Is MEP Plus 2021 the same program as Vegas Movie Studio 18 Platinum?

Garry-Simmons wrote on 7/15/2021, 10:02 AM

I am currently using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 14 and looking to upgrade since it crashes so much when rendering movies to disk. So I downloaded the MEP Plus 2021 and Movie Studio 18 Platinum trial versions. They appear to be the same application. Well, at least the user interface appears identical and they claim to use the same engine. The software version / build number in the "About" dialog box are different though.

Are they essentially the same app with two names? If not, what are the functional differences between them? I couldn't find a product comparison chart that compares the two products.

If they are essentially the same software now, which one will the be the supported product going forward? I would guess that one or the other will be killed off at some point in the future. Can't say that I care for the new UI and work flow. All I want is the ability to do simple video editing without it crashing. Stability >>> Features

THANKS!

Comments

CubeAce wrote on 7/15/2021, 11:58 AM

@Garry-Simmons

Hi Garry and welcome to the user to user forums.

A very good question.

This is as new to us today as it is to you, so the answer must be we really don't know everything yet.

It would appear so, but most of us on this forum for the non Vegas product line would not have a copy of the new Movie Studio 18 to compare as we are either using Movie Edit Pro or Video Pro X (or both).

There does seem to be a few variations looking at the product page and reading the advertising blurb but it does seem that the two are so close together that eventually I feel Movie Edit Pro and Movie studio 18 will merge in function into one product.

The Movie studio 18 should be able to import old Movie Studio Project files (or at least soon be able to, please look here) while Movie Edit Pro can not. (at present). The Editors layout now though is along the lines of Movie Edit Pro 2021. That may be a workflow shock to those using Movie Studio 17 and may take a bit of getting used to.

The stability and usability of Movie Edit Pro 2021 for most of us using Intel based systems has been very good as long as the computer system it is used on meets but preferably exceeds all of the minimum specifications as laid out on that product page. That could be somewhat higher than was the case for Movie Studio 17.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 7/15/2021, 1:40 PM

@Garry-Simmons., @CubeAce

As @CubeAce has commented - Movie studio 18 should be able to import old Movie Studio Project files - do note the caveat in the comment linked to - easily loads the timelined videos as RAW cut into the timeline - I take this as to mean it will import the video/images as cut in the old version however no effects, transitions etc will be loaded, until a patch to do this is released.

The following Movie Edit Pro tutorials in the Tutorials section will help familiarisation with the differences in how effects etc are used.

John EB
Forum Moderator

Garry-Simmons wrote on 7/20/2021, 12:46 PM

Since both programs appear to be the same, I ended up upgrading to Movie Studio 18 Platinum since the upgrade cost was only $50. It wasn't clear to me if I could have cross-graded to MEP Plus for the upgrade price. Thanks for the replies with the tutorial links. My needs are simple and I've managed to figure out the new (to me) UI. And it hasn't crashed while rendering a movie (yet). Keeping my fingers crossed!

johnebaker wrote on 7/20/2021, 1:28 PM

Thanks for the feedback.

Happy editing

John EB

patrasco wrote on 7/26/2021, 12:36 AM

I would guess that one or the other will be killed off at some point in the future. Can't say that I care for the new UI and work flow. All I want is the ability to do simple video editing without it crashing. Stability >>> Features

As a Vegas Movie Studio 16 user, I have been testing the trial version of MS18 for some days now with large volume of MTS/MP4 HD files. Hardware: 8 GB RAM with UHD620 graphics.

These are my findings (so far) for simple timeline editing:

Performance and stability of MS18 is good. The video engine allows smooth JKL playback of MTS files of 30 Mbps on the timeline (on a modest laptop). In Vegas Studio 16 this requires creating proxy files.
Timeline editing functionality is quite comparable. There are shortcuts for: split, remove scene start, remove scene end, group/ungroup, go to next/previous edge, ‘6’/’7’ single/all objects as equivalent for ‘auto ripple’, audio/video split edit (J/L cut), select next/previous object, …
Audio functionality is comparable (Normalize, …) once you setup options for separate video/audio tracks and audio wave form display. A bonus for MS18 is that you can create audio curves within the object (‘event’), which is not possible in Vegas Studio.
Multiple timelines and assembly of sub-projects is possible. MS18 by design has tabbed timelines (‘Movies’) which can be exported and imported separately. In Vegas Studio this could be done by

CubeAce wrote on 7/26/2021, 3:16 AM

@patrasco

Hi.

I have Movie Studio 16 as well as Movie Edit Pro 2021 and VPX 11 and I have slightly different observations to yourself.

While I agree with most of your findings I have a few differences I have experienced. Possibly down to the minimum requirements of MS 16 being much lower than those needed for MEP 2021 or VPX 11.

First difference is I have found MS 16 to be very stable on my machine and if it does not let go of memory on shutdown I have not noticed so haven't looked at the memory usage issue.

The second difference is in export times. MS 16 is somewhat faster at exporting than either of my current Magix programs and if the quality settings are set to be comparable then the output is virtually the same quality down to the point I can't tell.

Third is it is very light on resources.

There are a few effects that don't appear in MEP or VPX and is one reason I keep it on my machine. That and curiosity.

I think as a program that MS and MEP will merge into one product at a future date although which name they will go for I'm not sure and how deep into being able to import veg files keeping full functionality of a veg project as it was in earlier version of MS I can only guess at.

I don't have a problem working with either timeline setup visually although I have to think about applying or deleting effects when using MS 16. That is what interrupts my thought processes the most while using MS 16.

@Garry-Simmons @johnebaker

Ray.