What's the Verdict on Vegas 9 ?

Eugene Kosarovich · July 1st, 2009, 11:42 PM

Yang: The random freezing up of the progess bar while rendering bug seems like one I remember well in Vegas Pro 8.0c. I haven't actually seen it in 9. If this is the same bug that I'm thinking of, I had a rather odd way I accidentally found that fixed it for me. Again, this "freeze" shows that the Vegas process has dropped to 0% of your CPU use, it's just sitting there in limbo.

My magic fix was: Launch another session of Vegas. As soon as the second one launched, the first render would continue. It's a weird fix, but it worked for me many, many times.

Just in case you hit it again, give that "fix" a try.

Gene Gajewski · July 2nd, 2009, 12:30 AM

Well folks, I can give an update on a strange issue that that caused be to completely redo my Win 7 installation.

Jeff - you're no fool....

I had a problem where whenever I selected a video track or media effect and then clicked on the icon to 'add' an effect - the dialog would stall, sometimes more than a minute. This was long enough to have windows report it as not responding. Having been around the vlock a few times - I decided to let it wait - ure enough it eventually came up.

I tried to trace it back by doing a system restore to an earilier time - no luck.

To hell with it -let's do a clean install.

Bingo - that did it.

I can't fathom why this occured other than something screwed up in DirectX

Jeff Harper · July 2nd, 2009, 05:32 AM

Gene, I have had to reinstall Windows in the past many times. I have an issue right now where every time I shut down and reboot my internet connection is lost.

I don't know about you but it takes me hours to reinstall everything: Adobe Master Collection, Office enterprise, plus about 6 vegas plugins, etc. all told about 30 programs. then I have 10 hard drives and they all must be renamed in Disc Manager each time as well.

Since I just installed Windows 7 for the third time I REALLY don't want to do it again as I'm about 11 weddings deep, maybe more and reinstalling means almost an entire day lost.

I do love this version of Windows but these little bugs are a reminder this is a test version of Windows, so how can I be angry?

Gene Gajewski · July 2nd, 2009, 10:05 AM

The internet is a terrible place for conversation - but we do it anyway.

Just in case Jeff, I merely meant to extend a compliment about your wisdom with clean installs.

I seem to be doing OK at the moment. Like you, I'm running out of available time to do things like reinstalling all the applications that I use.

Seth Bloombaum · July 2nd, 2009, 10:21 AM

I'm a little hesitant to post this suggestion, because the one time I had a system drive failure my archive turned out to be corrupt...

Jeff, Gene, have you ever looked into products such as Acronis? (Norton Ghost was the standard for many years...)

Once you have your system/drivers/apps cleanly installed, you use this software to create a compressed archive image of your entire system disk, written to an external drive.

Then, when it's time for a clean install, you run the restore utility - voila, back to the good, clean install.

Though my experience wasn't happy (probably because I split the archive over several DVD-R, bad practice), I have a Vegas buddy who swears by this approach. Any time he perceives "windows rot" (his term), he restores the archive disk image. I think he does it about every 60 days.

Jeff Harper · July 2nd, 2009, 10:21 AM

Gene, I did take your post as positive, I just went on a rant about the whole deal, nothing was meant to be directed at you....

I was just affirming how the clean installs are a necessary evil, as you demonstrated.

I'm really glad it worked for you.

You're right about the difficulty in conversing this way, lots can be missed in translation from keyboard to the other end.

Jeff Harper · July 2nd, 2009, 10:26 AM

Thanks for the suggestions Seth.

I have Acronis 9 but found issues with it's installation, though for the most part it works fine.

I actually used better, simpler programs back in the 90s (Ghost, for example) that did the same thing.

Acronis installs so much stuff with its program that I disliked it after only using it a couple of times.

Jeff Harper · July 4th, 2009, 07:53 AM

I'm finding I cannot cut/copy clips from one instance of Vegas 9 64 bit to another. Never been a problem before in previous versions. Since I depend upon this task hugely Vegas 9 64 bit is not usable for me. It sluggish performance was a showstopper anyway.

Marc Salvatore · July 4th, 2009, 06:22 PM

[QUOTE=Jeff Harper;1166105]Gene, I have had to reinstall Windows in the past many times. I have an issue right now where every time I shut down and reboot my internet connection is lost.

Jeff, I'm having this problem as well in Windows 7 and it only started after I installed Adobe CS3/quicktime. Before that everything was fine. Some people on some other forums seem to think it has something to do with a program called Bonjour that I guess Adobe or Apple installs.

