I have a 75mins Vegas project (ver 8.0b) I need to transfer / export to a MiniDv tape so I can take it to a production house and get them to put it on digibeta. Can someone tell me the best way to do this? I want to do it in the highest quality. I see the "print to tape" option but no settings for quality etc.

Thanks!

p.s. if this is somewhere already in a thread please post the link.

Tools - Print Video to Tape

Of course, for 75 minutes you'll need to use an 80 minute tape for MiniDV.

and I don't have to set any settings, it will keep all effects and audio automation I did?

thanks Edward.

and I don't have to set any settings, it will keep all effects and audio automation I did?.

Whatever is on the timeline is what gets printed to tape.
Hopefully you've already checked the entire program by rendering to DV-AVI (assuming it's not HDV) and then watching it to make sure everything works as expected.
You might be able to render it to an external hard drive and give that to the post house. Check with them and see if that's a possibility.
That way you won't need to use an 80 min. tape which can be prone to problems due to being very thin.

Mike, as you know, =) when making DVDs I render to mpeg2 and ac3. I have never printed to tape before or rendered to DV-AVI.

Are you saying that I might be able to render the project to an .AVI file and thay can make a digibeta from that?

Also, doesn't rendering to an .AVI compress it pretty bad? What settings do you recommend when rendering to an AVI?

thanks Mike!

Mike, as you know, =) when making DVDs I render to mpeg2 and ac3. I have never printed to tape before or rendered to DV-AVI.

Are you saying that I might be able to render the project to an .AVI file and thay can make a digibeta from that?

Also, doesn't rendering to an .AVI compress it pretty bad? What settings do you recommend when rendering to an AVI?

thanks Mike!

Hi Oliver,

How the content is re-compressed (if at all) depends on how it is compressed on the timeline.

The .AVI convention is just a "wrapper"; you don't indicate what you're using on the timeline - HDV, DV, Beta, DVCPro, XDCAM, or some other CODEC. Like Mike said, one of the possibilities is just to pack the project to an external drive and send the drive to a post house for processing to a Beta tape.

Whatever the CODEC, there are several schemes that can covert them from Vegas's timeline in satisfactory ways. Compression doesn't have to be a bugaboo.

But if mini DV tape works for you and you have a 83-minute tape, Edward's suggestion is the easiest by far.

My best,

Mike

Rendering to a NTSC SD DV at 720 x 480 preset in Vegas compresses less that going to DVD Mpeg2, as I understand it. The resulting .avi file is also frame accurate. So not sure why it would be thought that going to that would cause more compression issues than an mpeg2 render.

Hi Oliver,
you don't indicate what you're using on the timeline

Mike

DV (SD)

Thanks for the info Mike

Rendering to a NTSC SD DV at 720 x 480 preset in Vegas compresses less that going to DVD Mpeg2, as I understand it. The resulting .avi file is also frame accurate. So not sure why it would be thought that going to that would cause more compression issues than an mpeg2 render.

What are the exact settings your talking about when you render to .AVI Chris (NTSC DV)?

Usually the resulting .AVI file at this is HUGE, way to big for a DVD, even a dbl layer.

Oliver:

In Vegas 8, select Video for Windows (*.avi) and then select template NTSC DV or NTSC DV Wide, depending on your original capture.

This should get you exactly same resolution and bit rate as what comes off of your DV captures. In fact if you capture DV from your camera then, without adding any edits, tell Vegas to print back to tape, you might likely get a message that no recompression is occuring. Vegas 8 does not recompress unedited or unfiltered clips.

Oliver:

In Vegas 8, select Video for Windows (*.avi) and then select template NTSC DV or NTSC DV Wide, depending on your original capture.


Ok, and your saying I can then take this to a render house and have them put it to digibeta, skipping the "print to tape" step?

You should check with your render house to see what they except, but quality going into the render should be same whether rendered to DV NTSC or ou to DV Tape.

By the way, you never indicated what your initial footage was shot in.... I assume it was Mini DV captured and edited.

if you use Edwards method it will work fine. I have done it many many time like that for conversion to BETA (name it Digi,SP whatever the client wants) and have never had a problem with the conversion being anything less than 100%.

Don

Ok, the Print to Tape option is how to get it to MiniDV tape. No need for any extra renders as indicated in some other threads. Anything changed will be automatically rendered after you pick the Print To Tape option. If you've added effects or titles or whatever, those sections will be rendered as needed. Any UNCHANGED DV footage on the timeline will not require rendering. It all should simply work seemlessly if you simply do what I first said in the second post of this thread - no need to worry about anything else.

Sounds good everyone, thanks for all the info.