My Impressions of V7....

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/11/2006, 9:59 PM
OK - I've had a chance to play a bit and still have yet to really put the new Vegas through it's rigors, and knowing how EVERYONE just waits with baited breath to hear what I have to say :P.

Let me preface this with the fact that while I was in Las Vegas at NAB, the number one complaint I heard from higher level editors than I, was the lack of FULL Keyboard editing support. I would hear about how KB editing was so much faster than mouse interface. I have to say that I'm am quite pleased to see that they have enhanced KB support in the new version, for those that edit for a living, time is money - and every time I see things that save me or others time I say, that's a VERY good enhancement.

I've been wanting a better way to *quickly* pull down a bit of audio, w/o having to click 6 times and drag the keyframe down. So now I can hold down shift and just click draw that little section down as I need - that saves me more time there too. VERY worthwhile enhancement.

I use RAM renders a lot, and I did some tests and found that my RAM renders were running at FULL CPU utilization (6 didn't make such good utilization).

I am yet to render with Vegas 7 but I figure it probably can't get too much better than 100 percent which it was at in 6. Mind you if they've enhanced some of the filters etc... to work faster then they will probably render faster too :) - I've yet to test them though so I can't say for certain.

Now let me finish by saying this. There are enhancements that should be done that take time to make happen. People used to complain about how they have to pay a yearly upgrade price with Vegas, so then they go 18months and put out PRETTY SUBSTANTIAL enhancements right when the next release would have been put out normally, and then they managed a lot of decent timesaving enhancements and release the next version. What kind of things are more important to a PROFESSIONAL app than time saving techniques??? I fully expect that version upgrades will not always have major changing tools etc... I expect to simply have upgrades coming where some you pay for, and some you don't.

Now all of these things do not even include the enhanced HDV support, and so on, Decklink Card support, etc...

Vegas is doing fine IMHO, but I know that every year - the fickle must fick, and that's how things always are. Let me say that those that are working and will use these enhancements will more than likely never say a word on these forums and will simply say, "Ahh, I've been waiting for that," and they will just keep working making dough at a faster rate.

Dave

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/11/2006, 10:27 PM
good impressions. i'm eager to see what's changed as i make rcomendations to other people. :)

youwouldn't happen to know if installing V7 updates the plugins/mpeg/qt/etc. for vegas 6, would you?
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/11/2006, 10:50 PM
I forgot to mention ENTIRELY the whole snapping timeline enhancement to boot.

I'm afraid I don't know that friar, sorry - but you can find out easily enough, just install it.

Dave
Ben  wrote on 9/12/2006, 2:39 AM
I'm pretty much an audio guy (and who probably know how peeved we've all been with Vegas recently) but overall I'm just shocked that this is, apparently, 18 months worth of work. Seriously.

Normally it's us audio guys complaining about a lack of new relavent features in a release, but I see very little here for video people either. Certainly nothing to inspire any awe. Mainly workflow enhancements that many others developers would just throw into a point release. Overall I'm just extremely disappointed at the progress - it feels to me like Sony have kind of given up.

Sadly,

Ben
Marco. wrote on 9/12/2006, 2:55 AM
I'm totally excited about the new XDCAM/XDCAM HD features. These are just great!!!
The workflow provided is that easy and fast and combined with the support of any existing XDCAM format V7 must be a winning competitor in that area.

Also the improvements done in the HDV section are just great!

Of course I appreciate all the detail enhancements which maybe often might been overseen but which can be so valuable. The new snapping behaviour, the copy/trim enhancements, multichannel support, the new preview facilities, etc. - all these things helps improving the workflow quite a lot.

It took me some time to make up my mind whether I should like or dislike Cinescore. Meanwhile I pretty much like it and the more I'm glad now we can directly use it in Vegas as plugin.

To me these are not just minor changes but a big step forward!

Marco
DGates wrote on 9/12/2006, 3:16 AM
.
winrockpost wrote on 9/12/2006, 4:46 AM
.....Improved auto-ripple behaviors.....
you try it first, no you, no you try it
ken c wrote on 9/12/2006, 5:00 AM
I'm trying it, sure.. after all this time I can hardly wait to see all the groundbreaking new features that V7 has to offer us... I Know it'll be more than cosmetic docking bs and "render to psp", right? I mean, Sony would'nt let us down again would they?

I can hardly wait to see the new titler that they integrated after hearing from hundreds of us, and all the video render speed improvements we're expecting.

Surely that miniscule feature list of insignificant minor changes isn't ALL they did in 18 months is it??? Tell me it isn't so. Tell me Sony overdelivered and packed the new Vegas 7 with truly useful new improvements instead of cosmetic bs. Let's all download it and see!

hmph.

Well sure I'm trying it, but on a laptop, NOT my production pc. You have to install .NET framework 2 on your pc, which is a big deal, so I don't want to risk screwing up all my other installed software that's still using 1.1

We'll see.

Ken

zcus wrote on 9/12/2006, 5:09 AM
NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL - LAME SONY

What thehell about GPU acceleration and the credit crap

DVD architect looks better but we all know we have to purchace Vegas to get it....

I think Avid liquid is looking good
DJPadre wrote on 9/12/2006, 5:59 AM
Anything but liquid...
just trust me on that...

if u want ur system to be nuked by a backend databse which is the funciton of teh background rendering.. then yeah go for it. but if u want to keep a clean system .. stick with vegas... or premier.. or edius...
Spot|DSE wrote on 9/12/2006, 6:06 AM
there is no lame bouncing ball transition in the stock load of V7. Or any other version. There is a third party bouncing ball that if you have it installed, V7 will pick it up and it will show there because it's a shared plugin.

