I don't really like these dramatic posts much, but I thought I should share my experience.
As it stands, I've come to the conclusion that the version of Vegas "Pro" 12 I've bought is simply not suitable for professional use. It's been responsible for some last-minute glitches that have resulted in some missed deadlines and I can't rely on it anymore.
The first issue is related to audio sync when importing Quicktime files (ProRes, in this case). Sometimes, the audio can be delayed by a good number of frames. It seems to depend on the file. I haven't heard much from support about this recently. That's annoying but is correctable.
The final straw for me has been this issue where files are rendered with weird graphical glitches. In this example, I had a JPEG image rotating onto the screen, but the second frame in the sequence instead appeared with garbled graphics from a separate clip in the project:
Here's a sample: http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4436/r26z.jpg
Worryingly, part of the Vegas interface was rendered into the file. And from my experience, graphics that are currently in use elsewhere on the system can appear too. For example, I've seen images of web pages (flipped upside down) appear in the viewer window when Vegas is flaking out in this way. That seriously worries me and is why I can't trust this software for professional use any more. What would happen if I have a web page open elsewhere during the render, and someone else's copyrighted image somehow makes its way into my video? Or shots of my email inbox with sensitive info inside?
In this case, I was thankfully able to alert the replication facility and stop the flash-frame glitch being replicated onto discs (quality control in this case didn't spot it) - although delays are never good, obviously.
It pains me to go to these lengths, because I love the UI and I love the "smooth" editing feel of Vegas - other systems feel clunky and unintuitive in comparison. But sadly, these issues - combined with the legendary stability problems (are there any Vegas editors here who aren't hitting CTRL+S every few seconds?) mean that the positives have been outweighed by the negatives. It's a real shame, and I hope these problems improve in the future. For now though, I'll be looking for alternatives for professional editing use.
As it stands, I've come to the conclusion that the version of Vegas "Pro" 12 I've bought is simply not suitable for professional use. It's been responsible for some last-minute glitches that have resulted in some missed deadlines and I can't rely on it anymore.
The first issue is related to audio sync when importing Quicktime files (ProRes, in this case). Sometimes, the audio can be delayed by a good number of frames. It seems to depend on the file. I haven't heard much from support about this recently. That's annoying but is correctable.
The final straw for me has been this issue where files are rendered with weird graphical glitches. In this example, I had a JPEG image rotating onto the screen, but the second frame in the sequence instead appeared with garbled graphics from a separate clip in the project:
Here's a sample: http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4436/r26z.jpg
Worryingly, part of the Vegas interface was rendered into the file. And from my experience, graphics that are currently in use elsewhere on the system can appear too. For example, I've seen images of web pages (flipped upside down) appear in the viewer window when Vegas is flaking out in this way. That seriously worries me and is why I can't trust this software for professional use any more. What would happen if I have a web page open elsewhere during the render, and someone else's copyrighted image somehow makes its way into my video? Or shots of my email inbox with sensitive info inside?
In this case, I was thankfully able to alert the replication facility and stop the flash-frame glitch being replicated onto discs (quality control in this case didn't spot it) - although delays are never good, obviously.
It pains me to go to these lengths, because I love the UI and I love the "smooth" editing feel of Vegas - other systems feel clunky and unintuitive in comparison. But sadly, these issues - combined with the legendary stability problems (are there any Vegas editors here who aren't hitting CTRL+S every few seconds?) mean that the positives have been outweighed by the negatives. It's a real shame, and I hope these problems improve in the future. For now though, I'll be looking for alternatives for professional editing use.