Editing video on your home PC may have been a pipe dream five years ago, but these days simple video-editing software is in abundance. Roxio's VideoWave 7 costs £60 and can transform camcorder footage into an impressive-looking DVD or film.

To start any project you'll first need to import video. In the Capture & Create section, a handy wizard-driven system guides you through the process of getting video from a camcorder (or other device) onto your PC. If you've got a DV camera, the Smartscan feature will whiz through the DV tape at high-speed, detecting and capturing all the scenes it can find. It then collates these into a list where you can choose which scenes to use. You could perform the process manually but Smartscan saves you a lot of time.

Making the DVD is easy too, even for a novice. Just drag and drop the video you'd like to use into the storyboard, adding transitions and effects as you please. You can also add a soundtrack using music from your MP3 collection. Music fans will also like the CineMagic feature, which will create a pop video from your video clips.

If you're not ready to jump into the deep end of video editing, the StoryBuilder will guide you through this procedure - select a template to work from, add video clips, text and music and then choose how you want the video to be 'outputted'. This could be for TV playback, as a streaming internet-based file or as an email.

The DVD Builder helps you assemble your video and photos and create a DVD or Video CD. You can add your own titles and backgrounds or use some of the pre-designed themes. A neat option here is Plug & Burn, which lets you capture video from a camera directly to a DVD without any of the editing options.

There are advanced features for enthusiasts and although it doesn't quite compare with professional video-editing packages such as Adobe Premiere, there's enough here to make some really impressive videos and DVDs.

Contact: Roxio 01908 278100
www.roxio.co.uk