Customer Reviews

Video Deluxe

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After installing this program, I was able to (fairly quickly) capture video and sound off of my camcorder, do some basic editing in the program, add music in the background, and save into a file to make a Video CD. I am now starting to play around with the titles, subtitles, and sound / video effects available in the program. I've created videos up to an hour long, and I haven't hit any bugs yet. Compared to other video editing packages reviewed here, this is quite an accomplishment.

The only reason I knock this down to four stars is that the documentation glosses over key areas, like how to output your work. For example, there are perhaps a dozen options related to outputing video to an MPEG file, but the manual only has *two lines* of text devoted to the subject (not including the page explaining how to upgrade your MPEG-2 encoder). I've ended up outputting video as DV-AVI and using TMPGEnc (freeware) to convert to MPEG. If Magix would plug the holes in the manual this would definitly be a 5-star program, esp. considering the price.

I first passed on this program because of the price. I thought, it couldn't possably do much for [$$$]. After Tech-TV tested it, and recommended it, I downloaded the demo and was amazed how great it is. I have Movieshaker and it will only make a 9 min movie. I have Ulead and MGI, both crash on Xp often and capture is not always good. This program supports my DV-8 and sends it back to the camcorder over my firewire.
I found the manual to be helpful but I am not a beginner. Others have complained that it is not enough (I don't agree).
This program does a lot:
Picture in picture
both video and audio effects
unlimited movie length
16 tracks of workspace
superimpose video tracks
alfa channels
blue and green screan
audio and video cleaning
song wizard will make a soundtrack to any langth you want
export to several formats
export to the web in Real Player or WMF for modem or broadband
includes video clips to learn with
and More!!!!

Keep in mind that this Company has horrible tech support.
phone support will cost you $3.00 for the first min $1.50 for the rest.
Free support is e-mail only and the service is slow and not very helpful!

I recommend this product to anyone because it's simple to use, inexpensive, useful and you get high quality results. I purchased video deLuxe because my brother owns one and showed me how to use it. We're both using it for the holidays. He emailed me a beautifully edited video of our
Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family and his voice is narrating parts. There's running text with funny comments and background music he picked from his CD collection. It is wonderful what you can do with this program. There are transitions and video effects and editing tools that
help you to turn your home videos into high quality timeless family classics. I will use it for my families Christmas videos this year. You could, for example, send a video greeting via email to everyone in the family - all just with a few clicks. So far I didn't have a problem bringing in video from my video camera. It works great for me!

Magix Video Deluxe is a great piece of software. It would be a five if the manual was worth the paper it's printed on. It does everything the novice to intermediate NLE editor needs, but you'll have to figure it all out yourself. I can't say too many times. THE MANUAL IS USELESS. Maybe that's how Magix can sell this product at such a low price point. Also you could grow a beard waiting for their support to answer the phone.
In Summation:
Buy this software, but be ready to devote some time to learning how it works.

The features of this little program are mind-boggling but it doesn't do you much good if there isn't any guidance on how to use it. The manual that is provided by the manufacturer is the most sorry example of a "How To" I have ever seen. The application also offers video tutorials but they fall woefully short on delivering the level of information a reasonably intelligent beginner needs. I have no doubt that, with time, someone can figure out all the bells, gongs and whistles but unless you have experience in professional video editing , this program is NOT for the average individual. Too bad something this slick can't provide a better user manual!

For editing this program is great. User friendly interface, etc. After that...Try getting help. The manual is absolutely terrible. The whole point in buying this program was to make a few VCD's. The manual says about 3 words on this subject. It does not even talk about some of the most important aspects of the program. It was obviously not written for the beginner. Website help? Forget it. Worse then the manual. Phone help? The toll free # listed gets you to the secretary. She's in charge of giving you the 900#.
Don't waste your money or time (I sure did!)

I disagree with some of the other reviews listed here. This product rocks. Remember this software retails for $49.00, it is not a $500.00 program. Video Delux has every feature that I wanted and more. It works great with a FireWire card and Digital Camcorder. I have used it with home movies, stills, and music and it does a great job.

Before I selected Video Delux, I demo'd 4 other products including Adobe Premiere 6.0. While Video Delux is not of the calibre of Premiere, it comes close and with the price difference, (Premiere runs $400.00 +) you can't go wrong.

I purchased this program in the hopes of being able to edit some older video material I had, and I have been disappointed to the point of abandonment that I have not been able to get the job done. While the program appears to have all the right editing features, clever transitions, easy "drag and drop" manipulations, and multiple tracks for video and audio sources, I have been unable to import the video material using the ATI Rage Fury Pro capture card on my motherboard. When I attempted to get technical help, I was unable to make any "live" contact using the USA number provided and was referred to an email service from Europe. I did receive a response from Holland and one from Germany as well, but even those technicians were unable to come close to solving the problems. Video processing is an art in evolution and there are many formats and other technical issues to consider. There seems to be a host of compaitbility problems out there and unless you are a real whiz at that stuff and can solve your own problems, this product will disappoint you because of the VERY sketchy support. I ended up getting a G4 powerbook with iMovie out of frustration. I think that PC video editing has a long way to go and that this program does not advance the state of the art.

I enjoyed learning how to use Magix' Video Deluxe in version 1 and liked it so much I bought version 2. Version 2 includes DVD menus and authoring, which version 1 does not. If you don't need DVD authoring - if you can make do with emailing your videos, posting them online, or sending back to your camera for VHS, this is an excellent program.

It sounds extreme, but in my opinion, this program is terrible. I got it for $$ and now I am trying to get my money back. In the reviews it sounds very good. I used it on a Window 2000 computer with 768 meg. of memory and an 80 gig hard drive with an AMD 1.3 ghz processor and a NVidia TNT2 32 meg. video card. My regular job is as a Computer Support Specialist and Programmer so I work with - many programs. Here's my experience that supports the poor rating I give the program...
= Right after the installation of the program, it automatically starts up the Video Deluxe program. When it did, immediately it came up with an "Error loading audiovis.dll" message. The program did continue to load. Twice when I subsequently started the program, that error message occurred. What effects it has in using the program I don't know.
= Twice when I exported a movie using QuickTime Movie Export with all default settings except sound set to 11k and Mono, the Video Deluxe froze up the computer an hour into the render. I gave up. (Note - I have 25+ other major software programs on this machine that I've used for a year and they work fine..
= When you are Exporting (rendering), which can take 9 hours like it did to an .AVI file, there is no dialog to Cancel it once it begins. When I did ESC to stop an export, the Video Deluxe froze up and in the Win 2k - Task Manager it said "Program not Responding" and I had to crash the program to stop it.
= The Help in the program is terrible. For instance, when I went to do an Export, a dialog popped up asking if I wanted to export a range or the whole movie. In Help, there is no data at all on how to set a Range. At times the Help came up in German, not English.
= I finally dug up some info that - inferred indirectly - on how to set a Range when I looked in help on info about the "Edit Menu". I used the info to set a Beginning Marker and End Marker per their directions. I even tested the settings by using Zoom to Range between Beginning and End markers, and the program - did - zoom to the range I setup. But then when I used the Edit Menu - Range Extract which Help says will delete everything in the video - except - the range, Video Deluxe did the opposite. It removed the range I wanted to keep instead and kept the rest of the movie.
I could go on about other things that were disappointing in the 3+ hours I wasted on the program (like how their Tutorial video is so distorted when it plays, you cannot even read it's screen examples).
My job is working with software 50-60 hours a week and the 3+ hours I spent repeatedly trying to use this program to perform the simple tasks I purchased it for, were wasted. The program might have been conceived of by a genius, but it was implemented by poor design and bugs.