Oooo... sweet... Screenblast MovieStudio is all set to blow the doors off the competition. ;-)

Not unless there's some serious marketing. I can only speak for the UK, but look in any camera shop over here and you'll only see Pinnacle. Not only that, but I suspect that the majority* of people buying an entry level package have no idea what the feature set means to them - they want a salesman saying "Buy this".

* Based on a sample of 1 - me

Ian G.

Ian,

Ouch! You bring up a good point. You’re probably right and the comparison chart on the Screenblast web site not only says nothing about how many video tracks, but it makes false claims about MovieStudio having Integrated DVD burning and Studio 8 doesn’t when, in fact, the truth is the complete opposite! Studio 8 had integrated DVD burning and MovieStudio has a stand alone package for DVD burning that is as integrated as if I bought Ulead DVD MovieFactory to use with VideoFactory!!!

The comparison chart also claims that MovieStudio is the only package that has on-line sharing when Studio and VideoWave had this YEARS AGO! How could they make such blatantly false statements and get away with it?

I predict they won’t. I predict that Sony’s false advertising will actually hurt sales because customers will go to the other web sites and see that the other product not only have these features but display them predominantly (i.e, the biggest feature in Studio 8 is DVD burning and everyone knows it). Customers will then say, “If Sony lied to me about obvious features like this, what else are they lying about that I can’t tell?”.

Sony should be comparing more features like chromakey, picture-in-picture, tracks, etc. Right now they features “formats supported”. Heck, I don’t even know what that number means? Are they formats I care about? What if MovieStudio has 24 useless formats and Studio 8 has 16 good ones? Customers don’t know what those numbers mean and are just using the “more is better” rule. I think MovieStudio’s three (3) video tracks compared to Studio 8’s one (1) video track will also impress customers based on the "more is better" rule.

I hope someone on the SoFo team can talk to the Sony marketing people and clue them in that Studio 8 is all about DVD authoring, integrated right into the timeline, and claiming that Studio 8 doesn’t burn DVD’s on the Screenblast site asking customers to ignore and discredit all the other information on the site because it can’t be trusted.

~jr

Sony isn't known for many sound marketing decisions in this home video business. The best advertising is right here on this forum. Just look at the number of folks who came to this product after giving up in disgust with Pinnacle. I spent more time removing programs, unhooking the network etc. everytime I wanted to edit something and then more often than not I would get the famous "Sorry for the inconvenience..." message right in the middle of it.
I went to Pinnacle in the first place because of advertisements and product comparisons.
The new Movie Studio 3 is great but I really am disgusted about the dvd package. I had hoped to be able to get rid of the Pinnacle for good but I still go back there to make the dvd.
A couple of years ago I purchased a Sony viao computer for video work but took it back after I learned that the system would not support the Sony VX1000 camcorder and Sony tech support could only offer "we're sorry". The VX1000 works fine with the HP and Dell machines.
What's a mother to do???

Distribution alone should make quite a difference. I notice on the Screenblast site that retail outlets like Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Fry's, and Microcenter will be/are selling Movie Studio. This is a big step up from before, where at least in my area (San Francisco Bay) you simply couldn't find VideoFactory on a store shelf.

Think of the average consumer looking at boxes. Pinnacle: What? Sony: I've heard of them.

I went into my local Sony shop this morning. They sell video cameras, PCs and DVD writers. The salesman's into home video. Are they selling Screenblast? He'd never heard of it!!!!

Ian G.

Just to add insult to injury PC World still sell VideoWave!!! That's even after me sending very cross emails to HO and getting a refund.

Whoa! Did I understand you correctly that DVD authoring is not integrated in Movie Studio 3.0? I'm new at this, so thanks in advance for your patience. Why would anyone buy Movie Studio 3.0 if you can't burn DVDs with it? How do you get the project on the DVD with menus, transitions and so forth.

