Hi,

Are you using basic or Plus or Premium of MEP2015? There is a significant difference between the basic version and the other two. Plus and Premium are the same except that Premium comes with additional third party plugins.

I have both VPX6 and MEP2015 Premium.

As far as I can say, there is little difference in the UI and almost no tools to make edits faster. It does seem to operate faster than 2015, but this always depends on the project and effects applied. MEP2015 and VPX6 share the same engine. In fact, MEP2015 patches are ahead of VPX6 and there are things that do not work in VPX6 that now work in MEP2015.

For improvements to lighting problems, if you have MEP2015Plus/Premium, then you have the HDR tools. They are the same in VPX6. If you don't have Plus/Premium, then you don't have HDR.

As well, if your video is grainy due to low light conditions, I use a third party plugin, Neat Video, to correct this. There is a discussion on this in the Forum under Video Pro X.

Take a close look at the things that VPX6 can do that MEP2015Plus/Premium cannot do to determine if you really need these features. Some do not even work yet.

Here are some of the differences:

1. VPX6 has separate buttons for turning off video and sound on a track. MEP's button turns off both, which is annoying;
2. VPX6 allows complete variable movement of an audio object; MEP allows movement to a minimum of 1 frame;
3. VPX6 has more multi-cam tracks - 9, vs 4 for MEP2015Plus;
4. VPX6 has some measuring instruments, including Vectorscope, Waveform monitor, RGB parade, Histogram. Nice to have but not really used much;
5. VPX6 has 2 monitors, one for the source and one for preview. I rarely look at the source monitor except for previewing a clip before bringing in;
6. VPX6 has a project folder which serves as an intermediate store or catch-all for all kinds of project material. You have a listing of all of the objects imported. Nice to have but not all that useful, or at least I don't use it much;
7. Nested sequences - this is a big one if you are doing complex projects. You can use the additional Movie tab, create a piece of video with effects, etc., and then import the result as an object onto the timeline of the first movie. If you go back and edit the sequence, the main timeline will automatically update - in most cases. This helps speed up previewing because the imported clip with effects is already rendered. There is no need to export to mxv files to do this.
8. Multi-language support - you can create separate special audio tracks for multiple languages so that when you create a DVD, there are buttons to select the language. No need to have separate videos. It doesn't work and this is still an issue with Magix. They forgot to include the parameters in the Advanced Burn screens for the language button to work. Hopefully they will fix this, but I have been after them for almost a year on this. I bought the program mainly to have this feature (and the price was a special deal).
9. Colour correction - VPX6 has primary and secondary 3-way color correction, which allows you to separately modify the shadow, mid and lights colours. Useful but not a must;
10. DVD menus - VPX6 allows you to export the menu psd file to Photoshop or Xara for editing. This is quite nice to have as you have complete control of menu appearance, including complex text effects and highlighted state management. This is one of the shortcomings of MEP and users often complain about the lack of editing control on buttons.

That is basically it for the additions. I probably missed a few. I gave you the link above to the VPX6 site.

What else doesn't work?

1. In both MEP2015 Premium and VPX6, Effects, Create mask effect is supposed open Xara Graphics Designer or Designer Pro and allow you to create animated masks. It doesn't work right in VPX6, but now does in MEP2015 Plus/Premium. Hopefully Magix will fix this in VPX6, but it is annoying. From VPX6, the video does not advance in the animation part of Xara. As a result, only a static mask image is returned. From MEP, the video advances as you move in the animation timeline allowing you to move the masks. The result is an animated masks file in MEP which is a great feature.
2. In both MEP2015 and VPX6, the audio mixer does not work correctly. When you click on the FX button of a track, the Audio FX open, but you can't do anything to them. Only way out is escape. This works fine in MEP2014.
3. In VPX6, using Video Sound Cleaning Lab 2014 and Audio & Music Lab 2014 Premium (AML) do not work correctly as the external audio editors. Magix told me that AML was not intended to work as the external editor. I protested pointing out that their documentation indicates that it should and to fix it. They have almost fixed this in MEP2015. MEP2015, thanks to a recent patch, now mixes down the audio and opens it correctly in AML. However, the file is not returned to MEP correctly. Magix even told me that VSCL was not intended to work with VPX6, which is just plainly wrong - the documentation explicitly says that it should. The default Music Editor 3 has a message saying that one should upgrade to VSCL. I removed VSCL from my computer as it was basically useless, and AML is far, far superior. Hopefullly Magix will get this sorted out some day.

I only got MEP2015Premium to have the third party plugins. They work in VPX6.

After all of that, you have to decide what you want. For 1 to 5 minute videos, personally I would stick with MEP2015 Plus or Premium. I don't think that the additional features of VPX6 are worth the difference in price, especially considering that a few of the main features don't work.

As for the future, only Magix can tell us. But, I think that a version VPX7 is quite likely. You may want to wait.

Hi. 

Thanks for answers. I tested VPX6 trial and it seems to be working bit faster. 

Based on your detailed analysis I will stick on MEP2015 premium, try neat video plugin and if review situation again once VPX7 arrives.

Thanks a lot!

br, 

Erkki 

Hi

@ John CB

. . . . In both MEP2015 and VPX6, the audio mixer does not work correctly. When you click on the FX button of a track, the Audio FX open, but you can't do anything to them. Only way out is escape. This works fine in MEP2014. . . . .

Do you mean this does not work?

John EB

@John EB,

Exactly! But it doesn't work for me in either MEP2015 Premium or VPX6. I can do nothing in the Audio FX.

I see that it works for you in MEP2015, so there must be some other problem that I have. Strange.

I will post a video in the Forum under my topic about problems with MEP2015.

However, I am going to re-install MEP2015. I didn't have to do it after changing to an SSD from an HD and doing a backup/recovery. There may be some residual problems.

Thanks,

John