Magix Video Deluxe 2 Plus

Magix is relatively new to the video-editing market and produces a range of products, including photo-editing and audio applications. Video Deluxe is keenly priced and offers some powerful editing tools and special effects, both for video and audio. Nonetheless, it?s aimed at home users with little video-editing experience.

The Video Deluxe 2 interface follows the standard layout, comprising a video monitor window, a dual-function storyboard/timeline area and a browser called the 'media pool' for organising and applying content from video and audio clips to transitions and special effects filters.

The video capture module is robust. A common problem when capturing home video can be gaps on the tape. If you review something you've just shot and cue up the tape beyond the end of the previous scene, it confuses the software which relies on contiguous timecode. However, Video Deluxe didn't seem too worried by breaks - it captured footage, split it into 'takes' and placed it in sequence on the storyboard without a hitch.

When it comes to editing, though, things are less straightforward. In the absence of tabbed panels, such as those on Ulead's Videostudio, it lacks structure, so if you're unsure about where to start, you'll have to go walkabout in the media pool's resources. That the help file is written in a language that has more in common with object-oriented programming than video making doesn't help, although to be fair, you can view a short video tutorial.

The first stumbling block was transitions and effects. As with Roxio's Videowave, we were surprised to discover these couldn't be dragged from the media pool and dropped on the transition box. Each time we attempted this the transition stubbornly behaved like a clip and positioned itself between the two clips.

There are other ways to add transitions, you can right-click the transition box between two clips and a contextual menu provides access to the entire selection, but something as basic as adding a drag-and-drop transition should be easier. The same goes for effects.

Paradoxically, in timeline mode, Deluxe is a much easier application to work with. First, drag-and-drop effects and transitions behave themselves. And second, there are a total of 32 tracks, which can hold either audio or video, each with mute and solo buttons and rubberband fade controls. You can also go to timeline markers and add chapter markers for subsequent DVD authoring.

Rather than the basic nuts and bolts editing features, it's the extras that set this program apart. The picture restoration dialogue provides tools for brightness and colour adjustment, sharpening filters and de-interlacing. Audio cleaning features include a 10-band graphic equaliser with presets, stereo effects filter and a sophisticated noise reduction filter.

The realtime visual FX editor is a control panel that plays host to a multitude of customisable effects, including colour adjustment, rotation and flipping, positioning, scaling and alpha channel mixing, speed control as well as more radical image adjustments, such as lens effects and distortions.

If your camcorder doesn't have an image stabiliser to iron out jitters and shakes caused by handholding at high zoom magnifications, Video Deluxe does. There's also a drum and bass synth and an ambient synth. But ultimately, the effects lack keyframable control.

By contrast with the editing controls, the DVD authoring module is well structured, with plenty of templates, background, text and layout options. There's a good preview feature with remote control-style navigation and you can burn VCD, SVCD, and mini DVD as well as DVD.

If you've already gained some experience with video editing, or have used other timelinebased applications, such as Flash, Video Deluxe 2 has a lot to offer. But, despite its low price, its ease of use falls a long way short of programs such as Windows Movie Maker and Ulead Videostudio.

Contact: Magix 0905 118088
www.magix.com

System requirements:

• 266MHz CPU
• 64MB of Ram
• 1GB offree disk space
• 800 x 600 16bit video