Vegas user contemplating Edius

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immusicman

Active member
Hi friends,

I have been using vegas pro for a few years now (8c) currently. I just purchased a new HVX200 with P2 cards and its on its way. I bought a new computer to edit on and after researching about the P2 workflow, the only way to continue to use Vegas is to buy a plugin called Raylight Ultra to allow the editing of the MXF files created on the P2's by the HVX200. It troubles me that Sony will not add the support of DVCPro and the like. So I can spend 195.00 more on raylight ultra or I can purchase Edius or another NLE. I have heard great things about edius and how easy the workflow is..especially for P2 workflow. I am a full time student so academic pricing will apply. Edius is currently 158.00 bucks for educational series. Which according to Edius, is identical in every way to retail version except all the third party plugins are not included. This is what I want to ask the Edius users, what plugins come with Edius 5 and how essential are they? Without the plugins, would I still have a good editor? I know what Vegas can do without plugins (except must add raylight). Another option is Avid media composer for 295.00 which is a steal, but again..no third party software is included with it either. I value your opinions..please tell me anything you can to help me decide what to do. Thank you all.
John
 
Just to follow up on my remarks, I have never used any editor other than Sony Vegas..so I am nervous to an extent..but if I learned Vegas, certainly I can learn another.
 
you can certainly do without the plugins. :-) Edius plug ins can be acquired later on. But NLE plugins in general are not as essential as the plugins in compositing software like After effects, or 3d animation software.

So, yeah, go for the educational version and your good to go without it. I can't remember a project I did which rely on an edius plug in.
 
Dude...

I am sure Edius is great. I've seen the interface and watched the demos. But if you are a student, and can get the Avid student edition... seriously, get it. The P2 workflow is STUPID easy, and it's the most powerful editor on the planet. There are ways to get the plugins at student pricing as well for a bit more money.

Nothing against Edius, and you would be well served with it, but after having used Avid, I am seriously thinking of taking classes. In fact, I just spoke yesterday to one of the teachers of digital production last night for this very reason.
 
We have Avid Media Composser, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, and Edius in our studio. Edius is used about 90 -95% of the time because it is so much easier and so much faster than everything else. The Avid machine is gathering dust...

There are a few of the Edius plug ins that are nice but a lot of them are redundant. I really can't think of any that I would die without. Right now there is a lot of excitement on the Edius Forum about a new third party Chinese Titler plugin from VideoStar called Vistitle. But it is $379
 
PerroneFord said:
Dude...

I am sure Edius is great. I've seen the interface and watched the demos. But if you are a student, and can get the Avid student edition... seriously, get it. The P2 workflow is STUPID easy, and it's the most powerful editor on the planet. There are ways to get the plugins at student pricing as well for a bit more money.

Nothing against Edius, and you would be well served with it, but after having used Avid, I am seriously thinking of taking classes. In fact, I just spoke yesterday to one of the teachers of digital production last night for this very reason.
Click to expand...


Have you used Edius to any degree? Sorry to disagree, but Avid is not the most powerful editor on the planet. Edius will run rings around Avid MC in terms of speed, ease of use and rendering. It's very easy to use and learn. I have Avid MC and Edius. I rarely use Avid these days. If you are looking to work with Red or Film than Avid is your choice. Other than that is has nothing over Edius. You can put just about anything you want on an edius timeline and just edit. Mixed formats, resolutions and file types, NTSC and PAL, it doesn't matter. It's all in realtime as well. Download the trials and take a test spin of both and see for yourself.
 
Avid is OK. Edius I think is easier to use than Vegas (I hate the Vegas GUI) but I opted for the CS4 Master Collection and have not looked back (I used Edius for years). While the realtime of Edius is nice the integration of the CS4 collection can not be beat. Sound Booth has an auto composer feature that is a lot like Smart Sound but a tad bit better in my opinion. Also the DVD authoring is better than what Edius has to offer. You may also need Photoshop and After effects one day.


Edius is not a bad editor but will you need motion grahpics, high end Blu-Ray authoring or royalty free sound tracks? Edius will not do all of the above. Decide what your needs are. Edius might be your best bet but then again it might not.

If you can get the Avid software for $295.00 it might be worth getting to get your feet wet. Avid editing skills are good to have.
 
medeamajic said:
avid is ok. Edius i think is easier to use than vegas (i hate the vegas gui) but i opted for the cs4 master collection and have not looked back (i used edius for years). While the realtime of edius is nice the integration of the cs4 collection can not be beat. Sound booth has an auto composer feature that is a lot like smart sound but a tad bit better in my opinion. Also the dvd authoring is better than what edius has to offer. You may also need photoshop and after effects one day.


Edius is not a bad editor but will you need motion grahpics, high end blu-ray authoring or royalty free sound tracks? Edius will not do all of the above. Decide what your needs are. Edius might be your best bet but then again it might not.

If you can get the avid software for $295.00 it might be worth getting to get your feet wet. Avid editing skills are good to have.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Tommy K said:
Have you used Edius to any degree? Sorry to disagree, but Avid is not the most powerful editor on the planet. Edius will run rings around Avid MC in terms of speed, ease of use and rendering. It's very easy to use and learn. I have Avid MC and Edius. I rarely use Avid these days. If you are looking to work with Red or Film than Avid is your choice. Other than that is has nothing over Edius. You can put just about anything you want on an edius timeline and just edit. Mixed formats, resolutions and file types, NTSC and PAL, it doesn't matter. It's all in realtime as well. Download the trials and take a test spin of both and see for yourself.
Click to expand...

