Vegas 4 is here!!
 

Now available Vegas 4 via Electronic Download!!
We have just received special approval from Sonic Foundry to begin offering Vegas 4 and Vegas 4 +DVD via Electronic Download! Electronic Download Pricing:

Vegas 4 $299.95
Vegas 4 +DVD $499.95

Guys, Vegas4 is very cool! We've been playing with it a lot around here and we think you will be blown away by the power, performance and features.

http://www.videoguys.com/vegasvideo.html

Gary

I havent use this program but from what I have read and seen this is the only NLE out there that has all the right tools to create proper DVD and other video content. I am happy that they finally have 5.1 channel mixing. I mean crap I have wanted that forever. Plus it looks like I have imagined it, with speakers and all. This program looks like it has all the tools that FCP and Xpress DV. Does anyone have this program yet? And you tried out some of these features?


Rob

I have both Vegas 4.0 and DVD Architect and let me tell you, this is one case where the hype is warranted--Just an amazing program.

I agree with David :-D

Sweet. I have been using Adobe Premiere and let me tell you "it sucks crap through a straw." I hate it. The worst program ever made. I thought it would get better considering I love all adobe products....wait, nm, I hate some of them. After using After Effects and Photoshop (the GOD programs), it seems that they just dont care about their other products...except for the web ones. I dont know about those because I like macromedia web programs instead.
Im just happy that we have programs that can do it all. 5 years ago it was a steady hope. Now I dont need to because its here.

How do you like the DVD Architect? Is it part of Vegas 4.0 or a seperate program? What about the AC3 surround sound? Is the interface well constructed, it looks that way?

Rob:D

DVD Architect is a seperate program. And I've been hearing some
mixed feeling about that one (accroding to one person it seems
to have problems previewing the mpeg2 files). I still have to look
for myself, no time no time...

A bit more on Vegas 4 :

I was always a fan of Vegas Video, nothngs better for making music videos or montages or highlights. On the down side I felt it fell short on long format productions.

With Vegas 4 this is no longer an issue.

- The new media management tools are excellent.
- The real-time color correction is extremely powerful and you can preview the changes in the video while you are using the color correction tools.
- The audio tools in Vegas were always a cust above - now they've added AC3 encoding and 5.1 surround mixing.
- The integration with DVD Architect is superb making this the most complete soup to nuts video editing and DVD creation solution.

I realize there have been posts about the financial outlook for Sonic Foundry. I have no idea where they are going. What i can tell you is that Vegas4 is a major technology breakthrough for digital video, audio and DVD creation. You will not regret investing in it - especially at these amazing launch promotional prices.

http://www.videoguys.com/vegasvideo.html

Gary
Videoguys.com

Gary,

I am going to get a DVD player and authoring software in the next couple of months (or whenever I figure out exactly what I need). As a novice, I am having trouble figuring out which authoring software is best for my needs. In your experience how does Vegas Architect compare with Sonic DVDit or Reel DVD?

I am a hobbyist, but dedicated to producing the best video (and eventually DVD) I can. I am working with Vegas (which I bought from electronic mailbox) and want an authoring package with Vegas like stability. I don't need anything too fancy but want the ability to make chapters and subchapters with the icons being clips from the video. I would like to add subtitles for my Japanese audience (family) but don't know if this is practical since there seems to be compatibility issues between DVDs made here and there. And the kicker, a program that is fairly intuitive and user freindly (or a great instruction manual). I was very happy with my Vegas purchase from electronic mailbox and will almost definitely buy my burner and software from them.

Any advice you have about the DVD software would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you know of how to generate a DVD that can be watched on a Japanese DVD player I'm dying to find out how.

Dan,

I really think DVD architect is for you. I too played with a lot of programs, i basically went down to uni, where they have a boat load of programs they have aquired for free for training/testing purposes. I must have used every single authoring app there, about 7 of them.

DVD architect sold me because it is extremely powerful yes so so so so easy to use. All of what you want except for maybe the subtitles you will be delited with.

