Enough is Enough - which way to go - PremPro or Vegas?

[garjobo123]

People of World...

Having downloaded both 2019 and 2020 in the recent past- with dire results - and with constant 2018 quibbles and quality loss the time is ripe to move on. I sense by other threads that it is not only my time MY TIME WASTED over and over again because of software not up to the job.

I've been recommended Sony Vegas, amongst others, Premiere Pro etc I know both have their supporter and detractors. Sony I've already heard crashes a lot..so that's not boding well!

I ask for thoughts welcome on a Corel VS forum - in the vein hope that others out that use better software when editing particularly 4k footage, but perhaps fall back to the 'simplicity' of VS from time to time. If your a commited VS supporter then your view, like a broken pencil, is pointless.

Thoughts and advice on said topic more than welcome. And feel free to throw into the mix other forms of editing software. I'm aware VS is by far one of the very cheapest of editing packages, but someones TIME is a very high price to pay.

TIME IS very precious - to waste hours, days and weeks on jobs only to fail at the final hurdle ( ( well..i say final hurdle..obviously every single minute of manipulating edited footage is a chore on the timeline! ) - due to software (not pc! or lack of knowledge! ) but SOFTWARE ( bitter pill to swollow for some hardened supporters but tis true! - in this day and age ) - time for change!

[asik1]

VMS17 is just out few weeks ago you should give it a spin.
But 4 4k? on 4 tracks?? you might need a better system

** Vegas is no longer sony's

[tletter]

..I'll get my coat.. time for change!

Please let us know when you find the perfect full-featured bug-free NLE at an affordable price.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[garjobo123]

..I'll get my coat.. time for change!

Please let us know when you find the perfect full-featured bug-free NLE at an affordable price.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

Asik, VMS17? ok, will take a gander.

tlet,

Itching for handbags at dawn you may be, but I'll leave it here, some peoples projects clearly are happy with sub-standard stuff, nothing has blown me away from examples, using generic countdown clocks are intro's. My expectations a little higher, often incorporating Particle Illusion effects etc.

Yea' will let you know once i test out the bestest of software.

[pepegota]

If you have got the time try: DaVinci Resolve 16, it's free.

[canuck]

..I'll get my coat.. time for change!

Please let us know when you find the perfect full-featured bug-free NLE at an affordable price.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

Asik, VMS17? ok, will take a gander.

tlet,

Itching for handbags at dawn you may be, but I'll leave it here, some peoples projects clearly are happy with sub-standard stuff, nothing has blown me away from examples, using generic countdown clocks are intro's. My expectations a little higher, often incorporating Particle Illusion effects etc.

Yea' will let you know once i test out the bestest of software.

There is no software out there that will satisfy your "high expectations". I am quite happy with "sub-standard stuff", your opinion of course. Hopefully we don't have to put up with useless aside remarksand comments much longer

[garjobo123]

If you have got the time try: DaVinci Resolve 16, it's free.

Ok, will take a gander, although the words 'free' do not appeal. Much rather pay a decent amount to get a quality product, afterall your time is free but it's the most precious thing we have.

[Ken Berry]

In fact Resolve is extremely high quality and has a steep and long learning curve. It has been used to make commercial movies. There is a paid version of it as well which has some extra bells and whistles, but the bells and whistles which come with the free version are more than enough for most of us...

[Davidk]

You are not the first to feel driven to jump ship by unreliability issues in VS. And many - including me - have done what you are doing; exploring the alternatives. There are posts in the forum on the results of that. But just to summarise
- no NLE (video editor) software is bug free. Your usage may never encounter one, and that's the case with a lot of VS features. What has VS users p***ed off is that as the feature set has grown, so have the unreliability problem: silent crashes, features that dont' work etc, poor to non-existent support
- most editor vendors have support issues: read their user forums to see this. I found quite a few, but the commentary about the support did not go to the incompetence lengths that VS users have advanced: in that sense Corel came up a very poor last, not just about VS but for every package they sell. Corel won't update superseded software, and will not provide any feedback on reported issues. leaving users dangling in the wind is something you get used to: see next item about why stay
- the learning curve for competing NLE's is a major issue; even when the terminology is fairly common, the process to achieve certain results in various editors is at best tortuous. The ONE redeeming factor about VS is that it is so easy to use.
- part of the ease of use issue is the editor workspace: many have a workspace that is very similar to VS - the main variation in many is where the preview screen is; however workspace complications or just being over-busy with so much in it is a definite off-putter. I found Resolve for all it's alleged advantages just too hard to use for this reason.

So, what it comes down to is whether the VS problems you find are more painful than learning something new, and encountering it's issues.

[iNate]

You are not the first to feel driven to jump ship by unreliability issues in VS. And many - including me - have done what you are doing; exploring the alternatives. There are posts in the forum on the results of that. But just to summarise
- no NLE (video editor) software is bug free. Your usage may never encounter one, and that's the case with a lot of VS features. What has VS users p***ed off is that as the feature set has grown, so have the unreliability problem: silent crashes, features that dont' work etc, poor to non-existent support
- most editor vendors have support issues: read their user forums to see this. I found quite a few, but the commentary about the support did not go to the incompetence lengths that VS users have advanced: in that sense Corel came up a very poor last, not just about VS but for every package they sell. Corel won't update superseded software, and will not provide any feedback on reported issues. leaving users dangling in the wind is something you get used to: see next item about why stay
- the learning curve for competing NLE's is a major issue; even when the terminology is fairly common, the process to achieve certain results in various editors is at best tortuous. The ONE redeeming factor about VS is that it is so easy to use.
- part of the ease of use issue is the editor workspace: many have a workspace that is very similar to VS - the main variation in many is where the preview screen is; however workspace complications or just being over-busy with so much in it is a definite off-putter. I found Resolve for all it's alleged advantages just too hard to use for this reason.

So, what it comes down to is whether the VS problems you find are more painful than learning something new, and encountering it's issues.

Anyone who's been following Humble Bundle could have had (for $25), any of the following in the past 18 months or so:

VEGAS Pro 15 + Sound Forge Audio Studio 12
Sound Forge Pro 12 + ACID Pro 8 + VEGAS Movie Studio 15
Pinnacle Studio 23 Ultimate
HitFilm Pro + Ignite Pro (w/ 1 year of updates - for one PC only, but easy to move the license from one to another (takes 10 seconds)).
Video Pro X11 + VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum 16 + Sound Forge Audio Studio 13(on Humble Bundle now)

If OP is still looking, he should pick up the Video Pro X bundle for $25 and use that. He can also install VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum 16 and try that out. If it works for him, then he can just use that. You don't have to upgrade either of those if they get the job done.

They don't come with the extra plugins, but Mercali 2 Stabilizer is in Video Pro X, at least. It's basically Movie Edit Pro with higher end functionality added-in. Not a huge learning curve, IMO, as it's predominantly mouse-bound. VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum 16 is pretty self-explanatory. VEGAS Pro with some higher end functionality stripped out, and some tutorial/ease of use things added in. Sound Forge Audio Studio can be used as a Wave Editor from either of these NLEs. Definitely check that out, if you're looking.

I moved off of VideoStudio at 2018 because the stability wasn't there, there is too much unnecessary bloat, and the performance simply wasn't up to par with the competition. Also, I don't generally like how its timeline works. Too basic on the editing front.

Unless you're a professional, I would not go with Premiere Pro. The subscription is just too much dumped money. Get the bundle and move on, instead.

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DaVinci Resolve 16's free version does not have GPU Decode or Encode Support, and it cannot encode HEVC on Windows. You need Resolve Studio for that. Most consumers work primarily with compressed CODECs (H.264, HEVC, XAVC-S, AVCHD, etc.). The performance is going to be pretty bad unless you have a monster PC. Studio is only $299, which is cheap for an NLE of that calibre, but very expensive for someone who's generally find with an NLE like VideoStudio (instabilities and issues aside). This is like buying Final Cut Pro X when iMovie is more than you need. So, unless you have a beefy processor and a really good GPU, I'd avoid Resolve. You'll only end up complaining about Performance and Out of VRAM error messages

-----

No NLE is bug-free, but some companies are a lot better at responding to user feedback than others. Corel is not one of those companies. That being said, I actually think the Pinnacle Studio team does FAR better than the VideoStudio or PaintShop Pro teams (they also deliver better upgrades that are a bit more worth paying for than those teams - particularly VideoStudio).

[Davidk]

When I finally moved to windows 10 (an in-place migration per MS advice), I just could NOT get Videostudio's share page to work, even after 4 upgrade attempts, altho every version worked fine on win7. After 6 months of trial and error, I gave it up on my main desktop platform (VS still on my win7 laptop), and bought/installed Cyberlink's Power Director18 Ultimate. So, some observations about it after a month of OJT:
- the program is about the same (storage) size - around 8gb.
- there are more options for users: several layers of perpetual license (not just 2), and a subscription license option.
- the feature set for ultimate is pretty much the same as VS ultimate - some variations noticed (like, split screens not supported, at least that I have noted. OTOH, I haven't gone looking yet either). Some items are standard rather than plug-ins - eg, stabilization.
- the price is a bit (about $20) more expensive than VS Ultimate, and I bought the backup disk set which is a standard option for $20 extra. They came from Germany (disk envelope postmark) even tho Cyberlink is Taiwanese
- Product key comes in an confirmation email, with links to the download files, with install instructions. Download comes as a series of installable .exe files (14 of them): main program, many content files, plugins). Use a browser - no special stub installer needed with all it's quirks - to get them. Install the main one first, then the others.
- the terminology used can be confusing - some terms are the same but mean different functions, yet others are both the same term and identical function (ripple editing). Some functions are the same but have different names (eg proxy files are called shadow files). Some simply don't have names, eg re-link in VS has a similar function in PD: a message box with action, but isn't called anything. When I asked the forum about it, the responses pounced on the VS term. Getting used to these is a work in progress: the community forum very helpfull with this.
- the PD18 user guide is twice as big (page count) as the VS 2020 guide.
- there is a very specific menu item for rating and feedback (issue/suggestion etc) directly to the development team. So far I've exercised that twice - once in concert with an expert who basically showed me how it was done, and once independently. And those items got responses from the team.
- The thing I found most impressive was the support response: there is a user forum, and it has so far given me an answer from someone - another experienced user, or an admin - within 24 hours. Mostly about "how do I" issues. Similar to this forum. And then there is the tech support team: had to exercise that once - and helpfull advice within 24 hours, something unheard of from Corel.
- the support policy is also much better - updates for the current and most recent superseded version, and tech support on problems with any prior older versions.
- ease of use - VS is better, but that could be just familiarity talking.
- buggy ? I've noticed some forum comments about that but nowhere near as many in the VS forum.

General impressions after 1 month - Very good. It's worked for me in everything I've tried. PD is what VS could have been.

So if you are bent on jumping ship from VS for something broadly similar, try Power Director18.

[asik1]

David, have they corrected saving FX favorites in PD18? Is it as simple as in VS?

[RobertOZ]

You cannot purchase Adobe Premiere Pro, it is only available on a Creative Cloud subscription basis which will cost you US$20.99 per month on an annual plan, or US$31.49 on a monthly plan and has a steep learning curve.
You could consider Adobe Premier Elements as an alternative, the latest version should be released soon, I have Elements 10 - 15, although do not have any version installed at the moment, but what Elements does have is Guided Edits mode which offers a set of built in Edits guiding you through a series of steps to help perform specific editing tasks
Vegas is not the same anymore since selling out to Magix, just not quite as good and Magix support is abysmal.

David has suggested CyberLink PowerDirector, which is a good program and their forum support is top class, I stopped using PowerDirector at Version 9, just could not get it to work correctly, so moved to Corel Video Studio X4 at the time, I was a major contributor on the forum in the early days and was a CyberLink Beta tester, don't think they use Beta testers anymore, so give it a try

[Choi seong chul]

I know VS had a lot of bugs before, but after replacing the computer with high spec
Editing is stable. I am mainly editing 4K.
Bugs seldom happen.

[VB_video]

After many years of loyalty to Media Studio and then to Video Studio I am trying DaVinci Resolve 16 for free. I need something that doesn't bother me.

The paid version has interesting features only for high-level professionals and production studios. The free version is more than enough for many if you don't go beyond 4K.

The program is complex because it is a complete program. It doesn't need to use other software, like Premiere.

Unsurpassed in color correction ("Color" section). Excellent in audio manipulation ("Fairlight" section). Also excellent in the application of special effects ("Fusion" section).
Since version 16 the "Cut" section has been added for quick editing and I must say that it does not make you regret the speed in editing Video Studio. Indeed, once you get it, it's even faster.
In addition there are countless tutorials that help you understand it.
With a few tricks in 1080p I was able to make it work even on a 2009 PC (8 Gb RAM).

Rendering is fast. All solid. Because aimed at professionals from those who also produce hardware for video productions.
Regards