sorry if this belongs in the digital video->software forum. I can see it in the list, but when I create the post it isn't an option the dropdown...
I'm using sony vegas 9 32 bit on 64-bit win 7. I'm still a newb with it though so I'm not sure if i'm doing something wrong here.
Basically what I want to do is convert a dvavi to mpeg-2 for dvd. When I use the default settings for dvd ntsc I get a file that's about 1/4 the size of the original and while it's still ok quality, it's not as good as I'd like it to be. The max bitrate it will let me use is about 9.8mbps. I'm not sure if this is a valid way to increase quality, but what I tried to do was set the i-frames to max (30) and lower b frames, but setting i-frames to anything higher than default (15) gives me an error. It just says there was a problem rendering my file and there's no description of the error.
I'm running on a laptop, quad-core i7 8gb ram. vegas is only 32 bit so I know it can only address 4gb but I assume the fact that the OS is 64 bit means that my resources shouldn't be cutting into what vegas can use TOO badly even if it does a little right?.. The file I'm converting is not that large (a few min about 800mb source file) and I have more than enough free space on both the source and destination drive (same drive). Any help to understand this problem would be appreciated.
On a side note, what I'd REALLY like to be able to do is adjust the encode settings and have it show me beforehand what the resulting file size would be, so I don't have to keep rendering, checking what it looks like, and then doing it again to experiment. I know it may be noobish, but I like something like on DVD shrink (or at least old versions..it's been a while) where it just has a slider to set compression from 0-100% and wherever you slide it, it shows you how much space the output file will take. I know vegas lets you do a lot more so it wouldn't be that simplified, but the concept is similar. I don't want to just take a bunch of video and make it fit on dvd, I want to see what level of quality is acceptable and if it fits fine, if not I'm willing to put it on multiple DVDs.
