AIST Movie DV 4

Munich-based software developer AIST is not very well known in the UK, mainly because it produces video-editing and postprocessing software for the professional and prosumer markets. Movie DV 4 falls into the second category and is out of the ordinary in that it combines standard video-editing features with compositing tools - video and graphic animation tools that are usually found in applications such as Pinnacle Commotion and Adobe After Effects.

If looks are anything to go by, Movie DV has a lot to offer. Its red, bronze and green colour scheme with LED-style readouts certainly look the business. There are buttons and sliders everywhere - a quick count revealed more than a hundred. But despite this, or maybe because of it, the workspace is well organised, clearly thought out and easy to navigate.

On the left of the screen a browser provides access to all areas of the PC as well as transitions and effects. Along with the standard windows display buttons, there are quick access tabs which can be configured for one-click access to any directory.

The centre of the screen is occupied by a tabbed workspace compositing window and output renderer. To the right of this an effects box provides control over effect parameters, and the bottom section of the screen is split between a timeline window and video monitor.

The workspace is extremely flexible - the palettes and toolbars can be resized, docked or floated to make the most of your available screen space. Movie DV was the only one of the eight applications here that was able to make the most of a dual-monitor setup.

Capture features are pretty standard, although automatic scene detection is only possible after files have been captured and, as with Roxio's Videowave and Magix's Video Deluxe, works on a virtual clip basis.

Because the storyboard and timeline are both displayed simultaneously, you can see exactly what's going on as you drop clips onto the storyboard cells, and this is quite instructional. The first clip goes into the video B track, the second is positioned alongside in the same track. When you add a transition between the two clips on the storyboard, the second clip is moved to the video A track with an overlap transition track - an instant lesson in how to arrange clips on the timeline.

The timeline comes equipped with some fairly professional tools and features. It can be configured for single-track or A/B editing, has Premiere-style preview and render bars, can be scrubbed with the timeline slider and individual tracks can be hidden, locked and prevented from rendering. Tools are provided for basic cutting and trimming as well as slip, slide, roll and ripple edits. A dual-view monitor window makes use of two pointers that can be independently moved on the timeline to aid accurate trimming, cutting and synchronisation. This takes a bit of getting used to, but with practice works very well.

Although there is no titling editor, you can add text objects, edit text styles and animate them using the position, scale, rotate and centre and focus options in the effect box. These settings are keyframeable, so it doesn?t take much effort to produce a title that, for example, flies in from the top-left, pauses in the centre, then flies out bottom-right, spinning and shrinking as it disappears, if you like that kind of thing. So there's more control on offer here than is usually the case, but the absence of preset animated titling options won?t be to everyone's liking.

Although MovieDV provides a wide range of output options, including DVD-compatible mpeg2 files, it has no DVD authoring features. But, if you've bought a DVD burner that includes authoring software and prefer to work with an application that provides ultimate control rather than one that's stuffed with off-the-peg preset effects, then Movie DV is just the ticket.

Contact: AIST
www.aist.com

System requirements:

• Pentium III 233MHz MMX
• Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 or XP
• 64MB of Ram
• OpenGL/Direct3D graphics card