Summary: Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD 8
by Douglas Dixon, www.manifest-tech.com
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:
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
Find related Sony Software articles in the Manifest Tech Blog
Find Sony Vegas Movie Studio on Amazon.com
+ = 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
+ = 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
Sony Creative Software develops a variety of products for audio and video editing, with product lines for both professionals and for consumers (the home Studio line, www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/studiofamily.asp).
The Studio line includes Vegas Movie Studio (including DVD Architect Studio), Sound Forge Audio Studio for audio editing, and ACID Music Studio for multitrack and MIDI recording, editing, and loops.
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Copyright 1999-2007, Douglas Dixon, All Rights Reserved
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