Comments about Sony Sony Sonic Foundry Vegas + DVD Software Package:

Vegas 7 is a very powerful software package for editing video, and after doing some discovery with respect for an efficient workflow for myself, I've concluded that several are possible, and all of them are just fine for small to medium projects.First I would like to say, that even though the software in my opinion has significant flaws, that I think could be easily rectified in next version, it is still very usable and if anybody would ask, I would recommend it.Let's get on with the problems I've encountered. (1) Approx. 2.5 hour projects are extremely slow to open, even on a 3 Ghz P4 with 1.5 GB of Ram. I can start Vegas, go read and respond to my email, and then come back and start working after finally the project has opened itself. (2) I see a major workflow snag: After selecting multiple events on a timeline (for example 50 events), I cannot apply the most basic dissolve transition to them all, while I can do that for the other (more fancy) transitions available from the transitions bin with a single drag-and-drop. Similarly, when applying a transition in such a batch, the video will automatically blend for the specified amount of time for all events, but I can't do that with the associated sound clips for those events. There will be no blending whatsoever of the associated audio, just a hard change - a major snag. (3) This is a small complaint, but just for me, I miss the "Soft Light" (from Photoshop) track blending/overlay option. The harsh "Overlay" option, and other blending options are there, but not "Soft Light". (4) Render times are slow, but that's dependent on complexity of track effects applied. I suggest that a project be split into logical pieces, and after completing a piece the user, set to render that piece overnight, then after all the pieces are rendered, create a new project, where the pieces would be finally assembled into the full-length movie.I wish Vegas had a 1-click white-balance correction feature. It does not, however the Color Correction tool can be used to remove casts, but it takes many more mouse clicks to do so.Also, camera-shake compensation is non-existent. There is a plugin that ships with Boris FX ([$] extra purchas), but it is dismally inefficient and hard to apply. Basically useless.I like this product overall for home movies, and an event once in a while, but it could be improved.