Not long ago, I had a post about PCWorld's ignorance of VV3 when they reviewed the video editing softwares. I guess again they were expecting to be paid for the review. How can the review be unbiased when money is involved!

I guess the right thing to do is to use those vastly popular sites such as epinion, or even Amazon's product review section to alert people unaware of the Cnet/PCWorld money-driven reviews. Problem is, those sites do not have the same audience as Vegas's. Is there any non-for-money video editing web site that everybody could find in google?

I remember when rags like PC magazine came out every other week and ran 300-400 pages, at least half ads. The so-called 'reviews' always seemed to slant to those that advertised the most. Rarely did new applications from upstart companies ever get mentioned. Sad, but true. Besides the so-called reviewers mostly were cluseless and frequently made blunders in describing the application or hardware. So much for objectivity.

You're much better off getting the opinions of people that have/used the appliction, harware in forums like this. While of course those of us that use Vegas are at lease a little biased. but still more honest and objective that commericial web sites, or publications who are after all depending on their survival based in part, usually large part on ad revenues.

It's called CAPITALISM.

Oddly enough, it were not for Cnet, I might never have known about Sonic Foundry. When I first considered video editing, I browsed through the various "review" sites to see if there was at least consensus among "reviewers" on any given NLE. Cnet has a User Response function where those who have purchased and used a product can state their views. Quite a few responders said that they wished they had purchased Sonic Foundry's VideoFactory rather than the product they were commenting on.

"What the heck is Sonic Foundry", I asked myself - and the rest, as they say, is history.

JackHughs

It's true. It's become so difficult to find a good honest review of anything these days that isn't biased in some way. I used to use epinions allot until they began hiring people to give opinions of my opinion! That was just ludicrous to me. Amazon is no better. All the reviews there are skewed by the fact that bozos post reviews for things long before they ever come out, and by the time they do, there's no true avg rating of anything. Look up Episode III just for an example. There's already 5 star reviews for it and it's not even made yet. That kind of thing happens all the time. Consumer Reports is unbiased, but they don't cover enough territory on things like software.

Unfortunately, it seems like the only thing to do is search, and hope you come across some personal site that has comments based on a regular users hands-on experience.

Yes, that's true. CNET changed to a pay site last year, and since then i have not been able to get decent publicity for my freeware products. Guess i have to spend money hereafter promoting my freeware... (or better, start a competitor site to cnet! ;) )

- Satish

I agreee CNET opinions are biased and I've seen it with other products as well. I haven't even heard of Vegas Video until I went to the user reviews and I heard good things. I was Vegas what?!! Sounds cheesy!! Boy was I wrong. What a differnce I was usin Pinnacle Studio 8 and I was pulling out my hair from the roots. Ulead is okay but still problematic especially if you use a ATI All In Wonder Card. But without a doubt Video Vegas 4 and DVD rules. Now if only if a good book can come out so I can understand it better than using the manual.