Seperate Audio File?

[frappawotsit]

Here is another newbee question folks...

Up until now, i've taken my home movie from camcorder to DVD in the following way:

Used PowerDirector5 to transfer the DV-AVI file to pc
Used PowerDirector5 to edit the footage
Used PowerDirector5 to render the finished product
Used PowerDirector5 to encode from DV-AVI to Mpeg2

Used Nero to burn the Mpeg2 file to DVD

Before you all scream at me, since i've frequented this forum i've found out why my finished product has never been as good as i'd expected....

However, in all of the above process, i only ever dealt with one combined video and audio file, both in the avi and mpeg2.

So, after taking advice from the forum i'm planning to use the following process....

Use WinDV for transfer camcorder to pc
Use Sony Vegas for editing and rendering to mpeg2
Use DVD Architect to author the DVD
Use ImgBurn2 to burn the authored mpeg2 to DVD

So, my question....

Using this new procedure, when i've read the guides, it keeps referring to the .ac3 audio track as a seperate track, and therefore the need to ensure it's synchronised with the video.

1) Can't i use this new procedure without having a seperate audio track?
2) At what point do the video and audio tracks seperate?
3) How do i ensure that when i edit the video portions, the audio is edited in exactly the same place as the video edit?
4) At what point are the video and audio put back together?
5) How do i ensure prior to Q4, that the sync is perfect?

The thought of seperating the audio and video frightens the life out of me, or am I mis-understanding the process here? It all seems very complicated, all I want is a home movie, the most i'll do with audio, is maybe add a background soundtrack and some narration. Other than that, i'll always want the sound recorded by the camcorder with the video that i take....

It makes sense to me, that when i cut video out, it cuts the associated audio, when i fade or use transitions between two clips, the associated audio should fade out and in accordingly. Then on top of this the addition of a backing soundtrack which will play from start to finish independently of the video transitions/fades/editing etc... why is this so complicated?

Maybe I have mis-understood, i'm hoping so, this all sounds so much more complicated than i need it to be!!!!

Thanks for your help...

[redwudz]

You need to keep the audio and video together while doing edits to avoid sync problems. Once you get the edits done, you can separate them and encode the video to MPEG-2 and encode the audio separately to AC3 if wanted. As long as you don't change the lengths of either, they should stay in sync.

Then when you author, you can add both back into the authoring program, if it accepts separate streams. Then author and burn.

[Cornucopia]

While I would caution you to do an additional render of the edited program to a single composite DV-AVI file for safety, as well as roll out to tape for master archiving, you're on the right track.

...

When you're finished with the edit and you "render" (really "encode") to MPEG2, you'll also encode to AC3. And YES, you do this in 2 steps to 2 individual files (called "elementary streams").

DVDArchitect has no problem with separated streams (unlike many consumer/newbie authoring apps). Just keep them in the same folder and use the same root name.

It's like a zipper, if you unzip it and then minutes later zip it back up, all should be well as long as you don't lose a zipper tooth in the meantime.

For editing, you really have nothing to worry about as the sync/cam audio and the video originate from the same data stream (DV "ivas").

BTW, the burn engine in DVDA is quite good (including DL layerbreak setting), so you don't really need the ImgBurn step if you want to keep is simple.

Scott