Don, thanks for the input. I've always subscribed to the view that computers do one job well, two jobs less well etc and have a dedicated editing computer currently i5 quad core with 8GB RAM.

I'm also aware that whatever else it lacks Liquid (and other Avid products) is remarkably stable. I like not having to save and I likie background rendering both of which I'm prepared to forgo - but not stability. I can't live with a manual backup and unexpected reboots.

How does Vegas stack up in this respect - or is it a question I should only ask in private? People get very protective about their purchases sometimes to the point of denial I've found.

[QUOTE=Seth Bloombaum;1599669]1) HD-SDI only comes in a couple flavors, "regular" and dual-link. This is a transmission standard, not a storage standard. AFAIK, any device that records HD-SDI lays it down in some codec, ProRes422 is common, Cineform on a few. Vegas will read ProRes (but can't write it).QUOTE]

I guess the answer would be for Vegas to output in ProRes 422, but that is apple and they might not be able to get apple to allow it, correct ??

Vegas crashes for me:

Version 7e - Never (ok maybe once , twice a year...and i still use it 50% of the time)
Version 8? - A lot of crashes in the beginning as new releases are prone to bugs... i stopped using it very early in and went back to V7... and never went to 8 again
Version 9 (i don't know what version i have, C i guess) it crashes once a month, give or take....
Version 10 ( i don't have it) is out now but quite new! so i would wait a bit till Sony releases the next build, which they usually do pretty soon after build "a"


Some background:
- i mostly use Cineform HD and uncompressed files
- I have an AJA board w/HDMI out to a flat panel AND still use Firewire out to my JVC Broadcast CRT
- I don't use many effects cept for colour correction
- I use Magic Bullet looks/ New Blue FX and Cineform First Light religiously though.
- most projects are 30secs in length but sometimes up to 4 - 5 mins... and once in blue moon 20 - 30 minutes.
I push it V7/9 quite hard, very quick keyboard short cuts, quick switches between my monitors, etc and it performs great for me -

I've done some effects testing in FCP. One thing I really hate... I add the effect, start playback, and the only thing I see on the preview screen is "Needs Rendering" (or something like that). Adding transitions is a pain. Nothing feels "intuitive" to me.

Has anyone ever sat down with a FCP/Premiere/Avid user and ran through some of the paces in Vegas? It's interesting to watch their jaws drop when they see how easy it is to accomplish some of the simple tasks that take multiple steps in their NLE.

I can understand needing to go to FCP if you need to corroborate with many FCP users. I stick with Vegas for the sheer simplicity and speed of use. Plus, at this point I'd be lost without my scripts to automate so many tasks!

FCP is clunky, for sure. Avid is even worse.

Quite right - Vegas will render to whatever codec QT for Windows allows it to. Currently, Apple allows reading ProRes422 in QT for W. This is fairly recent. As to when or if they might enable writing to it? If it would make them some money I'd guess they'd do it right quick...

I have 9 and 10 and yet when 10 will not render due to 'low memory' I can't even open the file made in 10, in 9. Am I doing something wrong?

projects in 9 can be opened in 10 BUT NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

there hasn't been any backward compatibility for as long as i can remember (but i do have a short memory!}

Lee, open your 10 project, open a new instance of 9 and try doing a copy/paste from 10 to 9.
Some things such as track motion key frames will not copy over from one version to another.

Tried that idea Mike but it just messes it all up and takes forever.

Can\'t believe Sony didn\'t use their noggin and made them all compatible. Very poor IMO.