Sony DVD Architect - How Much Free Space Do I Need?

owenhbrown · 30-09-2006, 9:14 AM

Hello folks,

I've been playing around with the Sony Vegas and DVD architect trials and have found them to be pretty decent programs that I look forward to using a lot more of.

However I have struck a big problem. I don't seem to have enough free working space on my hard drive to make a DVD.

It seems like a pretty easy job to me, but the 43 Gigabytes isn't enough to satisfy the "Make DVD" wizard with the bitrate I have chosen.

I have a 1.26 GB mpeg which I am making a DVD out of with a simple menu screen at the beginning. I have chosen a bitrate of 8.9 Mbps, PAL 720x576, AC-3 Stereo which should take up about 3 GB of space on the DVD. However the wizard informs me that "There is not enough space in the temporary files folder for preparing the DVD".

Why isn't 43 Gigs enough?

If I bring the bitrate down to 4.6 Mbps it tells me that there "may" not be enough working space and if I go down to 3.7 Mbps it seems like everything will work OK.

Because the DVD file at 3.7 Mbps ends up being 1.3 gigs, the same as the original mpeg, I assume that a high bitrate isn't necessary and that I should stick to the lower bitrate. But I am worried about later use, say I want to compress many gigabytes into a 3 GB DVD, will I have enough workspace to complete this task with a decent bitrate?

As you can see I am a bit confused and would appreciate any feedback regarding what bitrates I should use and how much work space I should aim for.

Thanks for reading!

redsox_mark · 30-09-2006, 1:21 PM

43 GB is more than enough.

Do you have multiple drives? When you do "make DVD", you specify a folder where it will create the DVD. This defaults to your system drive... e.g. if you have only 2 GB on your C: drive, but 50 GB free on your D: drive, if the folder path is on the C: drive you won't have enough space.

You can also change the default prepare folder in Options/Preferences. Here you can also change the default temporary files folder (if this doesn't have space it can also be a problem).

owenhbrown · 30-09-2006, 2:02 PM

I have specified the correct drives...

I went with the lower bitrate but for some reason the sound didn't end up in the finished product.

Dammit.

owenhbrown · 30-09-2006, 2:09 PM

OK my problem now is thus:

The original MP3 plays the sound just fine, but when I insert it into DVD architect something goes wrong.

When I play the preview and when I burn the file to DVD only the first second of sound can be heard and then the rest goes totally silent.

Can anyone suggest why this inconvenience has befallen me?

redsox_mark · 30-09-2006, 2:30 PM

I can't explain what you are seeing, but a few comments:

- How did you create the original MPEG? in Vegas? If you already have a DVD compliant MPEG, you don't need to re-encode in DVDA at all. If you have a file originally encoded at a low rate and then encode it again (at a low rate) it will make the quality worse, even if the file size is the same.

In Vegas, render the video using the DVD architect template, and render the audio to .ac3 separately.

You can check if DVDA thinks the files are compliant by selecting "Optimize DVD".

- If you have file systems for the folders and temp with ample space you should not be getting errors about file size. I can't explain this.

- The mp3 audio: I assume you are using this audio in a menu? Sorry I can't explain this either... if the mp3 is valid this should work, DVDA should be able to preview it and use it when it prepares the DVD. I've done this lots of times.

owenhbrown · 30-09-2006, 10:37 PM

OK, the original mpeg file was made using "Vegas Movie studio". The one that I downloaded here:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/dow...p2.asp?DID=684

When I originally made my project and selected File >> Make Movie >> Burn to DVD it said I needed to have DVDA installed. That's when I installed the DVDA trial found on this page:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/dow...p2.asp?DID=698

However, when I tried to burn the DVD using Vegas Movie studio again it still insisted that DVDA wasn't installed, so instead I turned my project into the 1.3 gig mpeg which I have now and started using the DVDA that I had just installed.

I thought I could simply insert the mpeg into DVDA and burn my DVD, but as you know the sound only worked for the first second of the preview and the DVD which I made, despite working for the duration of the actual mpeg file.

I only noticed this morning that there was a difference between the vegas programs, with the larger version that is listed on the DVDA download page simply being called "Vegas". I am presently downloading that version now and hopefully it will prove to be more fruitful.

The things is: I have deleted the original mpeg files which were ripped from the Handycam DVD, the only source I have now is the 1.3 gig mpeg made using Vegas Movie Studio. The file appears to be fine, it has both sound and video in perfect sync, all I need is a program to burn it to DVD, preferably with a menu, with sound AND video, so I can give it to my friends to watch and everyone can be happy.

Please help me Mark and friends!

owenhbrown · 30-09-2006, 11:47 PM

An additional note:

The Vegas trial wont let me encode to .ac3 I shall give .mp3 a try.

Then I will use my original 1.3 gig mpeg plus the new mp3 file in DVDA and hopefully I'll make a breakthrough.

owenhbrown · 30-09-2006, 11:58 PM

Sorry for all the posts!

Well good news. You know how I said that the sound wouldn't work when I simply used an mpeg file in DVDA?

Well I fixed that problem, I think. I've removed the audio track form the mpeg in DVDA and replaced it with the mp3 file that I encoded and the preview seems to work perfectly, sound and all.

Now I will cross my fingers and hope the conversion to DVD is a success.

What is the difference between vegas and Vegas Movie Studio anyway?

vonhosen · 01-10-2006, 7:46 AM

You won't get .ac3 encoding with trial versions, Sony aren't going to want to pay a licencing fee to Dolby so you can have a trial with it.

