Probs with PP2 will Vegas do the trick?
 

Hi,

I am new to video and HD. I have a xh-a1 and am running with Premiere Pro 2.

It seems that most PP2 users also purchase Cineform Aspect HD to increase the performance.

PP2 also seems to have a big problem rendering content down to DVD using the included Adobe Media Encoder. This means outputting and then running through programs such as Virtual Dub and TMPGEnc. This makes for a complicated and SLOW workflow. The cost of the add ons is also about $600, or the total cost of the Vegas Production suite + DVD.

My questions are...
1) Can Vegas run without plugins such as Aspect HD, or does it benefit in the same way as PP2?

2) Does Vegas have good quality tools/codecs etc to handle downsizing and encoding from HDV to DVD?

3) Fine to run this program with a 1080i Canon XH-A1 - Pal?

As I am just starting to use PP2 and see that I may have to spend even more $s to make it work, I'm wondering if I should just spring for the Vegas and hopefully one stop editing.

Thanks for any input.
Robert

XH-A1, AMD64x2 4200, 2 gigs ram, geforce 7950gt, 4xsata2 drives

Yes, it will run fine by itself. Vegas 7d cuts HDV in it's native m2t format pretty decently. Also, it ships with a version of the cineform codec that can rendered to as a digital intermediate format.

For shooting/editing that always involves color correction, or always otherwise requires the cineform DI, there is Connect HD, which offers conversion to the DI on ingest (abt. $200 USD). For people who do a lot of this it offers a nice improvement in workflow.

Oh yeah. Excellent encodes to DVD (buy it with the companion application DVD Architect). Vegas/DVDA uses the Mainconcept MPEG2 codec, has great controls, and gives great results. (I'm working in NTSC...)

Sorry, I don't use this cam, but I've had great results with Z1 and HD100. I'm sure someone on this forum is using the XH-A1 pal with Vegas...

Robert:

I have both PP2 and Vegas 7 + DVD. Adobe Media Encoder is very slow and has quality issues. Prior to Buying Vegas 7 I used Encore DVD which encodes much faster the PP2 with the Adobe encoder and with better quality.

Vegas & + DVD is well suited DV and HDV. The encodes out of Vegas are very good. Unlike PP2 there are standard DVD Architect templates for NTSC or PAL and you can customize settings for progressive scan vs interlaced. DVD Architect is very advanced and while I like Encore as well I am getting more out of both Vegas & and DVD Architect.

Stephen Cannon

Hi Robert,

I'm an XH-A1 PAL user and am in touch with another UK user who also has one. We both use Vegas 7 plus DVD Architect and although we are both still at the early stages, are finding it works fine.

Happy to help if we can. You could do a search for my name for posts. I'm sure a lot of what I have been asking will be relevant to you.

One thing I do with Premiere, if you want to give it a try, is to encode HDV to DV .avi before doing the DVD thing. I also make sure that it goes to a deinterlaced file at that point.