Nero "issues" - is Sony Vegas better or should I s

[Morse2]

Hi everyone and thanks in advance for any comments/advice.

I've been using Nero Ultra 6.3.18 for the last 6 months or so without problems. However, I recently "upgraded" to 6.6.15 and have had nothing but problems with A/V synch ever since. Almost as bad, transcoding takes almost 6x as long as it used to!

This is doubly irritating, since I moved off my old emachines to a "purpose built" AMD 64 with dedicated "system", "ripping", "editing", and "archiving" drives (over 1.2 TB in all). The new system worked fine with 6.3.18 (verrry fast and loads of storage), but this "improved" edition stinks, and has fouled up my ability to "backtrack" to 6.3.18. No other hardware or software changes were made between when Nero "worked" and when it didn't, thus I'm convinced it's the fault of 6.6.15. And yes, I've checked UDMA and it's all enabled properly.....

So,

1. Is there any point to investing $100 in the Sony Vegas package that Best Buy carries, or am I in for the same sort of hassles that have cropped up in the "new and improved" Nero?

2. Should I just clean Nero off entirely with a fresh Windows install and do a clean install from my original 6.3.18 discs?

3. Is there a source to other "reliable" editions of "Nero" - I've heard good things about 6.6.08, but can't find it anywhere.

4. Any other advice or suggestions?

Thanks again and all the best,
Morse2

[edDV]

At what point are you loosing audio sync? Is it at capture, editing, encoding or authoring?

How are you capturing (hardware and software) and what formats (codecs) are you using? Is it DV, MPeg1, DVD MPeg2, uncompressed, DivX, WMV, etc?

[Morse2]

Thanks edDV!

>>>...At what point are you losing audio sync? Is it at capture, editing, encoding or authoring?...<<<

The synch is properly maintained thruogh capture and editing. When I edit out the commercials from a TV capture (ex: last Friday's Battlestar Galactica), the exported version of the file is just fine, and plays well with Windows Media 10, PowerDVD, Nero Showtime, etc. That's on more than just the one machine too - I've transported those files to other computers and they don't have "issues" with them.

It's either during the "create chapters" (authoring) within the export file, the overlong transcoding, or the "burning" stage at which things are fouled up. One thing I have noticed is that when selecting images for the menu buttons, the darn system doesn't want to grab the image I select - it's usually a few seconds "behind" the image I select on the screen. That never happened before the switch to 6.6.15, and it makes me think it could be in the authoring phase.

As far as the symptoms go, synch starts out correctly on all my post-6.6.15 burns BUT within 5 minutes it's noticeably drifted out and it gets worse with time.

Captures are via 3 routes - 1. on-board Leadtek PVR 2000, 2. discs imported from a Sanyo DVR, and 3. older discs imported from the e-machines with it's onboard Avermedia PVR 500 that I want to re-edit. The Leadtek and Avermedia are set to capture at MPEG 2 using their onboard hardware capture options, usually at "standard" resolution (i.e. 120 mins running time per burned DVD).

Capture software is the "WinPVR" package that comes with the Leadtek, and on the e-machines I'm using the stock Avermedia software.

All burning is done on NEC 3520A and NEC 3540, generally using "made in Japan" +R media from Fuji or Maxell.

Operating system is Windows XP Home Edition with SP2 and all updates installed.

Hope this has given enough data for a diagnosis!

Thanks again and all the best,
Morse2

PS For some reason, my title was truncated on the original post - it was supposed to end with "or should I save my $$".

[edDV]

So it looks like you are capturing and editing MPeg2 files.

You might want to try a different authoring program first to fix your current problem. Try the 30 day demo for DVD Author or try the ULead DVD authoring products.

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/index.html
http://www.tmpg-inc.com/product/tsda.html

I haven't used Sony Vegas Movie Studio for direct MPeg2 editing. I can recommend ULead Video Studio as an all around MPeg2 capable Suite.

[wwjd]

I am with edDV on trying TMPEGenc DVD author but I would stay away from Ulead if your going to be cutting and trimming mpeg2 files. I use to use Ulead Video Studio 8 for mpeg but learned the hard way that it is NOT frame accurate and it will lead to audio sync issues when cutting and trimming mpeg files. Ulead Video Studio 8 is a nice piece of software as long you do not use it cut and trim mpegs.

I would also recommend Videoredo for cutting and trimming mpegs. Great app for cutting out commercials, even has a commercial finder called Add Detective. It is frame accurate and has audio re-syncing capabilities. VRD is not an authoring app so you will still need something like TDA to do the authoring. For accuracate, fast no hassle mpeg to DVD I strongly recommend VRD then TDA. It is a winning combination. If you are looking to add transitions and stuff like that then TDA is not for you.

Most all in one apps like NVE, Ulead Video Studio 8 and maybe even Sony Vegas are usually not good at cutting up mpegs, they can do it but it is definitely not their strength. VRD is made specifically for that.

One last comment and that is that adding transitions can also lead to audio video sync issues.

[Morse2]

Thanks guys!

TMPGenc DVD Authoring looks good, so I'll give it a try next month (no $$ for new software this month after all the $$ spent on upgrading hardware!). Trial editions are okay, but I've got dial-up access and it takes forever to download; might as well just mail order a box set.

'Till then, I've done a clean install of XP (using the WPA.dbl trick) and now Nero 6.3.12 is working fine again. Odd that the Nero "clean tools" didn't do the job thoroughly enough...

All the best,
Morse2