I have been playing with the 'Smart Zoom' and I find that it works real well. A smart zoom of 1.5 works great. A smart zoom of 2.0 works from just fair to fairly good, depending on the quality of the source. It does not matter if the source is 4k or 2k from my video cameras. The original quality of the video makes the greatest difference. The original quality with the least amount of noise, the most accurate focus and proper exposure can make a huge difference in how much smart zoom can be used.

In Sony Vegas 13, I would set the project size to the resolution I wanted to crop to and then render down from there. So if I use 2k and will render for DVD, I will set the project setting for 960x540 and crop where needed and then render to 720x480 with the widescreen flag set to make my DVD's from.

With the 'Smart Zoom' I can leave my project settings at 1920x1080 and get what I need for both DVD's and online videos. I unfortunately need to use as much as 2.0 on the zoom for parts of the videos. If I can get away with less, I will do so.

Videos from my Sony CX-900 work the best with Smart Zoom. Videos from my Sony AX-53 work from fair to good. Videos from my older cameras work fair at best. None of them work very well with interlaced videos. With interlaced video they work fairly good at best. So it is best to shoot progressive!

Right now, I mix Vegas versions in what I do with my videos. I start the projects with Sony Vegas 13 so I can use Plural Eyes to synchronize the videos and audios. I absolutely refuse to pay the upgrade price to use Plural Eyes with Vegas 14!

Once started with Sony Vegas 13, the project can then be opened in Vegas 14. Once opened in Vegas 14, it will be ‘Saved-As’ with a new name. So the project will be named ‘project13’ in Sony Vegas 13 and then ‘project14’ in Vegas 14.

All of the editing can then be done in Vegas 14. Rendering for the internet is done with Vegas 14 using the ‘Sony AVC/MVC (*.mp4). Rendering for DVD will use Video for Windows with Cineform and then send to VirtualDub to make it 720x480 with the resultant video file loaded into Sony Vegas 13. I can then create the chapter markers and then render for DVD. Note: I will make the size 720x480 which squashes the video to be later properly sized because of the widescreen flag. LOL! I used the word squash because my old brain fart cannot remember the correct name.

Anyway, the idea is to use Sony Vegas 13 where needed and Magix Vegas 14 where needed.

I will no longer use the Vegas to HandBrake method because the DebugMode FrameServer messes with my audio by making it 44,100 instead of 48,000. Using a pink noise, one can see the damage this causes to the audio. I also do not like installing a bunch of stuff to make that work.

I wish the programmers of HandBrake would get their act together and make it work with Cineform files to put an end to this non-sense!

Finally, I wish Vegas had a much better way of going from 1920x1080 to 720x480 so I do not need to use external software to do it! There also a much better way of compressing the videos for the internet. The H265 does not work on my system. I get a dialog box with ‘An error occurred while creating the media file Test.mov. The reason for the error could not be determined.’ This is probably because I do not have what is needed for *.mov files. And I WILL NOT compromise the security of my system for *.mov files either. Why the hell are they using ONLY *.mov files and not just *.mp4?

Anyway, I rambled a bit here but these are my thoughts on this.