Sony Releases Vegas Movie Studio HD 10 Products

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope' target='_blank'>http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum software has everything needed to produce spectacular HD movies. Edit video in nearly any format including HDV and AVCHD. Powerful features for video compositing, color correction, and soundtrack creation help you get feature-film results in your home studio. Use the surround sound mixing tools to create 5.1 soundtracks. Choose from hundreds of professional 2D and 3D video effects, titles, and filters. Upload movies to YouTube, burn to Blu-ray Disc, or author DVDs using beautifully designed themes or your own custom menus and graphics. Exclusive Sony Show Me How interactive tutorials help you get started fast."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1277851409.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Every year, like clockwork, Sony releases a new version of Vegas Movie Studio, their attempt at a consumer-focused video editor. I say "attempt" because as much as I keep trying to like Vegas Movie Studio, year after year, I end up throwing up my arms in frustration at the baffling user interface it has. Sony was kind enough to send me Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 last year to review, and after spending a couple of hours using it, I ended up with a bunch of jumbled review notes, and a pretty high level of frustration. I never completed the review, because I just couldn't get into using it..sometimes that happens with reviews, and it's always frustrating when it does (and it makes me look bad as a reviewer). I just couldn't force myself to complete the review. <MORE /></p><p>Here's the thing about the Vegas line of products: they're fast, stable, incredibly well-designed programs. I've never had any of them crash on me, and their output quality is top-notch. But the user interface is just baffling - the basics are more or less easy enough to do, but anything more than that, and you're left scratching your head. Sony bought a company called Sonic Foundry in 2003, and I swear that their user interface hasn't&nbsp;received&nbsp;a significant overhaul since then. It's not like the UI was fantastic in 2003 and couldn't be improved - it remains locked in time, like a caveman frozen in ice. I'd never&nbsp;recommend a Vegas Movie Studio product to a friend of family member - I've recommended it to my peers with the caveat that the UI takes some getting used to. But what kind of a recommendation is that?&nbsp;</p><p>I've yet to be impressed by any video editing package on the market today; Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is user-friendly and has some great features, but is plagued by software crashes and sluggish performance even on the most powerful systems. Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 is fast, easy to use, and quite stable - but I have some significant concerns about the output quality of the videos that I haven't been able to resolve. I've looked at CyberLink PowerDirector, which impressed me quite a bit at first, but it lacks custom profile output, so I couldn't use it to create the types of MPEG4/h2.64 videos I wanted.&nbsp;Vegas Movie Studio? See above. I've had several people tell me that Final Cut Express is a great video editing application, and <a href="http://www.applethoughts.com/news/show/98608/mac-mini-2010-model-unboxing-first-impressions.html" target="_blank">now that I have a Mac Mini</a> (<a href="http://www.jasondunn.com/i-wasnt-joking-2645" target="_blank">yeah, seriously, I do</a>), I just might have to check that out. Are there any other good video editing packages that I'm missing?</p><p>Boy, this turned into a rambling rant! Vegas Movie Studio comes in three flavours: <a href="http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiohd" target="_blank">Vegas Movie Studio HD</a> ($44.95 USD), <a href="http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope" target="_blank">Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum</a> ($94.95 USD), and <a href="http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiopp" target="_blank">Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum Production Suite</a> ($124.95 USD). I think Sony takes their product naming notes from Microsoft's 2006 handbook. Oh boy, now I'm just being <em>mean</em>.</p><p>Writing this post has me wondering if I should upgrade my review copy to the newest version and give it another try...but isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a new result? Anyone want to see me review Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD?</p>

[Sedwo]

Have you tried Pinnacle Studio 14 HD ?

Adobe stuff is a power hog and its UI menu's are overwhelming sometimes.
iMovie confused me as well with its UI and how it forced you to do certain things that didn't make sense.

After getting frustrated like you with other types of software, Pinnacle Studio turned out to be the best option. Earlier versions crashed quite a bit but the latest edition seems stable.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I'm also curious about Pinnacle Studio 14 HD, but only because the top edition throws in a cut-down edition of Magic Bullet Looks. How's your experience with Pinnacle, Jason?

[jacklf]

I just upgraded to v10 since they were offering a good deal on the downloadable upgrade. I haven't had time to play with it beyond a quick test to see if they fixed a rendering bug I kept hitting in v9 when using multi-core support. (so far, so good!) Editor wise, the system seems the same as v9, but with a new visual theme that is supposed to be easier on the eyes. I may have missed something, but in the half-hour I spent playing so far it didn't seem that different other than colors.

I get the confusion over the UI as it is a big product with a LOT features. I was showing someone the basics of using it recently and was reminded why for some people's needs -- it's over-kill. Since I've been using it since v6 I'm probably just numb to the overwhelm effect.

Other than trying the assorted Windows Movie Maker versions over the years, I haven't really used a competing product since purchasing Vegas Movie Studio, mostly for the reasons you mention about the other products. The "easy to use" editors like Pinnacle and Movie Maker never let me do what I wanted beyond basic stringing together of clips. Vegas seemed a better fit for doing more interesting things, even though it often requires some exploring to find how to do said "interesting things".

Two tips that might help should you ever decide to dive in again:
(1) Vegas includes one of the slickest tutorial systems I've ever seen in an application. You do things in the actual editor while it provides graphical hints guiding you through the lesson. It proved very effective when I was trying to learn new areas/features of the product. I noticed v10 came with a bunch of new video tutorials or something. Not sure if those are any good.
(2) A significant number of people out there use the Vegas line of products. If I ever really get stuck, I turn to an internet search and often find someone who has already tackled what I want to attempt.