MAGIX VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum 15.0.0.157

Update: This review is for an older version.
For the latest release, see our Vegas Pro 19 review

-------


If you’ve heard the name Vegas in connection to video editing software, you’re likely thinking of the company’s impressive, professional applications for advanced movie making. Vegas Movie Studio 15 (opens in new tab) is not that. Instead it’s a Windows-only programme offering the basics for novice users.

So what do you get for your money (currently, $49.99)? Vegas Movie Studio is the cheapest, and hence most basic, Windows-only video editing application made by Magix.

Importing

We’re told the app can work with video files up to 4K, which sounds good on paper, but we encountered great difficulty in getting even HD files into the program. Although Movie Studio could see the AVCHD camcorder we’d connected to the computer, and granted us access to its files, we couldn’t get preview thumbnails of the clips, so had no idea which ones we wanted to use. 

Worse still, Movie Studio didn’t import the files but merely linked to them, which means that once the camera was disconnected, Movie Studio couldn’t make use of the footage any longer. The solution we found was to drag the AVCHD folder to a hard drive and import them into Movie Studio from there. Hardly a convenient operation, and even doing this didn’t allow us to see any thumbnails. Files in other formats fared better, and Movie Studio could produce a thumbnail image of each clip for those.

Movie Studio also has an option to import footage from DVD Camcorders, and even DV or HDV cameras, but this merely shows how old this design is, as it’s highly unlikely that modern computers can even connect to those devices.

Editing

Once you’ve managed to add your media to the application however, you’ll find that Movie Studio plays well with a large variety of different files. Even clips taken with an iPhone will work as expected.

The main interface window is pretty standard fare - which is a good thing, because it’s instantly recognisable if you’ve got even the most basic of video editing knowledge. The left of the interface has a window to display your project media, effects, titles, etc. Next to it is your preview window, and an audio meter. The bottom of the interface is taken over by the timeline, which is where you build your edit by dragging clips you’d like to use, cutting them and rearranging them.

This app is very clearly designed with novices in mind, and includes a great concept: the Quickstart Dashboard, located to the left of the Media Panel. It’s like a checklist of things you need to do when creating a video, in the order in which you need to do them: import media, add titles, apply effects, and so on. There’s even a ‘show me how’ button that leads you to tutorials explaining exactly how to perform the action you’re struggling with.

Looking at the editing section, the tools at your disposal at extremely limited. You can work on multiple tracks, cut footage, move it around, and have a few options to trim a clip and delete the section either to the left or right of the playhead at the same time, but that’s about it. It is all you need as a novice user, but there doesn’t seem to be any opportunity to grow with the software.

Transitions and text

One feature we did like is how you create transitions between clips. The process is very intuitive: say you have two clips next to each other. Drag the one on the right so its left edge overlaps the left one’s right edge. As you do so, they will overlap and that overlap then becomes a basic cross dissolve. It really couldn’t be simpler.

Of course, you may want something a little more snazzy than a cross dissolve, and Movie Studio’s got you covered on that front. You have access to dozens of transitions from a tab in the Media Panel. To replace the default transition you just created, simply drag a preview thumbnail of another one over it, and you’re done.

You have the ability to add text to your project. Every option has its own preview thumbnail to help you see what the effect will look like. Unfortunately, most text presets are on a transparent background which is represented by a checkerboard… this makes previewing any animation inside the thumbnail image either impossible or very frustrating.

As you drag one of those presets to your project, you are then able to alter its parameters, change the font, size, pretty much everything you’d expect. You even have the option of choosing a different text preset from a pull down menu which is a nice feature and helps you cycle through various titles until you find the one you like best, without having to drag another choice and retype your title over and over again.

Effects

Movie Studio also comes with a wide variety of effects, which you can apply either to individual clips, or to an entire track. The latter can save you a lot of time if you’re looking to transform a large number of clips.

If you’d like to animate your clips, like making them pan across the screen as you zoom in or out of them, Movie Studio has some basic keyframing tools available, but the interface feels more convoluted than you’d expect for software aimed at novices. If someone didn’t know this feature existed, they’ll likely never notice it on their own.

Exporting

Once you’ve finished your project and you’re happy with the results, it’s time to share it with others. The export feature is called ‘Make Movie’. You can upload your work directly to various social media sites such as Vimeo, YouTube or Facebook, or you can save the finished product as a file on your computer. 

The latter offers you some customisability, but also some puzzling inclusion: for instance it lets you save files as .mov informing you that this is the file format for QuickTime, yet QuickTime has been able to read .mp4 files (another available option) for years. Just like support for DV camcorders, this feels unnecessarily antiquated.

