1...Perfect real-time preview out the firewire
2...Render warning "not enough memory to complete render"
3...Separate video cleaner that works as well as the audio noise reduction software
4...Some kind of magic software that fixes out of focus video
5...Incorporate some of the "smudge" and "spray paint" tools into the color corrector to correct still pictures
6...Industrial "block diagram---"arrow" instruction book on complex editing procedures which old people forget if you don't use them very often. You really don't know what you are doing following the blocks but it gets done then after a while you have the procedure memorized.

JJK

* Track Automation for 2-D & 3-D Track Motion

-Overwritte Mode (the ability to overwritte Event when adding clip to the Time Line, All NLE have this BASIC feature).

-Audio Event FX (like CD-Architect, this is a very useful feature)

-Improved Prerender File Management (A simple Ripple should NOT delete Prerender , Add a Video Track should NOT delete prerender… etc).

-Multiple Event Trimming (Like Liquid Edition or FCP)

-A dual preview Window when Trimmming Event (actualy, Preview Window is stretched, this is not serious for a profesional NLE !)

-Track Lock Button (this is a very basic feature).

-Velocity envelope for audio.

-We should make a time selection only when drag an drop cursor on TOP of Time Line. Outwards this area, we only should drap and drop playhead, make Event selection, Trim Event…

-Ripple Edit actualy DONT work when “Start, End or Lenght” are changed in Edit Details Windows.

-Video Preview when adding FX to clip in media Pool.

-Filter “Region” (like Edius) to apply effect to only a zone of video (caution: this is not the same thing as Bezier Mask + Filter). Example: This filter allow to blur face with only one video track.

-Ability to choose Video & Audio tracks (not necessarily superimposed) when adding clip from Trimmer to Time Line.

-Ability to enable draw Wave Form & Frame Event SEPARATELY (in preference).

-Ability to choose attribute when pasting Event Attribute.

-Individual Photoshop Layer Import (like DVD-A)

-Render TIFF or TGA Image Sequence (script is too slow)

-Improved Real Time Playback (Like Canopus Edius).

-PTT : Retaining Date/Code info when doing “Cut Only” editing.

-Ability to Lock interface (windows size), it is too easy to change size or undock windows.

-Keyframable compositing mode (Ability to switch to different compositing mode with an envelope)

-Script Editor (like Sound Forge)

-Multilanguage version.

Rosebud? I think we already got -"Ability to choose Video & Audio tracks (not necessarily superimposed) when adding clip from Trimmer to Time Line." - I can add trimmer stuff to anywhere in the t/l? New track OR just Audio OR just video . .I guess I must have misunderstood?

Grazie

WM9 HD/H.264 AVC authoring.

Oh yeah, how about some HD resolutions for Sony's/Mainconcepts H.264 AVC encoder up to 100MB bitrates.

One simple thing that has been overlooked for far far too long is the ability to join mpeg files without having to re-encode.

Also, how about recognizing and importing of 5.1 AC3 audio instead of downmixing it to 2.0?

I am sure I will think of more.

-keeping separate render and project paths (incredibly dumb for a pro app...Sonyyyyy, hey, hoooooo!... wake up!).
-audio on firewire preview.
-Ability to choose attribute when pasting Event Attributes.
-event and track locking
-correct interpretation of events with speed change when doing a save as with trim project option (to avoid a saving of all the source file instead of the section actually used)

Rosebud? I think we already got -"Ability to choose Video & Audio tracks (not necessarily superimposed) when adding clip from Trimmer to Time Line." - I can add trimmer stuff to anywhere in the t/l? New track OR just Audio OR just video . .I guess I must have misunderstood?

Hi Grazie,
This is not what I mean (I know the ability to choose Video OR just Video in Trimmer).
I want to choose witch track to add Video and Audio.
Exemple: Add to Video Track Number 1 and Audio Track number 3 (actually you must add to Video Track 1 AND Audio Track 2 because tracks must be superimposed)

Yes, I guessed you did. I can Drag Video to track7 and audio to track 10. I Just did Video to Track1 and Audio to Track12. No? Not this?

Grazie

Right now you can drag either the audio or video event to the track you wish and Vegas will put the other in the closest track of the proper type. After that you can easily drag the other to the track you wish. This is pretty darned simple and easy. I can't imagine any way to specify which tracks to use that would be simpler than this.

The only advantage i could see is if you are placing a large number of events on the timeline and you want all of them to go to a specific audio & a specific video track. In that case, maybe a dialog box up front that asks where you want to place future events could be handy. If you're only doing a few events then i think this would be more effort than what is currently available.

Yes but i use keyboard shortcut (key ‘A’).
No need for a dialog box, a logic & easy way would be to select Tracks and press 'A' (like many NLE).

Get back to stable editing, any new features have them working before the software is released. Expand beta pool or release a public beta .

Get back to stable editing...

What a novel idea!

How about an actual User's Guide (Manual)?

The past documentation enclosed with Vegas was not even sufficient for Vegas 3.

Today it is so far behind what it should be, that I think it can't be made better by editing. A new one needs to be written from scratch.

