Premiere vs Edius vs Vegas

[Tim Kolb]

Premiere Pro is very powerful and versatile and happens to be what I use, but it is becoming a incredible load for even powerful computers…I run PPro CS4 on a laptop, and I like the response with SD material and I use it frequently, but it’s the heaviest load of the three.

Edius is fast, fast, fast….did I mention that it’s really fast? It’s very efficient and has loads and loads of RT response…the fastest editing system I’ve ever used. However, anything that it CAN’T do in realtime is not included. While this isn’t a sin in itself, sometimes if an editor wants to do some particular effect and is even willing to render something if needed, chances are anything that is elaborate enough to have to render is not available inside Edius. However, doing your video effects in AE and editing super fast in Edius may be a perfectly workable system and I know it works well for many, many users. Edius is quickly becoming popular in the news editing world, because of another feature…it’s really fast.

Vegas has perennially been the video editor with almost other-wordly capabilities (the first NLE in this price range to have what Adobe refers to as “time-remapping” available on the timeline), and also will run on almost any system that meets the OS requirements…its performance simply scales down or up and it’s pretty darn stable in my experience. While it isn’t really configured as a “Real Time” editing system like many others were really crowing about a handful of years ago, on a fast system it’s fast…the key edge for Vegas though is that on a slow system…it runs.

Those are my observations on these three NLEs. i’m sure there are others.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Ed Kukla]

Tim
You wrote: “However, anything that it CAN’T do in realtime is not included.”
Not sure what you mean there. I’m not very savvy on the edit side of things. What can’t it do?

Thanks for the caution about system size of PP.

In describing Edius as very fast, how are the other two “slow” by comparison?

If Edius is very fast, why do they sell a hardware accelerator? I plan on laptop use so extra hardware is out.

Thanks

[Tim Kolb]

None of them are ‘slow’ really, but the response during editing of Edius is very fast…even in software, and many news stations use it on a laptop.

As far as what’s not included, i’m referring to capabilities with mattes and masks and some types of FX that almost no NLE can do in real-time…most NLEs have these capabilities, but they have to render… In the case of Edius, any effect that can’t be executed in real time simply isn’t available in there.

Edius has hardware designed for certain in/out capabilities like SDI and that sort of thing…unavailable on a laptop or base computer system.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Ed Kukla]

Regarding the included effects. I read that Vegas will have more but will likely need to render them. Not a big deal, I won’t be doing a lot of effects.

I don’t think I need the ultra fast capability that news might need.

I’d love to see a comparison chart of features among all these programs.

I think I read somewhere that Vegas has more support for input and output of all the EX file types. I think Edius doesn’t support 1080P?
This is the sort of stuff a side by side comparo would be helpful.

thanks Tim

[Tim Kolb]

Yep…feature by feature comparisons are difficult because technically a Cruise ship, a Jet Ski and a nuclear submarine are all water transportation…

These packages all have different design priorities and all excel at different things technically…then there’s the question of interface aesthetic, which causes all sorts of illogical arguments across these forums as there is only personal preference and no “right” and “wrong”.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Mike Smith]

href=”https://www.dvc.uk.com/acatalog/Comparison_of_different_editing_programs.html

[Ed Kukla]

thanks Mike

That was a pretty darn good comparo. I wish they had even more details…I’m greedy!

I’m leaning towards Vegas

[Trent Whittington]

I started off using Vegas then upgraded to Vegas 8 Pro. Its very cheap as well, I found it really buggy with over 1 1/2hr+ timelines. However it will pretty much take any footage you can through at it. I’ve switched to Final Cut now but if you had a decent system going I would go for Sony Vegas, but you will need After Effects or something if you want any decent effects done.

My 2 cents

Trent Whittington – Currently studying Associate Degree in Digital Television

iMac – 24inch 3.06Ghz, FC STUDIO 2, Adobe Production Premium CS4.
Asus eee – 8.9inch 1.6Ghz 1Gb Ram, Windows XP

[Tim Kolb]

Ed…

Just be careful to separate fact from opinion. We all use what we use because it serves our needs best and almost every comparison is done with some specific standard as to what the “ultimate” editing system does…

All NLEs do some effects…Edius does some intriguing effects, but has some limitations due to the requirement that everything be realtime…but if you look at any of these programs and it does what you need, I’d say to ignore the fact that it doesn’t do something that someone else says it should do and go for it.

Vegas and PPro are two best choices if you need to deal with audio on the timeline to any great extent.

Edius is far and away the best at mixing formats in one timeline…and still doing it fast.

As far as using lots of graphics in an edit, nothing out there is as versatile as Premiere Pro. The ability to load Photoshop files in layers is incredibly useful.

Vegas has features that are unique to it and definitely add capability…Vegas users in the Cow Vegas forum would be able to describe those features more completely…

…and of the three packages, Premiere Pro is the only one that is cross-platform Win/Mac.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Ed Kukla]

Here’s where I’m at so far…
Premier Pro seems to be a system hog and on a laptop that might be an issue. I will never use After Effects and doubtful I’ll do much with Photoshop. I do have an older version of photoshop. I am definately not graphics oriented. If I need something fancy, I’ll farm that out.

So the question becomes Edius vs. Vegas.

Vegas seems to have more features but is ‘different’ in the way things are done. I can’t really see that but I don’t have a long history of cutting on anything else. Some minor experience with premiere pro. I should be able to adapt?

Edius is ‘faster’. Not sure exactly how compared to Vegas. Edius seems to have less features than Vegas.

So unless I find that the ‘faster’ capability is worth it to me, I’m leaning towards Vegas. My projects will be no longer than 10 minutes and they will be fairly simple. Some flips or wipes or other transitions, titles, audio and picture. Plus DVD authoring which Edius does not have.

Thanks all so far…