Rainer and others,


It has been my experience that if you are semi serious with this digital editing process, you will always require more than one editing suite.

I used to run pennicle (before it became avid) and adobe priemere pro. I let Penicle go and moved to PP and Vegas. IO have used PP less and less as time passed by!!

While Vegas is a fantastic suite I have had recent issues with projects over two hoours in length, I have heard Neo is particularly strong in that aspect of editing (I am doing fully hdv). so, with that in mind I have been lurking about this forum.

Generally two suites will cover 98% of the bases.

By the way, Vegas cuts hd to a dvd rather easily, 18 minutes max on a silgle layer dvd.

In my experience nothing does it all!!!

A close friend uses final cut and also uses vegas, go figure that one! Interesting.

Generally none of the econo suites do enough for anyone that is serious.

for me looking at neo is only a means to have a second source to burn blu ray discs and real time on a long project.

think it will pull that weight?

Hi Dale. Nowadays I think mental blinkers are probably one of the most productive tools in the editing process. So you don't start to think half way though an (choose one: Avid, Edius, FCS, PP or Vegas) project "I could do this so much faster/better in (choose one: Avid, Edius, FCS, PP or Vegas)" and "if only (choose one: Avid, Edius, FCS, PP or Vegas) had (this or that feature) this would be so much better". Its probably one reason Avid is so successful: production companies won't let anything else through the door, and their employees are forced to learn the system so thoroughly they become really adept, whereas we more shallowly but widely aware look at Avid and say "you paid that much for that?". On our own, and being creative, we don't have the discipline, and the grass is always greener.... Unfortunately, Vegas (although I loved the workflow) has stopped doing it for me. I can't afford Avid, I developed an aversion (possibly irrational, but you can't always choose) to PP so Neo is looking pretty good. If Vegas and DVDA are doing it for you, I'd suggest that for now there's no reason to clutter up your system with another editor or your brain with another interface lest you become more distracted from doing any real work (hmm... what am I doing on this forum...?).

Rainer,

I fuly understand what you are saying here!!!

Every piece of software I ever used has its own issues. (for 20 years I used to teach computers too)

I believe it is important to know ones software, but also to know its weaknesses, which in turn dictates that a second software strong in the others weakness is a good idea.

an example. Vegas does composite work well. However After effects is powerfully strong in this so it is worthy of having on hand.

If Neo is strong in real time, can run a two hours hd project without stuttering then it is worthy to have in this regard, if for no other reason than using on the odd long run projects.

Do you think neo to be strong in this aspect? Also mixed format editing at real time.


Dale

Dale, Still testing so I can't yet answer for rendering long projects, but handling mixed formats is definitely one of Neo's strengths. It doesn't handle everything (in my case mjpegs) but this might be a minor codec issue. It also seems to have problems automatically identifying correct aspect ratios for mixed formats, but these are easy to fix manually. On my i7 860 with 8g Ram playback with mixed media including up to three AVCHD tracks is smooth, but it might depend on your machine. One downside is (AFAIK) no full screen external monitor preview, which is one of Vegas' strengths. There's still a lot I haven't tried, but so far stability hasn't been an issue.

You can get the HDSpark card for full resolution external HDMI preview. I don't think Vegas will do full resolution preview.

Ron Evans

Good Morning,

Thanks ron and rainer!

capturing at the moment so I am on here for a few minutes.

does hd spark card work on neo?

Will it be used as primary monitor or a secondary?

Will it conflict when I use my Vegas program?


Currently I run an I7 with 10 gigs of ram.

On a large project (just capped a 2 hour 20 minute hd project), with cineform avi it will not play at best quality at proper frame rate. I find that frustrating!


Does neo have multi cam?

The HD Spark only displays the NLE preview from Neo or Edius. It is not another display card and will not display anything other than Neo or Edius preview, full screen over HDMI. So you could hook it up to your HD TV and view what is in you preview window working in Neo or Edius Pro.
Neo will play several tracks realtime of AVCHD but it does not have the multicam edit feature of Edius Pro 5. Edius Pro 5.5 will come out at NAB with the Booster technology so will run AVCHD realtime too. At the moment EDius Pro will not play AVCHD at any speed but will edit just fine.

I don't thing Spark willinterfere with Vegas.

Ron Evans

Thanks. I will try to burn a NTSC DVD, but I am really interested in putting AVCHD on DVD.
As to trying Magix Movie Edit Pro and Video Pro, that I will do in month or so when my trial period with Neo expires. My main complaint with Pinnacle and others is that it rerenders the video and reduces the quality. What starts out as wonderful HD (AVCHD) ends up being little better than plain old SD.

Mike,

Vegas burns hd on to DVD (17 minutes single layer). I suspect it may also do achvd. down load the trial and try it real quick shot. If you want to email me an achvd file i will try it for you.


Dale.

Thanks Dale. I will give Vegas a try.

Mike