No, I guess it wouldn't be an easter egg if you told me. I was one of those kids that followed other kids and picked up the eggs that fell out of their easter baskets. I guess that's why I had to ask you where it was :-))

deinterlace and convert to 24p
 

How do you do that? I'm very new to vegas and am trying to get the film look as close as possible so can someone help me out please?

Mitch

Procoder is the only software encoder I've found that is equal to or better than, Vegas MC 2pass encode.
If you aren't happy with the encodes, I'd suggest it's pilot error and not the encoder. Vegas implementation of the Main Concept tools is about as good as it gets without going to hardware. I wish that Compressor on my Mac was as good as Vegas.
Anyway, Procoder does a great job. On VCDHelp.com, there is a shootout between most of the major encoders, and Vegas was one of 2 winners. Procoder was the other.

There is a tutorial or 2 on this very subject on the http://www.vasst.com/login.htm site.
Look for the "Getting a Film Look in Vegas 4.0" tutorial. You can search by author too. (DSE)
Edward also offers a script you can purchase that does much the same thing as what's in my tutorial.

Josh, why use the Windows Media Encoder? Why not use the Vegas encoder? It's much better, has far better preprocessing. It's slower, but who cares?
Go to Tools>Burn>Multimedia CD. Burn an MPEG 2, Windows Media,REAL, Quicktime, whatever you want directly in there. You can also include a player installer if you need to, or are worried the judges won't have a player.
As far as the lagging...have you tried a different media by chance?
DVD or CD, if the avi file (which is actually compressed if it's DV) is only 944 Mb, getting it to 700Mb is easy as breathing. And the datarate should play off of anything.

Why do you think de-interlacing and converting to 24p will give
you a "film look" (whatever that is exactly). I'd suggest you read
the threads in our "film look" forum as well

Keep in mind that there is also an Canopus ProCoder Express
which should be cheaper. TMPGEnc (cheap) is also a good
encoder as is CinemaCraft Encoder.

The ProCoder engine is definitely better than the MC Vegas one
and CCE should be better as well. Not sure about TMPGEnc.

www.canopus.com (ProCoder)
www.cinemacraft.com (CCE)
www.tmpgenc.net (TMPGEnc)

You can always try the trials for CCE & TMPGEnc.

www.doom9.org (guides)
www.vcdhelp.com (guides)

Note: I wrote earlier that CCE also has a free version but it
looks like that has been discontinued. Only trial and full product
(which last I heard is still expensive).

The film-look script is FREE.

Vegas 4 version


Vegas 5 version

Mpeg 4 IS included in Sorenson Squeeze but not the "lite" version.

yeah, procoder expres is about $50US does everything apart from batch render and afew other "pro" features...

but as DSE says, teh main concept encoder is actually really good depending on how u use it..

Ive done 2 and half hour 4.7gb VBR discs which ive tests on a high def Plasma screen with no excessive noticable artefacts....

IM actually quite surprised at teh results considering the speed in which this encodes.. procoder IS good, but it IS slow..

Vegas 5 and Shared Video Memory
 

Can you use Vegas on a PC that has shared video memory?

I went to Sony's site and under Vegas specifications it doesn't say that it can't be used with shared memory.

I'd appreciate your views.

it can.. shared video memory is basically your video card leeching resources from ur ram and cpu...
So when configuring your ram setting in vegas, leave a bit of a buffer so ur GFX card doesnt die :)

I've never said the Vegas MC encoder is bad. It is actually quite
good. I do think (personally) that ProCoder and CCE are just
better, that's all.

Vega 5 + DVD Now shipping with ....
 

Acid Pro 4 AND Volume 1 of the Vision Series...

which is bloody awesome value if u ask me..

Also, SOny have released a hacked down version of Vegas+ DVDA 1... its Vegas Studio + DVD
Looks quite good.. nice lil consumer package dumbed down a lil and good for those wanting to get into vegas but were to afraid to take teh full plunge.. it also has a walkthrough tutorial (like the Factory series)

If anyone wants mroe info and theyre in Oz, drop me an email with their fone number :)
Id be more than happy to go through the details with you.. i mean thres not that many people in Oz who use Vegas as much as id like.. lol

Thanks, but on Rob's advice, I've arranged for a friend who's decently close by to burn it to a DVD.

When I having the lag issue, I actually WAS playing it off my hard drive, not off the CD. That's why it bothered me so much, didn't seem like it should lag being played right off the HD.

Regarding Windows Media Encoder: A long time ago, I complained about not being able to get a good file size/quality ratio from Vegas 4s encoder, and someone on here pointed me toward the Windows Media Encoder, so I've been using it ever since.

After I burn this DVD, I'll come back and screw around with the suggestions you guys have given me.