I have a series of short videos some of which are Mpeg & some AVI which I want to string together on a DVD & add a few titles etc. There will be only simple cuts & fades and hopefully a DVD menu, - basically just a simple project.

If I use a cheap & simple program like Power Director there is no problem (other than its clunky way of doing things - which drives me nuts, - no JKL etc), in that it doesn't care what form is on the timeline as it will only re-render what's needed and it is a breeze to create a DVD.

However, in Vegas Pro 9 what do I set the project properties (PAL DV Widescreen ?), pixel format etc to ? - I don't want it to re-render the Mpeg files, as it is for DVD, yet I don't see a preset for Mpeg only various AVI's etc. I am in PAL land (sigh !), and am not sure about all these settings etc. for a seemingly simple project. However, maybe when I go to "Burn Disc" in Vegas it will all be OK but I'm just not sure as I don't want to lose quality.

RonC.

You want a PAL timeline, Widescreen if the footage is widescreen and/or if you want the DVD to be widescreen. Don't change anything in the template.

If the MPEGs are already PAL DVD-compliant, they won't have to be re-rendered (except at the edit points). If they're not, then there will be no choice -- they will have to be.

Thanks David, this should clear up my concerns.

RonC.