Questions for Pro users
 

OK, so I'm about ready to pull the trigger on the B&H Vegas Pro upgrade because the project I'm working on is just too much for MSP 8 to handle. It will likely be about 4 hours long with hundreds of clips and a very detailed menu. I will need to use Mercalli a lot, as well as some other plug-ins that aren't available for MSP. Here's my questions:

1. Can project files (.vf) from MSP 8 be loaded into Pro 8? If so, will they be changed in any way?
2. Can project files from MSP 8 and/or Pro 8 be loaded into Pro 8.1 64-bit? If so, will they be changed in any way?
3. Will Mercalli work with Pro 64-bit? (I've written to them twice, but gotten no answer) Will clips treated with Mercalli in Pro 8.0c work OK in Pro 8.1?
4. Do all plug-ins for Pro 8.0c work in 8.1 64-bit?
5. Has anyone done a comparison of project rendering times between Pro 8.0c and 8.1 64-bit? If so, what was the difference? Has 8.1 been stable?
6. Will rendered projects from 8.1 still be exportable to DVD Architect 4.5?
7. Can Pro 8.0c and 8.1 peacefully coexist on the same partition?

I am working on a Vista 64-based system. I appreciate any feedback provided. Thanks!

#1: yes you can load .vf projects in to Pro 8 - but when you save them they will now be saved as .VEG files which cannot be loaded in Movie Studio.

#2: See #1 (8.1 and 8.0 use the same file format the files can be interchanged between them)

#3: No - until the plugins are redone for 64bits they will not work. Yes if you render out a file in 8.0c using Mercalli, you can use it in 8.1.

#4: Generally speaking - no. Until they're redone for 64bits they don't work in 8.1. The main exception to that is scripts. Generally speaking, scripts WILL work.

#5: There was a thread on the Sony Vegas forum (on Sony's site) that talked about that. Maybe someone here can also post some test results.

#6: Yes

#7: Yes.

- some answers -
 

Answer to question 4 -
Not all plug-ins from 32bit 8.0c will work with 64bit 8.1

Answer to question 5 -
I can't speak from personal experience but a Vegas user over at the Sony user forum reported a more than noticeable difference in rendering times - favoring 8.1 of course. Then another user posted that he found no significant improvements in rendering.

Sony Creative Software - Forums - Vegas Pro - Video Messages

Answer to question 7 -
Some users have reported having no problems with both versions being on a 64bit system. As well there are some users who have reported having problems with both versions being on the same 64bit system. No determination on whether problems were or can be attributed to either software or hardware conflicts.

My renders are about 30% faster in 8.1, however, I have too little ram in my 64 bit machine to fully take advantage. So I'd suspect that 8.1 *COULD* offer significant improvement.

Excellent responses, guys. It looks what I will be doing for this particular project is editing in 8.0c so I can use Mercalli and then rendering as separate mpg2 files rather than VEG files. I will then import the files into 8.1 and do my final rendering of the completed project there. Then export to mpg2 so I can create a DVD with menus in DVDA 4.5.

Am I correct in assuming that the 8.0c mpg2 files will not be re-rendered in 8.1 (thereby reducing quality)?

From my observations, a great deal of the reality of going to 64 bit is directly related to the chipset on the mobo, and perhaps secondarily to the software drivers for that chipset. A blanket statement that it is faster or slower or no problems, or it doesn't work is a generic response that may or may not apply. Throw the dice and takes yer chances.

Rick, I'd test that to see if it gets rerendered. You may be better off going to another intermediate format. I would assume that the render settings would need to match the clips settings so they'd all have to be rendered the same.

Good idea, Ed. I'm going to try several different workflows because this project is huge. I'll report back on what did/didn't work. Thanks!