Zac

Japan is NTSC so as long as your DVD doesnt have a Region restriction on it you should be fine. I have gotten many DVD imports from Japan and as long as they aren't restricted they work.

Rob

at the moment my only complaint about DVD A is lack of support for sub titles. There are other issues depending on ones needs, but being in South FL in a bilingual market, sub titles would have been nice for the large hispanic population down here. As it is, dubbing is alway an option, but more expensive.

There are free tools (Virtual Dub, AVI synth) that support adding subtitles to mpeg streams, but not sure if they could be included in a final burn with DVD A.

btw, some are already saying a good combo is Vegas+DVDA plus the full version of Reel DVD. Reel DVD can't create 5.1 AC3 but it can import it. And it support multiple audio tracks and subtitles.
hmmmm. You still get a pro setup for less than 1500.00.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like I'll need to decide if I really need subtitles, but I think I will probably end up buying the Vegas DVD Architect (after I play around with the trial version a little). Do you think subtitles are something that might come along as a download in version 2?

I'll have to try some different Japanese DVDs out. The initial ones I tried (videos mailed from relatives for the kids) wouldn't play, maybe those were restricted for some reason.

I didnt know if there was gonna be enough of a change in V4 to make me switch from VV3... but there was. I love V4.

one thing to remember about DVDA is that this is a 1.0 release.

I feel it is underpowered in terms of what other more mature dvd apps can do, however, this is reflected in the price. As the cost difference between Vegas4 and Vegas4+DVDA is about the cost of the AC-3 5.1 encoder.

I think SoFo's main goal in the 1.0 release is to make sure
a) burning of dvds works
b) surround sound works

once they work out all the kinks, I'd assume 2.0 to bring many higher level features to the front.

I did a little test on Vegas 4 (the demo). I have Premiere 6.5 with a Pinnacle DV500Plus accelerator card, and compared that with the same video clips to Vegas 4 running on the same computer. My workstation is a screamer (dual 2.0Ghz; 1.5GbRDR; 2000Pro) and thus Vegas should shine given its CPU dependence (or maybe put differently, if it doesn't shine here, where?).

Vegas performed just ok. It was unable to playback in full speed a full resolution DV file of about 2Gig. The drive I was sourcing from (one separate from the system files and program files) is a fast 7200rpm drive I use for video editing without problems.

Maybe the demo is limited somehow beyond the 2min. playback limitiation; maybe I haven't optimized it somehow (Vegas'ites -- what should I do differently?). Maybe it's unfair to compare using the accelaration (I can disable and rerun the comparison).

I will say this: it took about 3 min. of playing around with Vegas4 to figure out which software is more sophisticated -- Vegas is. But the lack of hardware acceleration support may be a real drawback. Thoughts?

I'm a little confused when you say:

It was unable to playback in full speed a full resolution DV file of about 2Gig. The drive I was sourcing from (one separate from the system files and program files) is a fast 7200rpm drive I use for video editing without problems.

Playback where---in the preview screen, on an NTSC monitor? Tell us more about what you were playing back and where you were playing it back because at this point your post doesn't make much sense. Are we talking about real time previews with effects--are we talking about rendered final projects---?

Vegas should have NO problem playing back a OHCI DV clip doesn't matter the size ..
what does matter is if that clip was captured by your pinnicle board and it put a pinnicle header on the file making Vegas use pinnicle dv codec ... Vegas is OHCI ..pinnicle 500 is NOT OHCI..
Vegas is unable to use the accelerator ... therefore Vegas must convert the clip from a pinnicle priporitory clip to a OHCI clip for preview...

premiere can be set up for OHCI but if it came bundled with your 500 it is set up for the 500 card and doesn't have to convert .
.it uses the accelerator ... ..

dual processors doesn't help previews .. it does help for fx's /rendering ...

you would need to have a clip captured with a OHCI card to see Vegas do its thing !!! then capture same clip with your pinnicle card ... now compare them with Vegas using the ohci and premiere using the pinnicle clip ...

Will do Don. I'll try it tomorrow and report back.

