Sony Vegas Platinum 8.0 Vs 10 + using Vegas to edit AVIs + converting AVIs

[jonford]

Hi all

New to this site, so hoping you can help me. Got a few questions about AVIs and Sony vegas
I have recently started editing videos (mainly holiday ones - skiing) I currently use Sony Vegas Platinum 8.0, but was wandering if it is worth the money getting Platinum 10 (its only £20 on ebay so dont mind buying but want to make sure worth while) What are the main differences between the 2 platinum versions (not Pro) Can you do image stabiliser on 8.0? (handy for ski video as often bit juddery) You can do it on 10, so may be worth buying just for that.

I film the footage using a Muvi HD Pro - filming in 1080 and 720. The problem is that when I load the files onto my computer, they are AVI files. When I try to edit these into a film through Vegas 8.0, the computer/system really struggles to edit and play the footage smoothly (through vegas) - plays fine when just view the AVIs through Windows media player. As the ski videos use a lot of very quick shots to music, I want to edit the footage quickly snapping to the music. I can do this if I convert the AVIs to Mpegs (through freeware system "gui4ffmpeg"). Is the system struggling because: 1-they are AVIs, and AVIs are large in size. 2-Sony Vegas 8.0 cant cope with AVIs, 3-My computer graphics card cant cope with AVIs (relatively new Mesh computer bought 2nd hand from a "gamer")

If I still have to convert to Mpeg, is it worth paying for a converter - gui4ffmpeg only allows me to edit 1 AVI at a time which is very time consuming. it there something out there that allows me to select a load of AVIs and convert them all, so I can walkaway and come back when they are all done, as well as keeping high quality colours etc (noticed the quality drops from AVI to Mpeg through gui4ffmpeg, so, would a "bought" converter offer better quality than the freeware (dont want to buy one if gives same quality)

Sorry about all the questions - hope you can help
thanks
Jon

[aedipuss]

use mediainfo to get the real properties of your video. avi is a generic container for video. most likely it's long gop mpeg-4. fine for playing but hard on editing software. platinum 10 is newer and may be able to more easily use your video, but much relies on the speed of your computer. even a fast quad core can struggle editing some mpeg-4.

update your profile to include your computer specs and paste the text output of mediainfo here.