Final verdict

Vegas Movie Studio 15 isn’t really as good as the Vegas name would lead you to believe. Your options are very limited, or needlessly hidden, and although some tools are implemented in a very clever, original, and intuitive way, on the whole it feels too limiting aside from your most basics of needs. Make full use of the free trial version to determine if this is the app for you.

Steve has been writing about technology since 2003. Starting with Digital Creative Arts, he's since added his tech expertise at titles such as iCreate, MacFormat, MacWorld, MacLife, and TechRadar. His focus is on the creative arts, like website builders, image manipulation, and filmmaking software, but he hasn’t shied away from more business-oriented software either. He uses many of the apps he writes about in his personal and professional life. Steve loves how computers have enabled everyone to delve into creative possibilities, and is always delighted to share his knowledge, expertise, and experience with readers.

Vegas Movie Studio (previously Sony Vegas Movie Studio) is a consumer-based nonlinearvideo editing software designed for the PC. It is a scaled-down version of Vegas Pro. Movie Studio was formerly called "Sonic Foundry VideoFactory" and then "Sony Screenblast Movie Studio,". As of version 13, Vegas Movie Studio is now part of Magix GmbH after Sony had officially announced it had sold most of its creative software suite to the German-based company.^[2] On 14 February 2017, Magix announced a brand new version of Vegas Movie Studio, Vegas Movie Studio 14.0, which is the first stable release of Vegas Movie Studio since 2014 and Magix's first stable release since its acquisition from Sony.

Features[edit]

Video features[edit]

Unlike its professional counterpart, Movie Studio can only edit with ten video tracks and ten audio tracks^[3] (originally it was set with two video tracks, a title overlay track and three audio tracks). The Platinum Edition of Sony Movie Studio, furthermore, can edit with 20 video and 20 audio tracks. It can edit in multiple as well as standard 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, and it's one of the very few consumer editors that can also edit 24p video (after a manual frame rate setup). It also does not have the same advanced compositing tools as Vegas does, and does not have project nesting or masking.

The Platinum Edition of Movie Studio has powerful color correction tools similar to the version on Vegas Pro, including a three-wheel color corrector. It also adds HDV and AVCHD-editing capabilities, but does not support SD or HD-SDI formats.

Like Vegas Pro, the Movie Studio versions can also perform DV batch capture, a feature usually found only in high-end video editors. Version 6 also added the ability to capture from Sony Handycam DVD camcorders. However, it cannot capture analog video without the use of a FireWire video converter.

Movie Studio features significantly more effects and transitions than the full version of Vegas does. However, if the user upgrades to the full version of Vegas, then the user still gets to keep those same effects.

Movie Studio supports a wide variety of file formats and codecs and can use "Video for Windows" codecs to support even more.

Audio features[edit]

Movie Studio has 13 different audio effects, and the Platinum version adds more, in addition to 5.1 Surround sound mixing and editing. The software is also compatible with Sony's ACID Music Studio software, and an even more cut-down version called ACID Xpress ships with the 1001 Sound Effects CD included.

Other features[edit]

With version 7, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition added the ability to export to iPod and Sony PSP, a feature that was originally only available in the full version of Vegas and is becoming increasingly common in consumer-level video editors. Both versions also ship with a cut-down version of Sony's DVD Architect software, called DVD Architect Studio, replacing the Sonic MyDVD program bundled with the software when it was titled as Screenblast Movie Studio.

Sony added "Show Me How" tutorials for users new to the software or digital video editing. Both versions also ship with Sony's 1001 Sound Effects CD (in contrast to Vegas's Limited Edition Sony Pictures Sound Effects CD), which also includes ACID XPress, an even more scaled-down version of their ACID music creation software. Similarly, the product also ships with sample video clips and music loops to enhance the users' home video projects.

Version 9 also added direct upload to YouTube, an increasingly common feature in many consumer-oriented editing programs.

Version 10 added GPU rendering, and allowed movie studio users to benefit from Sony Vegas Pro 9's improved audio stretching and pitch shifting capabilities. It also allowed for a maximum of 20 Tracks (10 video, 10 audio).

In Version 12 and 13, the track limit was doubled to 20 video and 20 audio tracks. Version 13 also allows for editing and rendering projects in 4K video. Version 13 dropped "Vegas" from the name of the program, reserving it exclusively for the professional edition.

Version 14 was the first version after the acquisition. It dramatically increased the maximum track limit to 200 video and 200 audio tracks. Each version since has had this limit. Also in this version, Magix restored "VEGAS" in the name.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Update: This review is for an older version.
For the latest release, magix vegas movie studio 15, see our Vegas Pro 19 review

-------


If you’ve heard magix vegas movie studio 15 name Vegas in connection to video editing software, you’re likely thinking of the company’s impressive, professional applications for advanced movie making, magix vegas movie studio 15. Vegas Movie Studio 15 (opens in new tab) is not that. Instead it’s a Windows-only programme offering the magix vegas movie studio 15 for novice users.