I'm surprised no one has commented on the AJA Xena HD support. I'm *thrilled* to have an SDI/component card capability that doesn't require driversets, this mobo or that, this CPU or that, this configuration or that....it just works. Rock solid out of the box.
JJKizak wrote on 9/12/2006, 6:12 AM
kencalhoun:
Don't worry about installing .net 2.0 as .net 1.1 will operate all the other stuff that requires it. .net 1.1 will still be on your system after you install .net 2.0. Anyway I think and hope that is correct.
JJK
farss wrote on 9/12/2006, 6:16 AM
Yeah well great.
Except it ain't in the feature list for V7.
AJA make no claim for supporting Vegas.
And there's nothing specific about WHAT Vegas supports from AJA and their Xena cards.
Xena provides support for DPX, Cineon and 12 bit analogue.
Out of those what does Vegas support?

And when you say it just works, what part of it works, clearly not most of what one would buy into a Xena card for. According to the V7 feature list NO multitrack audio back over SDI, basic stuff for broadcast or mastering.

Bob.
plasmavideo wrote on 9/12/2006, 6:29 AM
Bob,

In the V7 release notes it states:

"Support for AJA SDI cards (requires Xena LH, LHe, LS, or LSe card). Includes support for batch capture, multichannel audio I/O, insert edit"

I have one editing machine I support at work that has a Xena LHe card. If I get a chance to kick our promo editors off of it for a while I'll try to load the trial on that machine and see how it responds. Anything specific you want to know? We're kicking off our fall promotions campaign now for the new season, so I may not be able to to try it for a while.

Tom
farss wrote on 9/12/2006, 6:49 AM
I think my questions (and prayers) have been answered.
Thanks for the offer but from the answer I got elsewhere, apart from one test I need to run, I'm feeling very confident about how V7 is going to pan out, well for me at least!

Bob.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/12/2006, 6:49 AM
that's what sucks about me being ~7 years behind the video tech curve: i'll get HD with Vegas 14. :)
michaelshive wrote on 9/12/2006, 6:54 AM
Which AJA Xena cards work with V7? I can't find any documenation.
Spot|DSE wrote on 9/12/2006, 7:09 AM
All of these cards work with Vegas so far as I know, excepting perhaps the 2Ke. I have the LHe and LH on hand, having replaced one of the older Xena's with it. Aja was hugely gracious in swapping the old, never-really-worked Xena card from 3 years ago to the newer LH, and I bought an LHe. I'll probably order the breakout box later this week, just for keeping things clean on my workstation.
Look in the video preview drop down menu, you'll see the AJA card in there for V7. Or click here to see the pref in a screen cap.
plasmavideo wrote on 9/12/2006, 7:13 AM
Spot,

The breakout box is nice - maybe a bit overpriced. Ours is not hooked up yet until we move into a new edit suite, but it will reside in a small rack with the tape machines and some other equipment when we do renovate. This is the first AJA capture card we've tried and so far we've been pretty impressed. We have a number of their AD/DA frame cards and assorted other hardware and the company has been great to deal with on any tech support issues so far.
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/12/2006, 7:40 AM
ARE ALL OF YOU UNABLE TO COUNT!??!?!?!?

I keep seeing... THIS CAN'T BE 18 MONTHS WORTH OF WORK CAN IT?, SONY WOULDN'T LET US DOWN AGAIN WITH THIS LITTLE LIST AFTER 18 MONTHS WOULD THEY?


NO - THIS IS 5-6 MONTHS OF WORK AT MOST!!! - If you want to know what is 18 months of work - look at the original 6.0 release and then look at the 7.0 release THAT'S 18 months.

Dave

</rant>
Ben  wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:07 AM
Eh? I think it's you having problems with your maths - Vegas 6 was released in May 2005. Give or take then, that's 18 months. And bear in mind the core development time are likely to have finished the code (bar bugs) a good deal of time before that and had probably already moved on to think about Vegas 7.

Ben
mbott wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:08 AM
Ive tested the trial version and in my book it's a breakthrough. Which other NLEs allow you to work normally with native HDV on the timeline? I can't tell you the difference it makes.

Would it take 18 months to get Vegas to do this?

Probably.

Hats off to Madison Media ...

MIchael
BrianStanding wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:11 AM
Dave,

I hear you... it's an annual ritual of hand-wringing. Maybe people would be happier if Madison Media Software saved up all the improvements for 18 months and then released all of them at once in one big upgrade, instead of giving us free letter updates throughout the year. And then, of course, they could charge more for it.

Note to any sarcasm-impaired Sony employees who may be listening: I'm kidding. Please don't do this. I'm pretty happy with it as it is now.

It was actually this kind of "make 'em pay for the bug fixes" update strategy that drove me from away from Adobe Premiere.
Spot|DSE wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:21 AM
Guys....
lose the "18 months" ridiculousness. In 18 months, Sony has created:
New version of ACID
New version of Sound Forge
New product-CineScore
New product-Eriksson cell phone software
Several other products outside this market
Updates to Vegas 6
etc, etc, etc.

If you think there is a large team that does nothing but any one single product? Nope...Most software companies share engineers across projects with small core teams dedicated to a specific project.

Cliff Etzel wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:31 AM
My initial impressions of v7 were not that great - but since I only did a quick look see, I didn't give it an honest chance to see what, if any, improvements there were from 6d. I still don't work in HDV yet (as much as I would like to be now) so maybe v7 isn't an upgrade for me just yet.

I'm off to try and shoot more footage while freediving today so maybe I'll give it another go and see what it is like...

One thing I do like about the apps in general is that they just work on x64 XP Pro - I have lost all ability to burn to DVD straight from the timeline in PPro and Encore - Think I'll give this another shot and I'll post my n00b impressions later on...

Cliff