A new manual should be modeled on that in just about any pro application.

Lightwave does it REALLY well, Combustion is also very good, numerous others.

A good manual doesn't replace the various after-market books, and the various after-market books don't replace a good manual.

Different purposes:

An after-market book should...
1. subjectively describe common workflows
2. cover features in depth from a practical standpoint (ie. NOT "how to use Bezier", but "how to create a mask")
3. offer real-life examples to inspire, with tutes for how to replicate them

A manual should...
1. go through product functionality
2. explain clearly how to use each component in isolation
3. have notes about common (non-obvious) usage of each feature
4. use widely accepted terminology
5. have a Table of Contents up front, with the most meaningful sections possible
6. have an Index that allows you to actually find stuff, with the key reference page number(s) bolded, and including terms that are not used in the text but are used in the industry (example "Luma Gradient, see Media Generators")

There is just enough time to do this for Vegas 7, with a little bit of motivation and three average tech writers managed by a really good one, or just one or two really good tech writers + one person focusing on layout, TOC and index generation.

I think this "new feature" would receive more applause from users, and generate more good word-of-mouth than anything else Sony can do with this software...

(I used to write software manuals of similar complexity, and have managed numerous efforts since. It's not difficult, you just have to define the goals per 1-6 above and get going.)

- Improved masking interface (onion skinning to see what I'm shaping a mask to would be nice too)
- improved expansion of graphics and text etc... (subpixel) so my 3D work doesn't get so crappy looking as it gets closer to the camera.
- Ability to change the "lense/focal length" of the "camera" when I'm working in 3D compositing
- improved realtime preview over firewire

BTW - I LOVE NESTED TIMELINES!!!!!

Just had to add that in :)

Here are a few, but I have to say It's hard to come up with stuff at this point, Vegas is a very good editor.

10 bit support
project sizes past 2k resolution
multi channel wave support

Mostly I just want what we already have to be refined (better realtime preview, faster rendering, stability) & promoted better. I think if Vegas was not just the "best kept secret in video editing" it would get a bit more third party support.

I'd finally like to see a high quality deinterlacer that also works good on HD material - not those simple weave and bob algorithms offered right now...
Martin

My Vegas 7 wishes:

Get Vegas 6 working right.

I have to admit 6c is working pretty well with some very minor glitches. I am pushing it pretty hard (14 video clips, 17 audio clips) 1.5 hr project with lots of stills. I tweak it all day long without problems or low memory warnings popping up. I don't use nested stuff. The clips are lightly loaded except for the main project. Only problem I have is when clicking the import icon then clicking the "view menu" icon the whole thing hangs and have to reboot. Since I really don't have to view the menu in the import menu it doesn't bother me.

JJK

I want to see Sony Vegas win in the marketplace. The developers need to therefore develop features that appeal to the broadest audience and which also keep pace with the competition.

With that in mind I sent the following list to Sony a few days ago, well prior to this thread. While I have dozens of features I'd like to see, I tried to concentrate on those features that would have the biggest impact in the marketplace; would get lots of press; and would answer the competition, especially at the low end of the market (which can easily move up and take away the bulk of the Vegas market).

Here's what I wrote:
--------------------------------

You need to work on the following areas, that represent things that almost every videographer does on every project, and which your low-end competitors are, in many cases, doing better than Vegas. Your next release should be packed with features that EVERY videographer is going to drool over.

Capture and Acquisition. Needs to be updated with all the features of Scenalyzer, and more. That program has SO many great features that Vegas lacks and which most users need, starting with the ability to capture a tape, even with interrupted timecodes; incredible batch capture facilities; ... and much more. I own Scenalyzer, so I could care less if you don't upgrade the SD capture, but to be competitive, I think you really have to address this relic.

Speed change. Virtually every video involves some sort of speed change. Vegas has good tools (the velocity envelope and the underlying resampling code), but they could be MUCH better, as I described in my email last month [suggesting they explore using motion estimation for slow motion, dropped frame replacement, and more]. If you follow the ideas outlined there, you could really put the competition back on its heels.

Speed change is used more extensively every day. Virtually every TV commercial uses speed changes, and I'm seeing it more and more in both TV shows and movies. A big trend here.

You also need to completely re-think the velocity envelope interface. It is virtually impossible to both cut to a specific frame AND change velocity; once you change the velocity prior to a given frame, that frame moves somewhere else on the project timeline. There needs to be a way to hold the frame at a given point in the project, and then have the velocity changes move the video within the event relative to that frame.

The UI for the velocity envelope has always seemed wrong to me: A vertical movement (up, fast; down, slow) affects an attribute (time) that is shown in the horizontal direction. A UI concept that works in the horizontal direction (like a piece of rubber that stretches and shrinks) would feel a lot more natural.

Titles. There needs to be some way to create good-looking titles without having to interact with several fX, 3D tracks, etc. Way too cumbersome. Again, every one of your users probably creates a title for each project.

