Vegas vs. Movie Studio

[Sean141]

If your doing run of the mill home videos, that you want to look half way decent….Video explosion deluxe or movie edit pro are both nice with cool special effects that you can add in, like fire, explosions, clouds ect…

I’ve got both of those and I’ve also recently got Vegas pro 8. While Vegas pro8 is really cool to do other kinds of effects with…it didn’t come with any of the cool effects like fire, explosions and stuff. (If it does, I wish someone would tell me where their at.) If vegas pro had these special effects…It would be extremely worth the price.

Vegas pro is really good, but at different stuff. Actually, now that I have it, I just use the special effects from the others and import it into Vegas, but I’m starting to go beyond family videos now. If you can get the other two at good prices…say 25 or 30 bucks a piece, I’d say get them, if for nothing else but the special effects. I’ve looked at websites and they want mega bucks for a few seconds of a clip that I already have.

I know what your talking about and If you got the extra money and you like doing it….I’d get those 2 and then get Vegas pro. If not…I’d just try to get the other two for 50-60 bucks total. The special effects are AVI files, so both programs can use them. Hope this helps.

[Mike Kujbida]

As a long-time (full) Vegas user, I’d say to go with the full version.
However, odds are that Movie Studio will fit your needs.

On the differences between the two, here’s a reply from Edward Troxel on another forum to a user who asked the same question.

You give up quite a bit:

Unlimited Tracks
The ability to use scripts
Multi-camera tools
project nesting
32-bit floating point
Blu-ray burning support from the timeline
External preview
Scopes

etc…

[Sean141]

Mike….
Very new beginner here…but what are scripts or scripting? you can give me the beginner short answer. Just wondering.

Sean

[Edward Troxel]

[sean141] “but what are scripts or scripting?”

Scripts are something that I would HATE to give up. Basically it’s a way to simplify repetitive tasks or even add to features to Vegas. I wrote the first commercial “script” for Vegas (which you can still find at http://www.jetdv.com/excalibur ) and Spot also has some commercial scripts at VASST. However, there are also many FREE scripts as well.

Take a look at my site to give you a brief idea as to what a script can do. There’s also information on scripting in several of my newsletters. Plus, Vegas 8 now adds a new kind of script called a “Custom Command” – you can find a couple of them on my site as well.

Edward Troxel

[Justin Liu]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I ended up going with Movie Studio rather than Vegas Pro for now. After giving it more thought, I think I am unlikely to need the advanced features of Vegas in the immediate future for my purposes. As an aside, I notice that the $150 upgrade link is still active on Sony’s website today, after their Oct. 31 cutoff, for anyone still sitting on the fence.

I can always upgrade to Vegas Pro at a later date if I hit any limits on Movie Studio, and the marginal cost isn’t all that high in the big scheme of things. I don’t think I will have any significant need for fire, explosions, or other effects for my home movies of the kids. If I do start down the effects path, I am thinking I might want to look at After Effects or something similar. But that’s still a ways off for me.