Vegas 5 or Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, Which is better?

[mlong30]

I'm going to upgrade my video software from Ulead to Vegas 5 or Adobe Premiere 1.5.

Can someone tell me which is better? I'm planning on making slide shows with pictures, and later on I'm going to purchase a Sony VX2100 camcorder, to convert my old VHS tapes to DVD, and shoot home movies.

I'd appreciate the input.


Thanks!

Matt

[canadateck]

I think Vegas 5, but thats me, there are others that swear by Premiere. Use the trials and see what you like.

[jdizzy40]

Vegas 5 here also. It will do all you want to start out with and it is stable.

[canadateck]

Very Stable

[mlong30]

How many transitional effects are available for Vegas 5, and can I purchase third party effects? If so, from who?

Also what is the MAX (Bit video rating) kbps on Vegas 5? Can you custom set this feature?

Thanks!

Matt

[canadateck]

Here take alook... http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=914&FeatureID=7540

[housepig]

download the trials and check them out - the best one is the one that feels most comfortable and works best for you.

[BJ_M]

max bit rate what format ? Vegas will do up to 2048 x 2048 resolution at something like 180meg/s mpeg2

there is no real limit on bit rate in vegas other than the format limits ..

there are many 3rd party effects

[joecav]

I use and love Vegas

[BSR]

I'd have to say Premiere Pro, because more familiar to me. Not that it is better.
Vegas is suppose to be way ahead in terms of audio though.
Premiere Pro I heard has a more standardized layout with other high end editing software, where Vegas went it's own route in terms of layout, terms and the way it works.
Not that that's bad.

Here are some reviews.
The www.dv.com ones are more in depth on each product, but you must set up a username and password.
Worth it in your case.

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,116673,00.asp

Vegas
http://www.dv.com/news/news_item.jhtml?LookupId=/xml/review/capria1104

Premiere Pro 1.5
http://www.dv.com/news/news_item.jhtml?LookupId=/xml/review/capria0504

[schematic2]

I personally had no luck with Premiere. I took the time to learn it, but found it totally unstable. I built a computer around its requirements. Still found it unstable. Tried Vegas and never looked back. I have had as many as 5 versions of vegas rendering at one time. It is so stable and very undemanding on the system. Some day all software will be this stable!!

[Deekkeed]

My vote would go to Vegas also, but as previously stated both are excellent pieces of software. I think that Vegas has a much easer learning curve then Premier and is easer to get the results you want right out of the box. But as said before Download the demos before you lay down the cash.


Deek

[edDV]

I use both, they both encode with the mainconcept encoder and are similar in technical performance. The main difference is the general orientation of the two user communities.

Premiere has a long tradition. It originated from within the DTP publishing community (Photoshop-Illustrator-DTP-Multimedia-Web design) and directly supports that community in a depth that Vegas never will.

Vegas was developed by Sonic which is audio and DVD production oriented. Vegas grew out of the Soundforge audio editing program and its orientation is more to the audio and bootleg video producer. That pretty much describes the current user community. Sony will expand this base to include the typical Prosumer video producer and will focus the product into the DV and HDV world in direct competition with Apple and Final Cut Pro.

[lordsmurf]

I like Premiere. Been using that for several years now.


@edDV:
Sonic Solutions (often called "Sonic") and Sonic Foundry are different companies. SF is now part of Sony Pictures Digital.

[edDV]

Yes I should have been more specific. Sonic Foundary still exists as a company but sold its media production products (SoundForge, Acid, Vegas, DVD Architect ...) to Sony

The same people that developed the products now work for Sony out of Madison, Wisconsin.

[BJ_M]

I use both, they both encode with the mainconcept encoder and are similar in technical performance. The main difference is the general orientation of the two user communities.

Premiere has a long tradition. It originated from within the DTP publishing community (Photoshop-Illustrator-DTP-Multimedia-Web design) and directly supports that community in a depth that Vegas never will.

Vegas was developed by Sonic which is audio and DVD production oriented. Vegas grew out of the Soundforge audio editing program and its orientation is more to the audio and bootleg video producer. That pretty much describes the current user community. Sony will expand this base to include the typical Prosumer video producer and will focus the product into the DV and HDV world in direct competition with Apple and Final Cut Pro.

they will focus this against FCP and AVID really - vegas is already outselling both at the moment (and even premiere - based on amazon numbers) .. HDV and HD are huge part of the equation as well as some new things coming soon that will blow you away .. they will have two (as now) and maybe three versions - one of which is very high end , maybe tied to their ultra high end range.. but nothing is fixed in stone (that i am aware of) ..

Since vegas is used in both the film and broadcast industry already extensively - i kinda take offense at the "bootleg" video market - don't know where you get that idea ..

[edDV]

"Since vegas is used in both the film and broadcast industry already extensively - i kinda take offense at the "bootleg" video market - don't know where you get that idea .."

