I swear, Vegas 8 is going to drive me mental.

Ok, so I've had a plethora of bugs surface in Vegas 8. I wrote to Sony a little while ago, and they were kind enough to give me the platinum support package to help me with adequate technical support.

Wow, how nice of Sony.

Well yes and no, because although I have managed to raise a few queries, I have found to my confoundment, that the actual support system seems to be riddled with bugs as well.

So, now I find that every time I try to access one of my queries, I get the message:

" Permission Denied
You do not have permission to access this document."

At first this was an intermittent problem, but now it happens all the time. So now I find myself spending time trying to get the support system to work to see if I can get guidance on thigns in the software that did not work.

Luckily, I can still raise queries, so I raised one, describing my problems accessing replies to queries, and asking for them to forward the reply to my registered email address. Unfortunately they did not do this. As I could not read their reply to my problem of not being able to read replies, I raised another query referring to the first and asking again if they could forward their reply to my email address. Once again, they replied only within the system.

So I raised a third query, that read like this:

"Hi, Thanks for responding to the above query, but as I said in the text of the message, it is not of much help because I can not read the replies. Currently, when I try and access any message in the support system, I am greeted by a screen that says:

"Permission Denied
You do not have permission to access this document."

So unless you email me a reply, or at the very least send it via carrier pigeon, I will not be able to see your response. So if it is something I am doing wrong, I will not know. If it is something you are doing wrong, I will not know. If you are telling me that I am talking to the wrong person, I will not know. At the moment, I do not know the response to any of the last three queries I have raised.

So please, find a way, be it through fair means or otherwise, to email me a response because as of yet I have not gained the power to communicate telepathically with remote servers (although I am likely to have that skill long before I understand women).

Hate to sound spikey, but I am ever so slightly under it at the minute, and the responses to some of those queries are vital to the progress of my current project.

Kind Regards,

Robert Wheeler"

Finally, I got a reply by email, which suggested I try using Internet Explorer to access the site. Unfortunately this did not work.

It is very annoying as I have so far got very swift responses and the staff seem to want to be supportive. Although so far they have not presented any actually solutions to my problems, it would be nice to at least be able to read the latest ones, so I could get the benefit and share them here.

I have just tried to test render a clip after rendering thirty other similar clips this morning ,and the software has hung inexplicably at 3%.

I hate Vegas 8. It is utter sh*te. I am a highly p*ssed off man.

I really feel for you mate. I have to say you must have the patience of a saint, I'd have put my boot into something (namely my edit machine) by now.

One question; If you are working on a paid job, why are you persevering with something that's obviously duff? Have you got the option to revert to using Vegas 7 for example?

I know I know, you're probably saying, 'yeah, I could revert to something that works, but why should I when I fork out for software that SHOULD work'?

I'm a firm believer in buying stuff and expecting it to WORK and it grips my sh~t when it doesn't! But in this case, it really might be in your best interests to bin Vegas 8 for now and get back to something a little more reliable.

I took advantage of the cheap 8 upgrade but it's still in it's envelope and that's where it's going to stay until version b. or even c. 7e is stable enough so I'll keep using that on any paid hdv jobs.

Also, not that I'm an expert on consumer affairs, but would anyone one out there know if Robert would have a claim for a faulty product and get his cash back??

Hope things improve for you!

The problem here does not revolve around the actual staff, as they seem to have the right attitude. Their tools just seem to be very poor. But their attitude when I do get through to them does make it a lot easier to deal with the total unsatisfactory nature of the software. The do seem to want to help me, and the first queries I was actually were able to read were replied to within 39 minutes, the last two within 15 minutes.

If I could revert back to Vegas 6 I would. However, the reason for switching to 8 mid project was partly to take advantage of the improved .m2t handling, and the 32 bit colour handling, now we are grading our colour. What is more, we have moved the project forward enough ,that it would be a serious nuisance to try and re-tread our steps in Vegas 6.

The cost of the software is irrelevant. Getting a refund on the software will not solve our problems. We need software that works and provides a solution to our pressing production issues.

Vegas 8 is an incomplete piece of software. It lacks basic features, such as importing of old project properties and track/event pan/crop settings, it is generally unreliable, and it possesses a half baked major element in the shape of the "pro"-titler.

Edit:

And by the way, you are not the Stuart Campbell that used to work for Future Publishing and Sensible Software are you?

Yeah, the inability to import settings and prefs from previous versions of the same software is ridiculous. It amazes me that a company such as Sony don't consider that as imperative. You wonder what they were thinking, or not!

No, you must be thinking of someone else I'm afraid. I was a Lighting Cameraman in London and South East from 97 to 2003, when I moved to Germany to work out here (which made for a refreshing change to London)!