Marc

Jeff Harper · July 5th, 2009, 04:50 AM

Interesting Marc. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the issue. If you learn of a solution please report back as I cannot find Bonjour listed in the programs list, thought I understand it could still be installed and it simply doesn't show up. I have also found that in task manager it does not show up under processes either.

edit: I did find a folder under Program Files named Bonjour.

Jeff Harper · July 5th, 2009, 08:56 AM

The terrible responsiveness of Vegas 9 (particularly 64 bit) on the timeline bothers me, and while Vegas 8 seems much better, I thought I would try building a RAID 0 array specifically to rule out hard drive issues.

After testing on RAID 0 arrays on two differnet controllers, the results are the same on each, poor. While I didn't expect an improvement, I had hoped.

John Wiley · July 5th, 2009, 09:37 AM

After a few weeks of testing with Vegas 9 Trial I've picked up a 2nd hand copy of Vegas 8 and it seems alot more stable - no crashing on rendering or when i hit ctrl + z!

The only difference I've found which is bothering me is the trimmer. In Vegas 9 you can preview clips in the trimmer window whereas Vegas 8 you watch it in the preview window and only get still frames in the trimmer window. Does anybody know if it is possible to allow preview in the trimmer window?

It doesn't make a huge difference; it's just that I'm used to always watching the trimmer window in FCP.

Apart from that I'm yet to find anything that I'll miss in Vegas 8 and it seems like a good trade off for (so far) much better stability.

Jeff Harper · July 5th, 2009, 09:55 AM

Yes I agree John. After I finish this project today I'm going back to version 8 (again).

I highly doubt the next release will fix the major issues. Their seems to be something wrong in the underlying code that probably won't be improved until the next upgrade, which is, of course 18 months or more down the road.

I admit I do like the NewBlue effects that came with 9, so the upgrade wasn't a complete waste as it works on version 8 as well.

Edward Troxel · July 5th, 2009, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Wiley

The only difference I've found which is bothering me is the trimmer. In Vegas 9 you can preview clips in the trimmer window whereas Vegas 8 you watch it in the preview window and only get still frames in the trimmer window. Does anybody know if it is possible to allow preview in the trimmer window?

The new trimmer changes found in Vegas Pro 9 were first introduced in Vegas Pro 8.0c

Dennis Murphy · July 5th, 2009, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

I do love this version of Windows but these little bugs are a reminder this is a test version of Windows, so how can I be angry?

Sorry, but I LOL'd in real life when I read that.

July 1st, 2009, 11:42 PM	#46
Eugene Kosarovich Taken away too young... rest in peace Eugene Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Albany, NY Posts: 161	Yang: The random freezing up of the progess bar while rendering bug seems like one I remember well in Vegas Pro 8.0c. I haven't actually seen it in 9. If this is the same bug that I'm thinking of, I had a rather odd way I accidentally found that fixed it for me. Again, this "freeze" shows that the Vegas process has dropped to 0% of your CPU use, it's just sitting there in limbo. My magic fix was: Launch another session of Vegas. As soon as the second one launched, the first render would continue. It's a weird fix, but it worked for me many, many times. Just in case you hit it again, give that "fix" a try. __________________ Scorpio Productions PDW-F335, PDW-U1, Vegas Pro 9.0b

July 2nd, 2009, 10:21 AM	#50
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	I'm a little hesitant to post this suggestion, because the one time I had a system drive failure my archive turned out to be corrupt... Jeff, Gene, have you ever looked into products such as Acronis? (Norton Ghost was the standard for many years...) Once you have your system/drivers/apps cleanly installed, you use this software to create a compressed archive image of your entire system disk, written to an external drive. Then, when it's time for a clean install, you run the restore utility - voila, back to the good, clean install. Though my experience wasn't happy (probably because I split the archive over several DVD-R, bad practice), I have a Vegas buddy who swears by this approach. Any time he perceives "windows rot" (his term), he restores the archive disk image. I think he does it about every 60 days. __________________ 30 years of pro media production. Vegas user since 1.0. Webcaster since 1997. Freelancer since 2000. College instructor since 2001.

July 4th, 2009, 07:53 AM	#53
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	I'm finding I cannot cut/copy clips from one instance of Vegas 9 64 bit to another. Never been a problem before in previous versions. Since I depend upon this task hugely Vegas 9 64 bit is not usable for me. It sluggish performance was a showstopper anyway. Last edited by Jeff Harper; July 5th, 2009 at 04:44 AM.

July 5th, 2009, 04:50 AM	#55
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Interesting Marc. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the issue. If you learn of a solution please report back as I cannot find Bonjour listed in the programs list, thought I understand it could still be installed and it simply doesn't show up. I have also found that in task manager it does not show up under processes either. edit: I did find a folder under Program Files named Bonjour. Last edited by Jeff Harper; July 5th, 2009 at 08:16 AM.

July 2nd, 2009, 12:30 AM	#47
Gene Gajewski Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Edgewood, NM Posts: 162	Well folks, I can give an update on a strange issue that that caused be to completely redo my Win 7 installation. Jeff - you're no fool.... I had a problem where whenever I selected a video track or media effect and then clicked on the icon to 'add' an effect - the dialog would stall, sometimes more than a minute. This was long enough to have windows report it as not responding. Having been around the vlock a few times - I decided to let it wait - ure enough it eventually came up. I tried to trace it back by doing a system restore to an earilier time - no luck. To hell with it -let's do a clean install. Bingo - that did it. I can't fathom why this occured other than something screwed up in DirectX

July 2nd, 2009, 05:32 AM	#48
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Gene, I have had to reinstall Windows in the past many times. I have an issue right now where every time I shut down and reboot my internet connection is lost. I don't know about you but it takes me hours to reinstall everything: Adobe Master Collection, Office enterprise, plus about 6 vegas plugins, etc. all told about 30 programs. then I have 10 hard drives and they all must be renamed in Disc Manager each time as well. Since I just installed Windows 7 for the third time I REALLY don't want to do it again as I'm about 11 weddings deep, maybe more and reinstalling means almost an entire day lost. I do love this version of Windows but these little bugs are a reminder this is a test version of Windows, so how can I be angry?

July 2nd, 2009, 10:05 AM	#49
Gene Gajewski Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Edgewood, NM Posts: 162	The internet is a terrible place for conversation - but we do it anyway. Just in case Jeff, I merely meant to extend a compliment about your wisdom with clean installs. I seem to be doing OK at the moment. Like you, I'm running out of available time to do things like reinstalling all the applications that I use.

July 2nd, 2009, 10:26 AM	#52
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Thanks for the suggestions Seth. I have Acronis 9 but found issues with it's installation, though for the most part it works fine. I actually used better, simpler programs back in the 90s (Ghost, for example) that did the same thing. Acronis installs so much stuff with its program that I disliked it after only using it a couple of times.

July 4th, 2009, 06:22 PM	#54
Marc Salvatore Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Medford, OR Posts: 351	[QUOTE=Jeff Harper;1166105]Gene, I have had to reinstall Windows in the past many times. I have an issue right now where every time I shut down and reboot my internet connection is lost. Jeff, I'm having this problem as well in Windows 7 and it only started after I installed Adobe CS3/quicktime. Before that everything was fine. Some people on some other forums seem to think it has something to do with a program called Bonjour that I guess Adobe or Apple installs. Marc

July 5th, 2009, 08:56 AM	#56
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	The terrible responsiveness of Vegas 9 (particularly 64 bit) on the timeline bothers me, and while Vegas 8 seems much better, I thought I would try building a RAID 0 array specifically to rule out hard drive issues. After testing on RAID 0 arrays on two differnet controllers, the results are the same on each, poor. While I didn't expect an improvement, I had hoped.

July 5th, 2009, 09:37 AM	#57
John Wiley Trustee Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Byron Bay, Australia Posts: 1,155	After a few weeks of testing with Vegas 9 Trial I've picked up a 2nd hand copy of Vegas 8 and it seems alot more stable - no crashing on rendering or when i hit ctrl + z! The only difference I've found which is bothering me is the trimmer. In Vegas 9 you can preview clips in the trimmer window whereas Vegas 8 you watch it in the preview window and only get still frames in the trimmer window. Does anybody know if it is possible to allow preview in the trimmer window? It doesn't make a huge difference; it's just that I'm used to always watching the trimmer window in FCP. Apart from that I'm yet to find anything that I'll miss in Vegas 8 and it seems like a good trade off for (so far) much better stability.

July 5th, 2009, 09:55 AM	#58
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Yes I agree John. After I finish this project today I'm going back to version 8 (again). I highly doubt the next release will fix the major issues. Their seems to be something wrong in the underlying code that probably won't be improved until the next upgrade, which is, of course 18 months or more down the road. I admit I do like the NewBlue effects that came with 9, so the upgrade wasn't a complete waste as it works on version 8 as well.