Product Description

Magix Video deLuxe video publishing software delivers special effects, a robust image and sound archive, models and more. Digitally record videotapes and movies and direct your own video clips, demos and presentations. Easy to use, you can burn digital videos onto a CD, publish them online or send them directly via e-mail. Edit and present videos, multimedia clips, Web movies and video e-mails. Compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint, create compelling business presentations with ease, or entertain family and friends with music videos, karaoke shows, cartoons and more.

Video deLuxe tools include timer, auto record, and rewind for DV camcorders, and automatic scene recognition with real-time preview, real-time editing on 16 tracks, a full-view video controller, selective colour processing (brightness, contrast, richness), along with transition and combine effects. Audio production tools include noise reduction, reverb and equalizer. A song wizard helps you create soundtracks.

.co.uk Review

Magix Video Deluxe provides professional video-editing tools at a budget price. Those who have used video-editing software before will find the 16-track timeline easy to work with; drag clips, effects and background sound in from the file browser and preview them in the monitor window. You can trim clips by hand or divide them into scenes automatically (handy if you've captured several sessions on one tape) and you can overlay multiple video tracks. While the yellow and grey interface isn't always easy on the eyes, this video-editing software gives you an impressive range of sophisticated tools and effects you'd expect in a program 10 times the price.

The video effects are impressive: as well as gimmicky FX-like lens and colour distortions there are useful settings to let you adjust contrast and colour saturation, for when the lighting wasn't quite right. Fine tune and combine effects in an interface that lets you control exactly how the effects work and how extreme each effect is, so you can be subtle or over-the-top as you prefer. You can add titles in a variety of styles very simply too, again dragging them in from the list. Plus you can work on your soundtrack in a fully featured mixing desk that lets you change the volume or timing of audio and add preset effects or tweak the sound by hand. The options are laid out logically and you can preview effects before you try them out although working with some of the fade and transition tools can be awkward and it's easier to use the handles on each clip to manipulate them.

Magix Video Deluxe can capture from a digital or analogue camcorder, from TV or VHS if you have the right capture card in your computer or even from a Webcam, and you can record back to the camcorder or tape, or save on a CD-ROM. It's easy to export videos as files, and you can e-mail or publish on the Web. You'll need to spend time learning the interface and tools but Magix Video Deluxe allows you to create impressive videos at a bargain price. --Mary Branscombe