Converting .veg files to previous versions

Pullmanite wrote on 12/4/2008, 11:28 AM
I think my biggest gripe about Vegas is the fact that once you edit a .veg file in any version, you can't open it in an earlier version. I use four different computers to edit (office, home, church, laptop) and all four use either versions 6, 7 or 8.

A shot in the dark, but has anyone figured out a way to edit a .veg in Notepad or a hex editor to trick it into being able to open in any version? I realize not all things would translate over completely, but 95% of what I do is stuff that could be done in version 4.x or later (cuts/dissolves only, simple text, etc.)

Comments

rs170a wrote on 12/4/2008, 11:48 AM
FIrst of all, you may not realize that the Sony EULA gives you permission to install the software on more than one machine. The only stipulation is that you can only use it on one computer at a time.
For use in older versions, do a Save As and use the EDL text file option.
I just tried this with a series of stills and a file created in Vegas Pro 8 opened up in Vegas 7, 6 & 5.
Be advised that generated media will not copy so you'll have to create those again.

Mike
Former user wrote on 12/4/2008, 12:39 PM
Most software has this problem. You cannot usually used new projects in old versions. This is not unique to Vegas.

Dave T2
Laurence wrote on 12/4/2008, 1:00 PM
What you need to do is save your project as an EDL (Edit Decision List). You can open up the EDL in previous versions of Vegas.
johnmeyer wrote on 12/4/2008, 2:04 PM
Most software has this problem. You cannot usually used new projects in old versions. This is not unique to Vegas.True. But many companies DO let you go back.

For instance, the "evil empire" company, Microsoft, lets me save almost any Office document into the previous version's format. I get a warning that I may lose some of the formatting or features (those things not supported by earlier versions). Works well.

Also, in Excel and Word, you can save to fairly "robust" generic file formats, like RTF for Word and csv for Excel.

Finally, these programs do an excellent job of importing from competitors' products. Although this doesn't mean much now, since competitors have pretty much given up competing with MS Office, ten years ago, it was pretty nifty to be able to open WordPerfect or 1-2-3 documents in Word or Excel.

When I used to consult with software companies, a piece of advice I always gave was that you always wanted to be able to make it painless for your competitor's customers to switch to your product, and you always want to make it easy and inviting to upgrade. Thus, you should be able to open files from your competitor's software, and also should not feel like you are jumping off a cliff when you upgrade to a new version.

I gave this advice to Sony many years ago (a freebie; I was never a consultant for them), but like so many other pieces of strategic advice (i.e., how to "win" the game against Apple, Avid/Pinnacle, etc.), it was completely ignored.

Grumble, grumble ...