Pro 11...S.N.A.F.U. at Sony...My Epic Adventure!

Well after enough liquid courage (I.E. Bombay Gin) I decided to give Pro 11 a spin. I first did a fresh Win 7 64-bit install and made sure everything is completely up to date. Got Vegas installed and running…and that’s when the real fun began!!!

Tried the GPU acceleration I heard so much about... It took an hour to get Vegas to see my Quadro card. Turns out you can’t use the latest Nvidia drivers, you have to use an older one. Finally get that going, dump some simple AVI footage onto the timeline CRASH #1…Tried again, got the footage together and started a rough cut…CRASH #2…Auto restore got my close to where I was an got back to work. Once I got the cut down, I started adding simple transitions…CRASH #3… By this point I remembered that with Vegas I have to save after every change (Thus the warm and fuzzy moniker I gave Vegas MANY years ago “Click Crash” (You click, it crashes)

Started watching the transitions I just added…”Oh wait a second, what’s this?” I thought to myself, I asked for a simple dissolve, not this puzzle pieces transition…before I can utter the words “WTF”…CRASH #4… Recover and get back to work…All of my simple transitions have this obvious glitch…Do a test render, yep they are there… Spend another hour online making changes to get that to go away…CRASHES 5 & 6…

Okay it’s 3 hours later…My simple video is cut, go to render…CRASH # 7…Recover, hit the render button (I like the look of the new export window)…Try to render out to a simple AVI…Thinks for a minute…CRASH #8…Try again, gets halfway through…CRASH #9…Try again, gets two/thirds of the way through…CRASH #10…Recover, try again…get’s to the end…CRASH #11… I finally get the AVI to render, and I open it in Premiere to add some lower thirds (NO way in hell will I ever use Vegas for graphics!) Start looking over the video and guess what??? Every transition has either several frames of black, or a random piece of video in the middle.! I also notice that there are random blocks of missing frames appearing throughout the video… I go back into Vegas to investigate…CRASH #12…

That’s 12, count ‘em 12 crashes over three hours to cut what will probably take me no more than thirty minutes in Premiere when I start over later today…

It’s been what 5 years now? Each version of Pro is clearly inferior than the previous… Sony clearly doesn’t care & I’m out of patience (And gin)

Chuck

Keyboard shortcuts: Toggle external monitor preview Alt+Shift+4

Here's my question...How can a program... that can now handle freakin 3D and Closed Captioning not handle the most basic of Windows CODEC the .AVI?

I work primarily in .AVI and that probably explains many of my crashes..I also mix multiple CODECs...A major feature that Sony has touted for years...That has never worked...

I also have the (99% CRASH) when doing several different things. I realized what you are saying about the ESC button, definitely a frustrating change. Are you using a Shuttle Pro? I may be adding that to one of my extra buttons later tonight.

But don't forget...All of these issues are either operator error or in our heads!

Chuck

What makes me more annoyed is that Vegas-when working-is such a good editor. It's so flexible and easy to use, and I can cut a video so quickly on it. It's the bugs and crashes that are threatening to ruin it for me.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

LOL! I almost used the "occupy" thing. And I agree with Angelo - it is a great NLE! I've used it on everything from promo's to feature films and love it, but it's become completely unusable for me. I'm hoping someone from Sony is listening and they can right the ship soon...

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California

I think it's decided...You make the first one, and we will all make response videos!

Or you could create a YouTube user and give everyone here the user/password and we can all upload our own chapter of the "Saga"?

Chuck

[Lance Bachelder] "There's been a new Vegas team at Sony for the past few revs."

And you know this for a fact, how?

I've been to the NAB parties, and I guarantee that your "occupy" movement would be an incredibly small minority of those present. The last one I went to had about three-hundred people, and I never heard a single complaint about the software.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Steve Rhoden] "Dont know what you guys hope to achieve by all this...."

To have an NLE that works?

Is it to much to ask that the version 11 of a program work better than, not worse than version 8 which came out 5 years ago?

Chuck

I moved to Vegas from other NLE's because it just worked! Since v9, it has been gradually going down hill for me. I used to not have 1 crash and the renders worked flawlessly. Now, it is a bit of a crap shoot. I have been able to muddle my way through all issues that have presented themselves to date, but I should not have to waste time and effort finding solutions that could be better spent creatively editing instead.

I have been paying for updates almost annually, in the hope the new one will be a more stable product, but I am beginning to feel duped: I think Sony must consider us cash cows (read: suckers).

Perhaps it is a video driver issue, or a chipset/motherboard issue. I am tempted to suggest to Sony to recommend a guaranteed hardware and system software spec like the days of old with Edius workstations. I guess this is where NLE's such as FCP has the advantage of a closed development model enforced by Apple.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

I don't really care about the "again". I picked Vegas because at the time it worked and did it's job better than the competition. Vegas Pro 11 is not usable for any real work. I do not see myself subscribing to any religion there. Either it works or not. If not, I'll pick something else next time around I need to upgrade my HW/SW, right now I can live with Vegas Pro 10.

At the end of the day, if you push out a new product who's clame to fame is GPU support, and it ain't working, then in my book you don't have a new product.

So I just uninstalled 11 and reinstalled 10...Guess what??? Registration server is down, can't use the program without it...THANKS SONY, YOU'VE COST ME ANOTHER DAY OF EDITING!!!!

Chuck

[Chuck Pullen] "So I just uninstalled 11 and reinstalled 10...Guess what??? Registration server is down, can't use the program without it...THANKS SONY, YOU'VE COST ME ANOTHER DAY OF EDITING!!!!"

With pretty much ANY professional-class piece of software that permits it, I keep the last version or two installed, as well as the most recent. And if this isn't permitted, I seriously question the "professional" monikker. Applications don't eat all that much space on disc... and given the crashiness, and in particularly, Cineform issues, I have kept Vegas 9, Vegas 10, and Vegas 11 installed... but I am finding Vegas 11 better in my use than Vegas 10. Clearly, mileage varies, and unfortunately, no one's effectively isolated any predictor of success or failure, far as I know.

-Dave

[Chuck Pullen] "Can you just imagine for a second if versions of Windows operated like Vegas?"

Actually... I remember very vividly when it did... or worse. So, there was this new thing called Firewire, and you could buy a very expensive proprietary interface for Windows 95 to be able to hook up your shiny new digital camcorder... often for more than the camcorder cost.

So Microsoft put out Windows 98, and aside from all that "desktop = internet" nonsense, it had real, dedicated, built-in support for industry standard Firewire and USB interfaces. Only... once you bought it, installed it, etc. not so much. It crashed, it dropped frames, it didn't work with some cameras, etc.

But hey, a little while later, ALL THIS STUFF was fixed in Windows 98SE, and the upgrade was only $20 or whatever... Cheap. And while that actually did help with USB, it didn't actually do much of anything for Firewire.

But hey, a little while later, ALL THIS STUFF was fixed in Windows 2000. Ok, this time, it actually was....

-Dave