Hello all,

Having tried out various products, I found Vegas the nicest (for editing existing media sources for web-based publishing), but am unsure which of the versions I should pick.

Specifically, I don't understand the difference between "Vegas Movie Studio HD" and just "Vegas Movie Studio"; the former is cheaper and yet has more features (which are also in the more expensive "Vegas Movie Studio Platinum").

Is the only significant difference that DVD Architect is not included in "Vegas Movie Studio HD"? Why is "Platinum" almost double the price of "HD" as it doesn't seem to give much more?

I've been looking at this comparison chart:
Vegas Movie Studio HD 9 Product Comparisons


Thanks for any help!

/v

Hi Vijayan,

It makes a pleasant change for someone to come along and ask a question like this when they've clearly made an effort to research it first. Thanks & welcome.

So, what you want is the significance of thedifferences rather than what you can read for yourself....

You are correct in that the absence of any DVD authoring software is one of the significant factors to VMSHD being cheaper. You may already have a preferred DVD authoring package or only be interested in creating output for the interweb. Only you can know how significant tis is.

More significant than this is that VMS does NOT appear to include support for AVCHD or HDV. So if you work or plan to work with High Definition, this is not the product to go with. Indeed, this product is not even mentioned on the Vegas home page and I suspect it will soon become legacy.

The next significant differences between Platinum (and Platinum Pro Pack) and VMSHD are that they include 5.1 surround sound support, Dolby AC3 support and the Primary Colour Corrector. They also have more video effects (as I don't know which ones I can't comment on the significance) and twice as many Audio FX (which I probably would find significant)

Again only you know whether the 5.1 & Dolby stereo support is significant. 5.1 is self explanatory, but the Dolby (AC3) part of this, whilst allowing you to squeeze more onto your DVD at a better quality also accounts patially for the price differential as Sony has to pay Dolby Labs a licence fee for each copy.

Personally I'd pay the difference just for the Primary Colour Corrector. The facility to easily (?) correct footage which has been shot with incorrect white balance is indispensible. Of course you may prefer to use it to create wild and wacky colour effects - up to you.

Which leaves us with the differences between VMSP and VMSPPP.

Fundamentally Pro Pack is VMSP with some bundled stuff.

Sound Forge Audio Studio cost more than the price difference on its own. If you don't have an Audio Editor, then this isn't a bad place to start. I bought it on offer but was put off when the first time I tried to edit something from my timeline (just a MiniDV clip) it told me it was too high a (n audio) resolution! That was with Vegas Pro though, so I wasn't really mixing like with like. Sound Forge Pro is a different kettle of fish (apparently)

The other stuff - well, do you want a small library of sound effects? The Cartoonr effect is available as a free download from NewBlue anyway. Up to you whether you want 106 NewBlue 3D transitions - this depends on what you plan to make. If it's films then you'll never use them (well, not after you've used them once realised how wrong they are)

Hope this has helped.

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Tim

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the detailed response! I'm sold on the Platinum version, primarily due to your recommendation of the Primary Colour Corrector. Quite pleased as well to see Amazon selling it at a bargain £30.

I've found that I can't render movies to Flash on VMSP. I can do this with Premiere Elements (which I'm also trialling). I somewhat prefer the VMSP interface to PE's, and get the impression that it is the better-implemented application. I suppose I could use a free video converter to make the FLVs after rendering, but it would have been great to be able to do this directly.

(For some background, I'm new to the video editing world, and have inherited some DVDs and other variable-quality video sources to compile into shorts primarily for streaming over the 'interweb,' so my immediate editing needs are probably fairly basic. However, I'd like to be prepared for creating DVD prints and archive-quality versions of the source media in future. I realise there's a fair bit to learn!)

Thanks again for all the information, much appreciated.

/vijayan

Go here FXhome.com :: Community :: Free Gifts
and download Video Wrap lite (you'll need to register)
I bought VideoWrap (it was cheap) a few moths back as a means of creating flash files. I played with it a bit but haven't had cause to use it in earnest.
It appears that VideoWrap is not even a current product. Which may be why they're giving it away.

I don't even know if the lite version creates flvs.

Nevertheless, it's gotta be worth a look, eh?

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Tim

Format Factory (free) will convert videos to flash or most other formats.

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www.svsweddings.co.uk Sony Vegas Portal

Didn't know about that one. Many thanks Cheema.

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Tim

Great, thanks for all the tips!

/v