Long one of the most under-appreciated video editing applications on the market, Sony's Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum is an exhaustive, comprehensive suite of applications that hopefully will reap the level of sales its continual critical acclaim warrants.

This new edition happily ups the ante on previous versions, but crucially it's also made the main video editing application - which was one of the more daunting in its field - much easier to use. The introduction of some new wizards to help hand-hold you through the basics of putting a movie together has been effort well spent, and it's genuinely straightforward to get up and running without being bewildered by the breadth of what the suite has to offer.

That said, there's still more of a learning curve with Vegas Movie Studio than you may get with something of the ilk of Pinnacle Studio, yet that's primarily because there's a lot of power lurking under the bonnet here. It's still grounded by the central timeline editing tool that's common to virtually every tool of its kind, and there's a good selection of transitions and effects available, plus it's easy to put together professional-looking title cards and DVD menus.

Audio options in particular are impressive, with support for adding a 5.1 surround sound track to your work (the bundled Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 matches the video editing tool for sheer power and versatility). There's also, included in the box, a tool called Cinescore which will attempt to create a soundtrack to your video. This is a bit of a hit and miss affair, but again, it's so straightforward to deploy that it's worth a go.

The Platinum Pro edition that we've tested here includes support for outputting to HDV and AVCHD, as well as Blu-ray options. Incidentally, you can - across all versions - deploy your masterpiece into a YouTube-ready format thanks to the in-built uploading mechanic.

A further benefit of the Platinum Pro Edition is the addition of a selection of transitions and effects (although installing all of this does take a reasonable amount of time).

Should you choose one of the more modest options, then the entry level pack sells for £45 but focuses purely on the video editing without the added transitions and audio options or Blu-ray support.

The £60 Platinum edition sits in the middle, adding in the 5.1 encoding support as well as the option to output to Blu-ray, PSP and iPod, while this Platinum Pro edition adds SoundForge, added effects and - bizarrely - a 2GB flash drive. We'd have preferred a tenner off the price and the choice of buying our own flash drive, but maybe that's just us.

Whichever you choose, the product isn't likely to disappoint, given the feature-rich line-up and power it puts at your fingertips. Not to mention the efforts made to make the main application easier: this is a version update that's actually worth your time and cash.

One caveat: what's held over from previous versions is the exhaustive requirement to input very long activation codes should you choose to deny the program the chance to verify itself online. We weren't keen on this before and it's got our back up a little again here.

But still, Sony Vegas Movie Studio is an excellent piece of software and one of the finest products of its type on the market. Absolutely worth your consideration and time, and Sony's rivals should well take note. As should you, while we put the finishing touches to IT Reviews: The Movie.

Er, where's everyone going?

Verdict
A Rolls-Royce video editing suite that justifies its asking price and makes things much more accessible than before. Bravo, Sony.

Company: Sony

Tags: video editing sony vegas movie studio youtube pinnacle studio ipod blu-ray disc apple final cut pro