I'll second Irfanview.
Add to that MediaInfo, AviDemux, Handbrake, VideoRedo (paid), Drax, PluralEyes (paid)..

Drax allows you to add, edit, name, delete chapters in m4v files. Works with marker export lists from Vegas. Free. http://www.arlt.eu/blog/projects/drax/

1) After Effects, best add on for Vegas I've ever used.
2) Sound Forge, from SCS
3) CD Architect, old but brilliant product from SCS.
4) Photoshop.
5) ImgBurn (free)
6) PGCEdit (free), to cleanup the mess DVDA still creates.
7) Smartsound for music.
8) WaveBreaker. Does tricks Sound Forge cannot. Made a tidy sum using this cheap utility.
9) WhereIsIt, thanks again to JC for the tip on this one.
10) MacDrive. For handling disks to/from OSX

I have a couple of favorite utilities -- the free Imgburn for burning to DVD (I create an iso file in DVDA). Another favorite utility is Snagit - hooks itself into the "Print Screen" key and allows all sorts of great screen (or portions) captures, annotation, arrows, circles, text etc. Definitely worth the cost !!
http://www.techsmith.com/

I would also suggest checking out Photodex Producer (or the less expensive version "Gold") which is a very nice slideshow creator with all sorts of features for captions, etc. I output from there to an uncompressed AVI then finish adding any video etc in Vegas. http://www.photodex.com

Oh yeah - definitely Irfanview (free)
Smart Sound - you can create any length audio music track with their music and software.

mikey

Love Imgburn very quick, I use Memories on TV PRO from codejam.com for quick slideshows they have some very nice layered picture effects that are fast to create. I also use SoundForge studio, Acid Studio, PhotoGO for picture look up, Google Picasa. SonicFire PRO for sound track creation, Surething labeler for my DVD covers.

Zumas Revenge (to remove stress after a long edit)
And of course Vegas PRO 9e still my favorite editor....

Paul B

Cool Ruler. A simple and lightweight overlay ruler that I regularly use for getting the pixel dimensions of anything on my screen. Typically I use it for measuring video resolution or when I'm designing web pages.

ftp://downloads.fabsoft.com/downloads/cruler2.exe

Irfanview [FREE]- Me Big Fan!

G-Spot [FREE]- Helps to ident pesky files.

Mark's BitRate Calcualtor [FREE]- For getting those needed DVD numbers Mathed-out - Dead easy peasy SW. Using context help this is a real gem!

Picasa [FREE] - Not only has this ability of viewing Media in a rather novel way, but it can also make videos and slideshows very easily - not a lot of people know that!

Copy2DVD [Not Free] - Yeah it it'll do what it says, but it also has this simple DVD-RW Erase option. In continual use by me and sits on my MS Task Bar ready and waiting. Again dead simple to use.

VLC Media Player [FREE] - When all else fails.

Deskpins! [FREE]- Stick Windows and keep 'em on top.

The NEW Deshaker [FREE] . . . . . what can I say? Marvellous!

UliSPro [Not Free] - I keep getting astounded at the depth of the toolset. Last 2 weeks been using the Swap Media Option and again, it just works.

Excalibur [Not Free] - It has a set of repair tools that I now have NAILED to my Vegas Toolbar.

. . . . . .

I go through tools like a Khazar at a Banquet - I keep picking and tasting everything that appears tempting. And yes, I do leave an identifiable trail of gnawed bones and half eaten/digested unpalatable offerings on the carpet . . . I detest really stupid s/w and have spent too much time and life attempting to adapt such nonsense to my workflow or fathom how something works.

OOOoo.. another one B4 I forget - DebugMode's (Satish Kumar) Frameserver.

That'll do . . .

Grazie

I'll add the incredibly useful Virtual Dub and its zillion available filters.

http://www.virtualdub.org

Definitely virtual dub and deshaker
also - Gsplit to span large files across multiple discs

EDIT: (hit the wrong key)
Celluloid from VASST, bit-rate calculator, SUPER file converter, Auto-save, DC 7 audio cleanup, Levelator, Camtasia, ACID

Besides Vegas...
Gimp
Blender
TMPGenc Paid (the old non-internet version, can normally read files Vegas can't & get them to a format it can!)
Cinegobs Keyer
Excalibur
Nero Burner
Cinescore
Super video converter

most of those already mentioned, plus yamicsoft win7 manager - nice utility tool...

