what craftech , you dont find the archaic 3d junk in 5 then same in 6 and of course 7 , worth upgrading for ? Media manager ?

But seriously if you arent using hdv the upgrade is kind of silly. I do like the new snap feature though , very handy .

"V7 is it worth it?" Yes, to me.

"My company educates people on how to edit with Vegas and FCP" If you are using V4 for educating people today, what version of FCP are you using? If your students have V6 or V7 at home, what do you tell them about nested veg's, or something that is more important today, acquisition of DVD source material off of their DVD camcorder?

What is your competition using? V4 seems kind of old to be teaching someone today. What kind of students do you have?

Somehwere there is somebody who wishes he/she could find the 140 bucks to upgrade to Vegas 7.0.
It's worth it just for the improved snapping, and preview function and the ability to draw envelopes.
IMHO
But if you don't want it,---don't buy it.
We have Amish folks around here who still use horses for transportation.
It's all they need or want I suppose.
They mostly use Premier Pro,----and edit in black and white only!

I switched back to an old machine for a couple of days here while I await my new HP and amd sending back my new DELL. I was DYING without the snap lines, all of a sudden I was wondering what was going, why isn't this snapping. GOOD GRIEF, This is a no brainer.

$149 for this kind of upgrade, I say don't be a fool, DO IT!!

That's just my opinion though, so take it as such.

Dave

Thank the Lord (and Madison too) Vegas 7 finally got fixed up to a point where I can use it with the 7.0b release. Snap lines are very cool once you're used to/spoiled by them. I'm a snapper, wouldn't you like to be a snapper too? :)

John

Version 4? Good lord, the things you're missing!

Media bins
Nested veggies
Save Trimmed Media that actually lets you recapture
MP4 output
Snapping
Ripple Edit that actually works
Timecode on events
A/V synch tool
Subclips
A whole bunch of killer scripts that only run on later versions

That's not worth 149 clams?

Version 4 was a good one. But like the others I have to say that it is definitely worth getting version 7, especially with the $149 offer (which I might add is about to run out if the email I received this morning is anything to go by).

Your business trains people for Vegas editing and you aren't up to latest version? Unless this is a public educational system (for which Sony Media might offer discounts?) then seems like your business has an obligation to have the latest.

I like the sound of the improved workflow features and it would be nice to go to h.264 straight from the timeline. That said, I haven't spent the money yet because other things are more pressing than upgrading for the sake of these conveniences (I already get h.264 from $30.00 QTPro... and can do without "extras" like snapping).

Really, I think it all comes down to how often you use Vegas, and rely upon it for income? If you feel you can generate income using it to offset the cost, or if you think an improved workflow will save you x amount of minutes or hours on a job, then it seems like a good investment.

- jim

I'm still running V4; I never upgraded after hearing about compatibility issues and crashes/lockups on renders. V4 so far does what I need it to

V4 is a great version. That said, keep in mind that there are going to be lots of relatively-inexpensive HDV camcorders floating around very soon. HDV is much nicer than DV--it's like shooting in 16mm film rather than 8mm film back when I took a filmmaking class in college years (decades!) ago.

With V7, HDV editing has gotten almost to the point of editing that V4 is with DV. I now shoot only in HDV (whether I finalize in DV today or not, I'll still have the HD version available for the future), use HDVSplit for capture, and use GearShift to do the actual editing in DV (though I have the option to just edit in straight HDV).

V7 lets me have a large preview video when working in DV. I work in 1600x1200 resolution so it's a huge upgrade to be able to expand beyond SD preview resolution without increasing the project resolution and killing the frame rate. Also performance is improved in V7 for me as it seems to take better advantage of dual processors.

Compared to V4, it's not even worth discussion unless you are speaking strictly about minimalist editing capabilities in which case you can just stick with Vegas 2.0d (although 2.0h is recommended).

Version 4? Good lord, the things you're missing!

Add one other thing: tech support.

I had two cents sitting around, so I thought I'd throw them in...

