Sony Launches New Vegas+DVD Production Suite For Editing Films

The capability of software to edit films and videos has increased dramatically, while the cost of such software has dropped from $thousands to a few hundred dollars. Sony Media Software sent their new Vegas+DVD Production Suite for review. It's a perfect example of professional editing-software that was previously affordable only by movie studios and production companies.

Vegas+DVD Production Suite allows you to edit feature-length productions, as well as music videos, TV commercials, Web content viral videos, DVDs and promotional films. The suite includes Vegas 7 and DVD Architect 4 software, as well as a Dolby Digital AC-3 multi-channel encoder for 5.1 surround output.

Many of today's filmmakers no longer shoot on 35mm film. Director George Lucas and other directors, particularly those shooting indie films, have stopped shooting film. Why?-Because the cost of film and processing is too expensive now. And video allows instant playback of the scenes you've shot.

New state-of-the-art video cameras, such as Panavision's Genesis, are all the rage. So software to edit this footage has to keep up. Sony's new Vegas 7 nonlinear editing software supports high-end HDV and XDCAM video, too. Vegas 7 software also offers full frame rate playback of native HDV on the Vegas timeline.

If you use an inexpensive miniDV camcorder to shoot your videos, you will enjoy the wide array of Vegas 7 features that create professional output-not like some quickie cellphone videos. The effects you can do are almost endless. You can change colors, mirror your video images, add grain, add all sorts of transitions between scenes, or transform your color video into sepia or black & white.

The Vegas+DVD Production Suite also includes an updated version of DVD Architect software. It offers new capabilities for the design and production of DVDs. New scripting tools enable custom navigation and interactivity. It supports parental control, and the included Sony Cinescore music-generation plug-in.