 DRM cripples software, buggy even when it gets working Strengths: Has as many or more features than its competitors' products. Used by professional TV producers - "Survivorman," for example.
Weaknesses: Digital rights management protection makes network rendering configuration impossible, and customer service is horrendous. Bugs prevail.
Summary: I do not recommend purchasing Sony Vegas. The actual software itself is designed well and has an easy-to-use and intuitive interface, but bugs and poor support outweigh the positives.
I don't think I've been able to render a Vegas project once without some sort of showstopping problem. One time, I simply could not get the project to output in Windows Media format, no matter how many times I tried. Other times, I've tried to use the Sony ProType Titler plugin and it crashes randomly. And in order to get a Blu-ray disc to render with DVD Architect, you have to recompress the file even though the stream output by Vegas is supposedly Blu-ray compatible. Of course, quality is sacrificed in the recompression.
In addition, if you ever have a problem with Vegas, you will have to deal with people who have no compassion and adhere to draconian and nonsensical digital rights management policies.
When I reinstalled Windows, I lost my Vegas 8.0 registration key. I called technical support and gave them my address and customer information, and they said there would be no problem and that I was indeed listed in their database. However, the code they provided me came up with an "invalid activation code" error. They told me that the code was valid for Vegas 8.1, so I installed 8.1 and the error persisted.
Then, I got stuck with a CSR who repeatedly cut and pasted a script that was completely out of context with my questions. The script told me to provide the 8.0 registration code, which was the whole reason for the chat. Eventually, despite having all my information on file, including my registration code that now returned an error, they requested a receipt of my purchase. I provided them with the receipt, but then they told me that they would not honor it because the vendor was not on their list of sellers. It was not explained to me which sellers were on this list at the time of purchase, nor by Sony in its reply.
Therefore, I spent hundreds upon hundreds of dollars and have a useless pile of manuals and shortcut key cards with nice pictures on the CD covers. A simple search reveals hundreds of pirated copies of Vegas that can be obtained in an hour. Who in their right mind would spend five hours going back and forth with Sony trying to get a registration code if (s)he was a pirate? Digital rights management hurts only the legitimate user.
By the way, forget about using the network rendering service. Even when I was able to use Vegas, I tried configuring it on the three computers allowed by the license and still could not get it to work because the license files needed to be configured differently. I haven't had these issues with competitors' products, and one software company was even nice enough to refuse my money when I had a similar registration code loss in the past (!).
As a result of this mess, I was not able to honor my grandfather at his funeral because I could not finish his memorial slideshow. I will never forgive Sony for that, and will avoid their products in every way possible in the future. You should too.
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