Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 [OLD VERSION]

by Sony

Product Features

• Create movies with music, titles, and special effects
• Fast transfer from your digital camera or camcorder
• Produce DVDs with custom menus and graphics
• Upload movies directly to YouTube
• Easy to use Show Me How tutorials

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B001CPFWH8
• Item model number: SVMS9000
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,358 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #66 in Software > Video & Music > Digital Video > Video Editing

Product Description

Vegas Movie Studio software is video editing and DVD creation made easy. Quickly create captivating movies with transitions, titles, and special effects. To share, upload movies to YouTube or author DVDs with custom menus and graphics. Exclusive Sony Show Me How interactive tutorials help you get started fast

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I've made some nice DVDs, September 18, 2008

By 

Kooz (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

I have owned this software for about two weeks. My only prior experience with video editing is Movie Maker and InterVideo WinDVD. I was originally going to purchase Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 but then I noticed this version was just released and it has some new features.

After some initial frustration I am happy with the purchase. The learning curve is what is so frustrating especially for a novice like me. I made two coasters (though I admit that was really my fault) and at one point I was considering trying to return it for a refund because I was getting so stressed. I still get frustrated with the fact that you have to use two separate programs: Vegas Movie Studio 9 to make the movie and DVD Architect 4.5 (included) to make the menus and author the disc.

Now that I've been playing with it every day for two weeks, things are better now. It just takes hours and hours of working with the software which in turn makes the user more familiar with how to navigate through it and achieve a desirable result. No more stress. Now that I have made a couple of DVDs successfully I have a whole new appreciation of Sony Vegas. They turned out great! My movies have a beautiful 16:9 widescreen representation, great audio, decent menus, good video FX, and I've had a blast customizing them. The "Show Me How" tutorial is a lifesaver, but it has its limits.

I have experienced no crashes or anything even close to a crash. I'm using a 3-year-old HP Media Center desktop PC, running Windows XP, with Pentium 4 processor, and 2GB of RAM. I give it 4 stars because of the huge amount of information that is presented at first and the trouble it can cause a newbie and I think the average user is not going to use a lot of the advanced features.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overall, Pretty Good, January 5, 2009

By 

Lynette - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

Before I say anything else, I'd just like to warn potential buyers that Movie Studio 9 does not do Bezier masking. In other words, you can't cut out one person and put them on a different background unless you use a predefined shape, like a square, circle, etc. If you want Bezier masking and you still want Vegas, then you need to get Vegas Pro.

Otherwise, the product is great. The tutorials are very useful, especially for beginners. There is an amazing number of effects and transitions, especially when compared to Windows Movie Maker. It's great for home movie creation.

I'd say if you're considering it, definitely give it a shot. Sony has free trials on their website, so you really have nothing to lose. Their knowledgebase is pretty extensive and if you can't find the answer to your question, you can always contact their customer service. They give useful answers fairly promptly.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Review of the top 7 video editing software titles, March 5, 2010

By 

C. Helm "THROW?" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 [OLD VERSION] (DVD-ROM)

Sorry about the formatting, Amazon is removing all my spaces when I publish even though it looks fine in the editor.

Computer Specs:
Intel Core2 Duo @ 1.86 GHz
2 GB RAM
256 MB Video
32 bit
Windows Vista

My test:
Added 2 videos.
Added image stabilization to one
3D transition between them.
Rendered the project.
AVCHD in and MPG2 out (both in full HD, 1920*1440, Dolby 5.1 if available)
Video length 4 minutes and 20 seconds.


Overall Review:
***** Corel Video Studio Pro X3
***** Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
*** Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
**1/2 Adobe Premiere Elements 8
** Magix Edit Pro 15
* Roxio Creator 2010
* Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14

Package Options:
My reviews are against the top versions of each product line. You will find that most of the differences between the top versions and the base are Blu-ray export options, and some add some extra sound options. See for yourself the option that suits you at the manufacturer's website in their respective product comparison guides.

Windows 7:
All seemed to work for me in windows 7, 64 bit with 4 GB RAM. I didn't do any tests with it b/c I wanted to use an older machine that would come closer to representing the average computer. This includes Roxio 2009, but not 2010 for reasons stated below.

Final Opinion:
If you want something super easy to use, then I would go with Cyberlink PowerDirector 8. If you want something with a bit more power that you can grow into, I would go with Corel Video Studio Pro X3. Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro plus 9 may very well be good, but I see no reason to purchase it with the power of the Corel package.
If you are a masochist, go with Adobe, Magix, Roxio, or Pinnacle.


