I've been trying out Sony Catalyst Production Suite and don't see any reason to subscribe to Catalyst Prepare or Catalyst Edit at this time. Catalyst Edit is a basic editor. Adobe Premiere Elements version one is way ahead in features and design, so Sony has a way to go before I might become interested in renting their Catalyst software. Using a NewBlueFX plug-in causes way longer processing times in Catalyst Edit than in Sony Vegas. I don't know what gives.
Sony Catalyst Browse is a freebie, and it also lets you transcode your videos into a limited set of formats, one being AVC/MP4. A useful feature is the ability to batch transcode like videos, which I can already do in Sony Vegas Pro 12.
You can download Browse from this page: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials