To buy or Not to buy?!?!

[Ramster]

Been several years for me, shooting, editing, a friend in film school, his father helped create Avid, so I had edited for awhile back in the 1900's... Anyway, I picked up a XH-A1s canon and will be working on a few projects and need to be able to edit as I go and have been searching around for a user friendly NLE setup... I have used adobe premiere in the past, works great, but I never liked the interface, which brings me to Sony Vegas. However now that I have looked around I keep seeing all the posts about how bad the new 11 version is! :-( So chit!!! Now what?!?! I see folks saying to use an older version, I am still not sure what I should do. I guess one thing is I am on a low budget for right now, my computer is not the newest and greatest. I am thinking maybe the older software might be a better bet, but again with shooting in HD... any suggestions?!?! Also if I do go with an older version anyone have a suggestion of where to get a copy, cheap?!?!

TIA!!!

[TheDingo]

Vegas Pro 11 utilizes your graphics card processor ( GPU ) to speed up some processing tasks, and this has caused lots of problems because it's not always been compatible with the user's PC set-up. Sony has been releasing new builds to correct this, and for the most part Vegas Pro 11 is pretty solid now.

The only thing to keep in mind when buying Vegas Pro 11 is that you may have to upgrade your video card ( if it's old or under-powered ) to get the best results from Vegas.

[HotConductor]

I love Vegas, when it works. Lately it has been crashing regularly for me, especially on big projects. Keep in mind that my computer is an absolute BEAST. Core i7 (12 threads), 32GB ram, ASUS P9X79 MB, Galaxy 670 GPU... I am waiting until July to begin learning CS6, and will make the move this fall...

[kylevant]

Download the trial. It's the full version anyway so it'll give you an idea of how well it runs on your system. I find Vegas especially good for older systems; it can really squeeze some power out of an old system. Premiere doesn't run as well as Vegas does on my system.

I've never really had problems with 11 and even if I did then they've been fixed with the latest update.

[clang]

Good advice, kilevant. Yes, some users have had major stability hassles with v11, but others (like me) have had no problems whatsoever. Actually trying it on your own PC is the best way to find out.

[Subhadip]

Much, if not all, of the stability issues are related to the GPU acceleration. Teething issues for a brand new tech, nothing unforeseen. Not necessarily a fault with Vegas itself, could just as well be the graphics drivers from AMD or NVIDIA. Things are pretty stable now with the latest build and the latest drivers, so those concerns are a thing of the past. However, there's a quick fix if your GPU or drivers are not up to it - simply disable GPU acceleration of video processing, it will be as stable as previous versions then.

[kylevant]

Much, if not all, of the stability issues are related to the GPU acceleration. Teething issues for a brand new tech, nothing unforeseen. Not necessarily a fault with Vegas itself, could just as well be the graphics drivers from AMD or NVIDIA. Things are pretty stable now with the latest build and the latest drivers, so those concerns are a thing of the past. However, there's a quick fix if your GPU or drivers are not up to it - simply disable GPU acceleration of video processing, it will be as stable as previous versions then.

Exactly. In fact, GPU acceleration only started working for me recently with the latest AMD drivers. Still stable.

[HotConductor]

I agree that most people's issue lies with GPU acceleration, but in my case the program just fails under heavy stress. Even with GPU disabled Vegas 11's stabilization is so crippled that I ended up finishing a project entirely in 10, just to get it done. 11 crashed when I hit play... crashed when Magic Bullet Looks 2 was opened... crashed when any footage was heavily grade... crashed upon finishing stabilization...

For me it doesn't matter what machine I'm on, new or old workstation, Vegas 11 just crashes under heavy projects. Simple stuff, no problem.

When Vegas 11 works, it is GLORIOUS! I just have to make sure that my part time editor knows to save his work every few minutes, just incase.

To repeat: Main issue for me is the crappy stabilization plugin. It just doesn't work well at all, and at times just plain refuses to work. 10 was better for stabilization, and I use that plugin almost daily.

[MarcoPolo]

I'm not sure how it will handle 24F footage from the Canon XH-A1s, but it's a very easy to learn program. It reminds me of a virtual film flatbed editor with a very straight-forward drag and drop interface and a lot of powerful features under the hood. There are some things it's lacking which prevent it from being used in many professional broadcast and film settings, but it still has enough to offer someone working individually. Vegas Pro 11 is running very stable on my 3.6 Ghz 4 core/8 thread system, with 16GB ram with an Nvidia gaming card and my 2011 MacBook Pro. Vegas 9 Pro was the one I had trouble with after an update.