Others say...

"Vegas is the best"
There is a two step learning curve for Vegas 7
At first look it is very easy to import video and position it on the timeline add an audio track and boom you got a decent video.
Once you have learned the basics of positioning multiple clips and audio tracks on the timeline you will find there are some very serious tools that are part of the basic install. you can have more then one video clip at the same position this means you can layer your video. If you have green screen or if you are using 3d animation it is insanely easy to postion layer over layer over layer of video to come up with some great effects. additionally just like the multi-layer video you have access to multi-layers of audio meaning you can have professional dialog and theme music playing and adjust fades and levels. but it doesnt stop there lets say your video guy was too wide you can digital zoom and you can pan and you can do all of this on a timeline meaning you can completely control or re-edit scenes. and if the video has a tint or poor contrast or a multitude of other problems you can adjust the settings just like you were using photoshop tools on a static image.

If you get serious with your work you can setup network rendering and distribute the processing load across a few computers.

Sony made this software easy for the beginner and strong enough for serious studio work. Sure there are still a few things they can add but this is excelent software that will have you producing work from day 1 and searching through all its features until the next upgrade comes out.

Avid and Apple cant touch this for the price and features
if you are ready to step up from moviemaker into the world of professional video editing or if you work in a editing hut and need clean work fast then this is the product for you.

Dont believe me then download a demo or kick out the bucks you will be happy.

There is only one drawback that I have found and it is not an issue for most people. As Vegas is Professional software it does not support the direct import of many videos that use low quality codecs this includes Divx import .. But it will export as Divx ... The reason behind this and why most pro editors dont have import for these codecs is the high compression. Garbage in means Garbage out.. This is just the fact you have to live with when you are working with software made to do real work and not Freeware like MS MovieMaker2 that is basically for videos of the kids. Maybe Sony can add this in V8 but thats the only missing thing. so prepair to convert to AVI before you import.


"Excellent value"
Great product with a short learning curve, assuming the user has an understanding of basic video editing techniques. Professional results that rival software products costing 2 to 3 times as much.

"The most intuitive interface around"
Since Version 5, this has become a truly great product. It's all about the interface. There are several ways to accomplish most tasks, and all of the basic commands aren't hidden. Without even a manual, you can literally be doing some pretty high level functions within 30 mintutes.

What's really amazing is that Vegas is stored on exactly one disk. When you've used it for a while, you'll wonder how they packed it all into one disk. This program is NOT a memory hog (except when actually rendering). In fact, you could even have two instances of the program open, each with a different project. In all the time I've used it, I've had no crashes.

In the past year, Sony has lowered the price of Vegas. When I bought Version 5+DVD, the best price I could find was upwards to $550. If you search around, you can enter into the world of Vegas for half that price.

Upgrades happen about once a year and those prices have dropped as well. I got my V7 upgrade for $125.



"Easy to Use, Easy to Learn"
I was looking for a PC based alternative to FCP, and I think this is it, kids. It's not a terrible resource hog until it renders, so it's pretty easy to use as long as you have a decent computer. The help manual isn't too much help, but I found a tutorial video online that explained clip splitting and keyframes, transitions, and effects. Once I understood those, it was very easy to make professional quality videos.

DVD Production Suite is very good as well, but not as easy to use as Vegas. Still a very good product though.

Perfect for the price.

"Where Premiere Pro 2.0 and Avid Liquid fail, Vegas Succeeds"
I own an HDV camcorder. I want to edit in HDV and I've used Premiere Pro 1.5 to do it, however the two-step import process (including a potentially lossy conversion) frustrated me.

Happy with the workflow and features of Premiere Pro, I tried the trial download of 2.0 first. For one thing, it refused under any circumstances to recognize my HDR-FX1 camcorder (which is on its compatibility list) in HDV mode (despite appropriate iLink conversion and HDV VCR settings). Freeware applications like CapDVHS worked fine, so I finally gave up after trying Premiere Pro 2.0 on two machines. (Nevermind the trouble I had with the trial expiring on the same day I installed it.)

Avid Liquid, aside from taking over my desktop theme and demanding all-or-nothing of my screen real estate did successfully capture HDV video without extra configuration. Unfortunately, that video was ultimately uneditable since Liquid would not let me render anything but the center quarter of the video frame. I imagine there was a setting or view of the process I was missing, but my choices for output were so limited I gave up on Avid as well.

Finally, Vegas captured the HDV video witout complaint (or a single dropped frame), allowed me to edit it together with a soundtrack generated in Sony Acid and a variety of imagery, and rendered in a wide selection of formats which are broadly compatible (even at HD resolutions). I spent less time installing Vegas, capturing video, and finishing my edit than I spent just getting the other two selections set up.

Adobe has received my last dollar. Sony (or whoever they purchased the technology from) seems to have gotten editing software right, at last.