Keep Movie Studio or move up to Vegas Pro 10?

G. Holle wrote on 1/26/2011, 12:55 PM
I currently use Movie Studio 9 and am considering upgrading to 10. Although my projects are a little envolved, I do not produce projects professionally or for commercial use as this time. Why might I consider upgrading to Vegas Pro 10 rather than upgrading to Movie Studio HD Platinum Production Suite 10? Of course I would like to have the best software available, but is Pro 10 worth the addtional upgrade cost (about an added $350)? Also, it looks as though some of the audio tools that come with Movie Studio HD Platinum Production Suite are not available with Pro 10. Are there alternate tools in Pro 10, or is this an issue? Thanks for your advice.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 1/26/2011, 2:20 PM
What features in the Pro version do you think you'll need? Do you consider them worth the extra $300?

Remember, there is absolutely no difference in the quality of the video you get from either program. At least not if you're using a consumer source, like a typical under-$2000 camcorder. So, looking at the results, no one will know which program you used.

Here's a list of the differences. As I always say, if you don't understand what the differences are (Do you plan to shoot on a Sony RED ONE camcorder, for instance?) you may not need to go pro.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope/compare

Although, if you are a professional videographer, it's also a great investment! And the nested projects feature can be very valuable.
Eugenia wrote on 1/26/2011, 4:55 PM
Pro has a few more features, but if you just make not-much-evolved videos, then Platinum is enough. The ONLY reason I would go to Pro, is if your camera shoots in h.264, and Platinum 10 crashes with these files. It's a known bug of Platinum 10, which uses a much older codebase of Vegas. These crashes have been fixed on Pro 10, which was released 6 months later. But Platinum never received an update. So if your camera is indeed based on h.264, then you might wanna go Pro. Other than that, stay on Platinum 10.

Another reason to go Pro is to use its 64bit version, if your operating system is also 64bit, and you have more than 4 GB of RAM on your PC. This way, Sony AVC won't crash while exporting, something that's very common on the 32bit Platinum versions.
safrican wrote on 1/26/2011, 6:57 PM
Eugenia do you really have crashes with h.264 ?

I work with h.264 1920X1080 (30p & 60i) most of the time and have created 20-25 60-70 minute videos and in total I might have had 1 unexpected exit. But then I was running a bunch of other programs in the background too.

I do this on VMS 10 Platinum.
Eugenia wrote on 1/27/2011, 4:33 AM
No, there are still bugs on VMSP10, that Pro 10 has fixed, in regards to h.264. Read the whole discussion here: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=738911&Replies=46 Long discussion, but it's one that has been repeated a lot. So it depends on your camera a lot too, on the kind of h.264 it outputs.
G. Holle wrote on 1/28/2011, 2:19 PM
Thank you for your comments and advice. I will be going with Vegas Pro 10 simply because of the 64 bit memory issue.