what version to get

[John Rofrano]

Vegas Movie Studio has an incredible amount of functionality. I would start there. You can always upgrade from Movie Studio to Pro later at a discount. You will need a powerful computer to handle AVCHD though. At a minimum it should be a 2.8Ghz Core i7 Quad Core.

Download the 30-day trail of Movie Studio HD 10 and see for yourself. You’ll have a whole month to decide.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Stewart Bourke]

Jeff,

I echo John’s comments. I spent 2 years working with VMS and it taught me a huge amount. I only switched to VMS Pro recently to take account of some of the 3D stuff in the likes of Boris FX, and the multi-cam facility which I am now starting to work with.

I had been a Pinnacle user for years, and only when I got to try VMS did I realise how much I had been suffering… I genuinely never looked back…

So start with VMS – and when you are ready look to upgrade. The value you get for the cost of VMS is incredible, and when you are ready to upgrade the chances are Sony will be doing one of their upgrade offers in any case (which is how I upgraded recently…)

VMS – like every other bit of s/ware has its quirks – but at the end of the day, I repeatedly turn out videos and DVDs that look great, and people are very happy with. That, plus the incredible support that people here at the COW give really add up to something special.

[Roger Martin]

I have Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro,
Movie Studio HD Suite 10 and Vegas Pro 10.

Skip to the chase and go for Pro 10.
There is an announced update coming soon that will add even more functionality.
What I like best is that the whole thing is so well integrated that I can simply drop my media on the timeline and next burn a DVD.