Perhaps you could add some sort of front end that would create 3D tracks, add fX, etc., via presets. I could then choose from a selection of lower thirds; a selection of really professional 3D titles, etc. Even if you do nothing else, at least provide a few dozen presets in the existing title generator that someone would actually want to use. The ones you have now were probably done by some engineer as a place holder five years ago, and have never been updated. They are not useful as a starting point for any project. Hire a graphic artists -- someone who understands titles -- and create some decent presets.

Titles have become a major feature of video, and often helps define what looks "amateur" and what looks "pro." You can thank all the sports channels -- led by Fox -- for raising the bar on what people expect from titles. Another trend here.

MPEG cutting. MPEG is a lousy editing format, but the reality is that virtually every Vegas project is published on DVD (I'm sure that is what your surveys show). Therefore, since there is so much video on DVD, people need to re-use VOB/MPEG content because often that is the only thing they have (if the tape is re-used or not archived). Just read the Vegas/DVDA forums for a month. One of the most Frequently Asked Questions is "how do I re-use video I have put on a DVD?" Vegas needs to be able to take both VOB and various forms of MPEG files, and perform frame-accurate editing (i.e., recompress around the editing point, but simply copy the rest of the MPEG file, when doing cuts-only editing). Yes, another trend here. MPEG is everywhere, and Vegas needs to be completely happy dealing with all flavors of MPEG.

Photo Rendering. Here's another thing that a large number of people need to do, namely include still photos and then "animate" these photos. You need to do several things here. First, you need to work on providing the world's best rendering of high-res images, to reduce the shimmering and other down-sampling artifacts. This should be done as automatically as possible so that users consistently get good results. A user shouldn't have to click on "Reduce Interlace Flicker" for every still photo event, remember to select Best for rendering, apply motion blurs (which is a bad workaround that shouldn't be needed), etc. They should just be able to click on something that says "make this still photo look great when it is downsampled, zoomed, and moved."

The other thing is that the keyframing needs to be completely re-thought. It is virtually impossible to make smooth still-image moves with Vegas keyframes, regardless of smoothness settings, and regardless of the "fast" "smooth" "sharp" setting for each keyframe. I can send you some examples of some pretty ugly moves that, even after spending ten minutes, I still couldn't get right.

Just as important, there is no way to independently move the center of the keyframe compared to the entire frame. As a result, if you create moves where you are zooming and moving the image simultaneously, the intermediate keyframes often will move outside the picture boundaries, producing black borders. Keyframes also need to be modified so they can be tied to the timeline without automatically creating new keyframes every time you change something.

With digital still cameras everywhere, more and more videos are including still photos. Yup, another BIG trend here.

Video Cleanup. This is where the low end products really shine. Vegas makes the assumption -- except for color correction -- that my newly-captured video is in great shape. This is often not the case. True, unlike low-end video editing users, Vegas users generally know how to use a tripod and exposure meter. However, sometimes the video is grainy from low light, or because it is a transfer from an older analog source. Sometimes the video is shaky because of poor hand-held techniques, or from a simple mistake. Sometimes there are chroma and other artifacts from video arriving from NTSC videotape. The low-end software includes spatial and temporal noise cleaners; motion stabilization; and sometimes various filters to help with VHS transfers. Vegas needs to include these.
--------------

The other thing that I didn't put in my letter, but that I'll add here is that Sony needs to pay attention to workflow. Many of us were drawn to Vegas because so many operations that are slow in other programs are fast in Vegas. However, much of that speed advantage can be eaten up because of small UI issues that force you to spend lots of time selecting and deselecting, moving from fX boxes and back to the timeline, and more. Sony ought to host a multi-day focus group and have seasoned users actually bring their tapes and edit real projects in front of the Vegas project team. While this is happening, each user could raise their hand and say, "This is one of those things that seems to take WAY too long. Is there a better way?"

While we're wishing, why not add a spill suppressor, light wrap, and background color matching to the chroma keyer. Also add a built in motion tracker and footage stabilizer. Those are just about the only things I use my compositing programs for anyway.

Also an "auto levels" type color corrector and a way to easily match different clips colors and levels together.

I also hope the next version of DVD Architect includes support for HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray authoring including the choice of multiple codecs.

Personally, I would like to see DVRack bundled or at least its features implmented. This is a no brainer.

Also, a second window similar to PP1.5 or Avid. It just feels better to me with a source window and an output window.

I am afraid though that Sony will be afraid to implement some things that third parties already offer. This doesnt affect me but I am sure some on tight budgets would love multicam included by default. Once PP 2.0 ships later this year, Vegas will be the only NLE that doesnt offer multicam natively by default without having to rely on 3rd party software.

I honestly think that Sony would be wise to look at some of the third party apps that Vasst and JetDv have done and begin to include some of them by default.

For the love of God, please offer certification at some point.

- Detailed 3GP ENCODING!!! Start catering to the mobile media audience as well.

- expanded MP3 encoding settings (i.e. - 32kbps, 8,000khz, mono, etc..etc).

- better/updated batch processing (whether this be SF Batch Converter update or simplified scripts in Vegas 6 on up).

- being able to open .vob files??