Is Vegas 9 worth the upgrade from 8? at DVinfo.net

Jared Gardner · November 28th, 2009, 06:17 AM

I'm very happy with Vegas 8. Not sure if the upgrade will be worth it or not. Sell me on it :)

Perrone Ford · November 28th, 2009, 06:25 AM

How is anyone supposed to "sell you on it" when we have no idea what you shoot or why? Do you need the features of 9? If not, stay where you are.

Need RED support? Go 9
Need DPX/EXR support? Go 9
Need 64bit? Go 9
Need better color space support? Go 9
Need to render to XDCAM? Go 9
Need to drop in AVCHD including the Canon 5D/7D? Go 9

Don't need any of these things? Stay with 8.

Jon McGuffin · November 28th, 2009, 09:36 PM

That was very well put...

I might also like to add, that when you're on the fence, the time to upgrade is upon the release while Sony makes the upgrade cost a very reasonable fee (usually about $200 or less total). At this point, if you're happy with 8, I'd probably stick with it and just wait another year or so and go for version 10...

From what I can tell, aside from the points above Perrone made, 9 just isn't that much of an 'upgrade' over 8.

Jon

Perrone Ford · November 28th, 2009, 10:00 PM

Not much of an upgrade really depends on where you're standing. They literally put in everything on my wishlist. I was absolutely thrilled. Now I just wish it would read my jpeg2k files!

I bent the Vegas Program Managers ear for an hour at the expo with new stuff I'd like to see in the program, one of which is OMF support. If they get that working Vegas will suddenly become a player on a different level. Add 3cp, support for Avid's MXF format and decent EDL compatibility with FCP and Avid, and Vegas will find a home in some pretty lofty places.

DPX and real RED support in this release put it on the radar of some interesting folks. Not often you hear someone say that their files in Vegas look better than FCP or Avid.

Bill Binder · December 2nd, 2009, 12:02 PM

You can drop 5D2 files into the Vegas Pro 8 timeline no problem. They will not play without dropping frames mind you, but I'm pretty sure Vegas 9 won't fix that either, you'll need an intermediate either way. Just saying Canon video files work fine on the Vegas 8 timeline.

Andy Tejral · December 2nd, 2009, 08:08 PM

Does anybody remember what you get from 7 --> 8?

And, more importantly, is there any way to convince Sony to let you buy it for the cheaper introductory rate now that the period has passed? (I didn't need it then!)

Mike Kujbida · December 2nd, 2009, 08:28 PM

Does anybody remember what you get from 7 --> 8?

Vegas Pro 8 Readme

...is there any way to convince Sony to let you buy it for the cheaper introductory rate...

Sorry but no :-(
Once the introductory period is over, so is the cheaper pricing.

Seth Bloombaum · December 3rd, 2009, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Tejral

Does anybody remember what you get from 7 --> 8?

The absolute biggest thing for me was that the whole issue in HDV of red or black frames appearing on the timeline (and sometimes rendering!) went away. I was right in the middle of a long multicam project, and voila, things got so much easier.

And HDV became much better behaved on the timeline in general, better preview framerates.

It also added multicam natively.

Paul Inglis · December 3rd, 2009, 06:45 AM

Well I have upgraded to 9 from 8 and the first thing I hated was the darker layout. HATE IT!!! I'm still editing in 8 for now.

I only use 9 for editing I-Frames from the nanoflash.

Edward Troxel · December 3rd, 2009, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Inglis

Well I have upgraded to 9 from 8 and the first thing I hated was the darker layout. HATE IT!!!

You realize you can turn that off?
Options - Preferences - go to the Display tab and UNCHECK the Use Vegas color scheme box.

Perrone Ford · December 3rd, 2009, 09:27 AM

I never noticed the difference to be honest. Forgot that they had changed it. And I cut on both versions every week. Sometimes simultaneously.

Marc Salvatore · December 3rd, 2009, 01:58 PM

I like the new effects from Velvet Matter, the audio duck feature and the darker interface but the program has also been buggy. The one bug that is now driving me back to Vegas 8 is the inability to archive projects using Save as>Copy media with project>Create trimmed copies of source media. It no longer works with Cineform HD files. I'm not sure if it works with M2t HD files.

It does however work perfectly in Vegas 8 and Sony has not acknowledged it as a bug in Vegas 9 yet.

Pete Cofrancesco · December 3rd, 2009, 03:23 PM

I tried out Vegas 9. I like how easy it is to use and how quickly it runs especially under windows 64. In my experience, its much more stable than Premiere which always seems to crash at the worst time. My only complaint of Vegas, only one sequence/timeline per project.

Perrone Ford · December 3rd, 2009, 03:40 PM

I've never understood the multiple timeline thing. Where is that useful? Particularly where you can nest in Vegas and easily run multiple instances..

Pete Cofrancesco · December 3rd, 2009, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

I've never understood the multiple timeline thing. Where is that useful? Particularly where you can nest in Vegas and easily run multiple instances..

In larger projects it has lots of uses.
- I like to dump the raw unedited footage into a timeline then I duplicate that sequence and edit it down to a rough cut then duplicate that. Now at any point I can jump back in time to a previous sequence.

- If I do a mulitcamera shoot, I might have 1 sequence as the final mix of different angles and another with only the wide. The mix goes to the audience purchases while the wide only is for the dance choreographer.

- For a performance with an intermission I'll have a separate sequence for each half. If its really long, I'll make a sequence for each DVD. I also sometimes make a montage either for the dvd menu or as a sample for my demo reel that gets thrown into its own sequence.

- For really long documentary where the project encompasses many events over a few weeks, its easier to organize the work in one project. Often multiple events might be on one tape so when you capture the entire tape its easier to sort them out in one project.

