Could Microsoft buy Vegas?

Ed Kishel

Ed Kishel

Veteran
Jarred made a comment in another thread about some Vegas rumors he heard...so I scoured Google to find any info. Below is a link to an article I found and a quote from it. IF Sony sold off properties to save money- I hope this article turns out to be just what it is- speculation . But if it was sold, I would want Sonic Foundry to buy it back.

"...Acquiring Sony’s Vegas video, Acid audio and related media applications and integrating them into Vista’s revised photo and media suite could be a compelling alternative to iLife...."

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2369/what_if_microsoft

http://www.bonafidereviews.com/article.php?id=148

Sony has done a pretty good job with Vegas so far- It would be pretty hard for me to go back to Premiere. Yes I know, its fear, speculation, rumor and I dont mean to start any panicking but as a die-hard Vegas loyalist/user (been using it since Vegas Audio 1.0) I had to mention it to hear from other Vegas users if they had heard anything or have an opinion.

Ed
 
Doubtful..since micro$oft just got slapped with another lawsuit..And Sony Corp is doing pretty well at the box office with movies like the DiVinci Code. They are making movies for the PSP more readilly available and overall I'm sure their fine. Especially since they don't get into lawsuits like Micro$oft does.
 
For those of us who like the HVX, having anyone BUT Sony owning Vegas could only be seen as good news. As long as Sony runs Vegas, no DVCPRO-HD support can be expected. But if MS or someone else bought them, I think we'll see the anticompetitive shackles come off and the Madison Wisconsin team would be able to breathe a lot easier.

I would welcome it.
 
Well, the DVCPRO stuff aside, Sony has kept Vegas being . . . Vegas, and in fact has made great improvements to it. I'm not sure MS wouldn't MS the heck out of it. Would that be worth it just for HVX support? Baby/bathwater, to me.
 
I dunno, it seems like it's taken a huge Sony slant since Sony bought it. No DVCPRO-HD support, but hey, you can output straight from the timeline to a Playstation Portable! Like we were all waiting for that feature, right?

It has MXF support too. Of course, no support for the OP-Atom MXF format used by Panasonic, Leitch, Pinnacle, Avid, Thomson Grass Valley, and everyone else -- only MXF supported is Sony's one-and-only proprietary implementation. Sigh.

So (if by someone else buying them) that kind of thing stops happening, then I'm all for it. Vegas has hands-down the best 24p support for the DVX, and I kind of think that if Sony wasn't breathing down their necks, they probably would have the best HVX support, the best Infinity support, the best RED support, etc.
 
microsoft could improve on it's own DV codec but they haven't ...
microsoft pretty much knocked off firewire 800 with XP SP2 ...
microsoft has had many delays bringing out their new OS ...
IMO microsoft doing any NLE is NO -no

native DVCpro100 support is not gong to kill Vegas .. there are currently many work arounds ...

i just got back from portland .. some friends just shot on sony 900 and 2 HVX 200's .... they have Avid adrenline system , FCP with aja card , decklink with Vegas - when i left this AM the only software that was viewing the HVX footage was VEGAS 6 with raylight ( don't need decklink to view) .. for past 2 days they haven't been able to figure out how to get the mfx files into FCP ....
 
Having been a software developer for the past 16 years, I have seen the microsoft buying out rumor come up numerous times for all kinds of software. Someone writes a "what if" article and the rumor takes root.

MS partnered with pinnacle for their Digital Imaging Suite Plus -- My guess is that if they really wanted to get into the digital video world, they would be looking at someone like Avid instead.
 
Barry_Green said:
I dunno, it seems like it's taken a huge Sony slant since Sony bought it. No DVCPRO-HD support, but hey, you can output straight from the timeline to a Playstation Portable! Like we were all waiting for that feature, right?

It has MXF support too. Of course, no support for the OP-Atom MXF format used by Panasonic, Leitch, Pinnacle, Avid, Thomson Grass Valley, and everyone else -- only MXF supported is Sony's one-and-only proprietary implementation. Sigh.

So (if by someone else buying them) that kind of thing stops happening, then I'm all for it. Vegas has hands-down the best 24p support for the DVX, and I kind of think that if Sony wasn't breathing down their necks, they probably would have the best HVX support, the best Infinity support, the best RED support, etc.
Click to expand...

I agree on all of that. I just don't see Microsoft being the answer there. They might well implement the support, but the price might be too high.
 
I can't see Microsoft buying it, but Barry has a point about Sony and DVCPROHD support... Personally, though, I'd rather keep it the way it is. Any transfer of ownership would likely leave Vegas ridden with the hardware dongles, agressive product activation, etc.

Not to mention the fact that anything Microsoft touches seems to lose stability very quickly... Personally, one of the reasons I use Vegas is because no matter what I throw at it, or how many things I try to do at once, it won't lock up or crash on me in the middle of a project. Microsoft Vegas...I can see the blue screens of death already...
 
iMovie is really easy to use, whereas Vegas is not. iMovie is very intuitive... you don't even have to read the help/manual to cut a project. Vegas' strength is that it's way more powerful.

For usage by the masses, I don't think Vegas would fare that well versus iMovie. OTOH, Vegas Movie Studio is supposedly #1 selling.

Ownership-wise, I think Sony Media Software has done a reasonable job in not meddling with the product in the wrong way. An example of bad ownership would be the Norton products... they used to be good but are now garbage because they're designed for the executives, not the end user.
 
I think if Sonic Foundry had still been free-reign, Vegas would fully-support the HVX. But Sony didn't fundamentally alter its soul, which is good. True, it started to use it to pimp its formats (yes, I had the same"oh, joy" reaction to PSP support), but it could have been worse.

Microsoft would take it to that "worse" place, I have no doubt.
 
glenn chan said:
iMovie is really easy to use, whereas Vegas is not. iMovie is very intuitive... you don't even have to read the help/manual to cut a project. Vegas' strength is that it's way more powerful.

For usage by the masses, I don't think Vegas would fare that well versus iMovie. OTOH, Vegas Movie Studio is supposedly #1 selling.

Ownership-wise, I think Sony Media Software has done a reasonable job in not meddling with the product in the wrong way. An example of bad ownership would be the Norton products... they used to be good but are now garbage because they're designed for the executives, not the end user.
Click to expand...

Why are you comparing Imovie to Vegas? The better comparison is FCP to Vegas---Now Vegas Movie Studio and Imovie would be a good comparison and to a NEW consumer editor, I think Vegas Studio would win.
 
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