Sonic Foundry's Vegas+DVD

[FT Shark]

Has anyone tried Sonic Foundry's Vegas+DVD? If so, how good are the video editing features, encoding, DVD menu features, 5.1 encoding features? Is this program worth the $?

I currently use Adobe Premiere to edit / encode and I use Ulead DVD Workshop to create my DVD's. Could Vegas+DVD be a better choice?

[BJ_M]

they are all good apps , personally i like vegas for editing (and 5:1 and encoding are first rate) but the DVDA is a little weak ..

premiere - i assume you mean premiere pro (7) as for older versions - not as good .

do a search on these forums and you will find 100's of opinions nay and say ..

creativecow and DMM forums will also give you a lot of info ..

[MachineMan]

I tried Vegas Video 4, it's definately powerful but not the easiest software to use becuase there are so many features.

[housepig]

I love Vegas for video editing, titling and composite work. I used to use Premiere & AfterEffects, but did not find them as comfortable to work with as Vegas.

Haven't experimented with the DVD authoring yet, because I'm happy with DVD Lab.

[GreyDeath]

I started using Sonic Foundry's Video Factory which was a limited version of Vegas and found it very easy to use.

I use Vegas+DVD now and it's easy to put clips together and edit. The timeline makes it very easy to drag and drop, cut, etc. If you've got a fast computer and are using DV AVI to edit, it previews transision effects in realtime. I mainly bought the +DVD version for the DD AC3, I tried Besweet, but was having trouble playing on my Pioneers, so I went for Vegas. If you know someone in school, have them buy it...

I tried Premiere, but really couldn't understand how things worked on the timeline. Vegas has stills set in the clip so you can see where you are in there. If you want to fade one clip into another, just drag one clip into the other, it has auto-fading settings and a wide variety of transistion to use if you prefer.

I must admit though, I haven't tried Architect so I don't know how friendly that program is to use.

Machine Man, heh, I never knew that a con for a program would be that it had TOO many features. :P

[Redd]

I'm just offering some backup on Vegas+DVD reviews.
I've just ordered Vegas+DVD and am excited about seeing the UPS truck drive up. I've done very extensive research on this software. On reviews or user forums where a 1-10 rating system is used, I've never seen Vegas get lower than an 8.

I now use both Studio 8 and Media Studio Pro 6.5 for all my projects. I do like Studio and will keep it. I was never able to warm up to Ulead Media Studio Pro.

[housepig]

Machine Man, heh, I never knew that a con for a program would be that it had TOO many features. :P

well, it depends on if they are solid, well-thought-out ones, or if they are crap bits added just to fill up the "Now! These New Features!" matrix on the back of the box...

the only feature I wish Vegas had would be the ability to use Premiere & AfterEffect plugins!

[BJ_M]

Machine Man, heh, I never knew that a con for a program would be that it had TOO many features. :P

well, it depends on if they are solid, well-thought-out ones, or if they are crap bits added just to fill up the "Now! These New Features!" matrix on the back of the box...

the only feature I wish Vegas had would be the ability to use Premiere & AfterEffect plugins!

boris red gl 3.0 , now shipping, allows AE plug-ins to be used ..

boris 3 also works as a plug in to vegas ..

as to if boris and vegas working together will allow ae plug-ins , i don't know .. but the use of boris red as a plugin to vegas , is one powerfull combo , most likely not many ae plug-ins would be needed at that point anyway ....

[MachineMan]

Well, too many features is definatly a plus once you figure out where they are and how and when to use them. Vegas 4 is strong.

[JasonK]

I've used Vegas since 2.0 when you could get your preview to an external monitor via firewire at a reduced framerate. Vegas has come along well, and 4.0 is pretty darn good. I also have quite a bit of experience with Premiere up through version 6.5, but haven't been a big fan in general.

But recently, I've discovered Edition 5.1. I have been thoroughly impressed with the configurability of this program, pure power, flexibility. It's pretty much everything Vegas is but with much better realtime preview performance, especially with the 3D FX rendering with GPU, realtime compositing, up to 10 streams in realtime, 16 audio streams in realtime. And the DVD authoring I would say is better the DVD-A, hold AC3, and I'm getting hooked on Edition. Rock solid, no crashes! And in the last week or 2, they announced Liquid Edition 5.5 for only $49 extra with some powerful new features that I can't wait to get my hands on. And I've even seen a list of feature improvements for 5.6 already (which will probably be a free upgrade.) It looks like Pinnacle is pushing this along quickly, and AC3 support is almost a certainty based on the number of requests. Before making the plunge to Vegas, you owe it to yourself to try Edition!

I dont regret my time spent with Vegas, and I'm sure I will use it from time to time, but Edition is where I'm enjoying myself the most now.

[DaveS]

re DVDA, the things it does, it does well - it is very solid, although missing some features that will surely come (end actions, return to sub menu (although there are workarounds)). My personal preference is for something solid, then add features, rather than coming out w/ something feature rich which crashes, problems, etc. Also, I think they put alot of work into ensuring the output is fully dvd spec compliant in all regards.

the optimization tool is useful for checking how much space you've used, although the math seems a bit funny at times.

it has decent control over sizing of objects and order, although the the highlighting of the selection is a bit limited in terms of options.

motion menus and backgrounds are *very* easy (uses mainconcept to encode).

dvda also can't imprt elemental streams but you can mux them yourself & import. the AC3 is really nice.

overall, dvda has worked well for me but I think others with more experience will comment and you can check the sonic foundry forum.

this is a big investment for sonic foundry now sony, so I would anticipate their continuing to enhance the product (although you never know until a release actually comes out).