Sony is pushing Vegas Pro 8

Malcolm D wrote on 10/17/2007, 1:04 AM
I found this link http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10014/XDCAMpack.shtmlXDCAM HD Package[/link]
which suggests Sony is serious about promoting Vegas Pro 8 for professional use.
It was also being shown at the XDCAM EX launch here in New Zealand although not as prominently as Final Cut.
Malcolm

Comments

farss wrote on 10/17/2007, 5:06 AM
The EX1 product launch that I just came back from certainly showed Vegas Pro8 as the best NLE for XDCAM. Avid Liquid were there but couldn't really ingest the footage, yet. Edius looked good as always. FCP has to rewrap the stream into a QT wrapper, no transcoding but you seem to loose all the metadata. VP8 gets the lot after rewraping the mp4 into MXF.

Bob.
bsuratt wrote on 10/17/2007, 6:38 AM
If they are going to sell this a a "professional HD Editing System" they need to include a much better encoder or, at least, fix the SmartRender fast!
x_gogoa wrote on 10/17/2007, 10:50 AM
no word about vegas in ex1's brochure but final cut is presented.
why vegas can't import mp4?

gordan
Logan5 wrote on 10/17/2007, 12:05 PM
If they would add the glass I'd buy that package.
MUTTLEY wrote on 10/17/2007, 2:30 PM


Sorry to drift a bit but farss, did they give an official release date on the EX?

- Ray
www.undergroundplanet.com
farss wrote on 10/17/2007, 2:32 PM
"Mid November"

Bob.
FuTz wrote on 10/17/2007, 2:36 PM

I guess it's the same package shown with the full AND special price on this link?
Cause it's the same items but with a $9790.00 difference... ?
rs170a wrote on 10/17/2007, 3:12 PM
Cause it's the same items but with a $9790.00 difference... ?

That's what I thought at first too.
Then I took a (much) closer look.
The expensive package has the PDW-F355L ( 3 5 5) camcorder while the cheaper one has the PDW-F335L (3 3 5) model.

Mike
farss wrote on 10/17/2007, 3:39 PM
Yes indeedy.
One thing to keep in mind is that Sony is not one company. At NAB you'll typically find four (4) Sonys exhibiting, one being Sony Australia who do put on a decent lunch for us Aussies.
Each one of those Sonys will make different deals for their local regions which is where it all can get a bit confusing. However with cameras becoming less regionalised, global transport getting cheaper, tarrif barriers comeing down and the internet letting everyone know what's happening all over the planet things have got to change. Our local Sony dealer of choice has finally woken up to this and is getting more price competitive.

Bob.
CoolBlue wrote on 10/17/2007, 3:49 PM
What does everyone mean by "Professional"? Individuals that use it, or professional studios? Because IMO, Vegas 8 is not yet ready to be deployed for use in a professional studio environment.

There are just too many bugs and crashes going on in the software. I reported 3 bugs in Vegas and 1 in DVD-A in the past two weeks. These bugs, lockups, and crashes need to be fixed. No studio in their right mind will deploy unstable software to use 24/7. I have been able to reproduce a crash by just copying and pasting attributes of buttons. This should not be happening. I can't get a project finished, because I can't match the size of the buttons with what I did on the first page. Because I can't paste the attributes!

DVD-A also still lacks a lot of features, and does things really weird compared to other authoring software. For instance, the timeline in DVD-A is not what I would call frame accurate. If someone told you to crop the end of a menu transition by one frame, you can't do it. The timeline won't allow you to adjust it.

When you have it set to "auto-calculate", you sometimes get a blank frame at the end, even in Progressive mode. This is just odd. There is no connectitivtiy between objects. Look at DVD Lab software by Mediachance. It shows and allows you to adjust connections between objects.

Menu transitions and Ordering Titles - If you include several files for menu transitions, this limits your ability on how to order titles. You can't have the main movie on track 1 anymore, like most commercial discs. You can't set the DVD player to not show time during menu transitions playback. There is no function to disable it. Most commercial discs I've seen "hide" the time when playing certain tracks. They even hide the track number. Well, you can't do this in DVDA.

I could go on and on about how frustrated DVDA makes doing just the simplest of things. You always have to figure out a workaround, just to do something. I like DVDA because it's simple to use in some ways, but it is getting to frustrating in others. And it hasn't changed over the past versions.

So to Sony...If you want to promote this as professional for studio use, and not just semi-pros, then fix the software. Add ALL of the DVD Specification features and functions to DVD-A.
corug7 wrote on 10/17/2007, 8:30 PM
I work with a lot of different "Professional" programs, some costing 60 to 100 times the full asking price of Vegas. You would not believe how many of these programs are released with serious bugs, annoying tendencies to crash at the wrong moments, unintuitive interfaces, etc. Some of these companies offer fantastic customer support, others do not.

FWIW, I also think DVDA could be a little more intuitive. There are some things that it can't do that make me slap my forehead in disbelief. That said, I still use it on a semi-regular basis, along with DVDSP, Scenarist, and Toast (yes, Toast).

All in all, Vegas is an incredible value, and is one Professional application I'm glad I have at work, and in my home.

Corey