Rating: 
Summary: Quite good until you want a DVD
Review: I am reasonably happy with Screen Blast Movie Studio 3.0. I am using a Sony VAIO computer Pentium 4 3 GHZ. 512 MB RAM 2 DVD-CD drives. I haven't had any of the crashes which others have written about here. I believe those are due to conflicts with other programs. For example the problems with importing Media into the Media Pool that one person wrote about could occur if you also have Adobe Photoshop installed on the computer. The crashing may be caused by one of Photoshop's associated files.
This is not a difficult program to master. There are lots of show me tutorials provided with the program. Movie Studio provides up to 6 tracks if one wishes, three video and three audio. One finds it easy to do fades and transitions. I loaded a 35 minute clip where I had filmed an interview without stopping the camera. It's easy to combine stills and videos. I've appreciated the pan and crop feature for stills.
Like others here I appreciate Movie Studio for what it does do. I am not happy for what it doesn't do which I think it should do. One cannot put in chapter points to DVD's unless one goes through the step of recording to a Mini DV tape first.
Again, as others have said, Screen Blast seems a quite adequate piece of software. It's when you reach the step of wanting to burn to a DVD that you will experience some frustration.
MY DVD which is shipped with Screen Blast, is a separate program which one loads upon completion of one's movie and after rendering the movie. Even then I couldn't seem to locate a finalizing feature. For that I needed to also buy Record NOW. I thought having the SONY name on my computer, my video editing software, and my camcorder would assure a seamless integration. This is not so. I can't use Movie Studio to convert analog video to digital through the camcorder. For that I will need to also purchase an IEEE compliant 1394 card or device.
Some reviewers feel that Movie Studio is slow when it comes to rendering your finished movies. The steps to complete a finished DVD are complex. To write a 35 minute DVD took me a total of 75 minutes. This included rendering, building menus, transcoding, transcribing, planning the video and audio, and writing the files. It takes much less time if one wants to make a copy of the DVD. For that one can accomplish the task in about 15 minutes.
I am also not happy to read that Sony is closing down its ScreenBlast.Com web site. I'm assuming this means that Sony may no longer even support Movie Studio.
One's results using Movie Studio look quite professional. It is easy to add text overlays, music dubs and graphics. It is inexpensive as video software goes and provides many of the features that more expensive software has.
Rating: 
Summary: awesome editing, disappointing authoring
Review: as an editing program movie studio can't be beat. i am constantly amazed at the feature set, and what is possible to do. it is very stable and never crashes. i rate the editing part of the package (the movie studio software itself) 5 stars. very good value for the money.the dvd authoring is another story. despite the advertisements, authoring is not integrated and is handled by sonic mydvd v4.5, a very limited and disappointing program. that's why i marked the overall package 4 stars. movie studio can almost handle 16:9 editing. all of the needed features for 16:9 are available during the editing process, the only hitch comes when encoding to mpeg-2 in order to create a dvd. this requires a workaround involving a free program called dvdpatcher to set the correct aspect ratio on the mpeg file before authoring. this only takes a second so it isn't a big deal. i honestly think movie studio is the best "consumer" (under $100) editing program available.
Rating: 
Summary: Just what you need to make your own movies
Review: Bought this program after two working with two other programs that were too simple. Could not be more happy. My 15 and 18 year olds have loved working on projects using this program and our digital video camera. With three available adio soundtracks and multiple options on each video and audio tracks this has been fun to work with.
Rating: 
Summary: Its de same software as Video Explosion Deluxe
Review: Dont buy this software, belive me,its the same as Video Explosion Deluxe but with a new name,its incredible that a Brand like Sony had approve this kind of trick,
Rating:
Summary: User-friendly with multiple features
Review: For the most part, Screenblast Movie Studio was written for a layperson like me. It is as easy to use as advertised. Editing is mostly accomplished by the cut & paste method. It has many more special effects than you would ever really need. All this for a reasonable price (under $100). I have tried others (like Ulead, OnDVD, MovieStar, etc.), but this was by far the easiest program to use (with no loss of features for its simplicity). By using the excellent tutorial, you can be up and running in less than an hour.
There is one big negative that should be mentioned. There is too little discussion about the 4 gigabyte file limitation with Win98 (and some other OS). It took me awhile to figure out why my DVD's would only play 18 min's and 47 sec's of video, despite having much more data on it. I realize that this is a problem for all DVD editing and writing software, but there should be some mention of it in the manual (only a scant reference is made to it), along with ways to deal with this issue. It was a rather trying experience finding the source of the problem and then learning how to deal with it.
