Ultimate S Lite vs Ultimate S Pro

[Danny Fye]

So what is the difference between these other than the obvious name and price?

What is the difference in features?

Why would one want the Pro over the Lite version?

Danny Fye
VidMus Video - Music Productions

[Edward Troxel]

Just from a quick glance at the website, it appears the "lite" version contains 6 of the 14 tabs worth of controls found in the "Pro" version.

[Jason Robinson]

huh.... this must be new. I never heard of it.

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Danny Fye

So what is the difference between these other than the obvious name and price?

There were two reasons for creating the Lite version of Ultimate S. Our potential customers had told us that they wanted a lower price point. Some of them commented that they only need a few of the tabs and couldn't justify buying the whole tool for just a few of the functions. We also wanted to upgrade our StillMotion product which was based on older Ultimate S2 technology. StillMotion was just a subset of the PhotoMontage tab of Ultimate S2 and we enhanced the PhotoMontage capabilities in Ultimate S3 but never updated StillMotion.

So we set out to create StillMotion 2 and then thought that there are lots of capabilities for using Markers in setting up a PhotoMontage so we thought it would be a great idea to include the Marker tab. Also a lot of StillMotion customers were people who upgraded from Vegas Movie Studio and they liked the Setup tab which set your tracks up before you start a project. And of course, you want to output your photo montage to a DVD so the DVD tab would be useful, and before we knew it... what was to be StillMotion 2 started looking a lot like a "mini-me" of Ultimate S Pro and so Ultimate S "Lite" was born.

BTW, StillMotion has been discontinued and StillMotion customers can get a discount if they upgrade to Ultimate S Lite so contact our sales office if you have StillMotion and want to purchase Ultimate S Lite.

Originally Posted by Danny Fye

What is the difference in features?

There is a quick rundown of what's included in each:

Ultimate S Pro contains:

• Photo Montage: Pan and Zoom, Saving of Presets, Adjust Duration / Overlaps, Slideshow to Markers, Fit to Music, Fit to Region, Randomize, Image source from Timeline / Media Bin / File system, Crop to Aspect Ratio, Reset Crop to Media Aspect, Reduce Interlace Flicker, Apply Transitions in Forward Order, Reverse Order, and Random Order.
  
• MotoFoto: Photographs in Motion, add motion backgrounds, control the direction, placement, duration, and size of video or photos flying across the screen. New for Ultimate S Pro 4.0 you can now move pictures forward and backward.
  
• Editing Tools: Event Selector, Adjust Transitions, Copy Events, Stutter Events, Adjust Event Length/Relative Keyframes, L & J Cuts, Close All Track Gaps, Fade In/Out, Snapshot to Timeline, Image Sequence (at Interval, Count, or Markers).
  
• Markers: Load / Save Markers from file, Create markers at Events, Region to Chapters, Place markers at Intervals, Change Distance Between Markers, Split Events at Markers, Delete between Markers, Renumber Markers, Remove All markers, Edit at markers, Convert Markers.
  
• Film Looks: Apply Film Look, Convert footage to 24p, Convert 4:3 projects to Widescreen, apply various Film Looks to Track, Event, or Buses for the entire project or just a timeline selection.
  
• Audio Tools: Duck Music under Voice, Quickly apply Envelopes, Apply/Remove Audio FX from multiple tracks, Find Missing Audio, Resync Take with Video Event, Add 2 Second Gap (for CD tracks). The Audio Tools tab also provides custom audio presets powered by iZotope.
  
• Visual Effects: Add Selected Video FX, Remove Selected Video FX, Remove All Video FX, Adjust Playback Rate, Stutter events, Create Picture-In-Picture (PIP), Change selected event properties.
  
• Quad-CAM: Powered by the infinitiCAM engine, this tab has features that allow you to setup tracks, set up PIP of four cameras with optional Timecode, Split stereo audio to mono audio, use track or master audio, customizable Tally indicators, Update Tally, Copy edits to Master track.
  
• Lower Thirds: Set up Preset lower thirds, overlays, and custom sides. Additional lower third libraries (GrafPaks) install to this tab. Add thirds to existing track, above existing track, or below existing track, lengthen/shorten, change enter/exit points, repeat lower thirds. You can now pre-render your lower thirds for faster playback performance.
  
• Special FX: Create composite-based FX, Artistic Effects like Pencil Sketch, Water Color Painting, etc. Classic Effects like COPS face blur, Hollywood Squares matrix, Gotham Spins, Hall of Mirrors. Utility Effects like Text Masks and Sharpening images.
  
• DVD: Render DVD ready files using standard or custom templates, Bit-rate calculator helps you determine what bit-rate to use, Create subtitles for your DVD from Regions or TEXT Command Markers, Easily convert a text file to regions for use with the new subtitle function. Create DVD Architect Chapter files.
  
• Render: Render the current project or multiple files or projects in batch mode. Render entire timeline, just a Selection, or Regions or Markers. Create reusable mutli-target render presets to apply to any number of files. Swap Media of any type with any other types effortlessly.
  
