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roxio's VideoWave 5 is one of two video production products developed by MGI Software Corporation, which was subsumed into Roxio when the CD-R software powerhouse acquired MGI in late January. MGI's Cinematic (list $89.99 USD) is an entry-level video editing tool. VideoWave, aimed at hobbyist and business users, is a lifecycle video tool designed to capture, edit, produce, distribute, and archive video in various formats to optical, tape, and Web streaming media. If you have a digital camcorder connected to your IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port, you can also output the video edited in VideoWave back to your camcorder.
Of a host of items, the most significant features specific to this release are production support for DVD, VCD, and MiniDVD; full support for Windows XP; faster video production and preview, thanks to optimized use of the Pentium 4; an updated MPEG encoder; and support for Windows Media Audio. What's more, VideoWave 5 combines its familiar simple interface with significantly more powerful production capabilities than its predecessors, making it a great value and definite "buy.'
product overview
To install and use VideoWave, you'll need a typical multimedia PC purchased within the last 12-15 months running Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000, or XP. Having a digital camcorder provides you more flexibility, but with the right peripherals you can also use an analog camcorder as input to VideoWave. VideoWave also accepts a wide range of file formats as input: AVI, MP3, WAV, MPEG-1/MPEG-2, DV-AVI, and Windows Media Audio. You can output in various formats, including MPEG-1 and 2 files, and Real or Windows Web streaming formats. If you have a DVD recorder, you can produce DVDs. With a CD recorder, you can produce mini DVDs (playable on PCs) or Video CDs (viewable on many DVD players). MGI estimates that 90% of all DVD players sold today can read Video CDs. Keep in mind that VCDs offer high-fidelity sound, but somewhat lower video acuity than DVD-Video typically delivers, due to the constraints of MPEG-1.
Ease of use starts with VideoWave's easy installation and extends to its consistent, intuitive interface. After installation, if you make changes to your system hardware, you probably won't need to reinstall VideoWave 5. It takes advantage of special hardware features found with contemporary Intel Pentium and...