Product Reviews

Sony's flagship video-editing application has received abundant praise in Shopper, but the last update (reviewed in What's New, Shopper January 2007) was criticised for not providing enough in the way of new editing features to keep up with rival applications from Adobe and Avid. This version goes some way to allay our criticisms, but not as far as we would like.

We're pleased to see the Pro suffix added to the product name, giving a clear distinction between this and the Movie Studio and Movie Studio Platinum versions aimed at home users. Also, the preview window resides at the top rather than the bottom of the screen by default - a nod to convention set out by more established applications. More significant is the introduction of 32-bit floating-point video processing, which gives far smoother, more accurate colours when applying radical effects settings. Unfortunately, the preview performance drops by anything from half to an eighth of the level achieved at the default 8-bit processing mode.

The new feature we're most excited about is multi-camera editing, which simplifies the process of editing synchronised footage shot with multiple cameras. Up to four video streams are displayed in a two-by-two grid in the preview window, and selecting the active one simply involves clicking it with the mouse or the keyboard number pad. All effects are switched off to

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help give smoother previews, although even with a Core 2 Duo processor we were unable to edit HD footage in this way. However, for standard-definition MPEG2 or DV files, it worked flawlessly. Setting up for multi-camera editing is far simpler than in Adobe Premiere and it's easy to tidy up edits using the normal timeline controls.

The new ProType Titler adds considerable scope for sophisticated text animations, including the ability to adjust the size, position and formatting of individual words or letters. It's also possible to make text follow a curved path and to create separate keyframes for each parameter. The latter makes it easier to create smooth animations, where keyframes for rotation don't get muddled together with keyframes for scale and position, for example. The downside is a lot of keyframes to contend with, but we gladly accept this drawback for the greater precision it provides.

Sadly, curved paths and multi-track keyframes remain unavailable for video and graphics clips. Various options such as Smooth, Linear or Hold control the speed of movement, but the path is always linear. This is an area where Vegas's main rivals, Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Liquid, have a significant lead, with comprehensive control over the speed and the path between keyframes, giving more natural-looking object motion. We're also less than keen on Vegas's separate tools for 2D and 3D motion, which would be better off being integrated into a single, comprehensive motion editor.

Vegas Pro 8 is a worthy update to an already excellent application. For most users it is our top recommendation, thanks to unparalleled speed and ease of use, comprehensive format support, precise, powerful editing tools and fantastic DVD-authoring facilities. However, the basic keyframe editing is a limitation that must be overcome before it will warrant our recommendation for the most demanding users. Until then, Premiere Pro CS3 is a better choice, despite its price.