Image

We can customize windows docking.
We can customize UI colors/saturation.
We can customize timeline audio wave colors.
We can even customize the way we place our clips one after the other on the timeline (yes!yes! I swear!) (we can even *swap* clips!)
We can customize...huh, maybe there should be a window where we can call this damn app the name we want so when we get this splash screen we get the name we want ? (if we chose to get that splash screen, as a matter of fact...cause this is also customizable)




Rollin' my eyes too, lol

Bob, I hope you are kidding about $5K for the Vegas to Vegas Pro upgrade.
Just because you might get paid does not mean I can afford it.

I guess I can't be a "pro" and must stay where I am at.......

Bob -

Why stop at $5,000 bucks?

When I bought my first AVID in about 1990 I paid $32,000 for the system.

That included a computer, two screens and an external 3 gig hard drive, plus the AVID software (including dongle) and a crash at least once an hour - you better SAVE that edit, baby! Crashing was part of the normal workflow - it separated the men from the boys.

It did NOT do broadcast quality editing, only off-line, with video playing in 320x240 pixel windows. EVERY effect had to be rendered - (well you basically got dissolves and maybe a push or two) usually a 10 minute affair for each effect - so you would wait for coffee or bathroom breaks to see what your video really looked like. The video ran at about 10 fps - never realtime until you rendered.

And in the end, all it gave you was an EDL (edit decision list) that you would then put onto a floppy disc and take to an on-line room (at $450/hr) to actually assemble your video.

Thirty-two thousand dollars.
I LOVED that machine. It took a typical five day edit tape edit, and allowed me to complete the off-line in only ONE day.
It gave me my life back. I found I had children and a WIFE. It was worth every penny.

Two years later AVID dropped one of the first on-line machines. Before we were done building the whole schmzoo it was near $80,000 bucks. It paid for itself within a year.

I personally love and hate (at the same time) new upgrades.
Love - well because I'm a black-box junkie and whatever it is, it's gonna be great (and probably for under $200 bucks). Heck - just the "Snapping to event clips" feature alone in v7 is worth $200 bucks - to say nothing of M2t and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Hate - well, you've always got to "adjust" to the new way of working, and there are the inevitable bugs. But that's just part of being a pioneer in the greatest communication advance in the history of mankind.

v

vicmilt...




I just hope your earlier post contained traces of honest sarcasm.

From link, "The Vegas Pro 8® suite" - Sweet!

Actually Jonathan - nope.

No sarcasm that I can detect.

It's really the "way it was" only 17 years ago.

I'd wave my hand over my $110,000 AVID (got the "real-time Aladdin add-on renderer for another $32,000) and I'd say, "Someday you'll get all this for under $10,000".

No one ever believed that you could have infinitely more with $600 software running on a $1,000 machine.

That's why threads like this give us "old timers" such a giggle.

and hey - this "indoor plumbing" is a real treat, too!!

v

I still like the way Vegas plays with the cursor moving along the timeline and then the timeline advances and the cursor keeps on playing. I like the way the sound track changes color when it gets out of sync with the video. The snapping things just drive me wild. The automatic save on loss of power, etc. as Cole Younger once said "It's a wonderment".
The multiple veg copy & paste is the coolest thing. I also love the multiple undos. The Ultimate S script is a must for slide shows. Also the swap clips and the Deshaker script and the earthquake thing. Forge & Cinescore integration blow me away and if I was smart enough to use Acid that would too. But I fear that by the time I get to write to Bluray or HD-DVD the new Holographic stuff will be out with 3D-4KHD.
JJK

No one ever believed that you could have infinitely more with $600 software running on a $1,000 machine.

So here's a question, what made you the most money.
Your $110K Avid or your $1,600 Vegas system?

I've noticed this many fields. The practitioners go "Oh goody, with this my costs are halved" and their clients go "Great, now I'll only pay you 40% of what I used to"

Bob.

Bob, if you are lucky and have a cost+15% deal, greater cost-bigger profits, one of the real reasons Hollywood movie production costs are thru the roof. But the big money window-profit- is getting the real cost down before everyone does, this window of oppunity is usually very short but this is why big production and studios are always candidates for the latest toys - big and small( and why they love NDAs).

One advantage though of the cost + 15% model is when your costs are higher you usually get a bit more wiggle room on the 15%.

But getting back to to the V8 thing, funny that so far no one's mentioned the convergence of two interesting Sony product launches at IBC. The XDCAM EX gets its official launch and so does V8. Well OK, the EX was at NAB, sort of, under glass, IBC was supposed to be the big launch but I guess someone felt the need for a longer period of anticipation.

I don't know about anyone else but for myself having the EX work very smoothly with Vegas is a much bigger thing than an "improved titler" (and just what improvement anyway, I asked this exact question here once and I don't recall any consensus).

