by Paul LS » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:23 am
Welcome to Muvipix benkl1.
Yes I use Vegas 8.1 on a 64 bit Vista machine. It is currently the only 64 bit non-linear video editor. I also use the 8.c 32 bit version under XP. The 64 bit version is certainly better than the 32 bit version in that it handles AVCHD editing/playback much better. When playing back AVCHD from the timeline the frame rate is much higher for the same display resolution (you can set the preview resolution in Vegas)... for example with 8.1 I get full 25fps (PAL) playback whereas with 8.c it might be as low as 13 fps.
Additionally the 8.1 version can handle bigger projects and projects with many more effects added. Some folks report much faster rendering speeds but I have not looked in to this.
For me the biggest drawback is that you can not use any 32 bit plug-ins in 8.1, for example NEAT video noise reduction, Magic Bullet Movie Looks, Mercalli anti-shaker, etc, etc, none will work with 8.1 only the inbuilt effects. This will remain the same until vendors make 64 bit versions of the plug-ins.