Vegas Video - Looking for Opinions

[Jenny]

Hi!

I am about to begin capturing lots of video on computer.

I am really considering using Vegas Video to do that.


What I plan to do with the Video:
- I host a weekly Variety Show in a Lounge in my city
- I video record the show weekly (with a DV Digital Camera – home use camera/non-professional)
- I want to transfer the entire Show (which is around 45 min to 1 hour) to my computer
- MY BIGGEST thing is I want to cut pieces of the Show out (this is where Vegas Video comes in) and put those short clips on a website for people to view
- MY OTHER BIGGEST thing is that I want to create HIGH QUALITY short vids (2 to 15 minutes) for my audience to watch at the Show. Later, I would render those High Quality vids and make them a realistic size for the internet


Does anyone use Vegas Video? What do you think of it?


Thanks for reading!
Jenny

[Red96TA]

Vegas rocks!

It's all I use for editing and probably won't turn anywhere else. It will do everything you mentioned and more easily.

If you wait a couple weeks, word on the street is that Vegas6 is coming out.

[DaveS]

Hi Jenny ... if I connect your two posts (this one and https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=264450), one on the hard drive and the other on Vegas, I would be concerned about trying to run vegas on the PC you mentioned (assuming this is all for the same project you reference here).

Vegas does rock and will do what you want and tons more. But, it's not cheap and will likely do a lot that you may not need to start.

If I could say so, and of course please take this with a grain of salt because I know nothing more about your situation than you posted, and may be making some incorrect assumptions, but, given your two posts, I'd consider:

- Don't buy vegas to start..spend your money on a new faster PC running Win XP with a second hard drive maybe smaller than the 250 gig (DV is 13 gigs / hour off your miniDV camera; so for an hour of show plus work space, 30 gigs for example would be enough for one show while editing..then, considering you may have several shows on at once, and drive space is cheap, buy as much as you can affored without going totally overboard)

- look at entry level editors that would cost less than vegas and get you started...there are plenty of posts here; then, when you feel your needs have advanced to vegas capabilities and you have enough $$ to buy it, then get vegas (in fact, vegas I think has now vegas studio, which would get you used to the vegas UI and is much less..but, it's new for an entry level prod. and there are others out there as well)

IMHO if you had a decent PC with an editor that met your needs but wasn't too much more than you need, you'd have a much better first experience than trying to run something on a slower AMD with win 98

- And, DON"T buy pinnacle studio for your first editor. It doesn't work (ok, it may for some people some times, but take advantage of other peoples' mistake, including my own, and stay away from it - you'll be much happier).

Good luck!!

[MJPollard]

FYI, an inexpensive alternative to Vegas would be Vegas Movie Studio, sort of a "Vegas Lite". For $99, you get an editor with all the basic functionality of Vegas in an identical interface, allowing you to eventually move up to the full Vegas (upgrade discounts are available from Sony, as I recall) without requiring retraining on your part. Just something to consider.

[reboot]

Movie Studio 4 is an ideal way to get started with Sony stuff.

[Jenny]

Wow!

What a helpful post! Geese…this place is getting better and better! Thanks again everyone.

DaveS, thanks for the lengthy, in depth post Absolutely helpful.


Jenny