I know Vegas has had XDCAM support for a while now but all the XDCAM cameras are at a price point where users are already off in Avid land anyway. An affordable XDCAM AND an affordable NLE to go with it could give Sony something signficant to crow about.

Maybe I should have said the upgrade will cost $8K but that includes a free XDCAM EX. Of course in typical Sony Style batteries will not be included :)

Bob.

Bob -

Interesting question ($110k AVID vs $1.5k Vegas).

When I bought and used the AVID, my career was at a high point. I made large money because I was producing and directing large national TV commercials (averaging $85k to $125 each for :30 second spots). Owning my own gear (extremely unusual in the early '90s) - made me large amounts of profit - but I did have monthly payments somewhere around $4k to $6 - every month, whether I was shooting or not. Those payments were just for the AVID - not including ancillary equipment, engineers (yes we needed monthly visits) and the cost of life itself.
Sometimes that debt would keep me up at nights - not a pleasant feeling..

With Vegas, well you guys know - a measly $200 anual upgrade and a systemic computer upgrade (that is, when we leap from DV to HDV, you need more powerful tools). Luckily Moore's law keeps the newest computers within financial reach [ I just got a Quad 6600 with a terrabyte of storage and all kinds of other goodies for about $2400).

The change in my life is a career change.
Clearly my grosses have dropped dramatically, but my profit point remains quite reasonable. No way could I afford the luxury of a comparable AVID system today - but I simply don't need that "real-time" power anymore.

Remember (you young guys) - it's not what you charge a day -
it's what you keep a year, that counts.
It's also how you are living your life... it's important to take pleasure where and when you can.
This life is not a "run-through" - it's a take.

Sometimes you sacrifice the present for a dream of a better future.
And sometimes that sacrifice simply doesn't pan out the way you wished it would.
And sometimes it's better than you ever dreamed, in the first place.
That's life.

While no one on his/her deathbed ever said, "I shoulda spent more time at the office", ours is a different sort of obsession. It is possible that on my deathbed I will still be wishing for just "one more shoot" - "one last edit".

v

Farss, I did mention XDCAM in an early post, but did not point out the EX, I assume that EX is the hot button feature for "PRO". I think your right about EX+Vegas being a package, that was why I stated a new and better media manager for PRO would be important. A new live capture utility would be helpful with more remote controls.

"While no one on his/her deathbed ever said, "I shoulda spent more time at the office", ours is a different sort of obsession. It is possible that on my deathbed I will still be wishing for just "one more shoot" - "one last edit"."

I always envision myself on my death bed saying I cant leave until my render is complete.

Actually, that word "Suite" makes me think that the person who wrote it doesn't know what they're talking about. They also mention the Sound Forge 9 Suite. All this makes me question the word "Pro" since it could be some hack in some other Sony division writing this.

But then I'd expect that if it were a misnomer Spot and Glenn would know it.

Rob Mack

IBC is Sept 6-11 http://www.ibc.org/cgi-bin/displaypage.cgi?pageref=100

Regarding DVD Arch. 4.5: Vegas Movie Studio version 8.0 has already been available for some time, and includes a DVD Arch Studio 4.5. The 4.5 additions to Arch Studio seems pretty minor:

2.0 What’s New in Version 4.5

http://sony-144.vo.llnwd.net/dspcdn/releasenotes/dvdarchitectstudio45a_readme.htm

Of course, the full version (or make that "Pro" version) of DVD Arch may have additional improvements.

Tim L

I don't recall Sony or Sonic Foundry before them doing a decimal release for a long time, so I don't really know what to expect from DVDA 4.5. They seem to have focused on the free letter updates or the whole number upgrades.

The last fractional release I remember was Sound Forge 4.5.

Perhaps I missed it when everyone commented on it, if you did, but maybe one of my hopes will be realized. I found this in the press release:

enhanced titling technology

The Vegas Pro 8® suite features a robust XDCAM HD workflow, comprehensive HDV support, import and edit support for the Sony AVCHD format and many new features to increase productivity and enhance output quality. Also being shown are DVD Architect 4.5, which is included in the Vegas Pro 8® suite, Cinescore software for instant soundtrack creation and the Sound Forge 9 audio production suite with new multi-channel recording and editing capabilities.
=================

I"M EXCITED!!!!!!

Tell us it has a cutting edge credit roll generator that functions and it's very own competitive titler. That would be 21st century AWESOME! Imagine the competitive advantage.

John

I found this in the press release:

I went back to the article linked above and could not locate anything containing the words "enhanced titling"

Were did you find this press release?

j razz

> I don't recall Sony or Sonic Foundry before them doing a decimal release for a long time, so I don't really know what to expect from DVDA 4.5. They seem to have focused on the free letter updates or the whole number upgrades.

CD Architect went from 5.0 to 5.2 with the addition of 'CD Text support' and 'Editing of source projects from rendered media' - relatively small (though welcome) changes.

sarcasm or serious?