Movie Studio Plat 10 vs Pro 9 ?

[Mike Kujbida]

“Is Movie Studio just a crippled version of Pro 9/10?”

You say crippled, I say light.
It definitely has less features as outlined on the Vegas family comparison page.

“If students purchase it can they move seamlessly (knowledge, workflow) back and forth between studio and Pro 9/10?”

Everything learned in VMS can be applied to Pro and it shouldn’t take long to get up to speed on the differences between the two.
For example, VMS starts with with a preset number of labeled tracks (not sure if this is applicable in the latest version) while Pro is just a blank screen.
This has been known to panic a few VMS users 🙂

“Can they move projects back and forth as long as they’re not using capabilities not present in the other?”

No they can’t.
VMS projects can be opened up in Pro but Pro projects can’t be opened up in VMS.

“In former days these were different platforms but from what I can see appears they are now the same. Searched and couldn’t find anything on this.”

See the comparison chart mentioned above.
Features such as scripting, unlimited tracks and envelope control that are available in Pro only mean that I feel crippled when I have to use VMS.
The latest version of VMS now has 10 tracks of audio and video but it still doesn’t have scripting.
Until you’ve experienced the benefits of this feature, you have no idea what you’re missing.

[Al Bergstein]

If your goal is to simply get started by using Windows to edit video, I think it’s a great idea to start with MS10 and then upgrade if you like it to Vegas. I use both FCP and Vegas regularly and find editing with Vegas on Windows 7 64 to be much easier overall than using FCP. So by using MS10 you can get the feel for using a Windows box to edit (make sure you have enough RAM and hard drive first!) You shouldn’t be disappointed. Other than moving up to Adobe which I do not recommend for an beginner in this world, I would say that Vegas is the best of lot from ease of use, power vs. function, and general value for the money. Of course, these are tools, not religions. So you may find that the Vegas toolset does not help if you are working in a shop that is all FCP!

Best of luck. These forums will be invaluable to helping you.

Alf

[Walker Angell]

Thanks guys. This will be for film classes (they said razor blades aren’t allowed so I have to use software to teach editing). If we go Vegas we’ll have Pro on our laptops but I’m guessing some students will want to buy something for their personal laptops and Plat10 from JourneyEd could be a good deal for many of them. A lite version is fine, particularly if what’s litened is documented, a different but similar platform could be a disaster – thus I want to make sure the Plat 10 and it’s offspring truly are just pro with some things turned off.

We did a very short test of taking stuff back and forth. We were actually successful in getting simple projects created in Pro to open up and be editable in Plat. Is this not supposed to work? Or only if features, like too may tracks, are used that aren’t available in Plat?

Thanks,

[Mike Kujbida]

“We were actually successful in getting simple projects created in Pro to open up and be editable in Plat. Is this not supposed to work?”

It’s not supposed to so I’m curious as to how you did it.
The Sony Knowledge base has this to say.

Wondering if your current projects will open in an upgraded version of Vegas or transferring projects between users? The following information should help clarify these questions.

Vegas Movie Studio project files (*.vf) will open in Vegas Pro.

Vegas Movie Studio will not open Vegas Pro files (*.veg).

Projects created in newer versions of Vegas (Movie Studio or Pro) will not open in older versions of the software.

Vegas Pro allows for expanded features that are not available in Vegas Movie Studio. Since Vegas Movie Studio does not offer all of the features provided in Vegas Pro, *.veg files are incompatible with Vegas Movie Studio’s limitations and will not open.

[Frederic Baumann]

Hi Mike,

regarding scripts, it looks like you are quite frequently using them, and then, I guess, regularly developing your own scripts or at leats regularly modifying them.

Could you please give some examples showing why script are that great? I do understand the value of having the ability to script any application (like Word or CAD tools), but I don’t see for which kind of things it may help for video editing. I am sure I am missing something and would like to learn!! 🙂

Thanks,
Frédéric

—
Want to learn on Sony Vegas Event Pan/Crop tool? Watch my video tutorial:
https://library.creativecow.net/baumann_frederic/Sony-Vegas_event-pan-crop-tool/1

Or about Keyframes? https://library.creativecow.net/articles/baumann_frederic/Animating-with-Keyframes-in-Sony-Vegas.php

French version: https://geo.creativecow.net/fr/a/12999

[Edward Troxel]

Take a look at Excalibur and Ultimate S to see the types of things that can be done via script. It could be as simple as “Select everything on the timeline after the cursor” with a single click or as complicated as adding an entirely new feature to Vegas (such as Multi-cam which was possible with Excalibur in Vegas 4 and finally added to Vegas Pro in a more recent version). My most recent script – Montage Magic – will look at a series of images on the timeline, scan for faces, and automatically add Pan/Crop “Ken Burns” style movement to each one concentrating on the areas where faces were found – totally automatically! That’s something that simply can’t be done without scripting.

Edward Troxel