Summary: Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD 8 (10/2007)

    by Douglas Dixon

Vegas Movie Studio Summary
Vegas Movie Studio 8 Features
DVD Architect Studio 4.5 Features
About Sony Creative Software

Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD 8, released almost stealthily in early/mid 2007, continues to focus on easy creation of movies and slideshows, especially to share online, plus on DVD with the included DVD Architect Studio software (www.sonycreativesoftware.com). The higher-end Platinum Edition adds expanded HD video support (HDV, Sony AVCHD), surround-sound audio mixing, and professional video effects.

The two product versions are:

• Vegas Movie Studio+DVD 8 $79.95
• Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum Edition 8 $119.95

Sony Creative Software continues to develop popular and powerful tools for digital video, music, DVD, and audio production, including both higher-end professional tools and more entry-level consumer software (www.sonycreativesoftware.com). 

The professional product line is built around three core product names: Vegas for video editing, Sound Forge for audio editing, and ACID for music creation (www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products).

Sony's consumer products trade off these names, but under the Home Studio branding, as Vegas Movie Studio, Sound Forge Audio Studio, and ACID Music Studio (www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/studiofamily.asp).

For summaries of the Sony Home Studio products, see:

• Summary: Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD 8 (10/07)
• Summary: Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 9  (1/08)
• Summary: Sony ACID Music Studio  (1/08)

Find related Sony Software articles in the Manifest Tech Blog

Find Sony Vegas Movie Studio on Amazon.com Find Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 on Amazon.com Find Sony ACID Music Studio 7 on Amazon.com

Vegas Movie Studio Summary

Built-in Show Me How tutorials
Capture:
- Import and organize digital media
Edit:
- Drag and drop to create movies and slideshows
- Add special effects, transitions, titles, and music
- Zoom, rotate, and pan across photos to animate still
Share:
- Burn movies to DVD or CD
- DVD authoring with multiple motion menus and custom navigation
- Export to formats including QuickTime and Windows Media to post to video sharing sites

Platinum Edition adds:

- Video: HDV capture and edit, Sony AVCHD; Red Eye Reduction (stills)
- Video effects: Nearly 300 -> Over 377 customizable, including NewBlue VideoFX MSP
- Video 2D and 3D transitions: Over 185 -> Over 239 customizable
- Advanced color correction tools, Primary color correction
- Audio: surround mixing, 5.1 surround and stereo AC-3 encoding
- Audio effects: 10 -> Over 20 DirectX effects
- Export directly to PSP (PlayStation Portable) system
- Render to Apple iPod compatible format

Vegas Movie Studio 8 Features

+ = Platinum feature

General Features
+ Improved native HDV .m2t playback performance, improved memory handling for HDV longform projects [New]
- Freehand envelope drawing on the timeline [New]
- Display of media marker names in events [New]
- Improved snapping - color-coded visual snap indicator and the ability to snap to event edges on other tracks. [New]
- Multitrack video and audio editing
- Easy drag-and-drop functionality
- Show Me How interactive tutorials
- Real-time editing of parameters during playback
- Support for any aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9, etc)
- Supports multiple file formats and frame rates
+ High Definition editing and output
- Simple drag-and-drop operations
- Explorer view
- Project media bins
- Track markers and regions
- Unlimited undo/redo

Video Features
- Fullscreen preview to a secondary Windows display [New]
- Real-time playback of effects, processes and transitions to external monitor
- Color correction tools
- MPEG-1&2 support
- Superior frame rate conversions
- Credit rolls and text animation
- External monitor preview
- Ripple editing across tracks

Audio Features
+ Gracenote MusicID CD album recognition [New]
- Multithreaded audio engine maximizes performance [New]
+ Basic surround support
+ Support for multichannel (5.1) source files for Sony HDV Handycam camcorders
- 16-bit, 44.1 kHz song quality for exceptional performance
- Volume and pan envelopes
- Audio time stretching
- Event normalization
- CD audio extraction
- Audio/video synchronization detect and repair
- DirectX audio plug-in support
- VST audio effect support
- ASIO drive support
- Tape-style audio scrubbing
- Audio restoration tools
- Track-level audio FX and envelopes

Transitions and Effects
- More than 220 customizable 2D and 3D transitions
- Over 350 customizable video special effects
- Add text animation, titles and scrolling credits
- Red-eye removal tool
- "Green screen" chroma key effects
- Pan and crop tool to animate still images
- Video and audio time stretching