So what do you get for your money (currently, $49.99)? Vegas Movie Studio is the cheapest, and hence most basic, Windows-only video editing application made by Magix.

Importing

We’re told the app can work with video files up to 4K, magix vegas movie studio 15, which sounds good on paper, but we encountered great difficulty in getting even HD files into the program, magix vegas movie studio 15. Although Movie Studio could see the AVCHD camcorder we’d connected to the computer, and granted us access to its files, we couldn’t get preview thumbnails of the clips, so had no idea magix vegas movie studio 15 ones we wanted to use. 

Worse still, magix vegas movie studio 15, Movie Studio didn’t import the files but merely linked to them, which means that once the camera was disconnected, Movie Studio couldn’t make use of the footage any longer. The solution we found was to drag the AVCHD folder to a hard drive and import them into Movie Studio from there. Hardly a convenient operation, and even doing this didn’t allow us to see any thumbnails. Files in other formats fared better, and Movie Studio could produce a thumbnail image of each clip for those.

Movie Studio also has an option to import footage from DVD Camcorders, and even DV or HDV cameras, but this merely shows how old this design is, as it’s highly unlikely that modern computers can even connect to those devices.

Editing

Once you’ve managed to add your media to the application however, you’ll find that Movie Studio plays well with a large variety of different files. Even clips taken with an iPhone will work as expected.

The main interface window is pretty standard fare - which is a good thing, because it’s instantly recognisable if you’ve got even the most basic of video editing knowledge. The left of the interface has a window to display your project media, effects, titles, etc. Next to it is your preview window, and an audio meter, magix vegas movie studio 15. The bottom of the interface is taken over by the timeline, which is where you build your edit by dragging clips you’d like to use, cutting them and rearranging them.

This app is very clearly designed with novices in mind, and includes a great concept: the Quickstart Dashboard, located to the left of the Media Panel. It’s like a checklist of things you need to do when creating a video, in the order in which you need to do magix vegas movie studio 15 import media, add titles, apply effects, and so on. There’s even a ‘show me how’ button that leads you to magix vegas movie studio 15 explaining exactly how to perform the action you’re struggling with.

Looking at the editing section, the tools at your disposal at extremely limited. You can work on multiple tracks, cut footage, move it around, and have a few options to trim a clip and delete the section either to the left or right of the playhead at the same time, but that’s about it. It is all you need as a novice user, but there doesn’t seem to be any opportunity to grow with the software.

Transitions and iMazing 2.12.5 Crack Free Activators feature we magix vegas movie studio 15 like is how you create transitions between clips. The process is very intuitive: say you have two clips next to each other, magix vegas movie studio 15. Drag the one on the right so its left edge overlaps the left one’s right edge. As you do so, magix vegas movie studio 15, they will overlap and that overlap then becomes a basic cross dissolve. It really couldn’t be simpler.

Of course, you may want something a little more snazzy than a cross dissolve, and Movie Studio’s got you covered on that front. You have access to dozens of transitions from a tab in the Media Panel. To replace the default transition you just created, simply drag a preview thumbnail of another one over it, and you’re done.

You have the ability to add text to your project. Every option has its own preview thumbnail to help you see what the effect will look like. Unfortunately, most text presets are on a transparent background which is represented by a checkerboard… this makes previewing any animation inside the thumbnail image either impossible or very frustrating.

As you drag one of those presets to your project, you are then able to alter its parameters, change the font, size, pretty much everything you’d expect. You even have the option of choosing a different text preset from a pull down menu which is a crack for drivermax Crack Key For U feature and helps you cycle through various titles until you find the one you like best, without having to drag another choice and retype your title over and over again.

Effects

Movie Studio also comes with a wide variety of effects, which you can apply either to individual clips, or to an entire track. The latter can save you a lot of time if you’re looking to transform a large number of clips.

If you’d like to animate your clips, like making them pan across the screen as you zoom in or out of them, Movie Studio has some basic keyframing tools available, but the interface feels more convoluted than you’d expect for software aimed at novices. If someone didn’t know this feature existed, they’ll likely never notice it on their own.

Exporting

Once you’ve finished your project and you’re magix vegas movie studio 15 with the results, it’s time to share it with others. The export feature is called ‘Make Movie&rsquo. You can upload your work directly to various social media sites such as Vimeo, YouTube or Facebook, or you can save the finished product as a file on your computer. 

The latter offers you some customisability, but also some puzzling inclusion: for instance it lets you save files as .mov informing you that this is the file format for QuickTime, yet QuickTime has been able to read .mp4 files (another available option) for years. Just like support for DV camcorders, this feels unnecessarily antiquated.

