Comparison: Vegas Movie Studio vs Vegas 5

Vidmar wrote on 10/4/2004, 8:21 AM
Hi all,

I'm trying to decide between Vegas Movie Studio and Vegas 5 and had a few questions that I need some help with.

I want to compare some of the features of the two products, but the comparison chart here: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/showproduct.asp?PID=932&FeatureID=7790 does not give me enough information.

Video effects:
Movie Studio :Over 180
Vegas 5: ???

2D and 3D video transitions:
Movie Studio :Over 170
Vegas 5: ???

I'm new to video editing and have used Microsoft Movie Maker enough to know its severe limitations; will I be happy with Movie Studio? Or should I just go ahead and move into Vegas 5 Production Suite?

TIA,
Alan

Comments

Mr_Christopher wrote on 10/4/2004, 8:42 AM
Download a trial copy of both.

I was suffering for weeks with MS Movie Maker, Ulead 7 and 8, Roxio and a few others. I wasn't pleased with any of them and MS Movie Maker - what a great idea but what lousy software. My brother who is a pro at this suggested I use Vegas 5.

I got trial versions of Movie Maker 4 and Vegas 5. Both blew my head off, neither were as intuative as MS Movie Maker. Holy cow it looked so complicated. My brother sensed my panic and came by and spent 30 minutes with me showing me basic stuff and I have been on my own and making videos 100 times better and much faster than MS Movie Maker using Movie Studio 4.

I cannot begin to express how much more you can do with this software than all the others I mentioned above., and once you get a couple of concepts down it is much easier and quicker with a far more professional look.

The very next day I went to CompUsa and bought a copy.

To me, Vegas 5 is more of a serious professional application. Movie Studio 4 can do amazing things and it's only $99. The best $99 I have ever spent!

Chris
Vidmar wrote on 10/4/2004, 9:03 AM
My only worry is that Vegas Movie Studio lacks a color correction tool that Vegas 5 has. I'll be importing home video from a SVHS-C camcorder via a Canopus ADVC100. And some of the footage will possibly need to be corrected. Is there a way for Movie Studio to handle that automatically?

Alan
Mr_Christopher wrote on 10/4/2004, 9:36 AM
No idea :-(

Chris
ADinelt wrote on 10/4/2004, 11:42 AM
MS will not do it automaticallly for you, but under the Video FX section, there is a Color Balance filter that you can apply to your video. There is also a Brightness and Contrast filter and between these you can clean up some pretty bad video.

The Color Balance allows individual control over the Red, Green and Blue for Highlights, Midtones or Shadows with the option to preserve luminosity.

The Brightness and Contrast allows individual control over Brightness, Contrast and Contrast Center.

For example, we video taped our son when he was first born and the hospital had regular incandescant lights. The video came out very yellow, but by using the filters mentioned above, I was able to correct the video so whites were white again and our son did not look jaundiced.

Hope this helps...
Al
gogiants wrote on 10/4/2004, 2:20 PM
For what it's worth, I've had decent results using the brightness/contrast tools in Movie Studio as well. From what I've read Vegas certainly has more in this area, but for $99 you can't beat Movie Studio.

I've used Movie Studio since back in the Video Factory 2.0 days. I've probably put together 10-15 little 5-10 minute "movies" during that time, just normal family stuff. Only recently have I really been tempted to jump to Vegas. Main reason for me is that I wanted extra tracks since I started to play with composite titles... text popping up inside of motion backgrounds, exposed using Picture In Picture, multiple text elements moving independently, etc. That and the ability to do some simple 3D stuff in Vegas is appealing.

One of the great things about Movie Studio is that you have the option of upgrading to Vegas at any time. And the upgrade price more or less preserves your investment in Movie Studio. Plus, as was recently confirmed, Vegas 5 will read in Movie Studio 4 project files, so you could event jump over mid-project if you have to!

vitalforces wrote on 10/7/2004, 3:14 PM
Seemingly OT but not completely: If you also have any version of Acid Music (a $65 program), which can give you some nice sound and music for Movie Studio, pay the $29 upgrade to Acid Music Maker 5. It has all the 'guts' of the pro-level Acid 4.0 Pro, with only a few exceptions.
Mr_Christopher wrote on 10/8/2004, 8:20 AM
My brother uses Vegas 5 and one feature he really likes in network rendering. He can render video from a secondary machine over his network which alows him to continue working on his primary machine.

Sounds mighty groovy to me.

Chris