Well, thinking about it, shouldn't it be a fair comparison if I render out of Premiere a Microsoft DV encoded (v. Pinnacle DV proprietary) .avi, then load that into each NLE to see how real time preview works?

(David I was applying no new effects, just using the NLE to preview the clip as an initial test. One of the big selling points of the DV500 is real time transition previewing, etc.)

Oh---with your systems most previews should be smooth as butter----I will let Donatello do his thing--he is much more savy then me----Read the recent review of Premiere 6.5 in DV magazine---the reviewer makes some telling points

I just downloaded the demo and what a great program. It really has the toolset that I love to see. It looks just as professional as FCP and pushed Premiere into its grave for me, it even let me cover Premiere with dirt myself. I have always hated Premiere and now I have a good reason to hate it even more. What crap. Bring on V4 and FCP I love them.
How does the download compare to the retail box version of V4? Is there any reason to get the boxed version other than a book and CD's?

I am awaiting my Vegas 4+DVD, hopefully next week. I like VV3 more every day so I can't wait for 4.
I will have a VV3 for sale, cheap, right after I get 4. I bought Vegas 4+DVD out right instead of upgrade becasue I get a great deal through Educational suppliers, the full 4+DVD was only $269, special through March 15.

Robert: The box doesn't add much, just a content CD (most of which is usually available on the SOFO FTP site), a quickstart kit (note: *not* a full hardcopy manual, that's extra no matter which package you get), and a slick keyboard shortcuts foldout.

I bought the boxed kit when I got VV3 since it was already well out and shipping, but I wasn't about to wait for V4 to ship; I got the download and started playing right away.

<<<-- Originally posted by Keith Luken : I am awaiting my Vegas 4+DVD, hopefully next week. I like VV3 more every day so I can't wait for 4.
I will have a VV3 for sale, cheap, right after I get 4. I bought Vegas 4+DVD out right instead of upgrade becasue I get a great deal through Educational suppliers, the full 4+DVD was only $269, special through March 15. -->>>

Gah, I'm so jealous!

BTW- What are some good user forums for Vegas?
Since I am going to be getting the program soon I thought it would be nice of me to read up on the program.

thanks,
Rob :D

Ah, ok Don, you were right. Wow, this does make Premiere toast. Now if only it integrated better with AE (although I say that about Premiere all the time too :)

lol. I know that someone around here had a link to a plug-in that allowed AE to read V4 project files. I just cant remember where it is now.

Rob:D

The most popular Vegas forum:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/

What are your thoughts on Pinnicle Edition v. Vegas 4 folks? (Now that I'm contemplating throwing Premiere out the window -- something I've fantasized about actually -- I might as well figure out the best new home for editing.)

I looked at the Edition Trial version and opted for Vegas 3, soon to have Vegas 4. Editions is nice, you need to get used to a very different interface, I find Pinnacle software bloated and sluggish. I have a 2.2GHz P4 with 1GB RDRAM with 6 x 80GB drvies and I felt Edition was a bit sluggish and not as responsive as Vegas. Vegas seems to be feature packed, lean and stable. I also use Premiere, and thoughtI would be using Premiere more, but since Adobe software is a bit buggy and I find myself in Vegas most of the time.

I thought this was a bit odd... has anyone tried finding info on Vegas Video by entering in the natural URL www.vegasvideo.com?

It seems to be a strange coincidence that two completely different companies dealing in very different areas would share a name like Vegas Video. I just gotta ask... is Vegas Video (the NLE) related at all to the website?

Wow. Vegas Video had features I never dreamed it might have! That threesome filter is amazing.

Just kidding.

Have you ever checked out www.whitehouse.gov, www.whitehouse.org, and www.whitehouse.com?

One is a link to the President's site, one is a parody site and one is porn.

Strange place this internet.

Thanks Keith -- I note that PC Magazine (not exactly video experts, but generally pretty reasoned) rated Edition highest but only in comparison to Vegas 2.

Try this link:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=161771&Replies=30&Page=1