Why is Movie Studio 3.0 not available in Canada?

moron wrote on 8/5/2004, 2:53 PM
Howdy. After playing around with the demo for Movie Studio I decided to purchase a copy. I quickly realized that for some reason a downloadable version is not available from Sony. Since I am in Canada and cross border shipping tends to get nasty (UPS is well known for surprise brokerage fees), I decided to find a local retailer instead. When I called the local reseller listed on the Sony site (Long and Mcquade) I found that they only carried the music related (formerly Sonic Foundry) software like Acid and Sound Forge. I then called Sony Canada to ask where I could purchase this software locally and after being passed along to a service related number I was frankly told that Sony Canada does not sell Movie Studio in Canada.

Does Sony hate Canadians that much it wants to force us to buy and use sub-standard Pinnacle products?

=)

Why is Movie Studio not available as a download?

Cheers

Comments

ADinelt wrote on 8/5/2004, 5:10 PM
Good day, eh!

I am a fellow Canadian who also had a bit of trouble finding Screenblast. As a matter of fact, I was at Future Shop today and still no SB.

Anyway, what I did was start searching the Internet and found Canadian sites that sold it at educational prices. Finally found one where I live (London, ON) and explained the situation of not being able to find it in stores. They checked with their distributor and agreed to sell it to me at retail (around $150 CDN after taxes). It had to be speically ordered and was in within a couple of days and life has been great ever since! Well, except for the flood in our basement, I'm losing my hair and the new Health Care Premium... ;-)

Not sure what part of Canada you hail from, but maybe you could try something like that as well.

Thanks...
Al
GerryLeacock wrote on 8/5/2004, 8:10 PM
I'll put down the back bacon long enough to answer this. I ordered Movie Studio over the internet as an upgrade from Video Factory 2.0. I had to pay the ridiculous US$40 for shipping on an upgrade of US$69, but UPS only dinged my another approx CDN$5.46 for the GST (US readers - GST is Canada's Gouge and Screw Tax). I had also checked into buying it from a Canadian supplier, but the cost was larger as it wasn't an upgrade.

Gerry from Winnipeg (Mosquito capital of Canada)
IanG wrote on 8/5/2004, 11:11 PM
It's not just Canada that's being ignored - MS isn't available in the UK either! In fact, can it be bought anywhere outside the US?

Ian G
colinu wrote on 8/6/2004, 6:00 AM
$150 Cdn for Educational is a rip-off. I was in a Circuit City in Bangor Maine, and saw it for $99US. Full ist, but still after exchange as cheap as the "educational" version. I too, live in Canada, and am looking to purchase it for an educational facuility, and am anxiously awaiting its arrival. C'mon Sony!
ADinelt wrote on 8/6/2004, 7:19 AM
The $150 was not the Educational cost, but the retail cost. The Educational cost was around $69, but since I was not a student or teacher, I had to pay the retail price. And as I mentioned, the $150 includes the 15 percent tax we pay in Ontario (8% PST and 7%GST or vice versa).

Even at $150, it is a bargain compared to the $140 I paid for Pinnacle Studio 8 and the DC10plus capture card. Like the card, hate Studio 8.
ccliffy wrote on 8/6/2004, 4:53 PM
I got it for $50US (Ed. ver) but freight was the killer!
ritsmer wrote on 8/8/2004, 6:51 AM
Some weeks ago I bought and downloaded Ulead's editing software - it was 770 (seven hundred seventy) megebyte - but not so bad on my 2 Mb cable.
I could not get it to work, so I decided for SONY's MS, and found it could not be downloaded. Living in Denmark I had to order it by UPS from SONY.
Well: 99 US for the MS + 56 US for UPS and I just received an extra bill from UPS approx. 60 US ... First thing to morrow: Buy UPS shares :)
Whatever the cost, SONY's MS is the best editing software I ever worked with - but it should to be possible to download not only the trial version, but also the real thing. When Ulead can send 770 MB over the net, so can SONY.
Chienworks wrote on 8/8/2004, 11:04 AM
I believe the major problem isn't with the MovieStudio software itself. That could be downloadable anywhere in the world. The problem is the included MyDVD software. I seem to recall that the license with Sonic prevents making it downloadable outside of the USA. This is yet another good reason to peition SONY to allow MovieStudio to be made available on it's own without MyDVD.

Go here: product suggestion page. Vote loud. Vote often.*

*well, maybe not often, but do encourage other users and would-be users to vote!
BrianJK wrote on 8/10/2004, 8:54 AM
You're right the cross border shipping is a pain. Vistek is now advertising Screenblast Movie Studio. Not sure which revision though. They have stores in Toronto & Calgary. Maybe others as well. Check http://www.vistek.ca

ADinelt wrote on 8/10/2004, 9:04 AM
I just checked the Vistek website and Screenblast was $160 before taxes. I would suggest checking around with educational distributors like I did.

Al
Chienworks wrote on 8/10/2004, 9:49 AM
The revision doesn't matter. As long as it's version 3.something you'll be fine. No matter what you get in the box, you'll still want to download the latest release directly from SONY anyway. The only thing in the box that you really care about is the serial number.
moron wrote on 8/16/2004, 12:05 PM
Found a spot with better pricing than Vistek:

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecsplash/shop/detail.asp?dpno=325853

Inclusive of shipping and border fees (yay Canada Post, boo UPS / Fedex) $139 Canadian with 5 to 14 day shipping.

Still very lame of Sony Canada to make getting Sonic Foundry stuff such a hassle for anyone but yanks.

Cheers