I want to put these video files on a DVD as a FILE for a backup, not a VOB, but most are around 27-29 gigs in size. What is the best setting in Vegas for rendering them down to a 4 gig size to fit on a DVD? Thanks

Nearly the same question was asked in Archiving codec. I suggest x264 high profile two-pass constrained by file size.

I should mention that I assumed that you were willing to install an encoder to get the best quality. Here's a nice x264 VFW installer (http://sourceforge.net/projects/x264vfw), which is pretty easy to use from Vegas.

x264 encoder is free I take it. Do I need that for the h.264, or is that just a suggestion?

x264 encoder is free I take it. Do I need that for the h.264, or is that just a suggestion?

Yes, it's Free Software. I think it's the best h.264 encoder.