VEGAS or AVID?

T

teddytalker

Active member
I tried Avid Media Composer the other day. It took me 15 minutes to get a piece of footage on the timeline...another 10 to get a transition going..whew..

Am I missing something? Why can my kids use vegas for youtube etc..and it seems so much easier than this app?..and this is the app the big boys use in Hollywierd??

If you can help I would appreciate it!!

Ted
 
I would suggest you download the Vegas trial version, try it on your PC, and use the included Interactive Help to understand how it works.
 
I am a Vegas user since version 4. I just tried Avid Media Composer and it just seems a hard learn compared to Vegas. I love Vegas!!!
 
Avid Media Composer is a very powerful NLE. You can't approach it thinking it is going to be like other NLE's; the Avid interface requires a different mindset. This is where most non-Avid users get turned off because it is "different" than what they're used to.

Avid is like an OS within an OS. Once you you "lock on" to it, you'll be cutting away fluidly. That's part of the reason why the industry uses it so much.
 
Avid has a very steep learning curve. I cut on Avid, FCP and now Vegas. I like Avid the best, for me it's the fastest. Vegas can't be beat for the $ though.
 
Thanks Guys.. Can you Avid guys give me a couple reasons why you moved there? Or even one good reason.

Thanks Ted
 
I left Vegas for a number of reasons:
1-chronic dropped frames when importing m2t files. After 18 months of ignoring the problem, yesterday Sony axknowledged that they are investigating reports.
2-Very poor customer support. In fact, it is non-existent.
3-Colors shown in the video preview window are unreliable.
4-WFM and vectorscope tools are unreliable
5-Random and inexplicable program crashes and freezes with HDV.
6-"32 bit processing" mode which is more of a consumer sales gimmick than anything useable
 
I have never found 3 or 4 to be the case, especially not 4.

Can't speak to tbe problems with HDV; I don't use it.
 
David...

With reference to no's 3 and 4, WYS is not WYG, with the vegas monitors. In all fairness, the problem is probably due to the type of codec one choses to render out to. some use RGB, some use YUV. The net result is errors in both the preview window and the WFM when properly displaying Luma. IMHO, Vegas doesn't distinguish, correctly, in conversions from YUV to RGB when displaying the value in the scopes or the preview window. Vegas leaves REC601 to Rec709 conversions up to the user, when, most other NLE's handle the difference automatically. Since the LUMA values in the scopes and previews are incorrectly displayed, it becomes a matter of trial and error to render out and look at the result.

The other NLE's I use are Avid and Edius. Both of these seem to make the issue a no-brainer. I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to explain to a DP why the colors in my Vegas preview window don't match the colors I get when rendered out. I'm not new to editting, having been doing this for the past 15 years. I've spent countless hours trying to decipher this issue. I finally gave up on vegas.
 
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I don't think you're saying that the scopes are wrong, are you? You're saying that per codec you may get different rendered results from what you're seeing when you edit (which is something different). Do I read you correctly?
 
yes, I think you have it, Dave.
But, to reframe the question, if the scopes don't show what you're getting when you render, are they right?
In other words, Sony's philosophy is, "OK, we'll show you what you got on the timeline, but we disavow any knowledge of what you may get when you render with this".
 
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