Dear Max,
I apologise if I've managed to obfuscate the issue - I strayed onto one of my favourite preoccupations - video bitrates. I hope I can clear things up with this explanation.
You showed your file properties in your third post as follows:
Okay here's the clip properties in text.
File Format: NTSC DVD
Video:
MPEG-2 Video, Upper Field First
24 Bits 720x480. 16:9
29.970fps
Variable Bit Rate(Max 9100kbps)
Audio:
Dolby digital audio 48,000 Hz, 2/0(L/R)
layer:none
Bit Rate 448kbps
to which Trevor responded:
Video Studios bit-rate limit appears to be 8000kbps for the Dvd Mpeg template.
I would edit the video file, adding transitions, titles, audio as required.
Then-----Share Create Video File-----to make a new Dvd-Mpeg2 file.
At this point you have to choose the video properties.
Select –Custom---
‘Save as type’ Mpeg files[*.mpg]
Options
Set the properties in the ‘Capture tab’ and General tab’ to match your video file with the exception of the bit-rate use 8000 kbps
and the audio to Digital Dolby at 256 kbps.
In my post, I pointed out the fact that Video Studio's NTSC-DVD video bitrate can be raised to a maximum of 8264 kbps if the audio track is using LCPM, or 9800 kbps if using compressed audio such as MPEG or Dolby digital.
What Trevor was suggesting was that you should render the whole project to a single MPEG-2 file, using the settings he suggested.
In my post, I speculated that the imported file format probably has a wider range of variable bitrate than Video Studio can CREATE, but it might be that Video Studio can actually successfully SmartRender the footage. I suggested that you could confirm this by test rendering a sample clip.
Trevor himself often posts the easiest way to achieve this - which is to insert the sample clip into a new, blank project. You should make sure you have the
"Show message when inserting first video clip into the timeline" box checked in
"File >> Preferences". Then, when you insert your sample clip, you will be presented with a dialogue box which shows:
"Do you want to change the project properties to match the video's properties so VideoStudio can perform SmartRender?" At this point, you have the option to check the option
"Don't show this message next time. Always change project settings." I prefer not to check that box, but just hit the
"Yes" button instead. That way, you always get the pop-up, and it's a better reminder.
Then use
"Share >> Create Video File >> Same as Project Settings" and output to some suitable filename and location. This should then SmartRender your sample clip. If the preview screen is black whilst the file is being rendered, and it happens at many times less than the clip duration, it's a primary indication that SmartRender has worked. If, on the other hand, you see your sample clip play in the preview window, possibly at or less than real time speed, then it is not being SmartRendered. (I have just tried this procedure with a 13 second sample clip featuring 16:9 9800 kbps variable bitrate and it did SmartRender) If you can get SmartRender to work for you, it can save you a significant amount of time and might result in higher quality output. Any re-encoding of MPEG video inevitably causes some quality loss.
You show the video format to be 16:9, incidentally. Are you sure it was from the camcorder? Only the high-end camcorders do "real" 16:9, the regular consumer ones just crop the image and put black bars above and below it - so you actually lose vertical resolution.
To summarise in less than a thousand words, then, Trevor and I were suggesting two different approaches. If you can SmartRender your imported footage, the method I outline will generate your output MPEG-2 file more quickly, with potentially slightly less of a drop off in video quality.
I hope that this cleared things up and sorry I couldn't make it more concise!
I'll give that a shot. I'm not actually capturing anything with VS9. So I'm guessing that creating this new file will just create another MPEG file and not create Video_TS and Audio_TS folders to be burned with Nero etc. So I'll have to render to get the MPEG-2 and then Render again for the DVD authoring and making of the Video_TS Audio_TS folders I like to use. Maybe if you look at this link it'll give you a little more visual info.