If I use Edius, how long to start an edit from XDCamEX sourced material? Avid takes literally 4 seconds. I timed it.
If I use Edius, how do I collaborate with the music guys on ProTools?
If I use Edius, how do I handle broadcast captions on the timeline?
If I use Edius what are my options for preparing for filmout?
If I use Edius, how does it handle the mixed SI2K, RED, or NanoFlash Stuff?
If I use Edius, which 10-bit codec can I use on the timeline to color grade?
If I use Edius what is my workflow for dealing with the DPX files from the VFX folks?
If I use Edius, what are my options for 2K finish for Digital Cinema Prep? (MJ2K)?

I have answers to all of these things in Avid. And I have answers to none of them in Edius. At least not so far. But maybe you can shed some light on them for me. I'll have to solve each of them for what I do now at work, what I will need for my documentary that I am finishing, or for doing the freelance work that I am doing now.

Thanks.
 
PerroneFord said:
If I use Edius, how long to start an edit from XDCamEX sourced material? Avid takes literally 4 seconds. I timed it.
If I use Edius, how do I collaborate with the music guys on ProTools?
If I use Edius, how do I handle broadcast captions on the timeline?
If I use Edius what are my options for preparing for filmout?
If I use Edius, how does it handle the mixed SI2K, RED, or NanoFlash Stuff?
If I use Edius, which 10-bit codec can I use on the timeline to color grade?
If I use Edius what is my workflow for dealing with the DPX files from the VFX folks?
If I use Edius, what are my options for 2K finish for Digital Cinema Prep? (MJ2K)?

I have answers to all of these things in Avid. And I have answers to none of them in Edius. At least not so far. But maybe you can shed some light on them for me. I'll have to solve each of them for what I do now at work, what I will need for my documentary that I am finishing, or for doing the freelance work that I am doing now.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

1 XDcamEX... Instant editing. Drag clips to timeline/bin

Didn't he say: "If you are looking to work with Red or Film than Avid is your choice."
Yep.. he did. So most of those questions have been answered for you.
The OP is working with P2 so Edius would be a GREAT choice as it's all RT with no transcoding.
 
Hi Perrone,

I've been wondering about the Canopus HQ codec, is it 8 or 10 bit?
You mentioned about the advantage of using 10 bit codec in grading.
 
ATL Media Group said:
1 XDcamEX... Instant editing. Drag clips to timeline/bin

Didn't he say: "If you are looking to work with Red or Film than Avid is your choice."
Yep.. he did. So most of those questions have been answered for you.
The OP is working with P2 so Edius would be a GREAT choice as it's all RT with no transcoding.
Click to expand...

I asked two questions that relate to RED or Film. The rest are all digital/broadcast based.

Asking a question about how an NLE interacts with the most popular sound based tool around is pretty standard fare I'd think.

Asking how an NLE handles captions is pretty important for many folks who'd be looking at Avid. Even Youtube is supporting captions these days.

Asking about timeline codecs for color grading should be paramount to anyone doing color correction on captured media.

Asking about digital output should be fair game.


With the exception of broadcast captions and collaboration with ProTools, I can solve each of these problems in Sony Vegas, and have. So if someone wants to tell me that Edius is much better, then I think it's fair to ask how Edius solves these problems.
 
Thanks. what about taking the HQ footage and doing the CC inside AE? Doesn't AE work in a higher bit environment?

Also wondering about what you mentioned about broadcast titles, I use titlemotion edius plug in instead of the quicktitler inside edius. Isn't Titlemotion, an inscriber product, "broadcast standard". ?
I did get from another forum a recommendation to do critical quality titling in AE rather than on an NLE. Does your experience support this recommendation?

Thanks in advance.

ps. just saw your post. on captions. I thought you meant titles. is it the same?
 
The new Raylight Ultra (1.2, in beta right now) has 10-bit YUV for both AVC-Intra and DVCPROHD. You would use it with rendering in the Vegas 32-bit color mode.

Also as an aside, any comparisons between Vegas and Edius should look closely at the capabilities with sound effects and mixing. IMHO Vegas is the clear winner there.
 
teddybear said:
Thanks. what about taking the HQ footage and doing the CC inside AE? Doesn't AE work in a higher bit environment?

Also wondering about what you mentioned about broadcast titles, I use titlemotion edius plug in instead of the quicktitler inside edius. Isn't Titlemotion, an inscriber product, "broadcast standard". ?
I did get from another forum a recommendation to do critical quality titling in AE rather than on an NLE. Does your experience support this recommendation?

Thanks in advance.

ps. just saw your post. on captions. I thought you meant titles. is it the same?
Click to expand...

Captions are for people who are deaf/hard of hearing. This is not the same as "titles". You know how you can turn on or off closed captions on your TV? This is what I am talking about.

Or the ability to embed other language translations into your video footage. Not a concern for everyone, but ADA rules dictate these be provided in broadcast and in certain other scenarios. Government agencies risk lawsuit if they are not provided so it is CRUCIAL to that group of content creators.
 
ATL Media Group said:
For now. I'm sure we'll see 10 bit and native 64bit in the not too distant future. Will it be enough to drag me away from Premiere CS5 and the excellent Adobe integration? We'll see.
Click to expand...

Yes, for now. But I have needs now. I can't tell clients to hang on for 4, 6, 12 months until CanopusHQ gets a 10bit variant. I have to color grade their footage today (and last night).

Maybe a re-evaluation in 12 months would produce different results, but as it stands now, that is a show stopper.
 
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