Vegas Pro 8

There’s a law of marketing that says any product with ‘Pro’ in the name usually isn’t, so it’s slightly ominous to see it making an appearance in Sony’s flagship video editor. Vegas has long been a favourite with savvy PC-based video professionals and enthusiasts because of its unusually speedy and friendly editing environment. But as the competition piles on the eye candy, creating better environments for web-related video and generally working hard to move things along, Sony seems content to offer just more cosmetic changes and a few deeper tweaks.

Most of what’s been added will be welcome, but none of it is revolutionary. Pride of place goes to the 32-bit colour support. This will be very welcome, and avoids the patchiness and noise that can lower the quality of 8-bit editing – if your drive is fast enough. Also new is multi-camera support. This is ‘flavour of the year’ among video editors, but Sony’s approach is clever and intuitive. You can set up different angles in the preview window and select them using the keyboard or an external controller.

A new titling utility adds more professional text. When everyone is putting up YouTube videos titled with Arial on blue, this might not seem like a timely addition. But for semi-pro work it’s a good extra, which adds glows, blurs and even keyframed path animations. While it’s possible to create some sophisticated effects, the features are a good way short of the more impressive animations available in Final Cut Studio. Also new is Blu-ray burning from the timeline, which is handy enough, and some relatively minor changes to the main interface.

The associated DVD Architect authoring tool is also included in the package. But this has always lacked the elegant interface that Vegas offers, and has had even less done to it.

If this all sounds a little disappointing, it is. Flash and web video support are minimal, there’s no HD-preview editing on a laptop that can be applied to full-resolution HD footage later, no huge collection of eye candy and text effects, and patchy support for professional video formats. Sony’s UK sales strategy also seems eccentric. Go to the main UK distributor and you’ll pay £499. Buy online from the Sony site and you’ll pay a bargain price of £290 or so. A difference of £200 for the same product isn’t easy to justify.

Overall, Vegas remains a powerful editor for newcomers who want some serious editing power. But Sony seems happy to let Vegas drift towards the semi-pro and amateur markets, which is a shame because it’s capable of much more.