Recommendation for editing software

D

denodigital

Member
I think I'm giving up on Sony Vegas; Sony Vegas requires too much special treatment in order for it to work properly. I'm getting burned out on trying to fix it so it will work and I'm loosing time. Even though I have a powerful, double hard drive system, and am only using it for recording, editing digital music right now, I've discovered that the Sony won't work on just one hard drive, and isn't simple to configure. Do any of you know of a low maintenance type of editing software, a load and record type of product, one that is as good as Vegas, but much easier to operate and will work fine on almost any system?
 
I agree. I have a 4 year old gateway 500x with a 1.9 processor and 1 gig of ram , with an 80 and an 100 gig hard drive (internal) and a 200 gig external. I've got Vegas 5/6 along with DVD 2/3 loaded on my c-drive and render mainly to my g-drive. I keep reading about all the problems everyone else is having and I kept wondering, am I just lucky or what? For me Vegas works like a dream. Of course, I'm still learning so what do I know? Maybe I really have a problem and I'm just too ignorant to know it....
 
Well, I use it on my laptop with a single hard drive and it works just fine.

Specifics. I need specifics.
 
I have had Vegas for a week now and thinks that editor is great. So stable so user friendly.

And yes i run it on a laptop with ONE harddrive.
 
Its stable for you? omggg ur lucky...

Iduno if its either Vegas 6.0..or the fact that my editing computer downstairs just hates me and decides to act like a turtle and lag for me all the time whenever i touch it...but my dad never has probs with it which is weird..

like sometimes..i could be editing something..i click the save button and then the freaking computer like goes crazy and Vegas doesnt respond anymore and the comp freezes...or if i import like over 10 clips at once on the timeline..it freezes...its weird..but all my other applications work fine..and i dont have multiple windows open while im editing either.

my computer hates me....stupid computers...why cant we all jus edit with scissors?...and glue....

JK!!! i take that back..id die if i didnt have my computer to edit on..
 
Vegas works on our 800Mhz accounting computer with a 5400 rpm drive and 256 megs. It's a bit slow, but works fine.

As for easy to configure and use, I don't think there's anything easier.
 
When I say “requires to much attention” what I mean is, I have a high powered system that I had built just for digital music recording and video editing. I can’t recall all the specs on it right now, but it has almost 800 megs of ram, 120 (video side) and 160 (music side) hard drives, lots of memory, excellent processor, it’s a brand new system. I only use it for these 2 functions, with the exception of watching DVD’s or burning CD’s. When installing the digital music software, I encountered a few problems but have that worked out. I’ve tried Pinnical, Ulead, Movie Maker, Sony Picture Package, a generic editing software that came with my digital camera, and now Sony Vegas 5.0. With Pinnical, the problem is that it is not Micro Soft compatible and is a proprietary software, meaning it takes over other computer components and does not allow them to work properly with it and other components. Movie Maker gives me poor quality. Picture Package is not made for editing, just capturing and burning a DVD. Ulead is giving me choppy/jerky capture like Vegas. In essence, I can’t seem to get any of them to do what I need them to do, which is to simply capture and edit. I think there’s one more product I tried that also had poor quality. Now Vegas requires me to have 2 hard drives, one to install the software to and the other to capture to, which, had my computer been a normal store bought system, it would only have one hard drive, which makes more costly. Like they force you to buy more stuff to get it to work. That’s what I mean. It’s been a pain and time consuming and I have a project that’s backing up on me. I need a software that is good, doesn’t cost over $500, and has good quality. I might continue on...how did you initially set your system up? brw459@yahoo.com
 
You should be able to just install it and run, nothing else needed.

What other kind of software do you have on the system? A lot of virus protection? A lot of programs that run in the background? With consistent types of problems between editing apps (choppiness, etc.), I think you need to be looking at something in your system which might be lagging or bogging things down.

How fast are your hard drives?

You SHOULD install a hard drive for video separate from your system drive, but you don't HAVE to. Like I said, I have only one drive on my laptop and Vegas runs like a dream.
 
Last night, I went into Admin Tools and checked which programs were running in the background; I used some internet tips (from various sources) to either set programs on manual or disable it altogether; I did this for both hard drives; I retested capturing and got the same choppy, jerky video with static in the audio, then the screen would just freeze, and post an error message about an occurrance while capturing; I tried the same in Ulead and got the same type result, and same type of message, which included something about the screen size not being correct (or something like that; I'm at work now, can't remember); also, both my hard drives are on the same channel (ch. 1) and my CD-Rom is on Ch. 2; I have the hard drive jumpers set so the Win XP drive is the master and the Windows 2000 hard drive is the slave; what I propose to do is disconnect the CD-Rom and connect that cable to the Windows 2000 hard drive; then I will change the jumper configuration, changing the master/slave setup; I'll leave the CD-Rom diconnected; then I'll try to capture again and see if having the hard drives on separate channels will help; do you think, now that I've tried to capture so many time, causing errors, capturing the bad footage, the freeze-ups, etc., do you think I should uninstall the Sony Vegas and reload it? During these test I've defragmented my hard drive already
 
