Solved New Project Dialog Box Question

When creating a new project, the New Project dialog box opens. After selecting the Region and the Audio choices, the Video options must be selected. This has always been somewhat confusing. The Movie Studio 14.0 Platinum Help for "Creating a new project" states:

"In the Video box, click the type of video that you're using to create your project or the format you want to use to deliver your completed project.

The Project box will display a list of options for the selected video type.

If you want your project to match the properties of an existing media file, choose Match media settings and click the Browse button next to the Choose media box to select the file you want to use."


Why is there a choice in that first sentence? Shouldn't that be two separate functions? The majority of my projects start off with 1920 x 1080 video clips and end up on a DVD. I have always chosen the DVD Video option and then DVD NTSC widescreen for a New Project.

The project I am just starting is made up of a string of MP4 files (854 x 480) that will end up on a DVD widescreen format. Is it best to choose "DVD" in the New Project dialog box , or would "Match Media Settings" - "Choose Media:" be the better option?

It's a bit confusing.

Choose DVD. It's best to match your final output IMO.

You can start a new project any way you like - there is no black and white answer.

Personally I prefer to use the Match Media function for 90% of my video projects, then you don't have to worry about setting many of the settings because the project will be set to match your source video. The No.1 advantage of doing this (most of the time) is that it should give your smoother playback while editing your project. When the Project Properties and Source Videos do not match, Vegas has to convert the video in real time which can cause more video lag.

In your case 854x480 video should not cause much video lag, because it is only Standard Definition video.

If you want to set the Project to DVD at the beginning, that is also OK to do.

Most people today will be working with 1080p or 4K video.
The advantage of using the Match Media function is you can then output to many different types.
Example: Render one version to 1080p for YouTube and a another version to DVD.
However if the source video was 1080p and you set to DVD settings, you cannot then output to YouTube at 1080p - it will look terrible.

The one section of the New Project window which I do always fill in, is the bottom half.
Setting a project Name and ticking Manage Project Files, creates a unique folder for your project to live in.

Thank you. That actually answers another question I was wondering about. If I load my 1920 x 1080 clips into a new project, I should choose Match Media Settings to output the project to DVD and and then to Blu-ray rather than choosing either DVD or Blu-ray at the outset.

"The advantage of using the Match Media function is you can then output to many different types."

This would give flexibility at the end of the project.

Thanks again for all your input.