Free Stuff and Sales at Sony Creative Software

[RJ Johnston]

I recently upgraded from Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 7.0a to 8.0d for US$33.00. That's after a 25% discount. There's a 25% discount on anything you buy from their online store until end of March:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/default.asp

The best new feature in VMS8 is the CineForm HD codec. I don't know if there is a 15-day trial limit on encoding, but all indications from the Sony forum is it's not a trial, but you are limited to which applications can play it back. I downloaded the free Neo Player, which plays the encoded files, but the next time you try to encode, you'll get a message that you don't have a license to encode. Uninstalling Neo Player then lets you encode again in VMS8. Even without Neo Player, I can play back the video in Quicktime. Most beautiful looking stuff I have seen to date. If you haven't been to Cineforms website to check out how much the licenses cost, then you are in for a big surprise. So being able to encode with the Cineform HD codec is a real treat for $33. If I get message after 15 days telling me that my trial is up, I'll let you know.

Sony also has free stuff, including Acid Xpress. I just discovered that the loops on the Loopology disc that came packaged with Adobe Audition 1.x work in Acid Xpress.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/dow ... estuff.asp

[Steve Grisetti]

Sony does continue to build a very stable and innovative editor, Robert. Great values on their peripheral software too!

[Barb O]

Rob and Steve,

Does Vegas Studio (not the Platinum) have smart rendering for MPEG2 video?
(my guess is yes but I did not find that info on the Sony site.)

How much simpler is Vegas Studio to learn than Premiere Elements?

I have thought about trying it for my family's Sony HDD standard def MPEG2 videos. I can bring them in to Premiere Elements, but I wonder about the quality depending on the amount of movement. (I use PRE 3 and I do reverse field dominance.) Also if Vegas is easier to learn, it will be simpler for other family members to participate or to make their own video.

[RJ Johnston]

Sony VMS is not as easy to understand as Premiere Elements. I haven't seen it do any smart encoding with MPEG2. Nero does smart encoding and is probably the easiest to use of Sony VMS, Premiere Elements, or Nero Ultra 8. If I had to teach my mother how to get video from a camcorder on to a DVD with a menu, of the three I would use Nero.

[Paul LS]

I use Sony Vegas Pro 8 for most of my HDV work because of the smart-rendering of HDV footage. It can also smart render standard MPEG2 but as Robert says I dont think the Studio version can. And the workflow is very different from PE, it is not very intuitive in my opinion, but because of the smart rendering I have been forcing myself to learn it.

I use the Cineform intermediate codec for work with AVCHD files or for large projects, because as PE, large high definition projects tend to eat up tons of memory and eventually slow things down.

Regarding Sony Acid, every week they give away an Acid 8 Pack, 8 loops arranged into a song.
http://www.acidplanet.com/tools/8packs/

[RJ Johnston]

I just finished reading all the posts on the Sony Forum for the past year that included "smart." The VMS versions does not do MPEG to MPEG smart encoding, only Vegas Pro does that as Paul says. Vegas Pro would be really nice to have.

[Barb O]

Thank you very much Paul and Rob. Your responses about Vegas are exactly the info that I was seeking: you just saved me time and trouble and money of investing in Vegas only to find that it did not meet my objectives.

Rob, thanks for the info about Nero. I will check my son's computer as he might already have an earlier more basic version of Nero so upgrading his Nero might be a good course of action.

Barb

[RJ Johnston]

You should upgrade to 8.0. Some of the earlier versions of 7.x have a bug and smart encoding is broken in those versions.

[RJ Johnston]

Sony DVD Architect Studio 4.5 that comes with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0 does have smart encoding. If all you need to do is cut out certain parts of an MPEG and don't need any effects or transitions, then you could get away with using just DVDAS. What you do is use the same MPEG clip several times on a menu, and set the in and out points on each instance. If you want it to all run together without stops, you can change the end actions for each instance to link to the next scene.