I've used Pinnicle 8.0 and am looking for something better. Speed and stability are the biggest issues. Some cool template for sporting events would be cool, too. The latest upgrade to P8 solves most of the weird problems I've had. I've done about 20 DVDs using the pinnacle product and am pleased with the results, but boy is it slow. I have a Sony Vaio 2.4 P4 iwth a gig of RAM and 80 and 180 GB HDs. The unit came with the Sony 4x dvd +or- RW drive. I thought things would work faster than this.

...I digress, please (someone) clarifiy the DVD issue. Thanks.

A DVD authoring package (MyDVD) is included with MovieStudio 3. You have to render your movie to an AVI file and then start MyDVD and use the AVI file to create a DVD. I don’t consider that “integrated”. They are two separate programs that are “packaged” together. So you can burn DVD’s. Sorry if I gave the impression that you couldn’t.

~jr

Thanks. Are all of the menus and so forth created in Screenblast or in MyDVD? In Pinnacle 8, it's a natural part of the editing process.

No, all of the menus are done in MyDVD. That was my point. Studio 8 has DVD authoring integrated into the application. Screenblast MovieStudio doesn’t make DVD’s. You stop using MovieStudio and start using MyDVD when you want to make a DVD. Hence my original comment: “[Sony] makes false claims about MovieStudio having Integrated DVD burning and Studio 8 doesn’t when, in fact, the truth is the complete opposite!”.

If you download the manual for Screenblast, the DVD chapter is one single page that basically says, go read the MyDVD manual because it’s a separate application. That is not my definition of integrated.

~jr

Thanks. What a bummer.

Somewhere you mentioned that you were in the software business. What do you do?

I’m a senior software architect. I help develop the architectures that define emerging technologies like Grid Computing, Autonomic Computing, and On Demand Computing. It’s not nearly as fun as video editing but it pays the mortgage. ;-)

~jr

I'm new to Screenblast, but I've spent a good bit of time playing with it this weekend. It seems that from 'make movie' when you select 'DVD' and output the edited video to an AVI file, a button pops up when it finishes that says 'Run MyDVD' or something similar. When you click it MyDVD opens with the AVI file loaded. Not exactly what I would call integrated, but not a total lie either I suppose. That aside, I really like Screenblast. Head and shoulders better for editing than Pinnacle. I'm not as thrilled with MyDVD. I downloaded the trial version of Ulead Movie Factory and I think I'll end up using this to burn DVDs.

Well that’s not too bad. At least it guides you through the process. It would be nice if Sony would let us download a demo so we could see how it works. I know MyDVD doesn’t let you set chapter points so that takes away a lot. Does it just burn one long movie? Do you get to make a menu? Now that I think of it, why would you need a menu when all you can do is play the one and only movie? I guess you could add other AVI files. Does MyDVD do slideshows? I may just upgrade for $29 so I can see how it works, (I already own Vegas+DVD so I really don’t need it)

~jr

I haven't spent much time with MyDVD, but I think the only way to do multiple chapters is if each one is a separate AVI that you bring in. I haven't found a way to make a single AVI into multiple chapters. And also I had MyDVD crash a couple of times and make a couple of coasters. I've downloaded the trial version of Ulead Movie Factory and I think this is what I'll end up using. It sure would be nice if Screenblast had integrated DVD burning.

> And also I had MyDVD crash a couple of times and make a couple of coasters

This is really going to tarnish the Screenblast MovieStudio name. The Sonic Foundry team worked so hard to produce software that is stable and then Sony packages it with an unstable DVD package when they have DVD Architect that they could have used. Bad move. I hope Sony wakes up and creates a DVDA Lite to ship with Screenblast.

~jr

DVDA is a "lite" package.

> DVDA is a "lite" package.

I agree that DVDA is missing some really basic features like end-actions that $49 packages have, but other than that, it’s not a bad package considering you get AC3 encoding included for $200. Most companies want to sell you the AC3 encoder for $200 in addition to the price of their DVD authoring software. But yes, Screenblast should offer DVDA without the AC3 encoder as a “lite” version. I agree it can’t get much lighter than that.

~jr