Well I was going more by the quality of the current Vegas user community forums. FCP has the edge on post house and ad agency geeks, Premiere user community is slanted to "multimedia" and Vegas at present is a scruffy band of audio converts and wedding video artists. Sorry, again I exagerate.

Don't get me wrong, I made the commitment to Vegas and Sony will do an excellent job in the DV and HDV niche. I hope the consumer version does well. Pinnacle has been getting away with selling buggy slow products and needs to be challenged.

At the high end broadcast SDI/HDTV end of the scale, Sony will have tough competition from AVID and others.

I like Vegas but it is still a few versions from polished.
It is usable with workarounds and I expect it to push FCP back. Total sales share isn't as important as where it is selling. I'm looking forward to a strong user community forming.

BTW: Sony already has a high end HDTV workstation called Xpri
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/xpri/XPRI6_0.pdf

[BJ_M]

yes i know -- that was the tie in i was mentioning ..

[mlong30]

Well I downloaded the trail of Vegas 5. I like the rendering very fast, but it looks very basic.

1. Pictures constantly flickering/vibrating on screen.
2. Can't export to Mpeg so I can't test the bit rate.
3. Exported to AVI and I noticed the Bit rate was only 1576. Premiere, NeroExpress I can set it above 9600!
4. Don't know how to add default trasitions to entire video track.


I like the sound!

Matt

[BJ_M]

1. how are you viewing ? you can also just check off "reduce flicker"

2. mpeg is only in reg. versions .

3. there are many types of AVI - so i dont know which type you mean, but vegas doesnt put limits on the bit rate ..

4. normally you don't use it that way .....

[rhegedus]

I first tried Ulead Video Studio and Premiere before settling with Vegas, which I've been using since V3, now using V4 and when I get the ca$h, V5.

Very stable, very intuitative and you get audio during capture (not exclusive, to Vegas but I couldn't get it right with the others).

Loads of transitions and loads more which I don't appreciate - I need to sit down and play around.....

[Deekkeed]

Mlong30

4. Don't know how to add default transitions to entire video track.


If you are meaning you want to change the automatic cross fade to use a transition of your choice instead. I don’t know if that can be done. But applying a transition to the whole track after you have placed all your media on the timeline is relatively easy.
If you select the first clip on the timeline and then hold the Shift key and select the last clip, you can then drag your desired transition and drop it onto the selected track and it will replace all the cross fades with the new transition.

Hope this helps

Deek

[mlong30]

<< If you select the first clip on the timeline and then hold the Shift key and select the last clip, you can then drag your desired transition and drop it onto the selected track and it will replace all the cross fades with the new transition. >>

I want Vegas software to apply different transition automatically. My projects are around 250-300 slides. So I would hate to have to drag and drop a different transition for each slide, and really don't want to see the same transition over and over. This feature is available in Ulead, and NeroExpress.

[mlong30]

<< 1. how are you viewing ? you can also just check off "reduce flicker" >>

Where is this feature located? Is it available in the trail version?

Thanks!

Matt

[Deekkeed]

Mlong30
<< 4. Don't know how to add default transitions to entire video track. >>

Ok I miss understood what you wanted. I don’t think you can get Vegas to apply random transitions. I can’t help you there sorry.


<< 1. how are you viewing ? you can also just check off "reduce flicker" >>

I don’t know if it’s in the demo version. But if you right click the clip that you want to apply it to and select properties there’s a box you can check near the bottom of the list marked “Reduce interlace flicker”; you have to apply it to each clip though.


deek

[mlong30]

<< I don’t know if it’s in the demo version. But if you right click the clip that you want to apply it to and select properties there’s a box you can check near the bottom of the list marked “Reduce interlace flicker”; you have to apply it to each clip though. >>

Okay, I see it. Can you set this as a default for the entire project instead of one pic at a time?

[Deekkeed]

Okay, I see it. Can you set this as a default for the entire project instead of one pic at a time?

That I don’t know. I have never found a place to do it. I am also not 100% sure if it should be applied to only the clips that are interlaced (sense pictures are progressive buy nature) or If it affects the output when compressing to an interlaced project. Maybe someone has more info than I do on this one.

deek

[Deekkeed]

mlong30

Here is the quote from the Vegas 5 users manual.


Reduce interlace flicker (video only)

This switch can be useful in cases where the source material didn’t originate as video and contains extremely high spatial or temporal frequencies. When you watch the rendered (interlaced) output on video of this sort of media, you may see flickering or crawling edges if this switch is not applied.

[BJ_M]

you can make a script to apply it to all events - or maybe a script already exists ..

[lgh529]

There is a script already written on the VASST site that will automatically put transistions everywhere. Haven't used it, but I've heard that it works great.

You are probably seeing interlace flicker on your computer screen that won't show up on an interlaced display (ie your TV). Don't let the interlace flicker worry you until after you watch it on TV. I've done videos with hundreds of digital camera stills and found that I've only had to go back and fix 4 or 5.

Good luck