Vegas compared to other editors
 

I'm new to this forum and posted this other thread in the general area...

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=50456

I'm upgrading from an old Speed Razor/FastDV setup and was considering all kinds of options - Adobe w/Matrox seemed good at first (but $2000!).

But now it seems to me that Vegas might be the best product to transistion to.

I was wondering if any of you who are using Vegas now have used Speed Razor - and considered or used things like Adobe Premier or Pinacle. How does it compare??

What are you best and worst experiences with Vegas?

I've just down loaded the 30 day trial and am going to make an anniversary video for my in-laws as a test project. It's got lot's of old home-video .AVI's and lots of old picture .JPG's to put together - and they want a DVD for the output from that!

Stephen, I have not used either of those NLE's but can help with the editing in Vegas. For a quick start, take a look at my newsletters particularly beginning with the "Beginner's Corner" series in the 4th issue.

Do you have footage captured in Razor that you wish to import into Vegas? Excalibur has a special function specifically to simplify importing Razor footage in Vegas.

That may be a problem as I don't think the trial version allows you to create an mpeg file (necessary for DVD creation). If another app you have will handle an AVI file for this purpose, then you're OK.

Like Edward, I've never used any of those apps either. I can tell you that, from reading a number of different forums, anyone who's had any of those apps has really liked Vegas once they're tried it.

Mike

If I like how it works in the next week or so I will purchase it - so making the DVD should be no problem - right?

My biggest concern is that I'm not buying something up to the level of what I was used to with Speed Razor. I've also used Ulead Media Studio Pro in the past and found that to be a very good editor. Maybe that perception is based on old technology that has vastly improved - but I'm very concerned about buggy software. Speed Razors last release was a buggy mess...

On Friday I was ready to drop the cash on Adobe with Matrox - because I was so annoyed at the old NT box with Speed Razor (who basically went out of business) and the Fast DV Capture card - that hardly ever worked anyway! I started thinking that Adobe would be the best "investment that would last". But Adobe is a huge cash investment - and I'm not sure that I want or need that.

If you get Vegas+DVD, making a DVD is no problem at all. MPEG encoding comes with Vegas but the AC3 encoder comes with DVD Architect. I don't think you need to worry about it being "up to the level of what I was used to".

Using Vegas I find it very different than MSP( I have used MSP since 2.5)but at least as good if not better .For basic stuff Vegas is very straightforward ,definitely NOT buggy at all and will quickly learn to work at a productive pace.It does take a while (as with any change) to learn the flow for more advanced stuff.I would take any advice Edward has for you about Vegas, he knows his stuff.Check out his site.

I have MSP 6.5, Premiere Pro 1.5.1, Vegas 6.0b and Edius Pro3 They all have different attributes. For audio, cropping, motion and keyframe control Vegas is way above the others but for rendering speed I find it the slowest by a long way. IF you are editing in DV and don't do a lot of keyframe control then Edius is the best and fastest. Even with OHCI it is realtime output to DV for simple editing and with any of the Canopus hardware is realtime for most of the effects/transitions etc. If you edit long form then this is a big saving. IF you do shorts it probably doesn't matter too much. Premiere is sort of between these two has most of the controls of Vegas and some of the speed of Edius!!! All have demos so just try them all. Basic editing is fairly similar for all of them the differences come with ease of doing particular functions, user interface preferences, rendering speed and quality.

Ron Evans

Thanks for all the information guys - it's been very helpful so far.

So what do you all use for "preview". Without a breakout box I'm stumped as to how to get my TV monitor hooked up to this PC...

Vegas output is firewire only so , if you don't have a box like the Canopus ADVC 110 or similar, do what a lot of other folks do and use your miniDV camcorder. Set it up in pass-thru mode, feed it firewire from your computer and hook the analog outputs to your monitor.

As a side note Vegas 6 can also output the video to a second (or third etc.)
computer monitor. But most people probably use DV -> analog converter
(like the ADVC mentioned above), a DV camera or DV deck.

Is 10,000 RPM SCSI still needed - or is just a large GB drive enough?? I've got a 18 GB 10000 RPM SCSI in the old editing PC that I could move.

Is any old 6-pin firewire board good enough? Is that just a purchase from CompUSA or Staples - or do I need to look for something special?

I'm ready to purchase the canopus avdc - seems like the best way to make the PC fit into the existing editing desk. BH seems to have the best price...

A large 7200rpm will work. Heck, even a 4200rpm drive will work (not that it would make any sense to get one though, or a 5400rpm).

I wouldn't bother moving the SCSI... probably not worth the hassle, unless you want to use it as your boot drive or something (but even then, it'd be a hassle because you have to put the drivers on a CD or floppy).

2- A $25 firewire card will do. You could buy online from retailers like newegg.com, it may be significantly cheaper.
Check that it comes with a 6pin-4pin firewire cable. (Not sure if the canopus takes 6 or 4pin... if I remember right, it's 4 pin)

A firewire card should work and then you can view your parents video on the monitor connected with a converter box. ;-)