. There also isn’t especially more motion in one or the other. It just seems like the film shifts from clear to a tiny a bit grainy at random times.
Again this is 1-pass encoding though. Perhaps the 2-pass will improve it further. I’m starting to think I am being too perfectionistic. After all I am taking 4:3 SD footage and playing it on a widescreen TV. However even when I set the TV display to 4:3 I still see the slight graininess every now and again.
So so you think if I lower the bitrate to those suggested above and do 2-pass I may fix these minor issues or am I just being picky?