I'm on V4 but I'm just about to pull the trigger on the V7 upgrade. I use Vegas for non-pro home/hobbiest purposes, so HD and most of the super-advanced features don't mean anything to me. HOWEVER, I own Vegas 4 without DVD Architect, and the upgrade promo gives me Vegas+DVD, I can't stand my current (non-Vegas) DVD-authoring software, and I've been longing for the simple things in life like chapter marks being available when constructing a DVD. So... for $149, I finally get the benefits of DVD Architect, along with whatever new features I find fun to play with while learning...

David

There's been no significant changes to the platform from V4 to V7. Sony continues to disappoint. It's worth $150 to get the minor features. But nothing groundbreaking. No decent titler. No significant boost in render speed. Same old, with minor bug fixes and a few minor feature enhancements.

That's why I don't like to see big companies "acquire" smaller ones, because they just stifle and kill the product development, compared to what an entrepreneurial small company does. Look at adobe's recent acquisitions, same story.


Ken

Kencalhoun:
No increase in render speed? You have to be kidding. I went from 13 hours to 6 hours to 3.5 hours to 2.5 hours for the same duration project.

JJK

I went from crashing on render (Vegas 5) to succeeding (Vegas 6). This was on an HD project rendering to WMV. V5 got "out of memory" errors.

3-D compositing (V5 and higher) seems like a non-trivial feature if you ask me. Being able to burn dual-layer DVDs (DVDA3 and higher) is useful. Auto-ripple (better in each version) is good.

I see where the original poster is coming from on those few items. The titling aspects of Vegas have been unchanged for years and compared to competitors, they completely blow.

The other feature that still hasn't been improved upon is the crop/pan/resize.

I've been playing with the V7 demo for awhile and while the HDV workflow/performance is great, there really isn't much else to talk about. It is like Sony keeps taking baby steps. I love Vegas, and tell as many people as I can about. I'm doing professional commercials and programming using it and always get weird looks from other professionals when I say that I use Vegas. If Sony wants to be considered a contender in the professional field, they really need to step up on the other aspects of their program. FCP is walking all over them in the 'roundness' of their app. Vegas could easily compete with them in the professional field with some improvements in the most trivial of spots.

I love the new snappy feature. Holy hell is that a timesaver. :) And as we are shooting more HD, I'll probably upgrade just for that, but come on Sony. V8 better be a massive upgrade. Seems like everyone is buying up all these other smaller companies and then integrating their features into their NLE. How about Sony step up and do the same. Buyout someone with a good titler, Grafitti doesn't count, put something special in like Particle Illusion. Something that will really blow the socks off of us.

Same here. Snapping, rendering speed increase, those two features alone are worth gold to us here. Some of the new features aren't huge upgrades, no doubt. But overall, the snappier feel to the app with HD or HDV on the timeline, AJA support, and significantly faster rendering are all well worth a few hours revenue cost if you're a working grunt with the software, IMO.
If time isn't an important consideration, then moving to the latest version probably isn't all that important.

Sony gives a cheap upgrade from V4 to V7? Really? Most generous. Other companies allow that only from the previous version.

Training students on outdated software seems to me unethical (or a rip-off, if you prefer it said that way). I presume you keep FCP up to scratch?

If the argument is that the students are just learning the basics, then why not Vegas Movie Studio which is surely well suited and cheap enough for a teaching institution to keep up to standard.

HDV? Is NTSC land really uninterested in innovation? Even when HDV is distributed on DVD viewers notice the greatly improved image quality. My end credits include equipment used and I know my clients want that quality and have mentioned to me that they check out the camera. Surely in NTSC land your clients are no less discerning?

Isn't this topic really "give me excuses for not upgrading"?

Serena,
In his original post Swarrine stated:

"Other than that I have not seen much. I don't care in the least about HD, we are years away from that (and so is most of the US other than broadcast)."

He doesn't need the HD features of Vegas 7

John

>>>He doesn't need the HD features of Vegas 7

Of course, and Swarrine has every right to that view. I've little idea of the environment he's working in and possibly in that environment he's absolutely correct. I was reacting to his generalisation.