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Report on the B&H upgrade deal
I thought I’d start a new post to share this. I know some of you already know this but there may be several who still don’t. B&H Photo Video (I have no affiliation with them) is selling Vegas 6 for $79, and Vegas Pro 8 upgrade for $99. I saw this about ten days ago when typing a search for Vegas at their website just to see their price on Vegas, and Vegas 6 came up as a result but saying that it was only the CD with no box. I e-mailed them to see if it came with its own serial number and they e-mailed back saying it did, so I placed the order for both that and the 8 Pro upgrade. I got them today, and I’m happy to report that it works. The Vegas 6 CD comes in an envelope with the serial number on it, and the upgrade comes in a nice plastic case like those some games come in, about twice the size of a DVD case.
There’s no way around installing Vegas 6 first. I went to my wife’s computer and downloaded the Vegas 8 Pro 8.0a update and installed it, but when it came to the point of asking me for the upgrade serial number, the one that came with my Vegas 6 sleeve didn’t work. I checked many times that I had entered the right number. I figured that maybe the 8.0a update didn’t have in its serial number database that batch of serial numbers, so I uninstalled Vegas from that computer and I proceeded to install Vegas 6 in my computer with a fresh install of XP (after getting rid of the evil Vista) and it did install with no problems with the provided serial number (after installing .NET framework 1.1). It was going to install its own Media Manager but I stopped it then since I figured Vegas 6 was enough for the upgrade. I launched it with no problems, and I closed it and rebooted. Finally I inserted the Vegas Pro 8 upgrade DVD and after installing .NET framework 3 and some Visual C++ that are required, I installed Vegas, then Media Manager, and then DVD Architect. I launched Vegas and it made me enter the serial number and then register with Sony, and the same for DVD Architect. Both are working perfectly fine so far, and the versions that I received in the upgrade DVD are the latest, so for now no updates are necessary.
This is a great deal, since Vegas Pro 8 full is $480 at the cheapest, and this is $178 for the same thing, only that you have to install Vegas 6 first, but for $300 less, that’s more than worth it.
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14 Replies
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That’s pretty awesome. I just ordered Vegas 8.0 Platinum for about $70 after rebate, but I’m wondering if I shouldn’t return it and do this v6 + upgrade thing. hmmmmmm…
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If you still haven’t opened it, then yes, it would be wise to return it and get this deal. I mean, $178 for Vegas is really unbelievable. Added to that the Canon HV20 seems to be going down in price every day, and it’s almost half of what it was when it first started selling, so nowadays you can start shooting and editing in HD without sacrificing much. Of course it’s still money, but compared to what it used to be just months ago, it’s amazing how much they went down.
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what would be the major things i’d notice right away differnt between platinum and pro?
i know unlimited tracks is helpful if you’re layering things. are there a lot more effects for audio and video?
the one thing that i’m unclear is i want to be able to output to an external monitor using some sort of breakout box (that i don’t have yet). can platinum do this? according to the sony comparitive checklist it seems it can’t while pro can.
all i need is a little convincing and i think i might go this route.
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Platinum version outputs to a monitor via firewire.
“breakout boxes” are a thing of the past. If you mean a converter that will convert digital to analog, yes…the ADS or Canopus boxes work very well for this, or you can use most DV camcordes. Bear in mind that this won’t work for HDV. HDV requires either SDI output (not supported in Platinum) or DVI/second monitor out (Semi-supported in Platinum).Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASSTCertified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor -
Also wanted to ask…
Does your DVD Architect 4.5 work? Someone had mentioned Vegas6 didn’t include that so they weren’t sure how the upgrade path worked for that.
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I haven’t used the platinum version so I can’t say for sure, if you already seen the comparative checklist that’s the best way to compare. It might be that you don’t really need pro, but if you find something on that checklist that you could use pro for, then now is definitely the time, because I doubt those version 6 CDs will be sold much longer. I could be wrong though, I have no clue how many they actually have, but this deal has been talked about in other forums, so many people might be taking advantage of it.
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I definitely am not doing HD at this point. I am using a basic Panasonic GS80 MiniDV camcorder.
Doing mostly music videos for bands, but would like to start working on some short film projects as well. This is where I’m curious if PRO would give me more tools for adding sound effects, better editing tools, I’m just speculating because I never messed around with PRO.
Maybe I should install the PRO trial and take a look around. Do you know if you can install two different versions on your computer at once?
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Yes, DVD Architect 4.5a works just fine. It comes with its own serial number, which you have to enter the first time you run it. I think DVD Architect is part of Vegas Pro 8 now, I don’t think you can even buy Vegas Pro 8 by itself without DVD Architect.
Even if you have an SD camcorder for now, HD is just around the corner, with all the prices coming down so abruptly, both for HDTVs, camcorders and HD players of both formats. You might want to try the trial and see how it works for you. I believe the only thing you can’t do with it is use the AC3 Pro encoder, but other than that it works just as the paid version, only for 30 days. I hope I’m not wrong, somebody correct me if I am.
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Thanks for the continued replies.
I think tonight I’m going to install the Pro trial and use it on my home system, give it a good runthru, try to do some audio work on it (i’m an audio person primarily so the audio features of Pro really appeal to me).
I use Pro Tools and Sony Sound Forge as well but it’d be nice to have some good audio tweaking abilities right in Vegas.
What sort of things would unlimited tracks let me do? Layering and setting up effects? I’m somewhat new to advanced video editing so I’m not sure why I’d need more than 4 video tracks (as an audio guy, I can certainly see why I’d need more than 4 audio tracks though! 🙂 )
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[Kip Count] “What sort of things would unlimited tracks let me do? Layering and setting up effects? I’m somewhat new to advanced video editing so I’m not sure why I’d need more than 4 video tracks (as an audio guy, I can certainly see why I’d need more than 4 audio tracks though! 🙂 )”
Well, I’m not much of a professional, but I would say doing things with lots of titling and composition. 4 video tracks should be good enough for lots of cool stuff though, but with unlimited tracks you can do whatever is on your mind. It’s just like audio I would think.
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