HyperSnap
HyperCam

Levelator 2 from The Conversations Network (Free...but I did buy the T-shirt!)

Even though I didnt start this thread thanks for posting . I got a lot of links from you experts! I didnt see NewBlue on the lists? I am contemplating purchasing their "Video Essentials" package. Anybody got any opinions on this plug-in?

MacroExpress (not free but pays for itself in time saved) for automating practically every repetitive action you can come up with in Windows.

NameWiz (not free but I couldn't live without it) http://softbytelabs.com/us/nw/index.html for renaming files in any manner imaginable.

I use,

PeachRock Veggie Tool Kit 3.0. It's a life saver
Corel Graphics x5 Suite
Adobe CS5 Suite
Window movie maker (believe it or not I use it sometimes to find a differente effect o style. Old habits die hard. je)
PMB

Hmm...I've gone through a few things over the last 9 years, some of which I still use but there might be better options:

--Photoshop (any version back as far as 6.0 can do the job. I just learned that CS2 and CS4 handle PAR settings differently so I might need to upgrade my home version to match the work version.)
--FastStone Image Viewer (Similar to IrfanView. Lots of good features.)
--FastStone Capture (Screen capture. Can work off a thumb drive. Can scroll windows and capture the whole thing)
--xplorer2 lite (Free. Dual pane explorer-like application. Reduces the times I click the mouse.)
--Firefox with Firebug and Web Developer Toolbar (Two great add-ins for debugging a web page)
--Command Prompt (Free ;-), comes with Windows, does certain things very quickly if you know how)
--Multireplace (Finds and replaces text quickly across thousands of documents. It's probably a bit old.)
--Veggie Toolkit (Indispensable for importing log files we generate at some shoots)
--Debugmode Frame Server
--Matrox VFW Codecs (Not quite free but an Axio owner could provide them to you. For workplace compatibility)
--Avid Codecs (Free ones. Provides DNxHD)
--Rename (Renames files. Easy to use. )


What I'd really like to have is a spellchecker than can act on a folder full of HTML files in batch mode.

Otherwise, I have a lot of the other stuff listed here. They're all useful and worth knowing about, but I don't regularly need them for the work I do every day. Your mileage will definitely vary.

<EDIT> Another thing I've found very useful is a yearly subscription to Lynda.com. Not only can I train on a lot of applications that a client might require, I can also look at lessons just to figure out what an unfamiliar application actually does </EDIT>

I am very impressed with the input from all the wonderful people. I want to say a big thank you. I hope lot of people have learned something just like I did. Keep it coming.

NewBlue Essentials II (chromakey, noise reduction)

Veggie Toolkit 3 - one of my favorites

AAV Colorlab - free, I use it on almost every project. 32-bit and 64-bit Vegas support. http://aav6cc.blogspot.com/

AAv6cc also has its place.

Pixelan CE BlurPro (not free) - also 32 and 64

Smart Smoother does almost as well, and is free (but only works on 32-bit Vegas)

Smart Deinterlace is best I have found (also free, 32-bit)

GSpot tells a lot about video files; but I usually use VideoInspector (free)

VLC is a good player, but my default is KMPlayer (free)

Google's free Sketchup is an easy-to-learn, fast-to-use, almost quirk-free, pretty good 3d drawing tool and animator out of the box. But all the free plug-ins and tools give it real guts (you might start with SketchyPhysics, Joint Push-Pull, Fredo Scale. Animation Observer, and some of the tools that create spirals, toroids, etc.). It also benefits from the astonishing 3dWarehouse, full of free public-domain models created by users - an invaluable and time-saving resource. When used with the $100 Twilight Rendering engine, it can produce photo-realistic results. I use it a lot. Blender and TrueSpace (both free) I use only when I must - powerful, but steep learning curve.

It'sMe Avatar Editor and Crazy Talk 2 will produce lip-sync cartoon figures, or from photo .JPGs in Win7 - for less than $10 on ebay. If you can't find it, you may need to buy V6 of Crazy Talk for $ (this is the Pro version, not Standard).

Edit: Crazy Talk 6 is on sale for $75: http://www.digitaljuice.com/products/products.asp?pid=1391&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=DJ+All+Subscribers+-+Last+Updated+20080416+-+AutoSync&utm_campaign=20100527+-+Thursday+-+1PM+All+Partner+Products. Price on ebay is running around $145.

