Video rendering for DVD

[XonXoff]

Hey folks,

Just starting to work with some of the Video features on Reaper. Video formats etc are somewhat new to me so I'm hoping someone can help me get started.

I've pulled in a video of a live band and lined it all up nicely with with rendered multitrack recording of the same gig with a few slices and dices. That's all good.

Now I want to render the video with the new audio so I can import into Movie Maker or something to burn onto DVD with some titles etc (that's all I have apart from a copy of Ulead VideoStudio SE).

Anyway, there's a whole host of video rendering options in Reaper and I'm not sure where to start. I've tried a few things and just ended up with files that will play in Media Player but won't import into Movie Maker or Ulead.

Any help gratefully received.

Cheers

Xon

[Mike-Mat]

You can just render the audio in Reaper and then insert it into the video using Video Studio. I haven't used Reaper for video editing (didn't know it did that), but I know Video Studio is pretty easy to use.

Mike

[XonXoff]

Originally Posted by Mike-Mat

You can just render the audio in Reaper and then insert it into the video using Video Studio. I haven't used Reaper for video editing (didn't know it did that), but I know Video Studio is pretty easy to use.

Mike

Thanks for the reply Mike. I want to process the audio against the video in Reaper. It does everything how I need it. I just need to find the best/right rendering format so I can pull it into Movie Maker or something for the last bit - DVD authoring.

[DVDdoug]

The general approach is the same as audio... Use the best, least-compressed* format for editing, minimize the number of conversions, and compress once as the last step. The best format for editing standard definition video is usually AVI/DV (about 13GB per hour). ("AVI" is a "wrapper" or "container" format, and it can contain anything from DV to DivX.)

And for the best quality, use a high bitrate. 6000kbps MPEG-2 is good quality, and you can fit about 90 minutes of 6000kbps video plus Dolby audio on a single-layer DVD. If you use LPCM audio, you'll have to use a lower video bitrate.

Regular DVDs are MPEG-2, with either LPCM (uncompressed) or Dolby AC3 audio. All players are required to play these formats. Other adio formats (like DTS) are optional, so a disc with DTS also needs an LPCM or AC3 track in order to play on all players. PAL players are also required to play MPEG-2 audio.

There is a chart on this page showing the compatible formats for NTSC & PAL DVDs.


(Most of the "SE" versions of Video Studio do not support Dolby.)

* We are usually working with uncompresed audio, but most home-video formats (including DV) use some compression.

[babag]

the best format, quality-wise, would be to render out the same format
as your source video. if reaper is doing things the way it should, there
would be no transcoding, no transformation of the video from one type
to another. it's in the transcoding process that quality is lost. this,
of course, assumes that your source video is in a format that your
authoring software understands.

BabaG

[XonXoff]

Thanks for the replies, this is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping to get. Cheers!


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