DETAILS:
Adobe Premiere Elements 8
65 min render time
Pros:
You can search effects
Layout was good but not great
Interface was pretty straightforward
Cons:
Virtually locked my system
Slow and temporarily froze frequently
Output menu was cumbersome


Corel Video Studio Pro X3
19 min render time
Pros:
Great Output menu
Very fast
Easy to use user interface
Proxy editing*
Autofit for timeline
Cons:
No search function for effects

Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
30 min render time
Pros:
Output menu was nice
Very nice and easy to use layout
Cons:
No Blu-ray output


Magix Edit Pro 15
41 min Render time
Pros:
Simple
Cons:
Poor user interface
Oversimplified (Too simple I think for most people)
Very Cumbersome to use and add effects
Output options were confusing and cumbersome
Extremely limited options for PC output (which is what many will be doing)
A couple of lock ups


Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14
Pros:
Nice little finished project to see what can be done
Nice interface for editing
Cons:
ONLY SOFTWARE that I was not able to import a video
Locked up my system many times and left errant process running at 80% CPU
Took 50 seconds just to load the import video TAB
When I selected videos to import and hit start import, absolutely nothing happened
Tried one of their movies and went to help to find stabilization and it crashed on me b/c I didn't have enough memory
No Blu-ray output
Cons on install on windows 7 computer:
Failure on export of file on all formats
I actually tried Pinnacle about 10 years ago and had absolutely nothing but problems. Spent many days downloading patches just to get it to work. Then, like a moron, I did an entire project and when I went to burn it, the burn failed every time. I see a decade later, I still can't export a file.


Roxio Creator 2010
Pros:
-----
Cons:
They don't allow a trial download. I contacted them asking them if I could download a trial and even noted that I was a current customer. I personally like the 2009 Roxio. It was a nice "all-purpose" program. They told me that I had to buy it. I was offered a money back guarantee, but to do so, I had to send in a letter of destruction. This is way too much effort on my end to see if your software works for me.
I find it ridiculous in this day and age that you can't have a trial version of something, especially when EVERY ONE of your competitors does. In addition, this is how they were treating an existing customer!
You throw in all the compatibility issues that can occur in software in general and video software in particular, and that leaves me to think they have nothing to hide.
As icing on the cake, the following sentence was in their reply.
"Creator 2010 does support AVCHD software and hasn't been know to have any issues thus far!"
I replied to them about this OUTRIGHT LIE! First, you can read the compatibility issues on Amazon. Second, as a person that writes programs, there is no such thing as bug free software, especially video editing software.


Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
14 minute render time (NO ANTI-SHAKE IN RENDER, see below)
Pros:
Computer stayed pretty responsive during render
Savable packages of effects
How to guide is nice
Cons:
Couldn't search effects
Very, very cumbersome to use
Couldn't find stabilization
The render time approximation stayed at around 1 minute or 2 left the entire time
Here is my issue with Sony Vegas. I have compared its features with many of the other programs and they are all very similar. Now, when compared with Corel Video Studio Pro X3 and Cyberlink PowerDirector, they are virtually identical. I personally think Sony leaves their software cumbersome so that it "looks/seems" more powerful.
I was definitely most disappointed in this product because it was the one that I was looking the most forward to using. When I say that it is cumbersome to use, it doesn't mean that it can't be used. Let me give an example. I am a programmer, and in something like excel, I like the ability to write my own code to create functions and tools that it doesn't offer or to tweak ones that it does. HOWEVER, when I want to enter numbers in boxes, I just want to enter numbers in boxes. I don't want to click in a box, go to a menu or right click, select some gadget and then enter a number. It is ok for complicated things to be complicated, but simple things should not only be simple, but also INTUITIVE.
The main thing that I saw that you could do in Sony Vegas that you couldn't do in the others is change your transitions (both audio and video) ramp as far as how quickly they come in and go out. I am not talking about changing the time, but how your out video accelerates out and how you in video accelerates in during that time. It is a cool feature, but something that 99% of people will only not use, but won't care about either.
Another thing, the image stabilizer should be easy to do, and it may be. However, I did a search in help for stabilize, stabilizer, sta, shake, anti, etc. and could not find out how to do this very simple thing. This worries me greatly that if this isn't readily available in the help docs, then much of the other stuff probably isn't either.


*A note on proxy editing.
Proxy editing is basically you working on a very low def version of your file, but when it comes time to actually render your output, the original file is used. Some view this as a crutch because they say you should be able to optimize the software to work with the high def video. My opinion is that if I can work faster, then I will work faster. Who cares what my resolution is while I am editing. If you have the fastest software out there for HD, and you can do your edits in very low def and it is even faster still, then why would you not want that?