Rating: 
Summary: Works well for me!!!
Review: I purchased Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0 in December 2003 and was productively using it within an hour or two of the install. I haven't run into any trouble at all. I'm operating on a new, but bottom of the line Dell PC. I'm very pleased with the system functionality. I was especially delighted to see that I could create a slideshow from digital photos and could use transition effects to move from one photo to the next. In addition, I was able to add a soundtrack to the slideshow. Then I was able to burn it to a CD and play it on my DVD. I was very impressed, but perhaps I impress easy. I recommend this software to anyone with at least a basic knowledge of technology. Its great for video movies, stills, incorporating the two, etc. If you still have a VCR and its still blinking "12:00", you will have to work hard to learn this, for everyone else, its great!
Rating: 
Summary: good but glitchy
Review: I purchased the Sony DCR-DVD 300 video cam and thought this software would dovetail with the camera. but not so since it doesn't even recognize the camera - the camera is that new. I have to use the included software, Imagemaker, which is very flawed and has already caused me to reinstall my Windows XP and do the hours of updates. From Imagemaker you need to convert the video file to an MPEG 2 before Screenblaster will recognize it.
So now were into the software and it certainly does have some nice features. The learning curve is somewhat steep and I tend to do things without reading the instructions first and this software is not necessarily ergonomically easy to use at first. But time and experience and reading the instruction book helps.
My main gripe is that when doing cross fades I suddenly have annoying clicks in the vicinity of where the fades are. I can eliminate them either by completely rebuilding the "event" or isolating each loud click and deleting it but then I also delete a very small fragment of the video.
I've written Sony and they don't seem to know what's going on. I've followed all of their suggestions but to no avail. And at this stage they don't have any updates for it.
What's clear to me is that Sony has produced a fine camera but the software comes from companies they just purchased and it's somewhat behind in technology. So buyers beware - good features but glitchy. I suspect that with time future software updates will make this a good program.
Rating:
Summary: Exceeded my expectations
Review: I recently gave my 58yo uncle a newer computer to go with his brand-new DV camera. My uncle owns a machine shop and generally does not use computers, but wanted to get into making his own DVDs.
I like to show new users things with them sitting in the driver's seat so they get the routines down.
My uncle had no trouble with the installation and registration. Really, the biggest challenge for him was bending past his enormous beergut to plug the firewire cable into the back of the PC. Thereafter, he had little difficulty with grasping video capture, managing video and audio on separate layers, and eventually exporting his final creation to a single file.
He even got a taste of modifying his source video with movie studio's premade filters and transitions. I edit with Final Cut Pro for a living and found the ease-of-use particularly impressive.
Rating: 
Summary: ScreenBlast has been replaced
Review: I recently had correspondence with Sony. They advised me that they shut down ScreenBlast.com on 9/30/04. They confirmed that there will be no updates for ScreenBlast Movie Studio 3.0 in the future, since they have essentially discontinued it. You can imagine my dismay, having purchased this product only 6 months ago.
They did say that they will support it if you e-mail them, but there is no site for User Tips, etc. anymore. Because of my frustration, they sent me all the links to the media (sound, video files, etc.) that would have been available to me at ScreenBlast.com, since I wasn't able to get it before they shut the site down. They also extended me an offer to buy an upgrade to their replacement product, Vegas Movie Studio 4.0, which includes DVD Architech Studio 2.0 (instead of MyDVD).
After enough complaining on my part, they gave me the full version of the replacement product for free. Initially, I felt pretty good about that and felt that they had taken care of me adequately.
That was until after another inquiry I sent them brought me this message: "Our Vegas software will only 100% support capturing from a DV camcorder or DV deck through a standard OHCI compliant IEEE-1394 (Firewire / iLink) board. If you are using any external break-out boxes or capture cards then we can not guarantee that this device will capture video with our software."
I do not own a camcorder and I don't have a firewire card. I have been simply trying to capture a small stash of old videotapes given to me by others, from an analog VCR connected into my computer via an ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 graphics card with TV/tuner. Vegas is incapable of dealing with this. It will record video, but not sound. Sony advises me to use other capture software to accomplish this. A person shouldn't have to use 3 different pieces of software to accomplish capturing a video, editing it, and saving it to a DVD.
I'm pretty annoyed that it appears I'll need to revert back to the old antiquated ScreenBlast 3.0 product to capture video from my VCR with a Sony product. One further note on this is that Sony's really particular about what path you install into, because if you install it where you want it to go, there could be conflicts if other Sony software is anywhere present there.
If none of this is relevant for you because you have no other Sony software on your computer, and you own an appropriate type of camcorder and connection Sony requires, then I can tell you this. ScreenBlast Movie Studio and Vegas Movie Studio look pretty much identical. Vegas adds a few minor things. It's great editing software. If you want to nab some old videotapes via VCR hookup, forget it.
Other reviewers are correct that the software can seem overwhelming at first, but the more you explore it, the more it will seem extremely easy to you. I found that I really liked it after just a short time of poking around until I got how it worked. Reviewing the manual speeds up that process and is worth your time. It's an easy read and pretty comprhensive.
For my purposes though, the fact that it won't allow me to capture from my analog VCR is an extreme annoyance that makes me wish I'd ignored all the complaints about Pinnacle and Ulead anyway and purchased one of those instead. I've essentially wasted my money, in not being able to use this piece of software for the captures I need to do. Therefore, I can't give it any kind of decent rating.
Two weeks of dinging around with the software and contacting Sony, and in the end, I'm pretty darn disappointed. I haven't figured out for sure what my solution is going to be to capture from my VCR. The software that came with my graphics card doesn't offer as high of resolution as Vegas does.
