Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro is a highly efficient and stable editing interface that incorporates new and improved features. It gives you almost the same interface as the one in Vegas Pro 8 and at the same time is an enhanced version of Vegas Movie Studio 9. It is intended at semi-professionals and enthusiasts.

Priced at $239, Platinum Pro includes quite a few features for that amount of money. Most of these features are present in the standard Movie Studio 9, but they are very useful features that were not present in the 8^th version of this software. It includes the Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 9.0, audio editing software. This package was originally sold for $169, but is now a part of the Platinum Pro pack. Although, a very competent audio editor, it does pose the user with some unfamiliar concepts like “envelopes” and “event groupings”. The pack also includes the Cinescore Studio Pro Pack, a music creation tool for royalty-free sound tracks. It also features over one hundred 3D transitions and effects from New Blue, with an emphasis on stylized animation. In addition to this it has better support for obscure file formats, 1001 additional sound effects and it is capable of importing AVCHD data directly from a camera. It also includes a free 2GB Sony thumb drive valued at $30. For stream line edits, it includes an updated moviemaking wizard and full screen previews for single monitors. It also has an integrated YouTube upload tool. It has a tailor made enhanced Sony AVC/MPEG-4 video encoder for handheld devices and an array of HDV-specific tools and features. One of the interesting and new features of the Platinum Pro pack is that you can now directly burn videos to Blu-ray discs from the timeline. But sadly enough, these Blu-ray discs lack menus.

Although, Platinum Pro lets you input both AVCHD and HDV video and also accepts multiple video formats, its competitors make the job of input easier. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate version 12 and Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 Ultra, both let you preview AVCHD video and still images before importing them. Coral Video Studio lets you preview and trim videos before import. With Vegas you get a simple dialog box that gives you no other option than capturing content to the selected directory. Vegas also captures DV and HDV files on two different interfaces, one that is within the program and the other in a separate applet. This method of capturing different files on different interfaces is not explainable; especially when other editing softwares let you capture them on the same interface.

Platinum Pro is quite intuitive and user-friendly, like the previous versions. But the new concepts make it a little difficult for novices to master. It does, however, have “Show Me How” interactive tutorials, built into the program, which do come to the rescue of a newbie. The Pro, like the Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9, sticks to the tri-pane interface and has everything well laid out in a very accessible manner.

Editing with Platinum Pro is a fairly simple task. Once you have captured the footage, you simply have to select the desired clip and drag it onto the timeline, where effects, titles, and transitions can be applied. The menus, too, are simple. The best feature of Platinum Pro is its ability to automatically convert from 4:3 screens to 16:9 widescreen, and vice versa. This ensures that the mixed footage will match regardless of what ratio it was shot in. It also lets you import MJPEG encoded AVI files, a common video format for still cameras.

Like most editing softwares, it gives you the freedom to spread the interface over multiple monitors. The program also supports full screen playback, even if you use one monitor, an aspect that will come in handy for notebook users, who want to preview their incomplete edits. You will find a combination of usability and functionality in this program, thanks to the inclusion of the DVD architect Studio 4.5 to the package. You can burn the movies to DVD, CD, or BD-R in little time by following a few easy steps. Files can be directly exported to a Sony PSP or can also be formatted for use on an iPod.

Most of the features of  Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro are very similar to the ones in Pinnacle’s Studio Ultimate 12. Although, the same features, the Pinnacle Studio 12 may be a better choice for newbie, as it has an entry-level interface.

The best part of  Sony Vegas editor is that you can upgrade to the higher versions of the program without skipping a beat. Whereas, other editors like  Adobe Premiere Elements has bifurcated from Premier Pro to such an extent that moving to the higher versions is as good as starting from scratch. But if you only want to make a quick video, Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro will be a very time consuming program as compared to others.

The program collects all the imported content in the Project Media window. Bins can be created and data can be organized in this window. This feature proves to be helpful when doing complex projects. There is a seven track timeline that has three video tracks, a title track, and three audio tracks. You can create your movie in this seven track timeline, which is sufficient for most users. But you can also add an audio and a video track to the default configuration. The software is capable of adding the necessary audio track for projects that use 5.1 surround sounds. Like most of the other editors, Vegas lets you trim videos on the timeline or in a separate trimmer window. You also have the option of pre-rendering and previewing videos to separate programs like the Windows Media Player, an option unique to Vegas.

Platinum Pro is an efficient and capable editor with some very useful features, but it does have competitors that are as good as or even better than it. It is not a very easy program to master, but once you do master it and slowly graduate from one version to the other, you are sure to be rewarded with a near-to-pro functionality. It is a very strong but complicated editing package that is aimed at semi-experienced professionals. So if you are an advanced or professional user, and have an experience with complicated editing software, then Sony Vegas Platinum Pro is a good choice for you. Whereas, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate version 12 may prove to be a better choice if you are a novice looking for an entry level editing package, as it has similar features with an easier interface.

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