November 28th, 2009, 06:17 AM	#1
Jared Gardner Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Baton Rouge, LA Posts: 48	Is Vegas 9 worth the upgrade from 8? I'm very happy with Vegas 8. Not sure if the upgrade will be worth it or not. Sell me on it :)

November 28th, 2009, 06:25 AM	#2
Perrone Ford Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Posts: 4,100	How is anyone supposed to "sell you on it" when we have no idea what you shoot or why? Do you need the features of 9? If not, stay where you are. Need RED support? Go 9 Need DPX/EXR support? Go 9 Need 64bit? Go 9 Need better color space support? Go 9 Need to render to XDCAM? Go 9 Need to drop in AVCHD including the Canon 5D/7D? Go 9 Don't need any of these things? Stay with 8. __________________ DVX100, PMW-EX1, Canon 550D, FigRig, Dell Octocore, Avid MC4/5, MB Looks, RedCineX, Matrox MX02 mini, GTech RAID, Edirol R-4, Senn. G2 Evo, Countryman, Moles and Lowels.

November 28th, 2009, 10:00 PM	#4
Perrone Ford Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Posts: 4,100	Not much of an upgrade really depends on where you're standing. They literally put in everything on my wishlist. I was absolutely thrilled. Now I just wish it would read my jpeg2k files! I bent the Vegas Program Managers ear for an hour at the expo with new stuff I'd like to see in the program, one of which is OMF support. If they get that working Vegas will suddenly become a player on a different level. Add 3cp, support for Avid's MXF format and decent EDL compatibility with FCP and Avid, and Vegas will find a home in some pretty lofty places. DPX and real RED support in this release put it on the radar of some interesting folks. Not often you hear someone say that their files in Vegas look better than FCP or Avid. __________________ DVX100, PMW-EX1, Canon 550D, FigRig, Dell Octocore, Avid MC4/5, MB Looks, RedCineX, Matrox MX02 mini, GTech RAID, Edirol R-4, Senn. G2 Evo, Countryman, Moles and Lowels.

December 2nd, 2009, 08:08 PM	#6
Andy Tejral Major Player Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: New York City Posts: 523	Does anybody remember what you get from 7 --> 8? And, more importantly, is there any way to convince Sony to let you buy it for the cheaper introductory rate now that the period has passed? (I didn't need it then!) __________________ Andy Tejral Railroad Videographer

December 3rd, 2009, 09:27 AM	#11
Perrone Ford Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Posts: 4,100	I never noticed the difference to be honest. Forgot that they had changed it. And I cut on both versions every week. Sometimes simultaneously. __________________ DVX100, PMW-EX1, Canon 550D, FigRig, Dell Octocore, Avid MC4/5, MB Looks, RedCineX, Matrox MX02 mini, GTech RAID, Edirol R-4, Senn. G2 Evo, Countryman, Moles and Lowels.

November 28th, 2009, 09:36 PM	#3
Jon McGuffin Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Carlsbad, CA Posts: 634	That was very well put... I might also like to add, that when you're on the fence, the time to upgrade is upon the release while Sony makes the upgrade cost a very reasonable fee (usually about $200 or less total). At this point, if you're happy with 8, I'd probably stick with it and just wait another year or so and go for version 10... From what I can tell, aside from the points above Perrone made, 9 just isn't that much of an 'upgrade' over 8. Jon

December 2nd, 2009, 12:02 PM	#5
Bill Binder Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 542	You can drop 5D2 files into the Vegas Pro 8 timeline no problem. They will not play without dropping frames mind you, but I'm pretty sure Vegas 9 won't fix that either, you'll need an intermediate either way. Just saying Canon video files work fine on the Vegas 8 timeline.

December 2nd, 2009, 08:28 PM	#7
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Does anybody remember what you get from 7 --> 8? Vegas Pro 8 Readme ...is there any way to convince Sony to let you buy it for the cheaper introductory rate... Sorry but no :-( Once the introductory period is over, so is the cheaper pricing.

December 3rd, 2009, 06:45 AM	#9
Paul Inglis Major Player Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: British Isles Posts: 415	Well I have upgraded to 9 from 8 and the first thing I hated was the darker layout. HATE IT!!! I'm still editing in 8 for now. I only use 9 for editing I-Frames from the nanoflash.

December 3rd, 2009, 01:58 PM	#12
Marc Salvatore Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Medford, OR Posts: 351	I like the new effects from Velvet Matter, the audio duck feature and the darker interface but the program has also been buggy. The one bug that is now driving me back to Vegas 8 is the inability to archive projects using Save as>Copy media with project>Create trimmed copies of source media. It no longer works with Cineform HD files. I'm not sure if it works with M2t HD files. It does however work perfectly in Vegas 8 and Sony has not acknowledged it as a bug in Vegas 9 yet.

December 3rd, 2009, 03:23 PM	#13
Pete Cofrancesco Inner Circle Join Date: May 2004 Location: USA Posts: 3,005	I tried out Vegas 9. I like how easy it is to use and how quickly it runs especially under windows 64. In my experience, its much more stable than Premiere which always seems to crash at the worst time. My only complaint of Vegas, only one sequence/timeline per project.

December 3rd, 2009, 03:40 PM	#14
Perrone Ford Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Posts: 4,100	I've never understood the multiple timeline thing. Where is that useful? Particularly where you can nest in Vegas and easily run multiple instances.. __________________ DVX100, PMW-EX1, Canon 550D, FigRig, Dell Octocore, Avid MC4/5, MB Looks, RedCineX, Matrox MX02 mini, GTech RAID, Edirol R-4, Senn. G2 Evo, Countryman, Moles and Lowels.