Movie Studio to Vegas Pro upgrade path?

dan-worrall wrote on 9/7/2016, 5:53 AM

Hi.

I've been using Movie Studio for some time now as it did everything I needed and I didn't know what I was missing from Vegas Pro. However I now find I need to edit ProRes files, which apparently means I need to upgrade at last.

But now I go to look for it I can't find any upgrade path from MS to VP? I'm pretty sure Sony used to offer one... am I going to have to pay full price?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

vkmast wrote on 9/7/2016, 6:08 AM

I guess you'll have to wait till MAGIX gets the transition completed. I'm sure there will be upgrade offers.

Meanwhile, if you haven't yet, read https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/vegas-pro-14-announcement-w-native-prores--102770/

dan-worrall wrote on 9/7/2016, 6:38 AM

Thanks for the reply vkmast.

ProRes seems to be working ok in the VP13 demo however, and I can't hang on much longer. I should have upgraded earlier I guess!

Eagle Six wrote on 9/7/2016, 9:30 AM

Hi Dan,

Out of curiosity, what is it in the Vegas Pro 13 trail/demo you are doing with ProRes that cannot be done in Movie Studio?

I have Movie Studio 13 Platinum and can process ProRes files.

Best Regards......George

System Specs......
Corsair Obsidian Series 450D ATX Mid Tower
Asus X99-A II LGA 2011-v3, Intel X99 SATA 6 Gb/s USB 3.1/3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-6800K 15M Broadwell-E, 6 core 3.4 GHz LGA 2011-v3 (overclocked 20%)
64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200
Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTX 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
MSI Radeon R9 390 DirectX 12 8GB Video Card
Corsair RMx Series RM750X 740W 80 Plus Gold power pack
Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 boot drive
Corsair Neutron XT 2.5 480GB SATA III SSD - video work drive
Western Digitial 1TB 7200 RPM SATA - video work drive
Western Digital Black 6TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Bb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 data drive

Bluray Disc burner drive
2x 1080p monitors
Microsoft Window 10 Pro
DaVinci Resolve Studio 16 pb2
SVP13, MVP15, MVP16, SMSP13, MVMS15, MVMSP15, MVMSP16

NickHope wrote on 9/7/2016, 12:00 PM

The deal with ProRes is that it can be read in Vegas at the moment if you have Quicktime for Windows installed. However Apple has stopped updating Quicktime for Windows so it's a potential security risk. It's expected that Vegas Pro 14 will be able to read ProRes files without Quicktime for Windows installed. I haven't uninstalled Quicktime yet and haven't heard of any attacks.

dan-worrall wrote on 9/8/2016, 3:17 AM

Hi Dan,

Out of curiosity, what is it in the Vegas Pro 13 trail/demo you are doing with ProRes that cannot be done in Movie Studio?

I have Movie Studio 13 Platinum and can process ProRes files.

Best Regards......George

Hi George. 

I can't open the files at all. I do have QT installed, and the VP demo opens them ok on the same machine.

I'm still on Movie Studio 12: is that the problem? I couldn't find any mention of ProRes in the MS 13 specs...

I'll grab the latest Movie Studio demo I guess (though I can't see an upgrade path for that either!)

Dan.

dan-worrall wrote on 9/8/2016, 3:23 AM

So I tried the Movie Studio 13 demo, still can't open the files I need to edit. Error "the number of channels is not supported".

On a different note, has MS 13 been dumbed down compared to version 12, or did they just move everything so I can't find it? :/ <Edit> Oh I see, cheapest version only provides the "simple" edit mode. I guess I'll have to try the Platinum version as well now...

dan-worrall wrote on 9/8/2016, 4:29 AM

No luck. I get the same too many channels error in MS Platinum as well. 

Eagle Six wrote on 9/8/2016, 11:36 AM

Hi Dan,

I think the problem isn't with the video part of the ProRes, rather the audio included.  With both SMS12P, SMS13P and SVP13 I can import and use ProRes 422 HQ files, which have stereo audio.  Your error code mention channels, and if I'm not mistaken Vegas Pro is more capable in the audio area.

