Why not Phenom from AMD???

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt

And it CLEARLY states the 64 bit version to be out in September.... let's hope.

The Good news
It's nice to see Jan Ozer praising Vegas and admitting the problems he's had with it have been his own. Looks like the flack Vegas users have given him over the years has worked. (For example, he once gave Pinnacle Studio four stars in the same issue he gave Sony Vegas 4.0 got three stars. Vegas was in the "Pro category," but come on.)

The bad news.
He writes about profession video for a living and thinks that DVD Architect 5.0 is out? That is a very simple thing to factcheck using any web browser, and consider he just spoke with the VP of the company, he could have nailed that down. Also it sounds like he thinks opening multiple versions of Vegas is a new feature.

Buster, I don't know Jan from Adam but I read the article and in his defence, in his comment about opening multiple versions of Vegas, he said "a killer and totally unique feature." not a 'new' feature.

Talking of Vegas's unique features - I read in another forum about a "poor" FCP user who used an F355 XD Cam (1440 x 1080) as main camera, and an EX1 (1920 x 1080) as second camera, then wasn't able to use the footage from both in FCP's multicam feature without first rendering one to the same resolution as the other.

Most of this success relates to Vegas’ growing strength as a product, and

My point is that the ability to open up another instance of Vegas has been a killer and unique feature for a long, long time before nested timelines existed in Vegas. The above quote makes me think Jan just learned this at NAB.

AlanC,

Here's another reason not to give Jan the benefit of the doubt.

In the comments to link above, he's talking about why he jumped from editor to editor until he found PremierePro. A lot of it boils down to his personal preference personal which I no problem with, but then he gives as one of his reasons not to use Vegas:
Sound Forge didn’t do multiple tracks until 9, while Audition did, making that switch compelling as well.

which makes you just want to slap your forehead. Of course, anyone familiar with the history of Vegas knows it started as an audio app and is still used by tons of folks who never do video. The whole Sonic Foundry workflow was

1: Edit Single audio files in Sound Forge
2: Mix multiple files in Vegas.

And there is easy integration between the two apps and it's been this way before Adobe integrated Photoshop and PremierePro. In fact the audio strengths of Vegas is why Adobe bought Cool Edit Pro and renamed it Audition in the first place. And it's not like he didn't own Vegas, so he's complaining about missing something that's been there for what, a decade now?

Why not Phenom from AMD???

While I love my Phenom and it is pretty darn fast, the fastest one is no where near as fast as intel's fastest. But speeds ~the same are prices pretty close. So if you want the fastest, you should get an intel.

re: guy who did the article

many people just don't know all their program can do. ESPECIALLY when you don't read the quick-start guides/shortcut key listings. 99% of all questions here & on the DVDA board could be fixed by reading those. For someone who doesn't use vegas much (if at all) to suddenly realize you can have multiple copies of vegas open at once doesn't surprise me as no other NLE can do that. I also don't see why it should be a bullet point as i see no reason all programs couldn't have multiple instances open at once. Wasn't that the point of multitasking, windows & protected memory?

Happy,

My point is this guy is not just "many people," he's been reviewing professional video software for years. How difficult is it to create username and come to a place like this and ask, "how do you do x? or can you do y?"

Or call up Sony Support and ask.

because most reviewers don't care that much about the review. Unless it's a big company, like Microsoft, they won't go hunting for things like that. And if they do do that, it's normally to point out something negative.

I've done reviews of stuff before. It's a lot more work to do research to find out about the software then it is to just download & run. Takes much more time. That's why video game based reviews are done by a team of people vs one or two people: a person is given a game & they find everything they can about it. Then someone writes a review based on that. With NLE's you normally don't try wacky things like with other stuff. We do here but most people don't. Including reviewers.

The surprise he shows is another reason I don't think people who aren't familiar with the software shouldn't review it. He obviously isn't "in the know" on what it can do, just the bullet points on the website. I'd rather see someone like Spot write a Vegas review because if he has an issue with something, it's not just a "I never bothered to look" type of issue, it's a REAL issue. But then people call that one sided (I call it an informed reviewer).

Jan NEVER "jumped from editor to editor until he found Premiere Pro." Jan was a Ulead Media Studio fanboy until Ulead killed the product. He's a super-huge fan of the product manager for Premiere pro, who is the former director of marketing for Ulead (She's a super-terrific person, can't blame him).
It's odd that Jan chose Vegas Movie Studio as "Editor of the Year" when Ulead killed MSP. Two months later in another magazine, he gave the exact same software, same version, two out of five stars.
Then there was the Vegas review where he complained about rendering chromakeyed footage and rendering times.
I suggested to him later that had he copied the 320 x 240 footage from the DVD to a hard drive, and rendered to 320 x 240 rather than 720 x 480, it probably would have rendered faster. Had he rendered to DV vs uncompressed it would have rendered faster. But...none of the above occurred to him.
I choose not to review Vegas simply because I'm biased, and any review would be a "fanboy" review. No one has ever seen me review Vegas, and lkely never will. At the end of the day, they're all just software tools, and there is no point in getting panties in a wad over the subject, but at the same time, it's a point of integrity as a reviewer, IMO, to be as fair as possible, and to learn as much as possible within the limited amount of time we generally have in which a product review assignment allows.

FWIW, at NAB this year, the number of FCP users looking at Vegas for a variety of reasons (many just wanting to "add blades to their Swiss Army knife computers) was astounding. They might primarily be FCS users, but they also recognize that all tools have limitations and if they're to be productive, Vegas a tool worth examining for their tool kit. It's fast, it's effective, and it's very inexpensive by comparison.
I like Jan very much, but I'm also very disappointed in how he's managed his writings about *all* Sony software.

... but I'm also very disappointed in how [Jan Ozer] managed his writings about *all* Sony software.

Jan's bias against Sony Vegas has been evident from day one. I actually canceled a magazine subscription becasue of if his incessant, mindless rants against Vegas. It was obvious that he had little (if any) real time on the application. Which begs the question: What does he do besides writing about video equipment?

I choose not to review Vegas simply because I'm biased, and any review would be a "fanboy" review.

How does one NOT write a review that's either rated "fanboy" or "hater"? Seriously. I've seen a reviewer praise X in one app &, the next review, say what a waste of time the same feature is in another app.

It's hard to be objective. I'd say many reviewers aren't. I used to read DV magazine & would say their reviews were biased. Again, Vegas would get a knock while another piece of software would get praise for the exact same thing. I started using Vegas back in Vegas 3 & found so many advantages vs other software+hardware combo's I couldn't stand using other software. But the big draw-back was vegas had no hardware support. On the two systems I tested it in, it rendered faster via software rendering then the hardware-accel NLE did doing the same things.

I don't think Ozer's problem is so much bias as basic competence. I have read many of his reviews, and he seems to have a keen grasp of surface details, but also amazing gaps in understanding which indicate both a lack of hands-on experience, as well as a complete absence of an intellectual curiosity to understand how something really works.

For those familiar with the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Ozer completely fails to grasp the underlying meaning of the tools about which he writes.

... Ozer completely fails to grasp the underlying meaning of the tools about which he writes.

Well said, John. I think you're spot on with that observation.

Thanks!