Sony Vegas question(s) - rendering etc...
 

A question for the video guys.

All these questions are aimed at ending up at the highest possible quality - everything has been shot with a Sony HDR-FX7

What file type is it best to render in?
What frame rate, pixel aspect ratio, frame size?
What final frame size to create in dvd architect?

Any help would be much appreciated.

what are you trying to do? ending up with the highest quality doesn't say much.

That's like saying I want the best car.. what do I buy? The arguments on which is the best are endless.

Are you creating a DVD? Or just using Architect in addition to building web content?

Knowing your final ouput will help people answer your questions.

Apologies.

We're looking to create a DVD.

DVD.. or bluray?

Dvd 5678

This isn't exclusively a Vegas question per se. The Sony FX-7 shoots HDV, which is mpeg-2. So you can edit mpeg-2 natively in Sony Vegas I believe. The footage will be 1440 x 1080i, with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.33. You will need to de-interlace the footage somewhere along the line. I do it upon capture in Premiere Pro. I edit, add effects, and then always output a full size MPEG-2 or AVI file, from my timeline. You will need to crop the edges to convert the original HDV 16x9 footage to 4x3 if you are making a standard DVD. (not Blue Ray) Then bring that edited 4x3 movie into the DVD authoring app and let that app transcode into the final format and then create the menus & navigation etc. That's one workflow, but there are a number of ways one could get this job done that lead to more or less the same result.

damn you guys know your shit

:thumbsup

Thank you very much Jim - shall give this a go and see how the results are

just out of curiosity, are you planning on mass producing the DVD? Or just making one or two copies?

Just a thought.

That camera shoots SD also. Infact it has 4:3 chips and stretches each pixel a little to get the 16:9

Maybe just shoot in SD if you will never want or need the HD footage.

Will save you a bunch of time.

Planning on mass producing it (it's mainstream not adult).

I always thought shooting in HD was for dvd?

1. h.264/AVC will give you the best quality, this is the same codec HD movies you buy are in.
2. this depends on your output device, if its for web it can be any framerate you want, but 29.97 or 15 is pretty standard. Monitor pixel aspect ration is square aka 1, TV and other devices are different.
3. Again depends what you want this this be viewed on.