Is VMS dead? Time to abandon ship?

remy-faures wrote on 3/27/2018, 12:30 PM

Hello,

Not trying to be unnecessarily provocative here. But I have to wonder if VMS is still a good bet. I am trying to upgrade to VMS15, been using VMS since version 8 and really like the product. However I can't seem to get in touch with anyone for support or pre-sales questions. The US phone number listed on Vegas web site doesn't respond (forget that it is only supposedly open 4 hours a day).

Support ticked remains unanswered as well. I think it went to Germany.

 

I would hate to be forced to switch to a competing product. But doesn't get a good vibe about Magix standing behind VMS.

 

Please tell me I'm wrong. Looking for re-assurance here.

 

Thanks.

Comments

vkmast wrote on 3/27/2018, 1:18 PM

Judging by this comment (a follow-up to this comment) at least Customer Support was still not dead only yesterday. And some discussion after the Update 1 of VMS /VMSP 15 e.g. here.

vkmast wrote on 3/27/2018, 2:31 PM

Don't know if this https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/1020978 has something to do with getting in touch.

remy-faures wrote on 3/27/2018, 3:57 PM

Thank you vkmast for the good replies.

EricLNZ wrote on 3/27/2018, 6:05 PM

remy-faures - the best way to find the answer to your questions is probably to download the 30 day trial and find for yourself. Plus ask here.

remy-faures wrote on 3/29/2018, 3:04 PM

EricLNZ,

I tried to install the trial version. Can't get the Start-Trial button to work, thus can't get it activated. This is partially why I am trying to get in touch with support.

In all fairness, I finally got a response from the online support. Wasn't very helpful yet, just telling me to click the start-trial button. But at least somebody got back to me.

The US support phone number appears to be dead.

I'm trying to give VMS a fair shot, and would really like to continue using the product. So far I haven't been able to.

 

EricLNZ wrote on 3/29/2018, 6:10 PM

remy-faures -I'm trying to remember how starting the trial worked. Can you give us a screenshot of the opening screen with the button that doesn't work. Somewhere before you can activate it you need to get a code from Magix which comes in an email but I've forgotten how that comes about.

EricLNZ wrote on 3/30/2018, 3:42 AM

Another thought - check that when you press the start trial button and nothing appears to happen, there isn't a window hidden behind on your screen.

vkmast wrote on 3/30/2018, 6:29 AM

I'd tend to suggest the same as Eric in his comments above. Just in case, read this though.

EricLNZ wrote on 3/30/2018, 6:33 AM

A screen hiding behind did happen to me recently. Unfortunately I cannot recall what I was installing.

dalibor-saula wrote on 4/10/2018, 12:19 AM

There are a few bugs with this system for sure. Would have been better to have a really cheap monthly plan for VMS so that they can invest more in the development of the product. There need to be better transitions, titles etc. I feel like it's 2018 and the titles in there are still from '98.

3POINT wrote on 4/11/2018, 3:34 AM

There need to be better transitions, titles etc. I feel like it's 2018 and the titles in there are still from '98.

Fancy transitions etc, usefull or not, can be bought from third party providers like NewBlue. VMS has all the tools on board to create your own modern looking titles (except 3D) and save those as presets.  

cris wrote on 4/11/2018, 10:59 AM

Dont know about the other big NLEs, but the amount of creative options that MS offers at its price is crazy good. The only missing feature to me is serious mask tracking - where you can set up a mask on a clip and the system moves the anchor points with the footage, so that you can apply effects only to the content in or outside the mask. If it had that, I wouldn't need anything else.

 

dalibor-saula wrote on 4/11/2018, 5:36 PM

Cris, must say I never used that apart from when I needed to blur something out, and usually just manually tracked it. I think BorisFX also has that from when I looked at it the other day. The downside is that I notice you need to get a lot of third party software to be able to really take advantage of the editing platform. Wish there were some OFX open source plugins

EDIT: I did find a few

https://github.com/olear/openfx-arena

http://www.tuttleofx.org/

and most of these open source effects are listed in the wikipedia for the openFX Api

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenFX_(API)

 

 

cris wrote on 4/12/2018, 12:27 PM

Cris, must say I never used that apart from when I needed to blur something out, and usually just manually tracked it. I think BorisFX also has that from when I looked at it the other day. The downside is that I notice you need to get a lot of third party software to be able to really take advantage of the editing platform. Wish there were some OFX open source plugins

EDIT: I did find a few

https://github.com/olear/openfx-arena

http://www.tuttleofx.org/

and most of these open source effects are listed in the wikipedia for the openFX Api

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenFX_(API)

 

 

Yes, blurring is an application but what I'd most interesting in using it for is coloring and masking out unwanted bits. Cool to know BorisFX has it, I just got MS15 but not installed yet, maybe it's included?

Jack S wrote on 4/12/2018, 4:47 PM

Chris, try Hitfilm Express. It's free and it has motion tracking facilities. It was included as a plugin for MSP13 but the integration was sadly taken out for 14 and 15. It can be used standalone though.

My system
Genshin Infinity Gaming PC
Motherboard Gigabyte H610M H: m-ATX w/, USB 3.2, 1 x M.2
Power Supply Corsair RM750X
Intel Core i7-13700K - 16-Core [8P @ 3.4GHz-5.4GHz / 8E @ 2.50GHz-4.20GHz]
30MB Cache + UHD Graphics, Ultimate OC Compatible
Case Fan 4 x CyberPowerPC Hyperloop 120mm ARGB & PWM Fan Kit
CPU Fan CyberPowerPC Master Liquid LITE 360 ARGB AIO Liquid Cooler, Ultimate OC Compatible
Memory 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5/5200MHz Corsair Vengeance RGB
MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB - Ray Tracing Technology, DX12, VR Ready, HDMI, DP
System drive 1TB WD Black SN770 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD - 5150MB/s Read & 4900MB/s Write
Storage 2 x 2TB Seagate BarraCuda SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM
Windows 11 Home (x64)
Monitors
Generic Monitor (PHL 222V8) connected to GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Generic Monitor (SAMSUNG) connected to iGPU

Camcorder
SONY Handycam HDR-XR550VE

cris wrote on 4/13/2018, 1:46 AM

Chris, try Hitfilm Express. It's free and it has motion tracking facilities. It was included as a plugin for MSP13 but the integration was sadly taken out for 14 and 15. It can be used standalone though.

Indeed, when I really need tracking, I do switch to HitFilm. :)