Vegas Pro for Mac

TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/15/2011, 2:44 PM

Bootcamp. That'll solve the problem.

However, why not just put together a $800 editing PC that's just like that $3000 mac? :)

IN1ACCORD Productions wrote on 8/15/2011, 2:56 PM

TheHappyFriar - knowing/respecting Mac users as I do - I would say it has something to do with the stability and prestige of a Mac. As in you get what you pay for.

I'm an economical guy, so I go with what works for a good value (that I can afford) like you.

deusx wrote on 8/15/2011, 3:25 PM

It's 2011. This so called stability and prestige of a Mac was last true in 1989. It's neither more stable nor more prestigious than a good PC. Spend $3000+ on a windows laptop and you'll see that Mac book pro is nothing more than an overpriced charger and sync device for iPhones and Ipods.

And no, Sony will never have a Mac version of Vegas. It makes no economic sense at all.

john_dennis wrote on 8/15/2011, 3:33 PM

"And no, Sony will never have a Mac version of Vegas. "

Hamlet:
Madam, how like you this play?

Queen:
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

reberclark wrote on 8/15/2011, 3:41 PM

Never say "never."

Mac "prestige"? That's some BS right there.

John_Cline wrote on 8/15/2011, 3:41 PM

Yes, you're asking for a miracle. Virtually all Windows applications, like Vegas, are built using the Windows API (application programming interfaces.) The functionality provided by the Windows API can be grouped into eight categories:
Base Services: Provide access to the fundamental resources available to a Windows system. Included are things like file systems, devices, processes and threads, and error handling.
Advanced Services: Provide access to functionality additional to the kernel. Included are things like the Windows registry, shutdown/restart the system (or abort), start/stop/create a Windows service, manage user accounts.
Graphics Device Interface: Provides functionality for outputting graphical content to monitors, printers and other output devices.
User Interface: Provides the functionality to create and manage screen windows and most basic controls, such as buttons and scrollbars, receive mouse and keyboard input, and other functionality associated with the GUI part of Windows.
Common Dialog Box Library: Provides applications the standard dialog boxes for opening and saving files, choosing color and font, etc.
Common Control Library: Gives applications access to some advanced controls provided by the operating system. These include things like status bars, progress bars, toolbars and tabs.
Windows Shell: Component of the Windows API allows applications to access the functionality provided by the operating system shell, as well as change and enhance it.
Network Services: Give access to the various networking capabilities of the operating system.

Vegas is written with calls to the Windows API to handle virtually everything. It would be extremely difficult, if not practically impossible, to port Vegas to run natively on a Mac as the MAC OS has its own set of APIs.

john_dennis wrote on 8/15/2011, 4:12 PM

I like "It would be extremely difficult, if not practically impossible" better than "never". Given the right marketing incentives, lots of things could happen, even complete rewrites. I don't see the market incentives, but I ain't looking.

mtntvguy wrote on 8/15/2011, 4:48 PM

I run Vegas Pro 10 under BootCamp on a 17" MacBook Pro. Works slicker'n snot.

I have Final Cut Pro X on the Mac OS side... just to say I do, mostly. I've really tried to like it, honestly I have. But little things like not being able to set a project length and not being able to output to tape (yes, some clients still insist) make life difficult. It's very pretty, however.

Geoff_Wood wrote on 8/15/2011, 4:49 PM

How about 'religous fervour' then ? ;-)

geoff

TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/15/2011, 5:36 PM

TheHappyFriar - knowing/respecting Mac users as I do - I would say it has something to do with the stability and prestige of a Mac. As in you get what you pay for.

My ~$1200 AMD Phenom 9600, 4gb DDR3, WinXP, 1x250gb IDE, 1x500gb SATA, 1x500gb external USB2 & ATI 3850 I built in Feb 2008 have had 0 hardware issues so far. I've been able to run everything I've needed since then. It's still upgradable. I've been able to use every version of Vegas I've owned on it.

I stick with something until it doesn't work any more. Stability has been common for decades and prestige is like that iPhone app Apple pulled because it did nothing but cost you a nice buck & give you prestige.

I know where you're coming from though. There's people on here who swear by nothing but Intel (some who could be bashing Apple in this thread right now).

Besides, tell them it's a $800 investment. AT WORST they sell the whole system+software for $600 several months later. Including Vegas. It's a pretty much no-loose scenario for anyone wanting to go from a Mac to a PC.

ushere wrote on 8/15/2011, 6:29 PM

as an aside.....

many (many) years ago when i was moonlighting as a 'consultant' from the studio i worked for i was asked by a wedding shooter what he could do to impress his clients. (other than a good showreel of course).

this was in the days when potential couples came to the 'studio' to be shown examples in the 'edit suite'. this was in the era of vhs/svhs.... his set up was a very practical 3 X vtr and panasonic vision mixer with basic monitoring and 4 input audio mixer. he didn't have much budget for expansion - but that said, he did an excellent job with what he'd got. all he really want was to 'impress' his potential clients with technology, stand out from the crowd.

all i did was point him to a few broken / non working bits of hardware (an old quad machine from the studio where i worked - ($25 for basically a good looking, gutted shell), another $60 for an incredibly noisy 24 input tascam desk (it had had a family of mice living in it and chewing the cables!), an old large screen oscilloscope, etc., i think he spent a total of around $250, which included a few posters, etc.,

once the 'studio' (actually an upmarket garden shed) had been re-decorated and the hardware installed (so they at least lit up to some extent), the couples were so 'impressed' by the 'studio' that they immediately presumed that all that glitters WAS gold.... (btw, he eventually moved on to owning a pro, digibeta post house ;-)

moral; all that glitters is not gold, and no matter how fanbois of all persuasions believe their own hype, it doesn't really matter what it is - as long as it gets the job done.

