Video editing software can be one of the most expensive aspects of home digital video production. It is rare to find a high quality editing software for less than a thousand dollars. Sony Creative Software’s new Vegas Pro 8 provides an absolutely professional software package that runs an affordable $549.59, which is less than half the cost of some of its major competitors. Sony is not as well known as companies like Apple and Adobe when it comes to editing software, but amongst the professional realm Vegas is well known as an exceptional alternative to some of the other big names.
The program itself is built for professional use, which means that it will require a hefty disk space but give high versatility. It supports most digital video formats and gives a system for very precise edits. The interface is not as clean as something like Final Cut Pro but its ability to do the job is comparable. The suite itself comes with a shiny package, including DVD Architect Pro 4.5 for disc authoring and Dolby® Digital AC-3 for audio correction. Neither of these match up to Final Cut Pro’s DVD Studio Pro and Soundtrack Pro, but they will definitely be usable for the price. Where Vegas Pro shines is in its ability to author Powerful DVDs and Blueray, which is not a standard option on most other high-end editing software.
The disc authoring tools will even offer options like multiple angles and zoom, which are the kind of options that really make a DVD authoring program stand out. Vegas Pro 8 also stands out with its early “native 24p” editing capabilities, which means that it has the option of operating at a “true 24 film frames per second.” Essentially this means a very high-quality “film” image while using the progressive scan technology.
Vegas was almost a year ahead of its competitors with that development. Vegas has had a number of other milestones, both with the fact that it was the first non-linear editing software to have very reliable and in depth audio tools. It was also groundbreaking in the way it simplified the timeline. It allowed you to put multiple types of files into the timeline and just edit them together. Many other editing programs would require you to reformat all of your files into a standard format before editing them. Sony’s latest editing software is a great option for those on a budget, and those running on a Windows PC. Since it is only available for Windows, it may end up being the decisive opposition to the Apple based Final Cut Pro. It certainly is a worthy competitor.