Poser now can give realistic hair movement to human/animal figures in response to gravity, wind, etc. Not easy to love, but I use it quite a bit. Carrara and Bryce also have their place ($). The free Wings 3d is a surprisingly handy way to create 3d objects for import into the above (as .OBJ files).

My hated Particle Illusion I use to create fire, fog, waterfalls, etc. for Vegas. I get really frustrated with PI, for it regularly requires me to go through a time-consuming process to activate it after, it seems, every little change in my hardware. Recently I installed a new SATA driver, and it would not open - and it wanted me to telephone them this time in order to get another 5 activations. Enough already! Stay away from PI unless you REALLY need it. It is the most disliked program that I regularly use - I wish I could find a substitute. Suggestions?

The free Sqirlz water reflections, free Sqirlz Morph, and inexpensive Corner-A ArtStudio each have their niche; when I need them, I need them badly. They'll do some of what PI does - highly recommended.

Bluff Titler is OK, but I still prefer the ancient Ulead Cool 3d Studio even though I must boot up to WinXP and abandon my 64-bit Win7.

The free Polaroid dust-scratch remover is the best tool for photo cleanup (it's slow to install on Win7, but seems to work OK - I haven't yet fully tested it in Win7). http://alphatracks.com/archives/134

The free plugin, Wire Worm, for Photoshop from MV's Plugins (http://vicanek.de/) does an amazing job of cleaning an outdoor photo that has unsightly electrical wires. Some of the other plugins also merit a look.

Free VunetFind2 will find any file on your computer almost instantly; double-click it and it opens. Free Copernic Desktop Search searches for word strings inside of files. Free Google Desktop is similar. (I almost always use VunetFind, however; I rarely need to find word strings.)

Paragon Hard Disk Management was on sale recently. I now use it for creating images of boot disks instead of the free DriveImageXML, for it is easier to use.

The free AutoStitch seems better than PhotoStitch, which I had been using to stitch together .JPGs for pans.

Great thread guys, thanks for sharing!

Couple of programs I use regularly are:

Particle Illusion - Add excellent 2d smoke, fire and background effects.

Bluff Titler - (little cheezy but) nice 2-3d animated text effects

iClone - Used for video intros and outros

Open Office - Nice free replacment for MS Office, smaller hard drive foot print.

Corel Painshop Pro X3 - for graphics editing and adding special effects to photos and has a nice object extractor tool. Can program scripts and uses WireWorm wire remover plugin. Purchased on sale at my local Best Buy for $30

Corel Video Stuidio X3 - Fluff stuff for kids b-day videos and some fun family stuff. (Used to use it primarily for AVCHD editing but haven't had to use it for that since 9e. Purchased as a specal deal for $60 online from Corel)

Cubase 4 - for audio. Vegas' audio interface is great but I've been using Cubase since SX, also, my Edirol (Roland) DA2496 audio interface is still attached to my P4 Cubase DAW. (haven't found a need to upgrade to C5.)

Other FREE software tools I use that may or may not have been mentioned above are:

ImgBurn
Super Video Converter
MPEG Stream clip
Media Converter
Format Factory
Virtual Dub
Audacity - Small easy to operate DAW for quick audio edits

Future purchase(s) when they go on sale:
AE
NeatVideo's noise remover
Plural Eyes - I'm slowly getting more into multi camera editing.

Reply by: LReavis, Date: 5/27/2010 8:19:10 AM
My hated Particle Illusion I use to create fire, fog, waterfalls, etc. for Vegas. I get really frustrated with PI, for it regularly requires me to go through a time-consuming process to activate it after, it seems, every little change in my hardware. Recently I installed a new SATA driver, and it would not open - and it wanted me to telephone them this time in order to get another 5 activations. Enough already! Stay away from PI unless you REALLY need it. It is the most disliked program that I regularly use - I wish I could find a substitute. Suggestions?
Sorry to hear that you've had issues w/ PI. I haven't had any problems loading it on 3 machines. Old P4, Laptop and now my new i7.

Have you looked at Particlular? I was very interested in that program's 3D abilities about 2 years ago but havent looked at it since I purchased PI. I thought that PI, though the effects were only 2D, had many more paticles and more customizable. Maybe Particular has matured since. Maybe others who use Particular can chime in.

Izotope RX. Not cheap, but worth every penny.

Hadn't heard of Wave Breaker before this thread. Just checked it out and bought it. Will come in handy. Thanks, Bob

Cool Ruler is err, cool! Will save me a lot of guesswork in Photoshop.
Thanks, Nick!