PixelStuff wrote on 8/15/2011, 7:11 PM

@ John Cline

Everything you listed is something that Adobe over comes with half a dozen applications or more.

John_Cline wrote on 8/15/2011, 8:01 PM

"Everything you listed is something that Adobe over comes with half a dozen applications or more."

Yeah and Adobe is a MUCH, MUCH larger company than SCS. I didn't say it was absolutely impossible, just practically impossible for a company the size of SCS.

CClub wrote on 8/17/2011, 2:53 AM

Brian,
As mentioned, your Mac friends can use Bootcamp to boot Windows/Vegas. Also, unless I'm rendering a massive project, I've also edited on my Mac in Vegas via the Parallels virtualization software. Thus, your friends could do a trial of Vegas inside a trial of Parallels to get the effect you want for them.

ushere wrote on 8/17/2011, 3:01 AM

i was under the impression that mac's nowadays were simply pretty intel boxes - just install win 7 and away you go.

IN1ACCORD Productions wrote on 8/17/2011, 3:26 PM

Thanks for all the responses.

For the record: the "prestige" I was refering to was the Mac name and products and what they represents for all the devoted Mac users. They are a devoted lot. The same that have bought all versions of iPhones and iPads.

Geoff_Wood wrote on 8/17/2011, 4:19 PM

I'm surprised my buddy hasn't got iUndies iSox and iToaster.

geoff

ushere wrote on 8/17/2011, 7:03 PM

isuppose it's a case of iwant....

JHendrix wrote on 8/18/2011, 6:58 AM

my 2 cents

i am on a macpro and only rarely use osx. the main reason I am on mac pro is bacuae it it is nice to be able to boot into various os as needed. i have 4 installs of osx and 2 of windows 7. i use winclone in osx to backup full windows 7 installs. if my windows 7 os gets a virus i can boot into osx and overwrite with a clean version (with all apps installed) from my backups. it seems to me doing the same thing on a windows only box is quite a hassle

also, when i priced high end pcs they end up higher cost than the mac pro for equivalent specs (but i dont build pcs so that probably why)

JohnnyRoy wrote on 8/18/2011, 7:24 AM

You could run Vegas Pro fully integrated into the OS X Mac interface using VMware Fusion. Vegas Pro would run it it's own Windows 7 VM under the covers but it will just be another window on the desktop as far as you're concerned.

~jr

Chienworks wrote on 8/18/2011, 9:07 AM

VirtualBox should be able to do this too. It's a live OS-X program running in a concurrent window, who's contents can be Windows running simultaneously with any other Mac application. I've even been able to copy & paste back & forth between programs running under two different OSes.

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Screenshots

And it's free!

Guy S. wrote on 8/18/2011, 12:22 PM

<these friends would be ready in an instant to become Vegas Pro users if Vegas were available for Mac.>

Maybe, but highly unlikely. Odds are that if push came to shove they'd stick with FCP because of familiarity, practicality, and prestige.

Even with the changes, FCP will still be easier to use than Vegas. Not having audio and video tracks when the program first opens always seems to freak new users out, for example. Also, where's the tool that splits a clip on the timeline? Took me 20 minutes to figure out how easy it was to do.

In terms of practicality, FCP costs less. And it has some really nice templates included that Sony doesn't. I saw a very nice 60-second video bump at church a few weeks ago. Multiple layers, all sorts of effects. I nudged the guy who runs the Power Point slides during the service and told him how awesome his work was (he's a motion graphics specialist with the company that does 2D to 3D conversions). But it wasn't his work. It was done by a hobbyist, dragging and dropping clips into a totally pro FC template.

Finally, there's prestige. I've been doing video since 1994 (Video Toaster, if you remember that) and have been the in-house media guy for a manufacturing company for 13+ years. I have CS5 and a workstation built to run it. I also have a Mac with FCP studio. But I use Vegas because it's flat out the shortest distance to the Finished line. And it always amuses me when the housewife who does video slide shows or the weekend wedding videographer shakes their head at Vegas and says "I use a professional program, Final Cut Pro".

Gee, I do this full time, make money at it, and my work is distributed world wide. Some videos have been translated to German and Norwegian and will soon be available in Turkish and Chinese as well. But I'm obviously not a pro because I don't use Final Cut, the program used by everyone who's anyone.

If Sony were to invest in a Mac version, I doubt it would sell more than a few copies.

BTW, John Cline - thanks for the rundown of the Windows programming interface. I have always enjoyed reading your posts.