Rendered Video without Sound
 

I'm new to Vegas 8, having used VMS 7 and 8 for some time. VMS renders seemed to incorporate audio with the render, whereas many of the Vegas 8 renders only include audio or video.

I want good sound, but I'm not looking for audiophile fare. What do others recommend for integrating audio with NTSC video and even HDV video when it's not automatically incorporated?

Render your audio using the default AC-3 template.
As long as it has the same name as the MPEG-2 file (i.e. myvideo.mpg & myvideo.ac3) AND is in the same folder, it will automatically load once you load the video portion of the file in DVD Architect.

Excellent, thanks for the help.

Mike, I am in the opposite boat. My client wants no audio in his videos (industrial stuff), not even music. If after I render in Vegas I delete the ac3 file, will I be able to create a soundless DVD in Architect, or will it go crazy looking for the rendered audio file?

Rick, go right ahead and do it.
DVD Architect won't care that it doesn't have an audio file attached to it.

OK, here's another thought. Is there a way to stop rendering of audio in a project? Muting the track doesn't stop it from being rendered, only from being played back. Since I don't need the audio it would help speed up renders if I didn't have to include the audio tracks. My projects have LOTS of clips, so removing the audio from each one individually is a pain.

Can you right-click on the audio track (on the far left of the timeline with the panning/volume controls) and delete audio track?

I can't remember if Vegas forces you to un-tether the audio/video tracks first. If it does, you might be able to ctrl-A to select all, then hit the U button to untether THEN right-click on the fart left side and delete the audio track.

JR

Rick,

If you render in AVI both video and audio will be rendered at the same time.Why can't you just render the video (as MPEG2 or whatever) and make no render of the audio (which would otherwise be in AC3)? Only the rendered video will then be dragged into DVDA.

Richard

A number of Vegas rendering options are "NTSC Architect Video Stream" or "Blu-Ray Architect Video Stream"... which don't include sound.

I find it really curious that if I want full screen NTSC, the audio renders automatically, but if I want wide screen, I have to render the audio separately. Fortunately the audio renders pretty quickly compared to the video. Right now I'm in the middle of an 13 hour render of a 70 minute project to wmv. Ouch! (3.2 GHz dual, 8600 GTS vid, 4GB Ram, lots of HDD).


Just to stir the pot, I recently showed someone how to make a project in Windows Movie Maker and was shocked how fast it renders everything. It rendered to wmv in about 1/4 the time Vegas required.

Roger, are you rendering to MPEG-2?
If so, you must be choosing different templates for full screen and wide screen as, any time I render to either format, the audio is rendered separately.

No stirring necessary :-)
Vegas is definitely much slower at WMV renders than WMM.
The only gotcha is to take a look at the same render from WMM and Vegas.
I found that the Vegas render looks better!!

Readers please be aware that WMV format can have unreliable performance on some player versions if an audio stream is not included. It can be silent and of low bitrate, but it's gotta' be there.

Regarding the encode speed of Windows Movie Maker vs. Vegas - was this a fair test? The question would be, same source, no edits or similar edits, no color correction, levels changes, render quality on "good" not "Best"... etc.? Just curious, I'd rather stay with the editing tool I know...

Seth,

Comparing WMM to Vegas isn't fair a comparison any you look at it, either direction. For a person wanting to put together straight family footage from a single camera with a single audio track for placement on the web, WMM is a good option. You run out of creative options really, really quickly, however. My observation is that most laymen don't have the desire to put several hours into a 5 minute piece anyway. As much as I enjoy Vegas, its out of reach dollar wise for a lot of people and takes time to master. I'm still trying to learn the keystrokes and function. ProTitler is kicking my tail.

One things for sure, WMM screamed through the wmv files and the output looked pretty good @ 640 x 480. I do a good bit of web forum postings and have used WMM to post when in a hurry or when I'm away from my own machine.

I'll wait for the DV disbarment proceedings to begin.

Seth, here's a fair test for you.
Source AVI was a 6:45 NTSC DV-AVI.
Rendering was done to the 512K preset in both WMM & Vegas.
Vegas 7: 3:44
Vegas 8: 4:12
WMM: 3:08

I don't think being a true believer in Vegas is neccessary to be a forum member. Roger, I think you're on track here, there are many people who will benefit most from WMM or iMovie, etc., I just referred a friend to Womble to lightly edit the video from his still camera, a different friend has Vegas Movie Studio on my recommendation, but has difficulty now that he's only using it a couple times a year.

Thanks Mike! Good reference.

Seth,

I agree, and I am becoming a believer in Vegas. Lots to learn, but its proven much more stable than Vegas Movie Studio so far, especially on projects over 15 minutes in length. I especially like the multiple camera options in V8, this really helps put a project together quickly.