Dvd Architect burning question – dark playback and crappy sound

[master-chatnoir.livejournal.com]

I've searched the memories and as many how-to guides as I can find, but I haven't seen anything to help me with a problem I'm having. So, I would greatly appreciate any assistance on this topic.



I've been using Vegas Movie studio 6 to make my vids and the accompanying Dvd Architect 3.0b to burn to dvd.

However, my dvds play back much darker on stand alone dvd players than they play on the computer. Also, often, the sound is crappy and degraded. I've tried all manner of different settings.

I've put the files in DvdA as avi files, wmv, and when I found out that dvdA re-encodes everything, I went and re-rendered my vids as an MPEG2 and tried that. Even those files turned out dark on the dvd player. And Vegas didn't give me the option of changing the audio type when I rendered to mpeg2.

Isn't mpeg2 the dvd standard?

My dvd burner is brand new, just got it replaced, but the quality is still the same as the old one, so that leads me to believe I am not using the proper settings when either I render or in dvdA. I don't think it is a hardware issue.

I tried burning a dvd with Roxio, too, but only the avi and wmv files and they were dark, as well. And I only have the basic Roxio, so no nice menu options.

I love the options that dvdA gives to make menus, but I don't want my vids to look and sound like crap when they're played, either. And I don't really have the money to buy a new dvd authoring program.

The last settings that I got off a help site I tried that still didn't work:

NTSC
720x480 resolution
29.97 fps
9800 bps

It wouldn't let me change the audio to .ac3 though.

I've read sites that say to render the video and audio separately and then put into DvdA, but those were for much older versions of DvdA and I don't want my sync to be off. Is this the way to go?

Is this just a DvdA thing and I'm just screwed? Or am I so completely clueless that I'm just not doing any of this remotely correctly?

I would love any kind of help or links that anyone is kind enough to throw at me. Please let me know if I need to supply additional info. Thanks in advance!

Chat

Comments

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

Just FYI for you, darling...I've got 7.0 and 4.0 DVDarchitect and it's my goal this weekend to get my vids on a dvd to make it work. I'll keep you updated on what mine look like at my end.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I have used TMPEG DVD Author to burn vids because it does not re-encode (just creates a menu). There may be a demo version you can download and test. If not, there are other DVD authoring programs with demos - that may be the best way troubleshoot and see if (a) it is how Vegas Movie encodes or (b) how the authoring software burns.

For sample MPEG2 settings go here
http://seacouver.slashcity.net/killa/winconvids.html

[master-chatnoir.livejournal.com]

I'll look into those ideas. Thank you for the suggestions and the link!