Rendering question?
 

I'm trying to put all the footage I've edited so far for my movie on one dvd. It's about 84 minutes long. I bought sony dvd+r 120min/4.7gb. Everytime I go to burn dvd. It says that the file is too large for the dvd and that I should check my render settings or get a new dvd. I don't know much about render settings is there a way I can get my footage on these cheap dvd's for now or are there better dvd's with more storage capacity I should be using. Any help would be appreciated.

It could just be DVD Architect that's giving you grief as it has a long history of incorrectly reporting file sizes.
Go to the folder there you have your rendered files (mpg and ac3) and see what the total size is.
As long as it's under 4.3 gigs, ignore the warning you get and go ahead with the burn.
If it is over that size, then you need to render it again.

Your AC-3 file is OK but your video will have to rendered using a custom setting.
The numbers are determined by using a bitrate calculator.
http://www.johncline.com/bitcalc110.zip is my personal favourite.
Select the disk type, the audio settings (192 is the Vegas default), change the time to 1 hr. 24 min. and click click VBR (Variable Bit Rate).
This is used instead of CBR so that we can get the most quality possible.
I also change the Safety Margin to 5% as this ensures that I will never go over the allowable limit.

When you're ready to render, select either "DVD Architect NTSC video stream" or "DVD Architect NTSC video Widescreen stream" in Vegas, click the Custom button next to this box, click the Video tab, then VBR and enter the numbers as shown in the bitrate calculator into the appropriate boxes.
BTW, I never let the Max. setting go over 8,000.000 as this may lead to problems with cheap blank media as well as old and/or cheap DVD players.
Click OK to get back to the main screen and click Save to render your MPEG-2 file.

Josh, in addition to what Mike said and suggested I need to ask have you rendered the files at all?
In other words did you take the footage in Vegas and render to MPEG/AC3 or did you render the Veg project to AVI and bring that into DVDA....You don't say what type of file you're working with. A little more info but the info Mike K gave is what you need.

You could also "burn" to an ISO file and then burn that file with ImgBurn, which will tell you quite reliably whether it is going to fit.

Maybe that's my problem. I've been trying to burn the dvd directly from vegas pro. I've never used dvd architect. We've been working on getting the footage put together so there has been a lot of need to burn dvd's so far. This was our first attempt at more than one scene.

Well unless the footage is compressed to the right size it ain't gonna fit with grease and a shoehorn.

Put all the footage you want on the DVD on the Vegas timeline. Once you do that then see how long it is (timewise) Use your choice of Bitrate calculator to figure the proper bitrate with AC3 audio (that's what DVDA wants and will recompree any other type of audio anyway so you might as well do it up front) Go into FILE>RenderAS>MPEG(2) goto CUSTOM Set the Bitrate as calculated from the bitrate calculator (repetitive -sorry). Render the audio as AC3 either before or after you render the footage to MPEG give them both the same name the file extension will follow automatically (IE: mymovie.mpeg; mymovie.AC3)
Now when you go into DVDA and bring the file in, both the MPEG and AC3 will go with and the file should be the right size. Don't worry about the warning that DVDA gives you. The warning is generally off by about 1/2 gig.
Now set up your menu if you use one, if not then set the DVDA as NEW>Single play put the file in hit make DVD and burn baby burn. :-)

NOW you can also render the footage in Vegas to AVI (not uncompressed-that would be a hugh file) bring the AVI into DVDA set it up like you want it and let DVDA compress it. Eithr way will work but doing the MPEG render in Vegas allows for more control on your part.
Have fun!

Again hate to sound like such a newbe, but I don't understand. Is the problem that I should be compressing my footage in some way to fit on the dvd or is it my render settings. Sorry to have to ask but could you dumb it down for me.

Josh, download Vol #1, Issue #7 (June 2003) of Edward Troxel's newsletters as it walks you through this potentially confusing procedure.
While it was written for an earlier version and some buttons have moved around or added, the same rules still apply.