For differences between packages
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/pro...=408&PageID=17

redsox_mark · 01-10-2006, 9:43 AM

owenhbrown,

Glad you have made progress. Yes, for DVDA you need to render the video (without any audio) and the audio separately from Vegas. If you use the video templates which say "DVD Architect" they are video only.

vonhosen is right that they don't include .ac3 audio in the trial. In fact the basic "Movie Studio" doesn't support .ac3 at all, but "Movie Studio Platinum" does.

Movie Studio Platinum is the best value for most people. It has 80% or so of the features of the full package for less than 25% of the price. For most home users Movie Studio Platinum is enough... but you can always upgrade to the full version later if you find you need those extra features.

owenhbrown · 01-10-2006, 8:29 PM

Thanks for the link/help.

I see now that DVDA Studio didn't come with the Vegas Movie Studio trial, rendering me unable to make a DVD with Vegas Movie Studio. That's what caused me a bit of a headache in the first place. I have since uninstalled the Movie Studio and am now going swimmingly with Vegas and DVDA, the really expensive one.

Which makes m wonder, if I do purchase the cheaper Studio bundle, the one that this time will contain DVDA Studio, will I still be able to make simple DVDs of my own with menus and graphics and all that?

I hope so, I don't have $500+ just laying about!

redsox_mark · 01-10-2006, 9:42 PM

Vegas Movie Studio (and Movie Studio Platinum) both come with DVD Architect Studio, which is fully capable of creating DVDs with your own menus, graphics, etc.

owenhbrown · 01-10-2006, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

Glad you have made progress. Yes, for DVDA you need to render the video (without any audio) and the audio separately from Vegas. If you use the video templates which say "DVD Architect" they are video only.

Thanks again.

One more question:

You say that Video and Audio should be rendered seperately. If I am to do this, what format should I choose when rendering video? I have been choosing MPEG-2 which also encodes sound, should I simply remove the sound from the project when rendering? I am hoping that doing this will significantly reduce rendering time.

owenhbrown · 01-10-2006, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by owenhbrown

OK my problem now is thus:

The original MP3 plays the sound just fine, but when I insert it into DVD architect something goes wrong.

When I play the preview and when I burn the file to DVD only the first second of sound can be heard and then the rest goes totally silent.

Can anyone suggest why this inconvenience has befallen me?

Sorry for the confusion earlier Mark. What I meant to say in this post was that the MPEG (not MP3) played the sound fine but the sound wouldn't come through when imported into DVDA.

But of course that doesn't matter now!

redsox_mark · 02-10-2006, 7:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by owenhbrown

You say that Video and Audio should be rendered seperately. If I am to do this, what format should I choose when rendering video? I have been choosing MPEG-2 which also encodes sound, should I simply remove the sound from the project when rendering? I am hoping that doing this will significantly reduce rendering time.

It is still MPEG2 you want to use for the video, but without the audio. The best way is to use the templates provided. In Vegas, when you select mpeg2 as the type, there is a drop down of various templates. Never use the one called "default template" (it defaults to a low bit rate). Use the one called "DVD Architect PAL video stream", or "DVD Architect PAL Widescreen video stream" for widescreen. This is configured to render audio only. Then, as a separate step, render the audio (usually to .ac3... for the trial use .wav to save PCM uncompressed). Note if you save the audio as .mp3 then DVDA will need to re-encode it as .ac3 or PCM (those are the only two types it can actually create a DVD with).

Sorry to say however that rendering as video only won't make much difference to the render times. It is the video which is complex to render.. depends on your PC speed and the complexity of your edits, but generally rendering out 1 hour of video to MPEG2 will take several hours... while rendering the audio will take only a few minutes.

owenhbrown · 02-10-2006, 7:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

It is still MPEG2 you want to use for the video, but without the audio. The best way is to use the templates provided. In Vegas, when you select mpeg2 as the type, there is a drop down of various templates. Never use the one called "default template" (it defaults to a low bit rate). Use the one called "DVD Architect PAL video stream", or "DVD Architect PAL Widescreen video stream" for widescreen. This is configured to render Video only. Then, as a separate step, render the audio (usually to .ac3... for the trial use .wav to save PCM uncompressed). Note if you save the audio as .mp3 then DVDA will need to re-encode it as .ac3 or PCM (those are the only two types it can actually create a DVD with).

I just thought I'd correct a mistake made in your post. Not because I am pedantic but because I know that frustrated people often find discussion threads like this popping up in search engines.

Well I'll encode as .wav from now on. Thanks for the pointers.

**senu** · 02-10-2006, 7:43 PM

I hope you are sorted now.

mp3 decoding within Vegas or Architect requires a plug-in which needs to be activated, hence the advice to render audio as wav, . In reality Architect is not that fussy.
However like ac3 encoding , mp3 decoding ( and encoding to PCM, ac3 5.1 dolby ) will not happen in a trial version. This also happens with mpeg import. In the full version you can do pretty much as you like

If like me you use video material ( and audio) from anywhere to create a DVD in Architect you may not always have the option ( or need) to render audio separately whether as *.wav or not.

As Mark has Stated ( and from personal experience as I have both) the Movie Studio+DVD Platinum version is much cheaper and will probably be far more than enough for most as it has a good 70-80% of Vegas functionality ( and a good upgrade path, at least for now)