Final verdict

Vegas Movie Studio 15 isn’t really as good as the Vegas name would lead you to believe. Your options are very limited, or needlessly hidden, and although some tools are implemented in a very clever, original, and intuitive way, on the whole it feels too limiting aside from your most basics of needs. Make full use of the free trial version to determine if this is the app for you.

Steve has been writing about technology since 2003. Starting with Digital Creative Arts, he's since added his tech expertise at titles such as iCreate, MacFormat, MacWorld, MacLife, and TechRadar. His focus is on the creative arts, like website builders, image manipulation, and filmmaking software, magix vegas movie studio 15, but he hasn’t shied away from more business-oriented software either. He uses many of the apps he writes about in his personal and professional life. Steve loves how computers have enabled everyone to delve into creative possibilities, and is always delighted to share his knowledge, expertise, and experience with readers.

Vegas Movie Studio (previously Sony Vegas Movie Studio) is a consumer-based nonlinearvideo editing software designed for the PC. It is a scaled-down version of Vegas Pro. Movie Studio was formerly called "Sonic Foundry VideoFactory" and then "Sony Screenblast Movie Studio,". As of version 13, Vegas Movie Studio is now part of Magix GmbH after Sony had officially announced it had sold most of its creative software suite to the German-based company.^[2] On 14 February 2017, Magix announced a brand new version of Vegas Movie Studio, Vegas Movie Studio 14.0, which is the first stable release of Vegas Movie Studio since 2014 and Magix's first stable release since its acquisition from Sony.

Features[edit]

Video features[edit]

Unlike its professional counterpart, Movie Studio can only edit with ten video tracks and ten audio tracks^[3] (originally it was set with two video tracks, magix vegas movie studio 15, a title overlay track and three audio tracks). The Platinum Edition of Sony Movie Studio, furthermore, can edit with 20 video and 20 audio tracks. It can edit in multiple as well as standard 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, and it's one of the very few consumer editors that can also edit 24p video (after a manual frame rate setup). It also does not have the same advanced compositing tools as Vegas does, and does not have project nesting or masking, magix vegas movie studio 15.

The Platinum Edition of Movie Studio has powerful color correction tools similar to the version on Vegas Pro, including a three-wheel color corrector. It also adds HDV and AVCHD-editing capabilities, but does not support SD or HD-SDI formats.

Like Vegas Pro, the Movie Studio versions can also perform DV batch capture, a feature usually found only in high-end video editors. Version 6 also added the ability to capture from Sony Handycam DVD camcorders. However, it cannot capture analog video without the use of a FireWire video converter.

Movie Studio features significantly more effects and transitions than the full version of Vegas does. However, if the user upgrades to the full version of Vegas, then the user still gets to keep those same effects.

Movie Studio supports a wide variety of file formats and codecs and can use "Video for Windows" codecs to support even more.

Audio features[edit]

Movie Studio has 13 different audio effects, and the Platinum version adds more, in addition to 5.1 Surround sound mixing and editing, magix vegas movie studio 15. The software is also compatible with Sony's ACID Music Studio software, and an even more cut-down version called ACID Xpress ships with the 1001 Sound Effects CD included.

Other features[edit]

With version 7, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition added the ability to export to iPod and Sony PSP, a feature that was originally only available in the full version of Vegas and is becoming increasingly common in consumer-level video editors. Both versions also ship with a cut-down version of Sony's DVD Architect software, called DVD Architect Studio, replacing the Sonic MyDVD program bundled with MakeMKV Free Download software when it was titled as Screenblast Movie Studio.

Sony added "Show Me How" tutorials for users new to the software or digital video editing. Both versions also ship with Sony's 1001 Sound Effects CD (in contrast to Vegas's Limited Edition Sony Pictures Sound Effects CD), magix vegas movie studio 15, which also includes ACID XPress, an even more scaled-down version of their ACID music creation software. Similarly, the product also ships with sample video clips and music loops to enhance the users' home video projects.

Version 9 also added direct upload to YouTube, an increasingly common feature in many consumer-oriented editing programs.

Version 10 added GPU rendering, and allowed movie studio users to benefit from Sony Vegas Pro 9's improved audio stretching and pitch shifting capabilities. It also allowed for a maximum of 20 Tracks (10 video, 10 audio).

In Version 12 and 13, the track limit was doubled to 20 video and 20 audio tracks. Version 13 also allows for editing and rendering projects in 4K video. Version 13 dropped "Vegas" from the name of the program, reserving it exclusively for the professional edition.

Version 14 was the first version after the acquisition. It dramatically increased the maximum track limit to 200 video and 200 audio tracks. Each version since has had this limit. Also in this version, Magix restored "VEGAS" in the name.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

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