• Audit: Check Opacity Levels, Remove Gaps / Overlaps, Audit and Change Media Pixel Aspect, Selective Sweep Media Pool, Selective Delete Unused Media from hard Drive, Back up veg files to alternative location, Save/Trim Nested Veg files, Remove those pesky .sfk, .sfl, .sfap0 files from your hard drive with ease.
  
• Setup: Quick Setup, Advanced Track Setup Presets to preload video and audio tracks and buses. Setup Media Bins exactly the way you like them and recall them for any project.
  
• Project: Project Summary adds a standard summary to your work or batch process multiple projects, Import projects with markers, backup projects, archive nested projects. Import existing media and bins from the file system.

Ultimate S Lite is:

• Photo Montage: (same as above)
  
• Markers: (same as above)
  
• Film Looks: (same as above)
  
• Lower Thirds: (same as above)
  
• DVD: (same as above)
  
• Setup: (same as above)

Originally Posted by Danny Fye

Why would one want the Pro over the Lite version?

It's the same answers as why would you buy Vegas Pro over Movie Studio? ...because the Pro version has more features that you need. ;-) With Pro: MotoFoto does things with photos in motion in one minute that would take an afternoon to set up by hand. The audio tools include a 3rd party plug-in from iZotope. QuadCam has multicam, the Render tab does batch rendering and swapping of proxies for HD media... the list goes on.

So... as Edward said, the Pro version has 15 tabs and the Lite version has 6. If you need capabilities on the other 9 tabs you probably want the Pro version.

Hope this helps.

~jr

[Danny Fye]

What if a person decides that the lite version is just not quite as much as they need. Will there be a discount to upgrade to the pro version?

I have StillMotion. How much of a discount can I expect to get?

I noticed that there is a sale price right now on the lite version. How long will that last?

I am asking all of this because I have to wait until the first of the next month before I have any money to buy anything.

Not trying to be cheep or anything but with my budget I need all of the discounts I can get!

Also, thanks for the comparison details.

Thanks,

Danny Fye
VidMus Video - Music Productions

[Danny Fye]

Originally Posted by John Rofrano

There were two reasons for creating the Lite version of Ultimate S. Our potential customers had told us that they wanted a lower price point. Some of them commented that they only need a few of the tabs and couldn't justify buying the whole tool for just a few of the functions.
~jr

I wish it were possible to buy Ultimate S Pro by the 'tab'!

Start with a base 'tab' and then add whatever one wants from there. The 'tabs' would be priced according to their individual function(s). Some would naturally cost more because they do more and some would cost less.

There would of course be a discount for multiple 'tab' purchases (depending on what they are and what sale prices there may be) as well as a larger discount for the entire package.

You could even include Infiniticam as one of the 'tabs'.

This would be great for the many workflows and needs that editors have. Some may need and use certain 'tabs' while other may need and use certain other 'tabs'.

Also, this should greatly help those who are on a very tight budget in that they could buy a 'tab' or two at a time until they have the full package or whatever it is they need.

As one adds more levels of editing over a period of time and finds that they now need some of the other 'tabs' then they can add those.

I think this would allow editors the greatest amount of flexibility in getting the tools they really need and not have to buy and pay for tools that they don't really need!

This would allow VASST to make some of their other products a part of the 'tabs' as well.

I think this would make more profit for VASST than the current way and benefit the editors more as well.

A win-win for all!

What do you think?

P.S. I know this may not sound exactly right to you but Please discourage people from using the trial version until after they have learned the basics of Vegas. When I started with version 6 of Vegas I also started with the then current version of Ultimate S and I couldn't do anything with it because I also couldn't do much with Vegas because I didn't know it yet. Even though I already had a lot of editing experience on other NLE's.

This situation could prevent new users of Vegas from purchasing Ultimate S and other VASST products later on because they would not really know what the benefits would be and not have another chance to find out. Just a thought...

Danny Fye
VidMus Video - Music Productions

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Danny Fye

I wish it were possible to buy Ultimate S Pro by the 'tab'!

LOL, We have discussed this many times here at VASST and it has it's good points and bad points. I agree with everything in your post... start with a base and add the tabs you need as you need them and only pay for what you use. I'm there. The reason we haven't done this is because it makes it more complicated for people to figure out what to buy and I can see where that could be a problem.

If you look at the new Ultimate S Pro, it has the ability to only open one tab at a time. (look under View | Extensions | VASST UltimateS Pro 4 | Command Tabs) So everything is there... we would just need to sell them this way.

The reason for combining everything together was to make it easier. So I can see both sides of the argument. Maybe we should do both (offer individual and as a whole?) Anyway... we'll take this into consideration next time it comes up. We just want to make sure that we don't confuse customers with too many options. Ultimate S Lite was the compromise we came up with.

Originally Posted by Danny Fye

I have StillMotion. How much of a discount can I expect to get?

I'm not sure what the discount is but StillMotion was only $25 and for most people it's paid for itself 1000 times over in time savings but it will be something to show we appreciate your business. I tried to contact our office for you but it's a weekend and I didn't get a response yet. Our sales office will know the answer.

~jr