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Product Review: Page (1) of 1 - 09/25/07

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Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0

Support for Sony AVCHD added to this release

By John Virata

When an application gets to version 8, you tend to get the idea that it is a very successful tool. Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0 is one of those applications that has matured quite nicely over the years. With version 8, the company has added some new features to this already full featured video editing tool for consumers. That is not to say it lacks in professional features because it doesn't, thanks largely to toolsets harnessed from its professional counterpart in Sony Vegas 8 Professional, which enjoys wide success on the professional level. Within the scope of this first look, I'll cover some of the new features.

AVCHD and HDV support
New to Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0 is support for Sony's iteration of the AVCHD video file format. This format is still fairly new and currently only Sony AVCHD camcorders are supported in this version of Vegas Movie Studio. AVCHD files from Canon and other AVCHD camcorders are not supported. I didn't get a chance to test out this feature because of the application's lack of support for Canon AVCHD camcorders, in this case a Canon HG 10. With the more mature HDV format, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum has improved playback performance and editing capabilities. The company says that it will offer support for non-Sony camcorders by the end of 2007.

Editing HDV video has always been more challenging than editing DV format video due in large part to the system power and storage involved with HDV. Some say that HDV camcorders will surpass DV format camcorders in sales, and consumers will want to edit that HDV video just like they did with DV format video. Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8 has been tweaked to more easily edit HDV video on less powerful systems.

Main interface

For this review, I edited some HDV clips using an AMD Athlon 64x2 5000+ dual core Gateway system with 3GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive, a basic $650 computer, with no problems or hiccups. In addition, after you've finished your project and want to save it, there are a whole range of file formats that you can save the file to, including Windows Media AVI file in various HDV video templates. The other file formats that you can save your movies to include MPEG4, MPEG2, MPEG 1 (MainConcept), MP3, OGG Vorbis, QuickTime 7, Real Media, Sony AVC/AAC (MPEG-4), Sony Perfect Clarity Audio, Sony Wave64, Microsoft WAV, Windows media Audio v9, and Windows Media Video v9.

Rendering templates include HDV flavors

With version 8, you now have the capability to insert I-frames at Timeline markers, enabling Vegas Movie Studio Platinum to export chapter points into DVD Architect. Other features to version 8 include support for editing and exporting the lossless ATRAC .aa3 format for surround encoding and decoding, a multi-threaded audio engine for faster render times and support for real time previews of more audio and video effects.

Show Me How
Vegas Movie Studio has by far the most superior help system of all the video editing applications in which it competes. It has for years and no other help system comes even close. These are accessed via the Show Me How button on the tool bar. With Show Me How, you select from a list of the most popular tasks in Vegas. These range from the basics, such as an Overview of the Timeline and How to Add Media to the Timeline, to How to create a 5.1 Surround Project using video from a DVD camcorder or How to customize a video effect.

Show Me How

When you click on any of the Show Me How tutorials, the help system will show you how to perform that task with the project that you have open, and when you are finished performing the task, it is done in your open project.

Multiple display support
With LCD displays coming down in price, many home video enthusiasts have turned to multiple displays to edit their video. Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum has added the capability to use an external monitor or second display as a preview monitor, freeing up your main monitor for the Vegas toolset. This feature is common on professional editing systems and is now coming down to the consumer level, with other video editing applications also supporting two displays. In my opinion, having support for dual displays pushes Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum to the realm of a prosumer video editing tool, rather than a consumer tool, which is probably so given that Sony offers a lower end but nearly identical application in Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8, as well as a $299 upgrade path to Sony's professional Vegas 8 Professional.

NewBlue VideoFX MSP
Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum now offers more effects via NewBlue VideoFX MSP, giving you access to 11 video effects and transitions. These include Air Brush, Colorize, Dream Glow, Line Drawing, Metallic, and Pastel Sketch. The three motion based transitions include Shear, Spin, and Wave. Also included is a Color Fixer. The NewBlue VideoFX are on the same disc but are a separate installation that require a separate install key. Once installed, they reside in the same folders under their own NewBlue name.

NewBlue FX. These effects ship on the disc and don't cost extra.

First Impressions
Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum is a powerful video editing application at a very inexpensive price point. It offers a full range of editing capabilities, as well as support for most of the latest video file formats. While it only supports Sony AVCHD camcorders, support for other manufacturer's AVCHD camcorders is expected by the end of 2007. Vegas is different from the other video editors on the market in that it doesn't offer a Storyboard editing mode, nor does it take a tabbed approach to video editing. This can be daunting to newcomers to the application such as myself, but the Show Me How tutorials more than make up for it, and besides, the interface is so clean with the Explorer, Trimmer, Project Media, transitions, videoFX, and Media Generators tabs on the bottom of main window, the preview window next to it and the Timeline above that. Other tools that have been added include an Envelope brush tool, GraceNote support for identifying songs, artists, and other CD information, and for advanced users, and improved snapping for alignment of multiple objects across your video or audio tracks. A 19-inch wide screen display is what I would recommend as the minimum screen real estate to work with, with two displays highly recommended. Another notable mega plus is the inclusion of DVD Architect Studio, which enables you to burn your finished Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum projects to DVD. I took a look at Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum with a Gateway AMD Athlon 64x2 5000+ dual core system with 3GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive running Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium. I didn't edit Sony AVCHD video, but did drop some HDV video clips on the Timeline, and there were no issues at all editing this type of footage. There are plenty of effects and transitions that come standard, and they are fully tweakable so you can customize them in all kinds of ways. For more infomration, visit http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com.