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FWIW, I and many others on this forum, use VS to create the video file, but use other software to actually burn to disc. I use Nero.

How do you create the video file in VS? Is 'Share / Create Video File / Same as Project Settings' the best option to ensure I do not lose any quality? I've tried to look in the help and manual but I found it all very confusing...
(My footage is AVCHD from a Canon HG10. I tried creating the video file as AVCHD but the other software could not open the file, however it likes the mpg created when using 'Same as Project Settings')
Thanks.

Odile

Not quite.
The project settings might not be correct - you must have preselected those correct project settings in the first place. You alternative is "same as first clip" (Providing of course that if you have a mixture of clips, the FIRST clip is the correct one.)

Then of course there is the duration of the video to be factored in.
Typically a standard definition Video at highest quality will have a bit rate of about 8000 kbps and you can squeeze an hour onto a standard single layer DVD disc. Lower the bit rate and you can squeeze 90 minutes or 2 hours on - same sort of thing as old fashioned standard play, long play and extended long player with a VHS tape recorder.

AVCHD and other forms of High Definition are no different - alter the bit rates to get more on but at the risk of lowering the quality.

Miettemeg -- your mention of AVCHD is new. That is an extremely highly compressed format of mpeg-4 in high defintion. It is great quality but very difficult to edit. Now I am intrigued here, because you can burn AVCHD to a standard definition disc, but choosing Share > Create Disc > AVCHD. This will produce a hybrid disc, and I make them fairly regularly. But they will ONLY play on a Blu-Ray rated player which is also rated to play hybrid discs. Now you say it plays on your son's PS2, but that was NOT rated to play either Blu-Ray or AVCHD/hybrid discs. So I am wondering if you meant the PS3 (which is what I have).

Those sorts of discs will happily play on a PS3 but will most definitely not play on either a software player or an ordinary stand-alone DVD player.

Miettemeg -- your mention of AVCHD is new. That is an extremely highly compressed format of mpeg-4 in high defintion. It is great quality but very difficult to edit. Now I am intrigued here, because you can burn AVCHD to a standard definition disc, but choosing Share > Create Disc > AVCHD. This will produce a hybrid disc, and I make them fairly regularly. But they will ONLY play on a Blu-Ray rated player which is also rated to play hybrid discs. Now you say it plays on your son's PS2, but that was NOT rated to play either Blu-Ray or AVCHD/hybrid discs. So I am wondering if you meant the PS3 (which is what I have).

Those sorts of discs will happily play on a PS3 but will most definitely not play on either a software player or an ordinary stand-alone DVD player.

Ken - Sorry for the confusion... I'll try to explain better. My Canon HG10 is AVCHD and I had problems editing it with my usual video editing software (slow, crashed a lot, etc... I won't give the name on this Corel forum but let's just say the other software version is 12 too). I then decided to try VS Pro X2 and it works so much better, it is much faster and doesn't crash, the only problem came when I tried to burn my project to a standard DVD (we do not have a Blu-Ray player yet and the playstation is a PS2). So I thought I would create a video file in VS Pro X2, save it as a project in my other software and burn a DVD. When I use Share > Create Video File > Same as Project Settings it produces a file I can use in my other software. Then I thought that as my original footage was AVCHD maybe I should save my project as an AVCHD file but I can't open that file in my other software.
I must say that I am quite happy now though as I can create a video file (Share > Create Video File > Same as Project Settings), save it as a project in my other video editing software and then burn a DVD which works!
Out of interest, how do you create your hybrid disks? If you create an AVCHD file first then how do you burn it? or do you just choose Share > Create Disk > AVCHD?
Thanks for all your help and advice.
Odile

Thanks -- I understand better now about your workflow.

As for AVCHD hybrid discs, I use both methods. My own high definition video is HDV (mpeg-2) and not AVCHD. But I can create the hybrid disc by first converting my HDV to AVCHD (Share > Create Video file > AVCHD) and choosing one of the Video Studio pre-set templates for it. And then burn that new file (Share > Create Disc > AVCHD).

Or else, I can do my editing and jump straight to Share > Create Disc > AVCHD. And this has in fact become my preferred workflow since it means I don't have to use the VS pre-set template properties. Instead, I can change the burn properties in the burning module to those I prefer.

You get full high definition quality from such a disc, but because of the high compression, if you use the highest quality settings, you can only fit about 20 minutes of video on a single layer DVD. But that is OK for me since the blank DVDs cost me only about 25 cents, whereas a single Blu-Ray disc would cost me here in Australia a minimum of $25!!

Update: Got the new computer and Verbatim DVD. Created the project from scratch, using same video clips as before. Created disc. And it played all the way through with no problems on my new computer's dvd and on my Sony dvd player.
So my problem was one of two things: bad burner in laptop or bad dvd's.
I'm going to use the Verbatim dvd in laptop with same project that wouldn't burn correctly and see if it will burn on the Verbatim dvd.
Will let you know.
Thanks.
Sharon

Burned the old project to Verbatim dvd using laptop burner and IT WORKED. Boy! Who would have thought that! Seems it was the dvd (media) all the time.
Thanks for all your help and steering me in the right direction. I would have blamed it on software or hardware for sure. I would not have thought that it was the dvd.
Thanks.
Now on to bigger and better projects!!!! And undoubtably more questions.
Sharon