I will post this review under Sony Vegas Movie Studio as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Get this if you want a "better" home movie.
Review: I suppose that, considering the whole package, I shouldn't give Screenblast 5 stars, but the editing functions are that good. I've used other programs, but only Screenblast gives me the kind of precision editing I needed. And only Screenblast gives me truly professional-looking titling functions. After many frustrating hours trying to get Pinnacle to work, Screenblast was a pure joy from beginning to end. The down side is that for DVD authoring, it provides a separate program, Sonic MyDVD. MyDVD worked once for me, and produced good results. But when I went back and wanted to make a second DVD from exactly the same project, MyDVD reported that my video files were incompatible. Looking at other people's comments, it's apparent that MyDVD is an albatross around the neck of Screenblast. Just install the Screenblast portion of the software to do your editing and get a different product to do your DVD authoring. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Good product, but very frustrating registration process...
Review: I think this is the best video product for the price. I've done a lot of searching and reading and most people agree. It has terrific video effects, including zooming in on your videos, cropping them and text with shadows. And of course all the nifty fades and warps and such. Its interface is simple and effective once you get used to the timeline approach rather than the storyboard approach used in other programs. It takes some reading to get used to it because their aren't many intuitive, pretty buttons like some programs, but in the end you'll be glad because it helps you focus on the main content, your videos. It comes with very useful tutorials that allow you to actually do the tutorial within the program rather than watch it. I have one big complaint that made this a 4-star review. They force you to register this before you can even use it, both the main program and the MPG1 and MPG2 plugin. If you do not have an Internet connection, you have to call them with your serial # and "computer id" and then get an activation code to enter. I had to do this twice over two days, once for the main program and then the next day after I discovered that the MPG plugins also require a separate activation.
Rating:
Summary: Covers the basics
Review: I tried the demo of Pinnacle before settling on Screenblast. Screenblast is much more stable and easy to do the basics. Although Pinnicle seemed to have a few features that Screenblast did not have, most of them are really not important. (For example, Pinnacle can do storyboarding, were Screenblast can not.) The biggest plus that I saw (besides the fact that it does not crash every 5 minutes like Pinnacle) was the Pan and crop feature. This allows you to pan/crop a shot. This is great for adding 'animation' to your still photos, as well as other effects for video. The biggest draw back is clearly the DVD creation. My Studio 4.5 is included and is a very weak software. The two are not integrated, so if you want to creat a DVD with multiple chapters, you have to go back through the camera. It is very disappointing. Overall, this is a decent product compared to its peers, but still has a few holes.
Rating: 
Summary: Frustrating
Review: I wish I had not purchased this software. It has many flaws. One, if you have several pictures on your timeline and wish to extend or shorten the play time of that particular picture, you have to edit ALL the pictures after it. Not much fun when you have 50 pictures up there! Pinacle automatically moves surrounding pictures, much easier!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing software for under $100
Review: I'm not a professional video editor but am quite creative because of my fashion photography background. I needed a video software to make a video for my daughter's gymnastics team. The end result using Screenblast turn-out awesome. The software was easy to use. The timeline style make so much sense vs. story boarding of competing products in this class. There are so many elements you can incorporate including pan & crop of still pictures. Transitions are nice. Stretching a video clip for slow motion effect is very hollywood quality. Separate tracks for text, video overlay, video, audio, audio background, and audio effects with individual controls are too good to be true. Documentation was easy to understand. I actually read a few pages only because I was waiting for video to render. Otherwise, software is simple enough to use. There's even a wizard that guides you along while working on your own project. It's like having an instructor on your side all the time. I have not joined Screenblast.com but I'm sure there's more surprises there for me. All in all, Sony or should I say Sonic Foundry has a great product. My recommendation: Buy a Sony MiniDV camcorder with minimum 2 Megapixel resolution, a Sony Vaio computer with Pentium HT, and Sony Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0. Go ahead and make amazing DVDs. Don't forget, buy Surething.com's labeling software cause Sony does not have one. Oh yeah, buy DVD+R media that's minimum 2x speed so you don't have to wait to long for your finished product. By the way, buy from Amazon.com. You can't go wrong!
Rating:
Summary: Best Features and Usability
Review: I'm not often inspired to write a review, but this program is exactly what I wanted. I demoed other programs like Showbiz, Pinnacle, VideoWave, and VideoStudio, and each had some impressive features. However, each left me unsatisfied in one way or another, from stability to ease of use to lack of configurability in many of the effects. The one thing I like best about Screenblast is that you get three general purpose video tracks and three general purpose audio tracks. They come preconfigured with names like "Text", "Overlay", "Music", etc., but you can use them for any media (and even rename them). Overlay and chromakeying effects are a breeze. The next coolest thing is the Pan/Crop feature, which allows any video or static image to have a starting and ending screen position, zoom, and rotation. This flexibility allows for unlimited creativity in moving picture-in-picture and panning motion for static images. Really cool stuff! Finally, Screenblast's effect support and library is fantastic. You can apply any number of effects to any clip in any order, and each effect is highly customizable, again optionally with starting and ending settings to achieve timed effects. I can only say "Wow!" On top of all this, it has not yet crashed (at all!) and the performance is good even on my 900mhz P3 Win2k machine. The only cons are the fact that some people might prefer a simpler storyboard mode (although most of the features only really make sense in the more generic timeline approach), and you need to play with it for a bit before you can be fully comfortable with all its features. Flexibility often comes at a cost to simplicity, but the final result is almost always a better one. Five stars. What a great video editor!
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