What's the Verdict on Vegas 7 ?
 

I have Vegas 6.0d. Is it worth the upgrade?
From the feature list it doesn't appear that there are any big differences, except XD camera support-which I don't need. Does it truly do native HDV, or is it just using an internal version of Cineform? I also have Pinnacle Studio version 10.5. It does native HDV, and, while the program is just a cheap ($75) basic program, a test clip that I tried seemed to handle motion beautifulloy, something I've been unable to get Cineform to do.

I am a bit surpirsed that Sony doesn't include support to burn a BlueRay disc from HDV in Vegas 7 and DVD Architect 4.

Yes it does do native HDV. Try the demo.

Also there are so many improvements in the editor like the new snapping feature and the ability to control the keyframe smoothness in the preferences, just to name two. IMHO it is well worth the upgrade for the productivity improvements alone. (but I do love the new native HDV editing)

~jr

duplicate post - see below

If you are on a laptop or a sub-3.6GHz processor that isn't dual core or duo you'll notice a HUGE difference in how well V7 previews native M2T on the timeline over V6.

For example, V6 on a 3.06 Pentium 4 is not quite adequate to even do logging & selects on native M2T. V7 - easy to do shot selections and simple editing at near full-framerate (preview-auto).

I suppose more complex editing with M2T would also become a lower load on the processor, increasing framerate with multiple layers, keys, filters, etc.

Many others, especially Mr. Spotted Eagle have recommended that digital intermediates such as cineform are still a neccessity when it comes to multiple generations before output, color correction, & etc. which makes sense to me. I've not finished an HDV project since V7 came out. But I'm VERY impressed with how M2T now performs on the timeline.

Timecode - if you use camera timecode for logging reference, or synching multicamera or double-system audio with HDV you gotta' have V7. So far, I've seen it work on Sony 1080i footage and JVC HD100 at 30p. Doesn't seem to work for HD100-24p.

Thanks Everyone
 

Thanks for the input everybody. I broke down and ordered last night. I figured I better before I forget and the 10/31/06 deadline for the $150 upgrade had past. Still wish there was some software for making a HD BlueRay disc. I love my HC-1 HDV camcorder. Clips played directly from it are far superior to the downrezzed DVD's we can make now.

Dvda 4
 

What's the verdict on DVDA 4?

I know there are some nice new features, but has there been any change/improvement in the image quality of the final render?

Brian

The mpeg encoder is the same---what problem do you have with image quality? Mine look great.

>>>>>what problem do you have with image quality? Mine look great.

I had no problem with DVDA 3 either, but since Sony saw fit to make improvements anyway, it is helpful to know if the improvements extended beyond usability features.

There may never be a point where we declare that image quality can no longer be improved upon.

Brian