When rendering to mpg2 in Vegas I used the Default Template.

The Optimize DVD window shows green check marks in the video column next to 20 of 27 files - 7 files have have an ! mark. All the ! marked files have a bitrate above 8.0.
In the audio column 4 files have green checks and 23 have ! marks. All the green checked files have an audio bitrate below 0.192 and the numbers are in red (whatever that means).

Would using a DVD Arch template when rendering in Vegas for DVDA give me more good greenies and fewer bad !! ?

Just a little bit of advice... never, ever use the MPEG2 Default template in Vegas to render. At least for V5 it had a ridiculously low quality setting and resulted in very fast renders but very low quality results (I think it is the same in V6).

If you are rendering to MPEG2 using Vegas use one of the "proper" DVDA templates and adjust the bit-rate to suit if necessary.

Iv'e never noticed DVDA want to re-render video because of bit-rate issues... usually it just works with what you give it.. unless you have "fit-to-disk" enabled.

The audio is a different matter. If your project is set to .AC3 audio then it will of course re-render any audio not in .AC3 to .AC3.

If you render using the "Default" MPEG2 template then I believe audio is included in the .mpg file in .PCM format. - so that may explain the audio re-encode thing.

Thanks for the info! (I've put a piece of duct tape over the Default Template option).
It does appear that the Default mpg2 template iincludes an audio file that will indeed have to be rerendered in DVDA.
It is a good day when I learn something. Thanks again.

In the default DVDA Templates - the correct one is "DVD Architect NTSC video stream/widescreen video stream" for the NTSC world - the audio part is deactivated. So, what you have to do is either to activate the audio stream - or you render the audio part to ac3 stereo with the ac3 encoder.

You give the AC3 stream and the video stream the same name, beside the extention, and place the files in the same directory. Then the DVDA will import both parts, when you import the video part in the DVDA. No new rendering will take place, beside things like the menues.

Thanks. I had been rendering the audio in AC3 with the same file name, but shooting myself in the foot (ouch) by not using the correct template. Onward.

I don't get it. DVD-A3 uses the same codec as V6. What's the difference?

JJK

I'm thinking, and please correct me if this is wrong, that when rendering video files to mpg2 using the 'Default" template, Vegas also renders an audio file (pcm?). So even though I rendered the audio separately as AC3, DVDA is triggered to recompress that audio file that was rendered with the mpg2.

On the other hand, when rendering video to mpg2 using the template "DVDA NTSC video stream", Vegas does not automatically render an audio file. And, yes, the AC3 files do not have to be recompressed (rendered) in DVDA.

Correct?

Correct.

So far correct, as Scott said.

The only additional comment: if you render from the timeline in Vegas to AC3 stereo, then the DVDA must be set to AC3 stereo too. If the DVDA is set to PCM, well, then the DVDA will re-render the audio part.

Under "optimize" you can always check if the DVDA will render something again - that is good practice to do that before you start the authoring process.

But generally spoken: as long as you stick to the DVDA templates, and as long as you render AC3 stereo from the timeline of Vegas, everything should be fine.

I read earlier never to use the defualt MPEG2 template for render..

Where can I find this - I cnanot seem to see it in VEGAS?

Bit