Rating: 
Summary: Make your videos into DVDs....NOT!
Review: If you are looking for a video editing software that is both powerful and easy to learn look no further. I have used Videowave, Pinnacle, and Showbiz all of which have their inherent problems mostly associated with causing my 2.8 gig AMD processor running MS XP Pro to crash repeatedly. On the other hand if you desire to make DVD disks of your production avoid this program like week old sushi. The included obsolete version of MyDVD can't read the native Video Explosion files requiring an additional rendering and resultant resolution loss, that is when it even works. This is a monumental mistake for Nova Development the makers of Video Explosion. I predict this omission will soon prove fatal to an otherwise superior product. Nova Development are you listening? Provide us with the ability easily to burn a DVD directly from the editing screen without resorting to the obsolete unworkable second party add on. Until this "oversight" is rectified I am recommending Pinnacle Studio. My quest for a workable video editing program will continue,... stay tuned.
Rating: 
Summary: Navagation proves difficult.
Review: Ok I have this program & have installed it & uninstalled it a number of times on my computer. I love all the cool effects it has, but I have had problems actaully trying ot use them!! I LOVE WMM2 & have found that VERY easy to navigate, but it doesnt have nearly the amt of cool effects as this does! If someone could help me out, I'd appreciate it!
I would love to continue making more BTVS videos, & hopefully get my $$'s worth out of this software!
Rating: 
Summary: Best for the money
Review: The only drawback is the limited DVD authoring options - it comes with the Sonic authoring software that is packaged with the many writable DVD drives. Otherwise, the user interface is very well-designed, and there's plenty to dig in to. You won't run out of new things to experiment with anytime soon. Update: I did notice the "strobing" effect when you render in "NTSC-Better" mode. So I took the advice of another reviewer and rendered in "NTSC-Medium" mode. The strobing went away, and there was negligible degradation in picture quality. And rendered in half the time, to boot.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The tutorials will have you using the software in no time and the user interface makes the editing process fun rather than tedious. By the way it can import and export MPEG-2. It can't import RealMedia but it can export it. I like this software and recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and economical
Review: This is a wonderful program. I've been experimenting with home video editing for about four years and have used many programs. Admittedly, I am just a hobbyist and have used mostly the low end software. However, I have used Adobe Premiere, Broderbund MovieShop, MGI Videowave, Ulead Videostudio, Roxio Videowave among others and compare this program with these. In many ways, this program is one of the best that I've worked with. The software installed easily into Windows XP Pro. I've had difficulties with video capture with other programs, but not with this one. I initially attempted to capture video to the same hard drive that the program was installed to and suffered an unacceptably high frame drop rate. However, when I captured video to a second hard drive, I didn't lose a single frame. If you don't have two hard drives, this program may not work as well for you, but this is generally true of most video editing programs. The quality of the video captured was superior to that of some of the other programs and this program has some video editing features (including sharpening and contrast control) not available in competitive programs. The software interface is user friendly and the controls intuitive. It only allows for two layers of video and three layers of sound, so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the competitors. However, this is sufficient for my purposes and I suspect it would be for most home users. It handles video overlay very nicely, has a very handsome and easy to use titling program, and allowed for music and voice-over narration to be inserted into the video. There are plenty of transitions which render correctly and reliably, which unfortunately cannot be said of all the competitors. Although some other reviewers have observed the program is better for VCD than DVD, this was not my experience. I found mpeg2 output to be very sharp and used this program to produce a very high quality DVD. In fact, this program brought me as close to that elusive "broadcast" quality video for which hobbyists aim as I ever been. The VCD is probably acceptable as VCD goes, but DVD is far superior. I wasn't happy with the VCD output, but that is probably more a limitation of VCD in general than this particular program. If you're interested in making home movies, the investment in a DVD burner is probably worthwhile. The quality is dramatically superior and this program handles it well. I have very few complaints with the program. I tend to mix still images with video in my work and was a little disappointed that the program does not allow you to import "tiff" files. Adobe Premerie allows "tiff" images, but this program forces you to convert your images to lower resolution "jpeg" files before you import them. However, the images rendered very nicely and I had no complaints with the quality of the still images in the final program. I viewed one of my movies on a 50 inch TV screen and had no resolution problems at that size. If you're a very serious hobbyist or professional, this program might be too streamlined for your purposes. However, I suspect most home users will be happy with this program and if you're a novice thinking about editing some video at home and don't want to make a huge financial investment; this program is a great place to start.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and economical
