Sony Vegas 7: Strong Video and Audio Editing Software Gets Even Better
DMN by Charlie White 
Interface enhancements, HDV editing improvements highlight new version Sony Vegas 7 is now Vegas + DVD Production Suite, and offers digital video/audio editing and DVD authoring in the same box for $699, $200 less than its predecessor's $899 retail price. The good news is there are significant improvements in this software package from Sony, making it easier than ever to create all types of video productions. Usability improvements abound throughout the package, and it's also more versatile. Let's take a look at the capabilities of this updated version, testing the software on all types of video and audio content. To get the most out of Vegas + DVD, if you want to edit HDV footage, Sony recommends a minimum 2.8GHz Intel Xeon system or its AMD equivalent. For our testing, we used a PC with 3GB of RAM and an Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93GHz processor inside. I tested version 7.0a, the latest update as of this review -- a point release update will be out next week or close to it. First up was HDV editing, where Sony has rebuilt its long-GOP (Long Group of Pictures, the way HDV is compressed) decoding engine, and there is a noticeable improvement in its performance over predecessor, Vegas 6. I was impressed with the smoother native playback of HDV footage in Vegas 7, making the operations feel almost like editing regular old garden-variety DV footage when playing back effects, moving shots around on the timeline and generally getting things done quickly. Read More...
Interface enhancements, HDV editing improvements highlight new version Sony Vegas 7 is now Vegas + DVD Production Suite, and offers digital video/audio editing and DVD authoring in the same box for $699, $200 less than its predecessor's $899 retail price. The good news is there are significant improvements in this software package from Sony, making it easier than ever to create all types of video productions. Usability improvements abound throughout the package, and it's also more versatile. Let's take a look at the capabilities of this updated version, testing the software on all types of video and audio content. To get the most out of Vegas + DVD, if you want to edit HDV footage, Sony recommends a minimum 2.8GHz Intel Xeon system or its AMD equivalent. For our testing, we used a PC with 3GB of RAM and an Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93GHz processor inside. I tested version 7.0a, the latest update as of this review -- a point release update will be out next week or close to it. First up was HDV editing, where Sony has rebuilt its long-GOP (Long Group of Pictures, the way HDV is compressed) decoding engine, and there is a noticeable improvement in its performance over predecessor, Vegas 6. I was impressed with the smoother native playback of HDV footage in Vegas 7, making the operations feel almost like editing regular old garden-variety DV footage when playing back effects, moving shots around on the timeline and generally getting things done quickly. Read More...
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