Who here has used vMix? What do you think

Hi Amnon,

Thanks for your kind words. When you get a chance to try it out, let me know how it can be improved or what features are missing. vMix is updated on a regular basis.

Regards,

Martin
vMix

Martin, one thing that no vendor seems to do, or want to do, is to provide mulipte Virtual Cameras. This would be a neat feature allowing you to send a video "mix-minus" to multple Skype or other feeds. Maybe not doable....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndrewSeabrook

Andrew. I use both it and VidBlaster as you use VB and Wirecast. Each has strengths. For live sports games I find VB wins hands down but vMix has got great transitions, desktop capture, a web-based remote interface and a host of other cool features. 3rd party developers are working on things like an automated playout and scheduler tool.

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Andrew, if you were not doing any sport games, would you still use both? We do talk shows, with multiple Skype guests/hosts screen captures on same PC. I find vb easy to recapture everybody when one drops off and screws up the display. Is it just as easy with vMix?

Amnon, Yes to using them both. In fact my first experiments with them were around a non-sports show that I have planned. I am not sure how Martin has implemented Skype in at this stage. I have not played with that. VB's capture ability is excellent for this as you know. Perhaps Martin can comment on the best way to bring in multiple Skype feeds. If they are on different computers desktop capture would work, on windows it also brings in sound.

Would someone who has used both VMix and XSplit compare the two? My two-year license for XSplit will be expiring sometime this year. It was a great first product, but it seems to be buggier than it should be. For a while, it was not usable for me. It seems to be more stable now. VMix seems like a very robust product.

In many ways I like VMix. The GPU rendering is very impressive, and to be honest the developer Martin seems to be one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet, and the price of the software alone is much better than other unbundled (SW that does not come on specific hardware) software switchers :). I also love the low latency seen on VMix and it does appear to drop much less frames compared to some other unbundled solutions on the market, and the fact that it can output to IO cards makes me very happy (fullscreen display output ran through a scan converter does not equal broadcast quality video) I do however have a couple of issues:

1. I do not like the interface. It just really does not work for me, as although Martin says other wise, It really throws away all the codes and conventions of a traditional video switcher (Which IMO is a tried and tested way to do this on a computer). It really just is not all that intuitive to use VMix compared to say a TriCaster. I also find there are WAY too many options in a lot of the menus.

2. VMix does not support fielded video (deinterlacing does not count). In video interlaced is still very important, most TV stations are doing 1080i..

3. Some of the graphics included in VMix have question similarity to other products ;) See below.

Attachment 115

Hi Joe,

What would you say were the top three design conventions of a traditional switcher that you
can't live without?

I will admit the colour scheme of our templates was inspired by some seen on the TriCaster.
Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all that ;)

The TriCaster is a solid product and one of the goals with vMix has been to bring similar capabilities to those on a budget.

Regards,

Martin
vMix

Thanks for the quick reply Martin!

1. True preview and program rows. I do not want to click on monitors to switch (some people seem to love this but I am not a fan). I want two totally independent busses.
2. Downstream keyers with DVEs. I must say - the overlay system in VMix is something I still struggle to get my head around.
3. M/Es. Big switchers always have these, and their an integral part of producing a high end shows.

PS - I do not like the side ways T-Bar. Maybe I'm just too much of a traditionalist ;)

Hi Joe,

You probably know about most of what I mention below, but thought I would provide it here in case anyone is interested in how vMix might compare.

1. I could look at ways of integrating these buttons into the windows interface. Perhaps the first 8 inputs or something since in vMix you can add a LOT of sources!. For what it is worth the touch screen web interface includes the traditional preview/program rows + 4 overlay rows.

2. vMix has four overlay channels (or Downstream keyers) available.
The "Overlay" window allows users to configure the size, position and transition effect of each of these channels.
(Somewhat similar to the setup process on the Tricaster)

A key difference in vMix is you can activate these overlays using any input (such as title or graphic) at any time by selecting
the 1,2, 3 or 4 overlay buttons under the input you wish to use.

3. The M/E concept is similar in some ways to the "MultiView" feature in vMix. This is where you can setup a blank
input and combine it with up to 5 other inputs including chroma key sources and combine them together in a single source ready for switching or as an overlay. In this way, any input can be used as an independent M/E bus.

I've put a lot of work into making these features easier to use in vMix 10.
I am always interested in feedback on how they can be made even better, IAIB have been kind enough to create a subforum for us here, so anybody who is interested can start a thread or check out our forums.

Regards,

Martin
vMix

Martin,

I have the free version of vMix, I use it in conjunction with vidblaster for a variety of things. I am very new to broadcasting and unfamiliar with the lingo.

But what I really would like to see would be more animated lower thirds or a better tutorial on how to make your own. Is there plans for more animated overlays?

Sincerely,

David