Movie Studio 18

Bernard-Smeets wrote on 7/29/2021, 5:49 PM

Recently Magix released Movie Studio 18. This has caused confusion for user of the previous version of Movie Studio especially those coming from the Vegas Studio generation SW. Those that have purchased previously Movie Studio 17 had still that version to be part of the Vegas family. The confusion was discovered by questions on the need to purchase HEVC codes in Movie Studio 18 which led to the clarification of the moderator that Movie Studio 18 is no longer a Vegas family member. Also the moderator Marco referred to this forum - even if the Movie Studio 18 is not even listed as one of the products covered by this forum at Magix.info- see enclosed screenshot below.

As in the original forum thread (see https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/purchaed-hevc-codec-to-use-for-video-on-website-it-won-t-play-video--130653/#ca813745) is explained the update offering in Movie Studio 17 to Movie Studio 18 is misleading as it does not explain that this update will take to user to a non-Vegas member. Moreover, the offering itself is displayed as an Vegas upgrade. (see 2nd screenshot below). Furthermore, the Movie Studio 18 product is announced by Magix via the url https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/int/vegas-movie-studio/. This suggests people MS18 is still a Vegas family member, regardless what moderators tell in fora.

Hence I recommend existing user of previous Movie Studio products not to take this upgrade until Magix has clarified all the ramifications of their offering to upgrade to Movie Studio. Personally I do not care that much if MS 18 is a Vegas family member or not but rather if this upgrade would force me to purchase codecs like the Magix HEVC/ACC codec that was included in MS17 and that I can truly in MS18 open my projects that I had in previous versions of Movie Studio. It says so in FAQ (https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/support/article/can-i-still-work-on-my-old-vegas-movie-studio-projects--1611/) but now this aspect of MS18 not being a Vegas member has surfaced one starts to doubt if this is actually true. Also what does "older brothers" mean? Why not talk plain facts, like projects created under MS version x, y and z, can be opened (and will be converted when saved).

Movie Studio 18 is not mentioned as product for this community forum

Upgrade is offered as "Upgrade: Vegas Movie Studio Suite"

Comments

CubeAce wrote on 7/30/2021, 6:20 AM

@Bernard-Smeets

Hi Bernard and welcome to the Magix user to user forums.

It would appear from the upgrade messages I'm now getting that things are improving as to explanations on the Vegas Creative site.

First my 'Upgrade offer' notification.

Clicking on the 'Learn more' box takes me to here.

Notice at the bottom you are invited to click for more information which takes you to this page.

While the specs page reflects more accurately the state of affairs regarding the new programs requirements to run.

Along with pages of links to tutorials on how to fine tune the software and what goals they are working towards.

While this is still not an ideal situation Vegas Movie Studio 17 users have two options for an upgrade path with discounts for either path, all be it one path is actually going up one tier within the Vegas family of programs and the other more of a cross-grade to a new platform with different hardware requirements.

As technically this is a Vegas creative offer I would expect the information to be for now an offer to solely appear on the Vegas creative website. It's lack of appearance on the Magix website is probably down to it really being a variation to Movie Edit Pro 2021 which when the two eventually merge into one product will be on the Magix website only whatever it ends up being called.

Ray.

CubeAce wrote on 7/30/2021, 8:43 AM

@Bernard-Smeets

Hi Bernard.

They have apparently just now added a live help desk on the website.

That was unexpected!

Ray.

Joly wrote on 7/30/2021, 2:25 PM

Hi,

Me too, I'm absolutely not pleased with this misleading information.🙁

I bought it 2 days ago. This software doesn't offer the same quality as the Vegas version 😣

As you already mentioned, previous projects can't be loaded in this version.
I also noticed 2 other issues:

When starting the application, it always launches first the Installationmanager...
I always have to download and (re)install the ProDAD Vibe add-on.

I am considering demanding my money back

johnebaker wrote on 7/30/2021, 4:40 PM

@Joly

. . . . previous projects can't be loaded in this version. . . .

Previous projects can be loaded into Magix Movie Studio (MMS), however currently only the raw edits can be loaded, effects, transitions etc are being worked on by Magix.

. . . . When starting the application, it always launches first the Installationmanager . . .

See this comment on how to stop this, though it is for Movie Edit Pro, which MMS is based on, it should also work for MMS.

ProDad vibe I cannot help with as I do not use it.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

I suspect that the online chat is for US and Canada customers only - I am not getting it appearing in any other country setting.

John EB
Forum Moderator

CubeAce wrote on 7/30/2021, 5:09 PM

@johnebaker

Hi John.

Could it be only during office hours? The screenshot says US.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 7/31/2021, 7:00 AM

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

Try changing the Country location at the bottom of the web page and see what happens.

John EB

CubeAce wrote on 7/31/2021, 7:34 AM

@johnebaker

Can't get that to come up again on any country website John. Must be office hours.

Ray.

Joly wrote on 8/1/2021, 8:13 AM

@Joly

Hi

. . . . previous projects can't be loaded in this version. . . .

Previous projects can be loaded into Magix Movie Studio (MMS), however currently only the raw edits can be loaded, effects, transitions etc are being worked on by Magix.

. . . . When starting the application, it always launches first the Installationmanager . . .

See this comment on how to stop this, though it is for Movie Edit Pro, which MMS is based on, it should also work for MMS.

ProDad vibe I cannot help with as I do not use it.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

I suspect that the online chat is for US and Canada customers only - I am not getting it appearing in any other country setting.

John EB
Forum Moderator

I upgraded my Vegas Movie Studio 16 Platinum, and the vf-projects are not readable at all.

As a former developer, when you release a new version, you should always guarantee that previous projects, documents, or whatever file type the application produces remain usable.

About the Vibe add-on ... this is what I see...

I have to download it over and over again. And after every install, a popup appears requesting to restart the application. The stand-alone version is usable, but it turns out this can't be launched from within Movie Studio.

CubeAce wrote on 8/1/2021, 9:47 AM

@Joly

While I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments I've yet to see a complex bit of software without bugs.

Not usually big screaming ones I'll admit but something has gone wrong at Magix. I don't think I've ever seen such a large amount of mistakes in the past although I'm a relatively new Magix user. (2018). I think their reputation is going to deteriorate fast is things don't get sorted soon.

Personally I'm seldom an early adopter of any new version of a program awaiting reports of usability from other users. If my current software worked last week then it will probably work next week. That is more important to me than trying to get a slightly faster export time or slightly better playback characteristics.

The ProDAD Hide is not a plugin but a standalone program. You may see this popup if you launch the application from its own exe. file.

For some reason it has to hunt for Direct X 9c before it can launch but as that is a part of Direct X12 it soon disappears and the program should replace the warning box ready for use.

It is so resource hungry on any clip fed to it that has a resolution higher than HD or a frame rate above 25 fps that I suspect if it were a plugin, export times from the host video editor would be horrendous to the point of useless. In my opinion of trying to use it, the program has a limited use which is understandable once you figure out what it is actually doing and needs serious work done to it to make it both more user friendly and faster at exporting unless you have days to spare compiling a short 4K clip.

Ray.