Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12 review

The boost given by the new GPU acceleration was even more dramatic. This is used to power 36 of the 51 available effects, including all the most important ones: colour correction, stabilisation, Gaussian blur, chroma keying.

The editor gives a clear readout of the preview frame rate, and we measured improvements from 300 to 2,100 per cent as a result of this acceleration. Export times received a significant boost, too. Both ATI and nVidia graphics cards are supported, thanks to the OpenCL protocol.

We experienced a couple of crashes and occasional glitches to previews, though. Considering Movie Studio’s previously rock-solid reliability, we’d guess that this is the result of the graphics acceleration. Still, we’ll put up with the odd hiccup for the enormous benefits this acceleration brings. For those who disagree, it can be disabled in the Preferences.

Sony has doubled the number of video and audio tracks to capitalise on this power, with 20 of each now available. Also new is the introduction of keyframe lanes and Bézier curves, which give far more precision over varying effects settings.

Multiple keyframe lanes and Bézier curve editing unlock a new level of precision for the effects

It’s one of the features that previously put Movie Studio behind Adobe Premiere Elements for power, so it’s great to see it finally included. However, it’s still missing in the one place we want it most – the Pan/Crop editor for animating the size and position of visual elements.

It’s a shame the Pan/Crop tool is still stuck with a single keyframe lane and minimal control over the path between keyframes

There’s a smattering of interface tweaks, including new buttons and keyboard shortcuts for Trim Start and Trim End. We’ve always liked the way Movie Studio builds lots of controls directly into clips on the timeline, and these are better laid out and visually clearer than before.

It’s an extremely close call choosing between the current crop of consumer video-editing packages, with Sony, Adobe, Pinnacle and Serif all in reach of the top spot. Sony’s editor is the most polished of the four, but it does lag behind the others for features. Still, if your PC is fast enough to handle HD video, and if you prefer to wow audiences with your footage rather than fancy editing techniques, Movie Studio Platinum is our top recommendation. For something a bit simpler, Serif MoviePlus X6 is a great choice for most users.