Review: VEGAS 16 Pro Suite – Is it Worth it?

So, you’re looking to do some video projects and are looking around for a decent suite of software and you are trying to figure out which is the best video software available. Well, I can help you eliminate one choice and that is anything by MAGIX Software GMBH which is the owner of the VEGAS software suite. See I bought the VEGAS Pro 16 Suite for $899 which is pricey to me and I expected it to function like a 900 dollar piece of software should. Boy, was I wrong?

First, let’s talk about some free or cheap video solutions. On the free aspect, we have OBS which is not an editor per se but is robust, OpenShot which is an editor and is open source as well. There is Filmora 9 with its subscription to the effects library for pre-made fancy fun. There are dozens of different software solutions you can choose from, and no matter which you decide on it is still a better choice than MAGIX Software or its VEGAS 16.

Chroma Key use is up, and it is essential for software to support this and do so well. MAGIX fails to do this properly in its VEGAS 16 to the point where you either end up with a green screen artifact or a ghost person. In fact, horribly embarrassing to them is the fact that OBS a free software can do it so well it renders using VEGAS($899) pointless. Resizing an image for use in a green screen is so comfortable in OBS it is just silly.

Meanwhile, the solutions available in VEGAS 16 for resizing and repositioning the video are complicated and seem to damage the quality of the video so severely it is not worth doing anymore which is weird because in OBS(Free) it does not suffer the quality loss you see in VEGAS 16 ($899.)

Then there is the ability to bring in a video feed to do a recording, and in VEGAS 16 this is not an option because of faulty code. I contacted MAGIX customer support with an access violation which came from a coding issue on their side. They responded with this:

Hello,

Thank you for your message.
VEGAS products support capture via Firewire cable. If you connect a device via USB, RCA, HDMI, or some other non-Firewire cable, communication with the device and the computer will fail or lead to dropped frames. Additionally, we do not support capture through any kind of TV tuner device.

Best regards,
Eric Dettman
MAGIX Software GmbH
Postfach 500109
01067 Dresden – Germany

Managing Director: Klaus Schmidt, Jörg Stüber, Aishvarya Agarwal
Commercial Register: Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 127205

Eric Dettman MAGIX Software GmbH

They do not appear to understand the that USB 3.1 is Faster than FireWire and try to claim loss of data as a reason it would not work and also the fatal assumption that I was using a T.V. tuner. It also claims that it will fail if you use anything but firewire; however, what actually happens is it pulls the video feed just fine, and you can see the feed in the window, and it is a live feed. The issue comes into play when you try to record the video which it can see and use. When you try to record it gives an access violation because the code is faulty and not because it could not do it. This response truly pissed me off as I had just spent $899 on this Software Suite and this is the smart ass response I get.

I have now had salt rubbed into the $899 wound and would not stand for this, and this is how I responded:

I see where you are confused. It appears you were lazy and did not review the dump data. The dump data clearly shows an access violation here it is again:

(technical dump left our for space)

This shows an error with your coding. Not with my devices. You should also be aware that firewire is slower than my USB devices which is why i do not use firewire because if I used firewire I would have had dropped frames which is

the complete opposite of what you claimed above.
So, let us try this again and this time don’t be lazy.

So, I figured at this point they would not actually respond as they are lazy and have poor customer support. I was right, and I knew I had to goad them into reacting so 12 days after no response I sent this:

Still no reply? why did i spend 800 bucks on your software if you can’t even pretend to give a damn?

This did not seem to work well either, but eventually, they did respond ten days later. Explaining their software is out of date and is from the HDV era and only exists to support those devices.

Thank you for your message.

Our video capture module was authored in the HDV camera era and it remains in the applications to support those devices.  USB capture through this module, per the previous response, is unsupported.  
—
Best regards,
Eric Dettman

MAGIX Software GmbH
Postfach 500109
01067 Dresden – Germany

Managing Director: Klaus Schmidt, Jörg Stüber, Aishvarya Agarwal
Commercial Register: Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 127205

Eric Dettman MAGIX Software GmbH

The issue here is that it works just fine if they could only fix their code, so it didn’t dump an access violation. The software, in fact, interfaces just fine with all the USB connections I connect to it as well as HDMI input (from an Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro.) The problem again is a lazy customer support staff who could not be bothered to do their jobs and lazy coders who failed to do theirs. It is so hilarious to me that a combination of free and open source software is more stable than their 900 dollar software suite.

I gotta say it is NOT worth the money and the free options surpass this by lightyears. Check the links below for OBS and OpenShot. Please share your favorite open source software or if you know any free solutions that are better than the piece of trash VEGAS 16, then let us know in the comments below we love to learn about open source solutions.

Links to OBS and OpenShot:

OBS https://obsproject.com/

OpenShot https://www.openshot.org/