Vegas Movie Studio 8

P

Paladin

Well-known member
Hi, guys,

Does anyone have experience using Vegas Movie Studio 8? I am on a seriously low budget and I have been using Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0 because of the price I paid for it. Unfortunately, everything I export to DVD looks a bit too soft. I cannot afford hundreds of $$$ for an NLE (it took just about everything I had to get my DVX100B), so a high end NLE is out of my reach right now. Vegas Movie Studio 8 is selling for less than a hundred dollars, a price I might be able to manage.

So, how does it compare to Premiere Elements when exporting to DVD?
 
Pretty good. Vegas MS will export up to 800x600 resolution video. However, if you want to export at 1.000 aspect ratio of your DVX100b, you won't be able to do that, as that resolution is 852x480 of your camera and Vegas MS doesn't do over 800 pixels wide. But if you only care for DVDs, you're fine -- as long as Vegas MS supports the right codec for your DVX's footage.

I suggest you download the trial, AND the DVD Architect Studio trial (they are separate on the trial, but they come together in the retail box), and see if it suits your needs.
 
Would the slightly more expensive Plantinum version be a better investment for Paladin? I started with that before moving to 7 and then Pro, and it seemed like it had a lot more features for the extra $30 or so (plus you can find it on sale sometimes for about $100+). Understand the money issue, though.

Good luck Paladin!
 
Hi,

Platinum 8 has HDV and AVCHD and a Color correction filter and 5.1 surround sound and some other features. It also limits output rendering like Studio.

B&H has a full Vegas Pro 8 "CD Only" on sale for $129, which looks like a steal.

I have all three (I teach all three to different audiences) and what's interesting is that the Studio versions see the custom presets for output. If you have a Preset for an engine in Pro that can be used - the output CODEC is available to Studio - it will be available to Studio to use.

Comparing one program to another to export to DVD is okay as long as you understand that what you're doing is keeping the apples with the apples and the oranges with the oranges. You'd be looking at two things, conversion of content to MPEG, and authoring of disc.

My guess is that the conversion of Content to MPEG is about the same given either DV to MPEG or HDV to MPEG, given the same length of content. The longer the show, the more dicey either can become. Audio is the second issue for NTSC users. The PAL specification allows for MPEG audio compression, but NTSC doesn't, and NTSC users should either use WAV or AC3 (Dolby audio), even if a lot of players will play MPEG audio - authors ought to provide disc that follow specifications. :happy:

Authoring is a matter of personal preference and you should download both trials of Premiere Elements and Vegas with Architect. There are some DVD only programs that do a great job of making DVDs with AC3 audio like Ulead DVD Movie Maker that are cheap and effective.
 
> B&H has a full Vegas Pro 8 "CD Only" on sale for $129, which looks like a steal.

Not for this user though, as he needs DVD support. The OEM version at B&H doesn't have DVDA. Platinum or the plain Movie Studio version might be more suitable for him.
 
Eugenia Loli-Queru said:
> B&H has a full Vegas Pro 8 "CD Only" on sale for $129, which looks like a steal.

Not for this user though, as he needs DVD support. The OEM version at B&H doesn't have DVDA. Platinum or the plain Movie Studio version might be more suitable for him.
Click to expand...

Hi Eugenia,

Or he could pop another $80 for Ulead's DVD Movie Factory and get those tools and more (DVD labeling, LightScribe support, and such).

It isn't DVDA, but then Movie Factory does the job well enough. He'd be around $200 for some most excellent software.

Just options...
 
Personally, I would not trust Ulead to know what to do with 24p videos that this user might be shooting with his DVX camera. At least Vegas knows how to add pulldown properly.
 
Hi Eugenia,

If Vegas handled it properly (which it will), Ulead has nothing to do with the encoded MPEG file - it simply passes it through, no further encoding. It will encode the audio file to AC3 if necessary.

But then, whether the original poster is getting his question answered is another thing.

If B&H's offer doesn't come with a DVD solution, he will have to come up with something else. Architect isn't sold separately. I wasn't aware that Vegas was sold separately either.

There are other applications that should play nicely with the content and just pass it to muxing, DVD Lab is one, but it doesn't have AC3 audio encoding. TMPGEnc DVD Authoring does have AC3 audio and gets pretty good marks from those who use it.

Looking around ought to find something in the under $100 mark for DVD software with AC3 encoding.

Getting Platinum or Studio is getting half a cake with their versions of Architect, and getting Vegas Pro 8 w/o Architect and buying another DVD authoring brand is still a half a cake, but one with icing on it. I would far rather have Vegas Pro and something else, than have Vegas Platinum and its version of Architect.
 
Honestly, I think Platinum is good enough for 99% of the users. Unless this user needs pro stuff like the secondary color corrector, or masking, or envelopes, Platinum is more than enough. Most people, don't even use all the features on Platinum.
 
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