Quality is key...authoring to bluray and dvd.

[garjobo3]

I know..yawn..just another newbie..sorry but would appreciate it if you could answer me these questions three..

Just purchased SonyVegas11Plat edition - have a Panny AVCHD camcorder.

I have shot some footage at max. quality - 1080/50frames..and also at the less quality HG1920 ( as 1080/50 just takes up so much SD memory ).

So - question, can i mix n match my footage in sonyvegas? and also quality...im obsessed with the finished product..How can i guarentee the best quality output? settings?

Finally, i want to output to bog-standard DVD ( my gran/parents not owning bluray etc )...but ALSO i want to make a bluray too...basically what im asking is once i render the project...does it make a difference the amount of times i copy it..will i lose quality? Will i have to render it twice..once for dvd and again once for bluray.

If i just make dvd copies..how many can i make ...quality always the same? Finally, finally...length of my dvd...1hr? 45min?...shorter the better?

Really appreciate any replies...thanking you for your time.

[Midnight Blue]

Yes, you can mix the footage on the time line.

The best way to keep the quality is to match the size, bitrate etc with the original footage. The templates are usually good enough but you might want to change an interlaced video to a progressive base video which should be fine to do without loosing quality.

You can render from the time line as often as your computer can take, it does not damage the original footage, which is what is being used every time you do a new render. BUT if you alter a video from a blueray format to a DVD format you will then lose quality. You can copy exactly the same footage without altering it as much as you want without quality loss.

1:45 is pushing it a bit to keep the bitrate up and fit it on a 4.7Gb disk.

Did I miss anything.

[garjobo3]

Midnight Blue, thank you.

Thanks for kindly replying. Nope i think you answered all the questions I have at the moment. However, Im certain when i actually start using the application I will have a ton more. I have been using Videostudio 9,10+ - up until i got my new AVCHD camcorder...so im used to pushing VS - Sony Vegas will be all new..but from looks of things - same features just about but a little more accessible perhaps..and certainly from what i hear a lot more stable program than VS was.

Thanks again Midnight. Appreicate time taken to reply. SO - IF i want to make..say..10 DVD copies and a couple of blueray copies....to keep best possible quality i can expect....I finish my project, render to Bluray..make a few copies. Then go back into orignal project and Render DVD - then head to Architect and make..10 copies etc.....simple..time consuming...as that.

Fab. ( please correct me if im wrong. )

[Midnight Blue]

That should be right but when you put it into DVDA make sure that it doesn't re-render the footage. It will give you warning notices if a bit rate is to high or what ever. I think it's best to have a separate audio and video stream to put into DVDA so if the bit rate on the audio is to high it won't re-render the video just the audio which will help with the quality. This means rendering out separate audio and video streams in Vegas streams. I'm not sure of the rendering procedure in your version of Vegas so I can't tell you how to do it. In the Pro version it's just a case of un-ticking a box, to include or not included the audio, video etc....

Do this for the blu-ray version and then do it again for the DVD version then use DVDA to make all the copies you need.

This sounds more complicated than it actually is.

[garjobo3]

Thanks once more Midnight -although Yes it does sound..complicated...and to be honest - having been there, done that all before with Videostudio...rendering etc etc...it worries me greatly. Im using a HD AVCHD 1080/50 camcorder..and yet the quality i often get when viewed back is...well...not great..Ok..so..using it in sunlight, at max setting, burning to Bluray...viewing it on decent telly etc etc all will help...and as mentioned, im usually burning to dvd, using less than 1080/50....but still this isnt a step up from my S-VHD-C days..and certainly minidv is equally as good.

Would like to hear from someone who uses Vegas plat. though - all this separate audio stuff....I will go and experiment I suppose...I mean last night my efforts were rewarded with - when played back on telly - a small screen ( horizontal bars at the sides! ) soundless dvd! i HAVE A LOT TO LEARN ME THINKS.

[SergeMonrois]

There are a lot of multimedia video-related software. The leaders are Xilisoft, Cucusoft. Their software allow you to convert any video (with any settings including frame rate). And also burn video to DVD or Blu-Ray.