denodigital said:
Last night, I went into Admin Tools and checked which programs were running in the background; I used some internet tips (from various sources) to either set programs on manual or disable it altogether; I did this for both hard drives; I retested capturing and got the same choppy, jerky video with static in the audio, then the screen would just freeze, and post an error message about an occurrance while capturing; I tried the same in Ulead and got the same type result, and same type of message, which included something about the screen size not being correct (or something like that; I'm at work now, can't remember); also, both my hard drives are on the same channel (ch. 1) and my CD-Rom is on Ch. 2; I have the hard drive jumpers set so the Win XP drive is the master and the Windows 2000 hard drive is the slave; what I propose to do is disconnect the CD-Rom and connect that cable to the Windows 2000 hard drive; then I will change the jumper configuration, changing the master/slave setup; I'll leave the CD-Rom diconnected; then I'll try to capture again and see if having the hard drives on separate channels will help; do you think, now that I've tried to capture so many time, causing errors, capturing the bad footage, the freeze-ups, etc., do you think I should uninstall the Sony Vegas and reload it? During these test I've defragmented my hard drive already
Click to expand...
It sounds like you're having a similar issue I had. I used to use Magix Video Maker before I went to Vegas (I also had Sonic and Movie Maker loaded). When I first loaded it, it worked like champ but as I loaded other programs, the program became increasingly unstable. I finally set up a partition with only Magix in it and it started working again. I haven't had any of the problems with Vegas you describe but if there are other editing programs that having problems, then something is going on with your computer. If moviemaker is working then you might try capturing there, then render to avi and export to Vegas.
 
You probably also want to get rid of any of those other apps you mentioned.

(Also, no need to render to AVI if you capture in another program; they should already BE AVI and Vegas can use them as-is.)

I'm not sure I understand your configuration -- it sounds like you're using both of your hard drives as systems drives (one with XP, one with Win2K). Is that correct?
 
Yes, I use both hard drives; at boot up, I can select which one I want to work with (i.e. if I'm going to do music I select the 160 hard drive which has Windows 2000; if I'm going to capture/edit video, I select the 120 hard drive, which has Windows XP; both drives are on channel 1 and my CD-DVD Maddog is on Ch. 2;

Question: Outside of trying to get Sony Vegas 5.0 to capture, which I encounter problems, how else can one test the software to see if it is a corrupt/bad version?
 
You're not really using separate drives for your system and for your video, then. That's not recommended.

But it should still work.

I still say that if you're getting the same errors in different video programs, you've got an issue somewhere in your system.
 
Check your DMA setting to make sure it is set for DMA when Available and not P10.

Check in IDE ATA/Atapi Controllers in your device manager and go to primary and secondary channels and advance settings.

Also go to pcpitstop.com and run a diagnostic for your system to look for errors.
 
I've been using Vegas since version 4 on three different rigs and havn't had a single problem yet. I think im in love with vegas, is that wrong?
 
Okay: I'm getting somewhere now. I separated my drives, which increased the capture performane a lot; also, I had not realized that I was unable to set the DMA on one of my hard drives; that it was stuck on PIO; the reason (which I found on a Microsoft help page) is due to a setting deep into the sys conf. which I was able to change; once I did that, it got better; now, i've learned that I need a patch to update my Nvidia video card in order for it to work with Vegas; I downloaded it and will install tonight; also, Service Pack 2 has a patch that is needed to fix a program that has to do with capturing video; i downloaded that and will load tonight; i am capturing to a separate hard drive (opposit the one the program is on) and the drop frame rate decrease from about 500 for 5 minutes of footage to about 30 per 5 minutes; so I must be on to something; I also bought a new firewire cable that is OCHI compliant, which I will also try tonight; man....!!! but I'm getting there. Thanks for your help. (brw459@yahoo.com)
 
Unfortunalty, the problems you are having, you will have with any video editng software. It does sound like a configuration issue. My advice, start over. Get a 40gig hard drive as your system drive, even separate partitions for XP and 2K. Install all of your software on that drive, including audio editing aps. use your other two drives as your files drive. This isn't just for video editing, but photo editing, audio editing, all of those things benefit from separate drives for files and software. This really will make your life much easier. Also, I gotta ask you, what happnes if your Windows XP or Windows 2K installation becomes corrupt. Is it all on one partion? If it is, and you have to reinstall windows, you could potentially lose all of you audio and video work. Not a good idea.
 
Hello:

The problem is resolved and I'm so happy. Nothing like a cold beer after resolving a 3 week long software problem. This is how I resolved the problem.

I "finally" saw that my hard drive 0 was not set perminently to DMA; I had to go deep into the settings using Extreme Tech Support in order to "force DMA mode"; then I made both my hard drive masters and slaved my DVD ROM; I bought a standardized firewire cable; captured to my hard drive that don't have the Vegas loaded on it; and it worked; 10 minutes of smooth capture and not a single dropped frame (at least today); I'm sure it will do just fine from this point on.

Thank you all for your help/advice; I'm sure I'll be asking more advice as I proceed on to editing; such as:

I'm in the process of shooting a music video (my first); I want to shoot while the singer lip syncs to their song; what is the best way to do this; should I play the music on a sterio/speakers, and record it along with the video? Should I let the music play, the singer lip sync, capture it, mute the sound, then add the music? I've heard that if the singer is lip syncing to their music, then that music is muted in edit and the real recording is overlayed, then because the device that is playing the music the singer is lip sync to had a different motor speed than the computer's CD player, then the sound will be off. Or, should I capture the sound in Vegas using the same device that I used to play the music, which will play at the same speed, which should capture at the same speed? Then, also, after I have the sound in one file, and the video in another, how can I merge the two?

Thanks. The rookie editor!
 
Yes, you should play the song on set.

It doesn’t hurt to record the sound along with it, but you’re not going to use it.

Having the soundtrack with the video can help synchronize it with the studio recording later, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t synch up exactly. Differences in speed imperceptible to your ear will show up on the timeline.

I think you’ll find it will be close enough to match the singer’s lips, though, assuming the singer gets it right.
 
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