VF or STudio 7 (or both)

sfdoddsy wrote on 5/17/2002, 11:07 PM

Hi,

I'm just starting to get into NLE, and after a less than pleasant experience doing a five minute film on WIndows Moviemaker (constant crashes) I am ready to move on up. FYI I use a Sony VAIO FXA36 (1G Athlon) and Win XP.

The question is which of these programs would be best.

The reviews for Studio 7 are certainly good, but the user reviews balance this out.

I'll be making short films of various types using a combination of miniDV footage, plus stills, plus DVD movie footage (I have a macrovision free player), plus any other bits and pieces I can find.

The Smart Capture feature of S7 is certainly appealing, but the actual editing process seems more powerful on VF.

Output I am not sure about. I guess I would like to be able to cover all bases as some projects will be output to tape, and others burnt to CD and maybe later on DVD.

So what would you recommend?

Thanks

Steve

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 5/17/2002, 11:45 PM

I use both of these programs. Here are a few thoughts:

* Studio 7 is easier to learn than VideoFactory.

* Studio 7 is full of bugs and crashes a LOT. VideoFactory, like everything Sonic Foundry builds, is solid as a rock.

* Studio 7 lets you print directly to tape from the timeline. VideoFactory forces you to render the entire project to a new file, even if all you did was a cuts-only project. This is VideoFactory's biggest negative relative to Studio 7. This feature means that you can create projects up to twice as long with Studio 7. Why? Because you don't need the disk space to store the rendered file, and because no rendering is needed for parts of the project that are simply cut or rearranged in time. It means that you can print to tape almost immediately with projects that just have cuts and a few simple transitions and titles.

If VideoFactory could print directly to tape, I would drop Studio 7.

* While VideoFactory is more difficult initially to learn, once you learn it, you can get more done in the same amount of time (of course, the increased rendering time in VideoFactory offsets that, but you can do the rendering over lunch or overnight).

* VideoFactory is RESPONSIVE. Everything happens instantly. Studio 7 takes forever to undo, and has all sorts of nagging little pauses between when you click and when something happens.

* Studio 7 has a better capture facility and has a nifty way that it keeps track of scene boundaries without needing to create separate files for each scene. VideoFactory's capture can also detect scene changes, but it creates a separate file for each scene. This makes media management on large projects pretty difficult because you end up with hundreds of files (one for each scene).

* It is easy to get into trouble with VideoFactory's interface. In particular, it is very easy to end up with small gaps between video scenes (see my posts on this subject about three weeks ago). Also, when you are first learning VideoFactory, it is very easy to accidentally uncouple the video and audio and end up with the two unsynchronized. By contrast, with Studio 7, it is pretty difficult to get into trouble.

* You can do a LOT more with VideoFactory than Studio 7. Let me repeat: A LOT more. Example: I shot a ballet with two cameras, one fixed on the entire stage, and the other following the action. Because VF has two video tracks, I captured video from both cameras, lined the two video tracks up by matching the sound waves on the audio track, and then simply cut back and forth between two cameras. I was even able to do insets showing a close-up of a dancer overlaid on top of a picture of the whole stage, and fade the inset in and out.

My conclusion: If VideoFactory could print directly to tape, I would scrap Studio 7. As it is, I still use Studio 7 when I need to get a cuts-only production done in a hurry, or if I have a large project that is difficult to break up into small pieces. For everything else, I use VF.

I still recommend Studio 7 to beginners and to those who only edit video occasionally, because Studio 7 is so easy to learn and so intuitive. I just wish Pinnacle could fix their bugs. Go visit Pinnacle's forums and you will find, under the "Make Movie" and "Edit" sections, that most of the discussion is about bugs.

Here's the link:

Studio 7 Forum

laz wrote on 5/18/2002, 2:45 AM

Well said. I started my newbie editing days with Studio 7 and although it's fairly user friendly the tutorials aren't very good. I found some of the transitions better than VF and the cutting precision is good. But the rendering for a 45min video took 4 - 5 hours on a PAL DV avi, whereas VF only takes 3ish. I also found a lot of pixilation on final render to VHS. Their support forum isn't set up for a chat like here either where you can get to know and learn from people really on the ball.

Grazie wrote on 5/18/2002, 5:10 AM

Must agree with johnmeyer and laz. I use both VF and S7. S7 is excellent at "grabbing" stills from a "running" film clip. I use S7's print to tape - faultless. Using a mousewheel in both is intuitive, but S7 for just simple "location" of frames for me has the edge. I put in my "apprenticeship" hours on VideoWave 3 and 5 so I know now what I was to look for! VW5 truly "focussed" my attention on what I wanted and to expect from an NLE. You can work out the rest!

S7 won't let you get past the 4gb capture [I run WinME], VF does!

VF is amazing on audio editing, with the panning of audio, the "rubber-banding" facility and if you look at the Picture In Picture discussion that we have been having in May, you will start to understand that this virtuous maiden has much to offer, but really "viells" its talents under a cloak of mystery. Ah yes, deferrred gratifacation is something to be sought - VF will and does eventually deliver. Just give her time....

Yup this Forum is great and the people are more than willing to share their experience and help when they can. Check out the work being done on VF at:

http://www.chienworks.com/media/vidfact/

Also have a look at the Vegas Video Forum site - a lot of it goes over my head - but you can tell that the Forum, in my opion, it is healthy and not "stuck" in the blaming and flaming culture I've experienced on "other" NLE forum sites.

Grazie

sfdoddsy wrote on 5/18/2002, 9:11 AM

Well, I've ordered VF. If I need to use simple cut editing I can use Moviemaker or Movie Shaker..

The thing that 'peeves' me most is crashes, so stable it is.

Be prepared for many questions.

Steve

johnmeyer wrote on 5/18/2002, 10:34 AM

If stability is what you want, you have definitely made the correct choice.

When you finally get ready to start using VF, just remember that the most confusing aspect to a newbie is that you can select events (video clips, audio clips) AND you can select a time range. When you execute an editing command (like Delete), what happens is determined by the combination of what events you have selected AND what -- if any -- time range you have selected.

This may not make sense until you are actually staring at the VideoFactory timeline. When you are actually editing, re-read the last paragraph. Hope it helps.