Sony added "Show Me How" tutorials for users new to the software or digital video editing.
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.
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.
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. Movie Studio has 13 different audio effects, and the Platinum version adds more, in addition to 5.1 Surround sound mixing and editing. Movie Studio supports a wide variety of file formats and codecs and can use "Video for Windows" codecs to support even more. However, if the user upgrades to the full version of Vegas, then the user still gets to keep those same effects. Movie Studio features significantly more effects and transitions than the full version of Vegas does. However, it cannot capture analog video without the use of a FireWire video converter. Version 6 also added the ability to capture from Sony Handycam DVD camcorders. Like Vegas Pro, the Movie Studio versions can also perform DV batch capture, a feature usually found only in high-end video editors. It also adds HDV and AVCHD-editing capabilities, but does not support SD or HD-SDI formats. 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 does not have the same advanced compositing tools as Vegas does, and does not have project nesting or masking.
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). The Platinum Edition of Sony Movie Studio, furthermore, can edit with 20 video and 20 audio tracks. Unlike its professional counterpart, Movie Studio can only edit with ten video tracks and ten audio tracks (originally it was set with two video tracks, a title overlay track and three audio tracks). Unlike most such effects, it had no problem distinguishing between unwanted shakes, intentional camera pans and moving subjects.Features Video features It’s a good one, too, often producing results that resembled Steadicam footage rather than from a bumbling handheld camera. Movie Studio Platinum finally gets a stabilisation effect. Also new is a White Balance effect, which removes colour casts by clicking on a neutral colour in the footage. The Secondary Color Corrector, new to version 10, lets you select a limited range of colours in the footage and process only those areas. The Color Corrector effect has three colour wheels for shadows, midtones and highlights, as well as the full compliment of gain, offset, saturation and gamma controls. The effects library doesn’t have the pizzazz of some of its rivals but its corrective tools are much more sophisticated. Corel VideoStudio X3 just copes with two and Premiere Elements 8 only manages one stream. However, even Movie Studio Platinum’s four streams are a considerable improvement on most other low cost editors.
Best of all is Adobe Premiere Pro CS5’s revamped 64-bit engine, which manages ten streams. Sadly, Movie Studio Platinum isn’t available as a native 64-bit application – Vegas Pro is, and it managed six AVCHD streams on the same PC. On our Core i7 test PC, the software managed to play four simultaneous AVCHD streams at this setting.
Half the full resolution is a good compromise for 1080p footage. Movie Studio Platinum lets you offset preview resolution against smoothness, so simple sequences can be viewed at full resolution, while complex, effects-laden ones might use a lower resolution to avoid dropped frames. Being able to preview edits as soon as you’ve made them is essential, but the high demands of HD formats, particularly AVCHD, mean editors often drop frames during playback, making it hard to preview works in progress. It helps that the preview engine is efficient, too.