Preferred HDV Workflow in Vegas Movie Studio 8?

[Ken Jarstad]

I'm trying to settle on an alternative HDV workflow. I have Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 and it readily accepts my HV20 .m2t files. I want to author high definition AVCHD disks while maintaining the high definition video quality. To be clear, that is high definition video burned onto a standard DVD which is only playable on a Blu-ray player, allowing about 20 minutes or so on DVD-5 media.

I also have Sony DVD Architect Studio 4.5d which, strangely enough, readily accepts .m2t files too but does not seem to offer anything other that standard definition DVD output. I also have the full Nero 8 suite with the Blu-ray option. I have already proven that the 'Nero Vision' 5 application in Nero 8 can successfully produce AVCHD video on conventional DVD media.

So, the question is what are the suggested alternatives for Vegas Movie Studio 8 output that will get me a suitable authored AVCHD disk?

[Paul LS]

I use the Sony Vegas Pro suite which has DVD Architect 5. This will burn high definition video to AVCHD discs however it doesn't sound like the studio version will.

You could try to get a copy of Ulead (Corel) DVD Moviefactory 6+ from eBay.... this does a great job of burning AVCHD discs (or Blu-ray or standard definition). Otherwise most of the consumer video editing/DVD authoring programs will. Take a look at Cyberlink PowerProducer, the DVD authoring sibling to Cyberlink PowerDirector or PowerDirector itself... both author AVCHD discs.

[Ken Jarstad]

Thanks for the reply, Paul. I was just pawing through the Vegas Movie Studio 8 export options and it looks like the ONLY high definition export it offers is Windows Media Video V9. However, I have been trying to find a Custom template it will accept and CAN NOT find one! What is the use of being able to edit an HDV or AVCHD timeline and not support a useful high definition export format?

[Paul LS]

Sorry Ken I misunderstood your question. So you are looking to high definition export options from Sony Vegas 8. I am really surprised it does not export high definition MPEG2 or AVC. Then again I know the studio version comes in a number of flavours... that said if it imports HDV MPEG2 it is high definition enabled and so I would expect it should be able to export it.

[Ken Jarstad]

Thanks Paul. I have now answered my own question. Vegas Movie Studio 8 does not support any high definition output.

I thought I might be able to use some of the apps I had on hand for editing HDV but, alas I will have to look elsewhere. Perhaps I can get by with Nero Vision. Primitive - but almost usable.

A late, late edit to tie up this topic:
Only the Platinum editions of Movie Studio offer HD output options. Non-Platinum editions through version 10 only support standard definition output.