AIST Movie DV 7

We last looked AIST Movie DV back in 2004, when it was at version 4, so longstanding PCW readers will have heard of it.

AIST is better known for its broadcast video products and, though it doesn’t have the level of brand awareness that the other products in this group test can boast, it nonetheless has a very capable video-editing application in Movie DV.

The newly released version 7 looks very different to the version we reviewed two years ago. Gone is the bronze and green colour scheme, replaced by a look more in tune with Windows XP. Fundamentally though, the application hasn’t changed in terms of how it works.

What sets Movie DV apart is that, as well as a broad and powerful set of video-editing tools, it places a high priority on compositing – overlaying video and graphics elements and editing the way they interact to produce multi-layered video compositions.

In the professional video-editing world, most compositing is done using dedicated applications such as Adobe After Effects or Apple’s Shake.

While Movie DV’s compositing tools don’t come close to providing what these applications have to offer, you can achieve some very sophisticated effects that, with the exception of Premiere Elements, are well in advance of anything offered by the other applications reviewed here.

As far as the basics are concerned – trimming clips, assembling in the storyboard or adding them to the timeline, adding transitions and effects and voiceover narration or a backing audio track – Movie DV provides very capable tools but you’ll need to have at least some video-editing experience or be prepared to put in a lot of learning time to get the most from them.

The interface is busy but well organised. Like Premiere Elements all windows, including a browser, storyboard, canvas and timeline, are interlocked and resize as a group when you change any one of them.