Vegas was famous for its "it just works" timeline. You could drop formats like MTS, MP4, AVI, and MOV onto the same timeline without converting them first. Competitors often forced long transcoding processes.
Vegas was not originally designed as a video editor. Released in 1999, it was a high-end, non-destructive multitrack audio tool. Its defining feature was an incredibly fluid, real-time timeline that did not require pre-rendering to hear effects or transitions. sonic foundry vegas pro 10
Introduced hardware-accelerated AVC encoding, though it lacked the real-time timeline acceleration seen in competitors at the time. Audio Improvements: Audio Event FX Vegas was famous for its "it just works" timeline