Sorry to have sent you on a wild goose chase and mislead you.

Using MediaInfo software (or something similar) you can probably confirm what type of audio is included in your ProRes files, unless you already have the specs.

Best Regards......George

System Specs......
Corsair Obsidian Series 450D ATX Mid Tower
Asus X99-A II LGA 2011-v3, Intel X99 SATA 6 Gb/s USB 3.1/3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-6800K 15M Broadwell-E, 6 core 3.4 GHz LGA 2011-v3 (overclocked 20%)
64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200
Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTX 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
MSI Radeon R9 390 DirectX 12 8GB Video Card
Corsair RMx Series RM750X 740W 80 Plus Gold power pack
Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 boot drive
Corsair Neutron XT 2.5 480GB SATA III SSD - video work drive
Western Digitial 1TB 7200 RPM SATA - video work drive
Western Digital Black 6TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Bb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 data drive

Bluray Disc burner drive
2x 1080p monitors
Microsoft Window 10 Pro
DaVinci Resolve Studio 16 pb2
SVP13, MVP15, MVP16, SMSP13, MVMS15, MVMSP15, MVMSP16

dan-worrall wrote on 9/9/2016, 5:56 AM

I checked one of the files using MediaInfo (good tip, thanks) and sure enough it has 8 audio streams. I knew that already actually, as importing them into Vegas Pro creates 8 audio channels (with channels 3 to 8 silent!)

Anyone know of an easy way to strip those superfluous extra audio channels from my files? 

Sorry to have sent you on a wild goose chase and mislead you.

Not at all, I very much appreciate your help!

Eagle Six wrote on 9/9/2016, 9:13 AM

Hi Dan,

Assuming you want the original source to remain as close to the ProRes as possible with only stereo channels, what come to mind to me first is Blackmagix DaVinci Resolve 12.5.  It's a free download and free program, and a very capable editing and color correction/grading NLE of it's own.  But because it will handle ProRes, is free, and you can batch render, I have used it to transcode/intermediate render source files.

If you haven't used it before, there is a bit of a learning curve, but not bad.  Load your source to the media, bring them into edit mode, skip the color mode and go to deliver.  There you have a large choice of render/export formats including ProRes 8 or 10 bit.

If you have an older computer and Resolve 12.5 will not run, then download and try version 12.1.  I'm sure there are many other alternatives to transcode or render intermediates and probably something that will just mux the audio that I'm not familiar with.  Hopefully someone will jump in to make a suggestion on a better solution.  Is this something you will need in the future, or just to get you through this one project.  Getting the ProRes source in the future, with only stereo channels, I suppose would be the best longer term fix.

Best Regards.....George

System Specs......
Corsair Obsidian Series 450D ATX Mid Tower
Asus X99-A II LGA 2011-v3, Intel X99 SATA 6 Gb/s USB 3.1/3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-6800K 15M Broadwell-E, 6 core 3.4 GHz LGA 2011-v3 (overclocked 20%)
64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200
Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTX 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
MSI Radeon R9 390 DirectX 12 8GB Video Card
Corsair RMx Series RM750X 740W 80 Plus Gold power pack
Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 boot drive
Corsair Neutron XT 2.5 480GB SATA III SSD - video work drive
Western Digitial 1TB 7200 RPM SATA - video work drive
Western Digital Black 6TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Bb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 data drive

Bluray Disc burner drive
2x 1080p monitors
Microsoft Window 10 Pro
DaVinci Resolve Studio 16 pb2
SVP13, MVP15, MVP16, SMSP13, MVMS15, MVMSP15, MVMSP16

dan-worrall wrote on 9/10/2016, 8:57 AM

Wow, Resolve is a beast! A bit daunting for an audio guy like me (Vegas is the only video editing software I've tried that I could get my head around at all!)

I managed to set up a batch render according to your instructions, though can't find any mention of ProRes in the codec list. But to be honest I'm inclined to just buy Vegas Pro and have done with it. It will pay for itself quick enough, I should probably stop being so stingy!

I got a response to my support ticket: upgrade paths coming "in the near future"... I'll hang on as long as I can.