I usually watch YouTube in 720p wherever available, unless the net is slowing it down.
Can't stand playback interruptions
1080p only comes down smoothly when traffic is quiet around here; I'm connected via Up To 8Mbps.
Local contention can wreck 1080p playback quite easily.
Some vids really don't need that much clarity but it 's useful for engineering or modelling descriptions where you really NEED to see what's going on.
I like the Vegas control/timeline layout.
I'm an old Cubase user and Vegas is similar enough to make it easy to get to grips with.
Plus, I mixed an album using Acid one time that Cubase threw a wobbly.
Acid and Vegas are related so I already know my way around a lot of it.
I really like the graphic level controls.
Just draw those level changes in.
WMM itself surprised me at how effective it was especially considering it is a freebee/OS bundle.
Windows Live Movie Maker is WAY too dumbed down. No timeline.
Now I've just gone out and bought a Panasonic HX-DC1 to record vids with instead of my old Canon Powershot A470 I'm going to need an editor that will import mp4 without conversion.
I'm currently employing mp4Cam2 avi to be able to edit in Windows Movie Maker.
So it looks like one version of Vegas or another is going to be my selection.
Not necessarily out of feature/performance superiority but more out of familiarity.
Way back when (90's), when I was spec'ing this kind of software for the college I worked at, the choices were a Ulead package (I think that became the Corel VideoStudio), Adobe Premiere (the 1st version) and something by Pinnacle IIRC.
SCSI drives were the order of the day and HD sizes were measured in 100's of MB.
If the college had had more money we'd have been looking at Mac based kit but as it was we were making the best of it using PC's
Rendering times were horrendous overnight affairs.
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.