Review: This is a wonderful program. I've been experimenting with home video editing for about four years and have used many programs. Admittedly, I am just a hobbyist and have used mostly the low end software. However, I have used Adobe Premiere, Broderbund MovieShop, MGI Videowave, Ulead Videostudio, Roxio Videowave among others and compare this program with these. In many ways, this program is one of the best that I've worked with. The software installed easily into Windows XP Pro. I've had difficulties with video capture with other programs, but not with this one. I initially attempted to capture video to the same hard drive that the program was installed to and suffered an unacceptably high frame drop rate. However, when I captured video to a second hard drive, I didn't lose a single frame. If you don't have two hard drives, this program may not work as well for you, but this is generally true of most video editing programs. The quality of the video captured was superior to that of some of the other programs and this program has some video editing features (including sharpening and contrast control) not available in competitive programs. The software interface is user friendly and the controls intuitive. It only allows for two layers of video and three layers of sound, so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the competitors. However, this is sufficient for my purposes and I suspect it would be for most home users. It handles video overlay very nicely, has a very handsome and easy to use titling program, and allowed for music and voice-over narration to be inserted into the video. There are plenty of transitions which render correctly and reliably, which unfortunately cannot be said of all the competitors. Although some other reviewers have observed the program is better for VCD than DVD, this was not my experience. I found mpeg2 output to be very sharp and used this program to produce a very high quality DVD. In fact, this program brought me as close to that elusive "broadcast" quality video for which hobbyists aim as I ever been. The VCD is probably acceptable as VCD goes, but DVD is far superior. I wasn't happy with the VCD output, but that is probably more a limitation of VCD in general than this particular program. If you're interested in making home movies, the investment in a DVD burner is probably worthwhile. The quality is dramatically superior and this program handles it well. I have very few complaints with the program. I tend to mix still images with video in my work and was a little disappointed that the program does not allow you to import "tiff" files. Adobe Premerie allows "tiff" images, but this program forces you to convert your images to lower resolution "jpeg" files before you import them. However, the images rendered very nicely and I had no complaints with the quality of the still images in the final program. I viewed one of my movies on a 50 inch TV screen and had no resolution problems at that size. If you're a very serious hobbyist or professional, this program might be too streamlined for your purposes. However, I suspect most home users will be happy with this program and if you're a novice thinking about editing some video at home and don't want to make a huge financial investment; this program is a great place to start.
Rating:
Summary: One of the bettter products in this class
Review: This is based on the Sonic Foundry Video Factory 2 product (which uses the same engine as Vegas Video) with more content and extras. I have tried many products including Ulead and Roxio and this one allows you to make simple videos but has many powerful features that allows you to grow as you get more sophisticated. I'm not sure what the earlier reviewer was doing, but it can edit MPEG2 files just fine. I have prodced DVD compliant videos with my Sony DVD burner and they come out beautiful. The biggest drawback is that the manual is comprehensive enough to be able to make a basic video, but does not cover any of the powerful features and how to use them like rotating the video, panning etc. You kinda have to experiment.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome video editing software
Review: This software rules! I've wasted money on MGI Videowave, and Ulead Videostudio, but Video Explosion is better than all of these. It's incredibly easy to start making movies. I like the ability to use slow/fast motion in my videos, as lots of my video includes jumping off cliffs, surfing, stuff like that. You can choose what format to create your movies in, so its easy to make a short clip for an email, or a medium-quality movie for a CD-ROM, or a high quality DVD. I use a digital video camera, with a firewire (IEEE) cable to transfer video, and the end movie is just as clear as when I play it on TV directly from the camera. Its true that this software doesn't include a good DVD burning program, but I've been using 'Sonic My DVD', which came free with my Dell computer and it works great. All my family and friends think I should go into professional video production, but they don't understand how easy it really is. I haven't even begun to use all the sounds and short video clips that came with the software. If you're trying to edit home movies from a camcorder, then buy this software, you won't regret it!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome video editing software
Review: This software rules! I've wasted money on MGI Videowave, and Ulead Videostudio, but Video Explosion is better than all of these. It's incredibly easy to start making movies. I like the ability to use slow/fast motion in my videos, as lots of my video includes jumping off cliffs, surfing, stuff like that. You can choose what format to create your movies in, so its easy to make a short clip for an email, or a medium-quality movie for a CD-ROM, or a high quality DVD. I use a digital video camera, with a firewire (IEEE) cable to transfer video, and the end movie is just as clear as when I play it on TV directly from the camera. Its true that this software doesn't include a good DVD burning program, but I've been using 'Sonic My DVD', which came free with my Dell computer and it works great. All my family and friends think I should go into professional video production, but they don't understand how easy it really is. I haven't even begun to use all the sounds and short video clips that came with the software. If you're trying to edit home movies from a camcorder, then buy this software, you won't regret it!
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use without the clutter.
Review: This video editing software is easy to use, feature rich, and doesn't have the annoying "skin" look that so many others have. It is incredibly good at applying filters on the fly and has a wide range of output formats. It is also very economical with your disk space. It uses the clips in-place without copying them into the project. The only blemish I have found so far is that it leaves files on your disk next to the imported media files. I am a programmer and my educated guess is that these are index files used to access the movies and audio files quickly during previews. Given the benefit they provide, I was unwilling to knock off even one star for this small annoyance. The files can safely be deleted and will be recreated the next time you open the project.
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