MP4 to DVD - suggestion for workflow After a break of a few years I have started doing video editing again. So I bought Sony Vegas and later upgraded it to the latest version.

For this particular project my source files was created by two different devices: A Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phone (mp4) and a Sony Cybershot camera (also mp4). The files from the Sony camera cannot be read directly by Vegas, so I have had to transcode them (they are still mp4).

I wanted to produce a DVD of this event (a birthday party), but when I render the project (to be used by DVD Architect) Vegas crashes for me halfway through the process.

I have of course reported this to Sony, but i don't expect any solution soon, so I was wondering if I was doing this the wrong way.

In this case - when the source is mp4 (and in a higher resolution than DVD) - would you suggest another workflow? Would it be better to transcode the files before I add them to the Vegas project?
It's never a bad idea to have resolution and bit depth to spare during post but if you don't need the extras -- higher bit depth for cleaner effects / color grading, higher res for crop and blowup and so on -- then you can reduce the originals to the final output values with no loss of fidelity.