Hello, I am new here and to video editing in general. I am editing videos (home videos) from two basic sources: 8mm recorded through a Canopus ADVC110 in DV format and a Sony SR11 recording in 1080i. I am using Vegas Pro 9 x64. For space and convenience, I am putting all videos on Blu-ray. Due to my ignorance, I am confused about settings from one step to the next in the process. I was hoping that I could go through the steps and ask for you guys to let me know what I am doing wrong, or what you would do differently. I am afraid that I am going to get the files all edited and rendered, only to find that I will need to do them again because they were rendered wrong or something else.

8mm videos:

I am recording the 8mm videos into the Canopus ADVC110 using the DV mode of Sony Vegas Capture 6 as a 720x480 avi. Once in the computer, I load the entire video into Vegas and split each section and render it separately. This is one place that I am confused. I have set the project settings up using the HDV 720-30p template (which I know is higher resolution than the original), and the PAR changes to 1.000. I then go to the file properties and set them as Progressive and 1.000. If I set it to .9091 then it looks more natural and not as stretched, but I don't know which is technically "correct." I am also confused about the relationship (or difference) between project settings and file settings. Are the file settings the incoming settings? Either way, what settings would you use that would not stretch the videos for both the project and file settings. I am ok with the black bars on the sides, as I would like to keep the original aspect ratio as close as possible. Also, what would you render these videos as? Should I be keeping these in the original 720x480, or is it ok to up-convert them?

SR11 videos:

I use neo scene to change the AVCHD to avi. I then edit the videos in Vegas and render each major section separately using project settings for HD 1080-60i, UFF, 1.000.

Authoring:

I use DVDA to author both the 8mm and AVCHD renders to Blu-ray using default settings. When authoring, does DVDA try to make all of the videos in the project fit the 1980x1080 project properties? I would like to see each video maintain whatever resolution it came in with.

Any suggestions would be great. I have a lot of videos to go through, and I don't want to have to do this more than once!