Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus

by Magix Entertainment

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000069CEU
• Item model number: 3936141533
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 5, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,620 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus offers support for both analog and digital camcorders, with excellent, easy-to-use editing features, and a huge range of highly configurable special effects and transitions. You can burn the results to CD-ROM, Video CD, or DVD, complete with professional-style chapters and menus.

Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus works with a wide range of popular video formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, AVI, Windows Media, and QuickTime. You can input either WAV or MP3 files to use as a soundtrack, and it'll even play back MIDI files (although these need to be converted to WAV files before you burn the finished CD). If you don't have the raw video files already stored on your PC, Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus makes it easy to pull them in from an analog or digital camcorder. However, your PC will need to have either a DV card or connections for the RCA cables used by most analog camcorders.

Magix has acquired a reputation for producing cheap, powerful music-sequencing programs, where instruments are recorded on individual tracks laid across the screen like lanes in a swimming pool. Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus uses the same kind of interface, except that you use one track for the video itself, another for effects, another for the soundtrack, a fourth for background music, and other tracks for borders, titles, and so on. There are 32 tracks in all. The program has a built-in synthesizer for producing ambient and dance music, and a clever song wizard that lets you pick a style (including reggae, jazz, or classical), select your instruments, and then create a musical soundtrack. You can alter the volume of individual audio tracks (using a proper onscreen mixer), and there's a wide range of preset effects for adjusting EQ and reverb, reducing background noise, and so on.

The video editing facilities in Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus are fantastic. Not only can you trim the length of individual scenes but you can also adjust their brightness, color, contrast, and sharpness. When you apply a special effect, there are a bewildering number of settings to tweak so you can get the effect just right. The program also includes a wide range of high-quality transitions, scrolling text for titles, and end credits (you can also overlay text on top of video).

Once the movie's finished, you can save it in the formats mentioned above so it's suitable for playing back on a PC, attaching to an e-mail, or broadcasting from a Web site. It's also possible to record back out to either a DV cassette or standard VHS, although this is covered a bit sketchily in the user's guide. Alternatively, click the Make CD/DVD tab at the top of the screen and you're suddenly in a proper authoring program where you can create an opening menu with background graphics, chapters, and so on, just like a commercial DVD. A CD cover and label design program is even included.

In the nicest possible way, this program is a bit of a monster, but if you've got a powerful enough PC (the minimum recommended configuration is a 400 MHz Pentium II with 128 MB memory), then it's hard to think of a video editing job that Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus couldn't tackle. --Rob Beattie, Amazon.co.uk

From the Manufacturer

A choice of edit screen modes and professional, yet easy-to-use features make it a snap for anyone to transform raw video footage into impressive movies. Watch your movies on TV, share on disc, or post them on the Web. Simple, powerful and complete desktop video editing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great features but annoyingly buggy with large files, June 2, 2004

By 

W. Chin (NH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus (CD-ROM)

I have used this program with mixed success. While I love the multi-track editing feature, the interface took a bit of getting used to. The printed manual was not very helpful at all, and onscreen help was no better. Regardless, I was able to create some very nice digital photo slideshows with dazzling transitions and smooth music scores. I even made a few short videos with synchronized split-screen (PIP) effects from my camcorders.

But it takes an embarassing long time to load large movie files, and often crashes from simple video clip manipulation operations such as copy and pasting on large files. Then I have to wait while it reloads the movie clips again, followed by another crash, etc.

Because of the bugs and crashes, I found it to be most comfortable creating slideshows and short video clips no more than 5 minutes in length. Any larger projects were simply a waste of time and cursed with crashes.

I had little trouble capturing digital video from my Samsung MiniDV (FireWire) camera, or NTSC analog video through my ATI All-In-Wonder card, although it had noise trouble with mono audio sources.

I just wish they had spent a lot more time debugging the software before releasing it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this product!!!!!, February 15, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus (CD-ROM)

I completely agree with the previous reviewer from Belleville IL. I have been trying for two months to capture video from my MiniDV Sony Handycam without success. My computer far exceeds the system requirements, and I have no problems capturing with Windows Movie Maker. However, with Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus, the captured video is choppy and the audio is out of sync. I have tried everything suggested on the small users forum as well as the skimpy FAQ section on their website. Moreover, technical support is slow, surly, and totally unhelpful. I am throwing this useless software in the garbage and this will be the last product I ever buy from Magix.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Progam 5 stars, Manual only 3 stars, July 10, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Video Deluxe 2.0 Plus (CD-ROM)

I first gave the program 5 stars but had to come back and say a bit more. I really do like the program and give it 5 stars. It works great for me and I have played around with it quite a bit and have learned some cool tricks like getting my movie to play in reverse. I also found out how to do picture in picture and a few other tricks. but none can I thank to the manual.

The manual is fine as a quick start guide and then some. It give basic information on buttons and controls and so forth, but as I learn the program I find it quite vage and at times down right unhelpful as in what some of the advanced controles do and how to get them to work.

Case in point what is DV Logging? The progam gives this as an advance over Video Deluxe 2.0 (it's only in the "Plus" program) but gives only a little note about it in the manual as to the fact you can do it. After some playing around I figured out what it is and how to work it. But a few more words would have made my time a bit more productive.

As a supliment I am reading Digital Video For Dummies but it leans to Pinnical Studio 8. Yet it is very helpful in learning what all the lingo is all about which helped to understand Video Deluxe's manual and buttons and choices.

All in all the program has worked great for me with few problems. The program seems to have a lot of flexability and is a blast to play with and edit videos.

I just wish it had a manual that matched. I feel I am only understanding what this probram can do at a basic level. I think they put a lot into creating and working this progam and it shows, but they need to tell the customer how to use and understand all the great work they put into it.

I so far understand about 50% or 60% of what this thing will do but there are no other places to find more advanced information. So I just play around on my own thinking "OK what will it do when I chose X instead of Y next time."

All in all First rate program with a good standard manual. It will get you started and making some great movies out of the gate. But your on your own for advance study.