Should I AVI to MPG to MPG or...

[meshuken]

I am putting together a video that is a compilation of five different projects all created in VS10 at different times.

Initially, after completing each project I exported it to MPEG format. My plan was to then "re-import" each clip into a master VS10 file, one after the other, and export to a single MPEG file. Is this the best way to do this without losing quality?

The original format is from a Sony GL2 DV cam, imported at whatever the factory settings are on VS10+ (720x480 variable bit rate MPEGs).

Is there another format I should be exporting each individual project to before bringing them back in to combine them? What's best for quality? The final product will be projected on a screen from an LCD projector.

Also, what should my sound settings be? I have been setting the sound to MPEG sound with a 384 rate.

Thanks,

ME
VS10+

[heinz-oz]

You have me confused. I have never heard of a Sony GL2 but a Canon GL2. Which one is it?

The Canon GL2 is a miniDV camera and you should be capturing in DV-AVI format and stay that way until the very final render for quality reasons. If you really need/want to work with mpeg files, keep the bitrates as high as you can until your final render.

[meshuken]

Whoops, Heinz, you're right it's a Canon GL2, I guess for $2k I should know who makes it! Sure makes nice videos...

Yes, the clips that VS10 captures are AVI clips, but I was assuming they were some sort of "MPEG" because as has been mentioned on this board AVI is not a format but a container to hold the format. But then I see you can export as an NTSC AVI.

So, anyway, for this project I'll export to an NTSC AVI, re-import as an AVI and then export the final finished project to MPEG.

What should I do about the sound settings when I export?

Thanks again,

ME

[heinz-oz]

I would used dolby AC3 sound. Mpeg sound, AFAIK, is not supported by the NTSC standard and LPCM uses too much space. Again, I would leave everything the way it was "captured" into VS since there is absolutely no conversion happening with DV-AVI, it's 1:1 identical to what's on the tape.

For the final render to mpeg2 for DVD use the Dolby digital sound format AC3 at a bitrate to suit the sound of the video. I usually use a bit rate of 192 kbps but for concerts a higher bitrate may be advantageous.

[jchunter]

I am putting together a video that is a compilation of five different projects all created in VS10 at different times.

Initially, after completing each project I exported it to MPEG format. My plan was to then "re-import" each clip into a master VS10 file, one after the other, and export to a single MPEG file. Is this the best way to do this without losing quality?

Don't re-import your mpeg video files into the EDIT Timeline. Instead, open Video Studio with a new project, empty EDIT timeline, select SHARE / Create Disk / and now select each of your DVD-Compliant mpeg files using the Select Video File button. They will appear in time-sequence in the Burn Timeline display. You can create a top level DVD menu and submenus for each of your inserted video files.

Burning should be quick because no re-encoding is necessary. Quality will be maintained.

[DVDDoug]

Yes, the clips that VS10 captures are AVI clips, but I was assuming they were some sort of "MPEG" because as has been mentioned on this board AVI is not a format but a container to hold the format. But then I see you can export as an NTSC AVI.

The AVI file should contain "DV format".

DV is the same video data that's on the miniDV tape. If you save the DV-AVI file back to tape, the data is preserved. There is no loss of quality because the underlying data is not changed. DV is less-compressed than MPEG. It eats-up 13GB per hour.

It's the same as ripping a CD to a WAV file. The WAV file has a different structure from an audio CD, but the audio data is the same. You can convert between audio CD and WAV format as many times as you wish without any loss of quality, because the actual audio data isn't altered. But once you make an MP3, you have altered the data with "lossy" compression techniques.

NTSC a different issue. NTSC is the north american video broadcast standard. It determines the video frame-rate, etc (29.97 frames per second). The video that comes out of the your DVD player's yellow video connector is NTSC. Europe uses the PAL standard (25 frames per second).