Well, my support account sprang into life again, but i do not know how long it will last for. I checked their answer to my original query about the problems I was having, but I have also now started a new one about problems with WMV rendering crashes. Luckily, it properly crashed on the last occasion and was able to see what it was calling when it went wrong - details follow:

Sony Vegas Pro 8.0
Version 8.0a (Build 179)
Exception 0xC0000005 (access violation) READ:0x0 IP:0x7814507A
In Module 'MSVCR80.dll' at Address 0x78130000 + 0x1507A
Thread: ProgMan ID=0xE18 Stack=0x305F000-0x3060000
Registers:
EAX=00473100 CS=001b EIP=7814507a EFLGS=00010212
EBX=00000000 SS=0023 ESP=0305f518 EBP=0305f520
ECX=0011cc40 DS=0023 ESI=00000000 FS=003b
EDX=00000000 ES=0023 EDI=7d9200a8 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
7814507A: F3 A5 FF 24 95 94 51 14 ...: 78 90 8B C7 BA 03 00 00 x.......
Stack Dump:
0305F518: 00000000
0305F51C: 0AA73E68 0A860000 + 213E68
0305F520: 0305F894 02F60000 + FF894
0305F524: 2AFD754A 2AFC0000 + 1754A (wmfplug3.dll)
0305F528: 7D9200A8 7D920000 + A8
0305F52C: 00000000
0305F530: 00473100 00400000 + 73100 (vegas80.exe)
0305F534: C96C73B1
0305F538: 3D5D0BB8 3A0C0000 + 3510BB8
0305F53C: 0AFCA60C 0A860000 + 76A60C
0305F540: 0AFCA5D8 0A860000 + 76A5D8
0305F544: 33564D57 33560000 + 4D57
0305F548: 0064D000 00400000 + 24D000 (vegas80.exe)
0305F54C: 00000001
0305F550: 00000008
0305F554: 000005A0
> 0305F588: 00500000 00400000 + 100000 (vegas80.exe)
0305F58C: 00000000
0305F590: 00000000
0305F594: 00000064
0305F598: 00000000
> 0305F5F8: 7C91056D 7C900000 + 1056D (ntdll.dll)
> 0305F60C: 00800016 00400000 + 400016 (vegas80.exe)
0305F610: 000058FB
0305F614: 0305F6D8 02F60000 + FF6D8
0305F618: 00000001
0305F61C: 0DBB58C8 0D040000 + B758C8
> 0305F630: 7C834CB9 7C800000 + 34CB9 (kernel32.dll)
> 0305F640: 7C91056D 7C900000 + 1056D (ntdll.dll)
> 0305F660: 02500001 022E0000 + 220001 (CFHD.dll)
0305F664: 1194BA18 11020000 + 92BA18
0305F668: 11C02200 11020000 + BE2200
> 0305F66C: 0CB7CC24 0CA90000 + ECC24 (sftrkfx1.dll)
- - -
0305FFF0: 00000000
0305FFF4: 00525180 00400000 + 125180 (vegas80.exe)
0305FFF8: 00AD8658 00400000 + 6D8658 (vegas80.exe)
0305FFFC: 00000000

Incidently, their advice on the original query, although extensive, did not actually seem to tackle what is clearly a bug somewhere in their code. They advised me to change a few options in the preferences, but failing that, a total reinstall of all Sony products. That would mean I lose all the Project Settings and Track pan effect setting,s and all the Event Pan settings that I can not get at anyway. So that won't be happening.

Then if after uninstalling everything and reinstalling it "...your software does not work correctly at this point, it is possible that this problem is related to your system and it may be beyond our ability to assist. In this situation, we would recommend contacting the computer manufacturer or distributor for further support."

Yes that is right, the reason that your piece of software (and no other) is continually crashing is because of a problem with my system. The reason it is chucking out violations and so forth is not because the software is buggy, it is because my computer has something wrong with it. Hang on, I'll just call Intel to let them know their motherboard and processor is non standard. After that I'll phone the distributor, because he will care even more than the people who claim to know the ins and the outs of the software.

Looking at this dump, I can tell them what is happening right now. Vegas 8 causes exceptions in Microsoft Network Framework components by feeding it bad values. FIX IT SONY!

Ok, I feel a bit better now. A nice man from Sony called me up on my phone and actually tried to address my problems. And he is going to call me back this afternoon after I have tried a few things.

He is also going to send me details on importing the problem presets I mentioned previously. If it works I shall report back to all of you on the method.

I had many issues when I first upgraded with V8, on my laptop, which V7 worked perfectly, V8 would not work at all, would not render cineform avi and save them, kept crashing, etc, etc, etc. however on my desktop, V8 performs without a hitch. except for the buggy pro titler. I have concluded after many hours of grief V8 issues have to be computer specific. It works well on one, not on another. I think ram is big issue and also what other programs are on computer. Also Sony NEVER even answered any one of my many emails for help. Go figure

I don't have 8, still using 6 here, but I'm curious. Does 8 uninstall previous versions, or does Sony recommend you completely uninstall older versions. I know that sometimes, if two peices of software share files, then maybe that would be the bug in Sony's newest offering.

It's just a thought. My crashes, with Vegas are well documented on this board. And, no, I've never received vital help from Sony.

I've received much more help on this board.

Vegas 8 does NOT uninstall any previous versions. In fact, 8 can live side by side any previous version(s). I have machines with several versions of Vegas installed and can use any version.

So... if you have 6 installed, just install 8 and you can then use either one.

If you only want 8 installed, just uninstall 6 and install 8.

Thanks Ed, I was thinking outloud.

No, you must be thinking of someone else I'm afraid. I was a Lighting Cameraman in London and South East from 97 to 2003, when I moved to Germany to work out here (which made for a refreshing change to London)!

Stuart, you may not be who Robert thought you were, but I've just realised that you and I have an (in-law) family connection. I couldn't send an email directly to you through this forum so please contact me: ariad [AT] iinet.net.au

regards

Peter Wright

Ha ha, see, I'm bringing families together...

Hi Peter!

Ha ha, the penny has dropped! We are indeed related (in law)! I'll drop you an email!

Thanks Robert! By the way, I hope you're on the road to sorting things out with V8, if it all fails you could set yourself up in the genealogy business!