Capture and Import
- Sony AVCHD import and edit support [New]
- Import and export support for ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus, and ATRAC Advanced Lossless files [New]
- Insert I-frames at marker positions when rendering MPEG-2 (works with DVD Architect Studio 4.5) [New]
- ATRAC audio plug-in (Templates only) [New]
- New! Gracenote MusicID CD album recognition
- Import media from Sony DVD Handycam camcorders
- Batch capture and automatic DV scene detection
- PC connection via FireWire, i.LINK connector or IEEE-1394 devices
- Import pictures in BMP, GIF, JPG, and PSD formats
- Import AVI, DV, SWF, and MPEG 1 & MPEG 2 files
- Import audio files in WAV, MP3, AIF, CD Audio and PCA formats

Export and Hardware Features
- AC3 Stereo and 5.1 encoding [New]
- MainConcept AVC/AAC, read/write (Templates only) iPod Format [New]
- PSP (PlayStation Portable) integration [New]
- Sony AVC/AAC (Templates only) [New]
- VideoCD and Multimedia CD burning
- Export video projects in multiple formats for the web
- One-click publishing to ACIDplanet.com

DVD Architect Studio 4.5 Features

+ = Platinum feature

General Features
- More DVD themes [New]
- DVD design and authoring
- Menu-based and single movie DVD creation
- Photo slideshows and music compilations
- Easy to use drag-and drop interface
- Show Me How interactive tutorials
- Unlimited number of undo/redo
- Media Explorer
- Adjustable project and file optimization settings
- Multi-monitor support
- Multi-processor support
- Fully customizable toolbars
- Get Media from the web
- End actions for menus and media
- Project overview window
- Customizable user interface
- DVD theme export
- Project playlists
- Smart re-prepare

DVD Editing and Layout
- Still and motion menu creation
- Support for multiple video titles
- Multiple menus with up to 36 buttons per menu
- Menu object editing, alignment, and sizing tools
- Text editing and shadow effects
- Object snapping
- Slide image rotation
- Add, edit, and move chapter points
- Title and Action safe grid area
- Customizable Themes
- Menu looping

Video
- Flash (.swf) format import
- Fit-to-disc compression
- DVD movie creation
- Picture slideshows
- NTSC and PAL in standard (4:3) and widescreen (16:9) formats
- Imports AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MOV, WMV, and a variety of still image formats

Audio
- Music compilations
- Attach audio files to menus
- Media file previewing
- Import WAV, MP3, WMA, PCA, AIF, MPEG audio

Testing and Burning
- Dual-layer drive support
- Real-time project previewing with virtual DVD remote control or to external monitor
- DVD project verification and preparation
- Supports a wide variety of DVD burners

Supported Formats
Import:
- AIFF, ATRAC, AVI, BMP, GIF, JPG, MMV, MP3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2
+ MPEG-4, Sony M2TS
- OGG, PCA
+ PNG, PSD
- QuickTime, SFA, SWF, TGA, TIF, W64, WAV, WMA, WMV
Export:
+ AC-3, ATRAC
- AVI, MP3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2
+ MPEG-4
- OGG, PCA, QuickTime, RealAudio, RealVideo, W64, WAV, WMA, WMV

About Sony Creative Software

Professional Product Line  (8/08)

Sony Creative Software develops higher-end professional tools and more entry-level consumer software for digital video, music, DVD, and audio production (www.sonycreativesoftware.com). Originally developed by Sonic Foundry, and acquired by Sony Pictured Digital in May 2003, the product line includes higher-end professional tools and more entry-level versions for consumers.

The three core professional products are Vegas for video editing, Sound Forge for audio editing, and ACID for music creation, plus the newer Cinescore for professional soundtrack creation.:

- Vegas Pro 8: Professional HD video, audio, and DVD creation
            (also includes DVD Architect 4.5)
        www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro

- Sound Forge 9: Professional digital audio production suite
        www.sonycreativesoftware.com/soundforge

- ACID Pro 6: Professional music workstation
        www.sonycreativesoftware.com/acidpro

- Cinescore: Professional soundtrack creation
        www.sonycreativesoftware.com/cinescore

Sony also hosts ACIDplanet.com as an online community for digital musicians and videographers to share and collaborate (www.acidplanet.com). The site also includes downloads of free content and ACID XPress, a free ten-track mixing and composing application.

Consumer Product Line  (8/08)

The corresponding Sony consumer tools share these names, but have been rebranded as the Home Studio line (originally Screenblast), emphasizing Movie, Audio, and Music creation, and deemphasizing the Vegas, Sound Forge, and ACID connections (www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/studiofamily.asp):