Vegas Movie Studio or Premiere Elements for the GH1

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pmk396

Well-known member
Hi all,
I am a GH1 user and I am planning on getting my first film editing software and my choices have left me with Sony Vegas Movie Studio or Adobe Premiere Elements. They are both around the $100 mark and I was wondering which one would suit me the best considering that I shoot my footage with the Panasonic GH1 and it's AVCHD footage. Any suggestions??

By the way, I know some people are gonna suggest for me tosave and get the full versions of Sony Vegas Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro but I simply cannot afford them so I have decided on a scaled down version, ie. Movie Studio or Elements.

(I already posted this on the forum regarding "Post Production - General Software and as of yet I have got no replies so hopefully I have better luck here.)
 
I purchased Vegas and have been very pleased with it. Sony offers discounts and specials if you want to upgrade to the full product at a later time.
 
If you dont have a lot of experience editing already, you will get up and going on Vegas a lot faster than Premiere IMO.
If you want to eventually have a career doing it then bash your head against a wall learning Premiere because it works a lot like Avid and Final Cut, but to get things done quickly, Vegas is the go.
You can find numerous posts all over the net from seasoned editors stating they cant believe how fast Vegas is to use.
I download a new trial every month or so, just because I like learning new systems, I still keep coming back to Vegas. It may not be the very best compared to the high end systems, but its easy to use and fast.
Again, just my opinion, not trying to upset anyone, some people get very fired up about sticking up for THEIR NLE. :)
 
Here, AVCHD from the GH1 does not play properly on the timeline in Premiere Elements current version (gross blocky artifacts). And Vegas seems to demand prodigious amounts of installed memory to work properly with other than small projects when rendering.

Currently I personally keep going back to Nero Vision Xtra (a completely different program from earlier versions of Nero Vision) for low cost editing. Downsides are less than full resolution playback from the timeline (but at least it plays efficiently); lack of a simple method of crossfading audio from one clip to the next (you have to use overlapping clips on separate tracks) which is something that Vegas and PE do well; and lack of proper colour tools (though basic tools are present). If those considerations don't bother you, try it (I'm not sure whether there's a AVCHD-functional demo available though). The rendering engine seems fast and good to me.
 
I would echo a lot of the above - but with regard to power director. Read the reviews of vegas on amazon and see some of the nightmares people have with it! I think you need a high end system and a fair bit of luck to be able to use it effectively.

I did a fair bit of trial and error and online research and went with power director because of its speed and stability - and have been very pleased with the results.

Now I am frustrated mainly at the lack of good colour grading tools for it.... but if you are not intending to use your NLE for semi pro stuff it is a great option.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll be perfectly honest; I originally planned to use the software for short projects but I have written a full feature length script that I plan to shoot possibly late next year. I'm now assuming that the low-end/scaled-down softwares, like Vegas Move Studio and Premiere Elements, wouldn't be up to the task of a full feature length. I plan on using a lot of After Effects for this so I am guessing that I should hold out and get something like Premiere Pro and After Effects (considering that After Effects probably works best with Premiere). The problem is that it will be at least a year and a half to two years before I could afford software like After Effects and Premiere Pro (I've to save for my wedding too!!!).

What should I do in the mean-time?
 
It's annoying isn't it? Like you - I would jump at getting the pro NLE and after effects if the price was right... but it isn't. I really wonder if they have set it to the right level... they could get a much bigger market share by cutting a bit - that's what drives people to piracy isn't it?

One option is to shoot the movie and edit it with a cheap elements package..... that is a big piece of work in itself.... then if you find at the end of the time you are still wanting to go ahead you could upgrade and buy after effects as well.

Other thing is educational discounts - there are good deals out there if you can swing it to get the whole package as a student or teacher.... not sure if you or someone you know could make use of this?
 
Ok,
Thanks for all the replies guys. After some researching myself, I have decided to bite the bullet and get Adobe CS4 Production Premium (it comes with Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop which I'll probably need). The reason for choosing CS4 instead of CS5 is because my operating system is Windows XP (SP3). It don't think CS5 will work with XP.

I have looked around online for different prices and have found varied results ($800-$1500). I am concerned at the fact that I am a PAL user (I'm based in Ireland) and if I was to buy Production Premium from the US, would the software still work for me? If not, can anybody recommend where I could get PAL compatible Production Premium software for a reasonable price??
 
Another option is if you are a student Adobe products can be had a for a significant discount. Premiere Pro is $349 in the US for students versus $799 for eveyone else. (I am not sure about pricing elsewhere) And the CS5 packages are even more discounted. CS5 Porduction Premium (Premiere Pro + After Effects + Photoshop) is $449 in the US for students versus $1,699 regular price.

I believe Avid has a similar discount for students.
 
Unfortunately, I'm not a student so I'll probably have to pay the full amount. Is there any difference between Adobe software bought in the US and Adobe software in Europe (ie. NTSC or PAL), or is the software the same?
 
I believe the software is the same everywhere and I know the educational versions are identical to the regular versions.
 
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