Vegas Pro 16 Update 4 (Build 361)

[Renton Maclachlan]

Just one further question, before I act on this. Is Vegas backward compatible with all previous versions? I mean I have a heap of files made in earlier versions, and while many of them I probably will never use again, some I may. It has always been backward compatible for any files I have already opened in later versions so I guess I may have answered my own question.
Renton

[Jo Ouwejan]

Yesterday I bought myself the update to ver 16 of Movie Studio Platinum. When I opened a current project in version 16 , changed something and decided to save the project, Movie Studio warned me, that if I did that, the project could no longer be opened in an earlier version. I know, it is not Vegas Pro, but I think Pro is not backards compatible (any more?)

[Jorma Nippala]

>>"if you have version 16, upgrade to version 17, then deactivate 16 and transfer it to a new user who registers it, would you still be able to upgrade to version 18 from your now current version 17?"<<

George, I don't see why your v.17 S/N would not be valid for upgrading to a higher numbered version as you should be entitled to one upgrade per serial number (at least).

Edit: I just got a reply from Magix Sales Dept.: "It is correct only one user can make an upgrade from a previous version (serial number)."

[Jorma Nippala]

Jo, note that "you are about to save over an older MSP project". If you want to keep the previous version of your project before you made changes, use the Save As command to save the new version of the project with a new name. This applies to MSP projects (.vf files) as well as VPro projects (.veg files).

[Christopher Young]

Magix have definitely tightened up on the whole registration process. Even though Magix took over the Sony user database they don't seem to monitor those previous registrations as much as they are on top of what are now their own Magix versions. Interesting though your suggestion about upgrading to 17 then selling off 16 and then upgrading to 18 is a scenario I haven't heard before. It may well work. I guess someone somewhere will try it sometime.

I don't on-sell for a couple of reasons. This allows me to have v15 on two PCs and two v16 on two PCs if needed. v15 on a laptop int the field and v16 to finish projects back at base. More importantly though sometimes one version will totally break something in one particular area of workflow and that has in the recent past forced me back to the previous version. As in the case of v16 b352.

Have a look at the two screen shots below. CPU usage is top left. This is the same project shown in v15 b416 and v16 b352. In v15 this XAVC HD 50p timeline plays back smoothly at Best Full at 50 Fps including a 3D LUT and Curves with a CPU average of around 25-27% with similar GPU utilization. On the other hand v16 b352 running the exact same project/timeline has an average CPU utilization of 96-100% and is staggering to play back at anything better about 25-30 Fps and the GPU utilization had totally stopped. This problem was subsequently fixed in in v16b361. Following is Magix support response from one of their techs.

"I took a close look at what is happening. It is clear that this is an unintended side-effect of the protective crash-prevention changes that were added to VEGAS Pro 16, update 3 (build 352). The LUT Filter plugin is being prevented from utilizing the GPU and is instead using the CPU to apply the LUT color adjustments. Use of the GPU to apply the LUT color adjustment is critical for proper playback performance."

All the S-LOG workflow from the FS7, A7III and FS5 was killed in v16b352 forcing us back onto v15b416. Without having v15 to drop back on to in the above case would have screwed my workflow badly. From a business standpoint the amount of funds recouped in selling v15 wouldn't cover a couple of hours of post time on a paying clients production. Having v15 to fall back on saved my bacon in the middle of a tight schedule.

Chris Young

[Renton Maclachlan]

So...I've had my v13 and 14 de-registered and now available for sale here in NZ. I'll hold on to 15 for a bit longer.

Wish I had picked this up when I went from 13 to 14.

Have also upgraded to 16

Thanks Chris for your help in this. Much appreciated.

Renton

[Christopher Young]

No probs Squire!

Chris Young

[Renton Maclachlan]

So...I've discovered that while v15 opens Cinescore files, v16 doesn't. Thus tonight I have had to go right through my longing running project and render all my .csp files out as .WAV, then point Vegas to the new files.

As the editing of this project has developed over the five or so years (I'm in sight of the end at last - just editing the final episode now) my system of ordering/keeping control of the veg files has been chaotic. So I've streamlined all that at the same time. All episodes have now been opened and saved in v16, so I feel quite relieved about that.

Once editing of this final episode is done, I have to go back over all the others and tweak them so all episodes have exactly the same features. When I started I did not use voice-overs for various quotes I introduce, rather just put text on the screen backed by music. However the later episodes I introduced voice-overs for all quotes, so the early ones have to be brought in line with this way of doing things.

Everything feels a lot cleaner tonight than it has for a long while.

[Mark Watson]

Originally Posted by Renton Maclachlan

...So long as a program is backward compatible there is no need for the earlier versions....Renton

I started on Vegas Pro 8, on a Toshiba Satellite laptop. I've upgraded to versions 11, 12, 13 and 15 and have also moved along to a Fujitsu laptop and then a string of 4 Sager laptops. All the while, I have moved my Vegas Pro software along with the hardware changes. I don't keep every Vegas version on every laptop, but I just put 4 of them on my latest Sager. I never know when I might want to re-visit an old project.

One big change made with the hand-off to Magix was that I wasn't able to render in some formats because I wasn't connected to the internet. Magix doesn't want to buy all the encoding formats for every copy of Vegas it sells, so if you never use a particular format, it won't work until the software connects to the internet and turns it on. Not a problem for most people always connected, but I would be off-line for several weeks at a time and having my full Vegas arsenal at-hand was a life saver. Dropped back to V13 and rendered out. Once you use a format, the license should now be installed/activated and you'll be fine if you're off-line.

I have to use V15 with some of the latest video cameras, due to earlier versions not being updated any longer to handle the newer formats.

Tried to transfer my Adobe software (Lightroom and CS6) and that is not going anywhere near as smooth as the Vegas installations have been.

[Patrick Tracy]

Originally Posted by Mark Watson

I started on Vegas Pro 8, on a Toshiba Satellite laptop. I've upgraded to versions 11, 12, 13 and 15...

I started on CD Architect (2.0?), added Video Factory, moved to Vegas Video 3, Vegas 6, Vegas Pro 13, 14.

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Mark Watson

I started on Vegas Pro 8, on a Toshiba Satellite laptop

Making me feel old... started on v2!

Chris Young