All in all, the program is by far the best editing software I have come across for both features and ease of use. It has my recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: User-friendly with multiple features
Review: For the most part, Screenblast Movie Studio was written for a layperson like me. It is as easy to use as advertised. Editing is mostly accomplished by the cut & paste method. It has many more special effects than you would ever really need. All this for a reasonable price (under $100). I have tried others (like Ulead, OnDVD, MovieStar, etc.), but this was by far the easiest program to use (with no loss of features for its simplicity). By using the excellent tutorial, you can be up and running in less than an hour.
There is one big negative that should be mentioned. There is too little discussion about the 4 gigabyte file limitation with Win98 (and some other OS). It took me awhile to figure out why my DVD's would only play 18 min's and 47 sec's of video, despite having much more data on it. I realize that this is a problem for all DVD editing and writing software, but there should be some mention of it in the manual (only a scant reference is made to it), along with ways to deal with this issue. It was a rather trying experience finding the source of the problem and then learning how to deal with it.
All in all, the program is by far the best editing software I have come across for both features and ease of use. It has my recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: movie studio is rock solid and powerful
Review: I am a former Pinnacle Studio8 user and was so frustrated over it's poor performance and stability that I almost gave up video work. I installed Sony Movie Studio and have been happy ever since. I'm so glad I discovered it. It performs well, is rock solid stable, has powerful features that the more costly competition does not have, and offers excellent support and forums. Movie Studio is wonderful.....I can honestly say that there is not much more I coudl ask for from a package!
Rating:
Summary: Makes me look good!
Review: I bought this software to edit large-format videos that I take with my Minolta Z2 digital camera, which records sound and motion in the Quicktime (*.mov) format. My WinXP Movie Maker can't import that format, and I haven't found a way to make it handle more than 320x240 pixels. I checked other video editing software packages (the ones that allow a free-trial download) and not all of them can import Quicktime files. One more requirement: my Minolta can shoot video at up to 800x600 pixels -- a "knock-your-socks-off" level of resolution. I wanted a video editor that could input and output video files at that level of resolution.
I've found that Screenblast does the best job with the 800x600 format by outputing in MPEG2. MPEG2 is playable in Windows Media Player if it is given the MPEG2 codec (which should have been provided in Windows Service Pack 2 but wasn't). The videos are, if I may immodestly say so, beautiful. They make me look good as a movie maker.
I found, to my surprise, that Screenblast is intuitive. You can start using it immediately for simple editing, and teach yourself the fancy tricks as you go along. It is also powerful enough to be fun. For example, you can brighten up a scene that appears dark because it was shot in low light, or correct for a color cast given by tungsten lights. It is sometimes tempting to over-use the wizardry, which can overshadow the video's content. This is not a criticism of the software, only a warning that "...with great power comes great responsibility."
Rating:
Summary: Based on Trial - Better than the Rest
Review: I have been trying out this software, Pinnacle Studio 9, Ulead Video Studio 8, Adobe Premiere (version?), and Windows Movie Maker 2. If you're a beginner, and want to create high-quality home videos, I think this is your best bet. I'm not a heavy video editor; I just want to make movies of my 1-year-old and be able to do things like adjust the brightness and contrast of the video. I used to be a programmer before the baby so I'm computer-savvy, however, I've had zero experience with video editing. After trying all the above-listed software titles, I absolutely prefer Sony Screenblast Movie Studio. I've read all the reviews, and Ulead & Pinnacle seem to lead the pack, but in my experience, the Sony software is so much easier to use. I can get what I want without a lot of fuss. Even installing Pinnacle was major ordeal, and I couldn't install their patch over the trial software (invalid serial #, which, by the way, is NOT shown on the Help -> About menu on their trial software).
That's my 2 cents. I plan on going out to purchase Movie Studio tomorrow, or soon. It's my favorite after many trials.
Rating:
Summary: Works better than any thing else I have tried
Review: I needed a program to make dvd's for my buisness. Bought a new sony computer, then started the program search. This program is my third or fourth, and is the best. The editor is a little complex, I cannot run a lot of features yet.
Program loaded easily into xp, the book is more helpful than any other book i recieved with the other softwear. Biggest anoyance is having to use the old program "MY DVD" to burn, and organize the chapters. This is a medium complex editor, capable of making nice chapters, with text control, and music or/and voice over, and the ability to make a nice front page for the dvd, with music track.
Took me three programs to get here. My mother loved the slideshow dvd that I made for her of her Turkey/Greece trip. Perfect way to show her trip to family and friends.
Now I can finish shooting video and get my dvd's moved out.
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