Do I have to switch to Premiere?

Marc S wrote on 5/12/2015, 1:06 AM
I'm frustrated because Sony support seems dead to me. I own a Sony camera (X70) with a propitiatory Sony Codec (XAVC-L) and the only programs that support it are non Sony programs like Premiere and Edius etc. The Sony Vegas team has been promising support for a long time but it fails to deliver and at this point is completely silent on the issue. My Premiere trial is running out and I fear that my only option is to jump on the cloud for one year until other options emerge. What an embarrassment that Sony cannot even support it's own camera codec. Is Sony Vegas at the end of it's life? Ever since they bought it from Sonic Foundry it has been a downhill trend. What a shame that such a great program has been left to die a slow death by a company that had the resources to promote and develop it yet did very little.

Comments

Steve_Rhoden wrote on 5/12/2015, 4:44 AM
Couple inaccurate information in your statement, but yes Vegas should long ago
have support for the XAVC-L format.
Neither is anything wrong with having Premiere or any other tool running alongside
Vegas to help out with ones particular workflow in getting the job done.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 5/12/2015, 9:19 PM
I've not noticed a "downhill trend" since Sony bought part of SF.

Instead of leasing Premiere would one of the Catalyst pieces of software get your files for you so you can edit in Vegas?
John_Cline wrote on 5/13/2015, 12:20 AM
"I've not noticed a "downhill trend" since Sony bought part of SF."

And I have not. You load up your version of Vegas v4.0 and see how much work you can get done.

Video editing has gotten much more complicated since Sony bought Sonic Foundry (for $18 million is cash and taking on Sonic Foundry's debt), back then Vegas was pretty much optimized for one format: DV, which by today's standards was an incredibly simple intra-frame codec.
Marc S wrote on 5/13/2015, 1:31 AM
I tried Catalyst but there are two problems.

1. The free version messes up the black levels on X70 clips when converted in the batch mode.
2. Both versions (paid and unpaid) are extremely unstable on my system when trying to convert long clips.

Currently if I want to edit X70 files in Vegas I have to use Adobe Media Encoder CC to convert files to XDCAM. Never had a single crash with the Adobe method but don't want to enter the rental world if I can avoid it. I actually own Adobe CS6 but they are not supporting XAVC-L except in Adobe CC.
Steve Mann wrote on 5/13/2015, 5:30 PM
Your answer from Sony.


mountainman wrote on 5/13/2015, 6:33 PM
The video says -L works, but that is not correct. -L from the x70 does not work. If -L from the x70 works in Browse, why can't they make it work in Vegas? j
astar wrote on 5/13/2015, 9:50 PM
Have you updated your firmware, I seem to remember something about firmware with that camera.

My guess is codecs are going to be the carrot to get people off vegas, and into catalyst XYZ.

I would switch to Avid before moving to Adobe, at least you would have a marketable skill after learning avid. Premiere is rubbish.
Marc S wrote on 5/13/2015, 10:19 PM
The latest Sony update fixed the issue with the FS7 files but X70 users are still unable to open the files. Kind of my point actually—that Sony is unable to make fixes in a timely manner. Sony X70 has been out for a while now and Sony Vegas is still unable to work with it while third party editing programs are.

Catalyst is a mess at present. Support tried to get me to buy the Catalyst Prepare as a solution for Vegas lack of support but even that does not work (crashes all the time on long X70 files).
Cliff Etzel wrote on 5/15/2015, 8:07 AM
As much as it might be a pain to initially learn, start delving into Resolve. I'm testing Resolve Lite 11.3 right now, and it pretty much does what PPro CS6 does in my post workflow - and then some for color grading. Version 12 is going to be a major leap forward. SCS is finally gone for me.