i need to have a DVD which should look good on both 4:3 and 16:9 TVs, i am sending this DVD out to some one for approval and i am not sure what kind of TV they would watch it on computer/tv/project i am just not sure , also it should work in both NTSC and PAL DVD players because they most likely would have a PAL DVD player and TV

i have shot all my footage in 16:9 , 30p ,i have created my project in Vegas 8.0 and it is ready to go now i have added a lot of transctions, , pictures and its approx 45 mins in total .... what is the best possible settings for me to render this project to produce a nice looking DVD?

thru reading on this forum i know i wiill be rendering audio seprate ac3 ... i also know ill need MainConcept MPEG-2 and after rendering i need to use DVDA to create this DVD , i have DVDA but i have never used it, i am good at nero so i am thinking it might not be hard to use DVDA , is there any thing i need to know about DVDA?

coming back to Vegas 8.0 i see presets for rendering MPEG-2, .. do i need to choose DVDA's NTSC widescreen ? because my footage is shot in 16:9 ... or just DVDA'S NTSC?
what do i need to do in order to make this DVD region free so it can by played on PAL DVD/TV as well.

are there any setting i need to change for rendering my videos to make it look real good?, i noticed Video Rendering Quality is always set to 'Good' by default if i click on custom, should it be changed to 'Best' for better quality ?

thank you

Use the NTSC widescreen preset as a start. You may not see much of difference in quality between best and good unless you are zooming, changing resolution, etc. I always use best for my renders since i'm downresing HD footage to SD for DVD's. Depending on the length of your project you could set the bitrate to constant 8,000,000 to get the maximum quality and still be within DVD specifications. Depending on the footage and subject you could try setting the DC coefficient to 10bit. If you know that the player that it will be viewed on will take it you can also decrease the I and B frames but this is very risky as it may not be compatible with all players.

DVDA is where you'll set the Region coding for "All Regions" under the properties ("File" pull down menu). Also set your aspect ratio in DVDA to 16:9.

Use the NTSC widescreen preset as a start. You may not see much of difference in quality between best and good unless you are zooming, changing resolution, etc. I always use best for my renders since i'm downresing HD footage to SD for DVD's. Depending on the length of your project you could set the bitrate to constant 8,000,000 to get the maximum quality and still be within DVD specifications. Depending on the footage and subject you could try setting the DC coefficient to 10bit. If you know that the player that it will be viewed on will take it you can also decrease the I and B frames but this is very risky as it may not be compatible with all players.

DVDA is where you'll set the Region coding for "All Regions" under the properties ("File" pull down menu). Also set your aspect ratio in DVDA to 16:9.


i have all my footange in SD, my project is 45 minutes in duration ! should i change bit rate to 8,000,000 .. what do i gain setting the DC coefficient to 10bit ?

i am rendering NTSC widescreen preset , and setting 'all regions' in DVDA ...ok ! ... what will happen if i render it NTSC only not widescreen... wont DVDA know my aspect ration 16:9 frm the project? do i set it manuallay every time.? thank you !