Customer Reviews

Video Explosion Deluxe

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a wonderful program. I've been experimenting with home video editing for about four years and have used many programs. Admittedly, I am just a hobbyist and have used mostly the low end software. However, I have used Adobe Premiere, Broderbund MovieShop, MGI Videowave, Ulead Videostudio, Roxio Videowave among others and compare this program with these.

In many ways, this program is one of the best that I've worked with. The software installed easily into Windows XP Pro. I've had difficulties with video capture with other programs, but not with this one. I initially attempted to capture video to the same hard drive that the program was installed to and suffered an unacceptably high frame drop rate. However, when I captured video to a second hard drive, I didn't lose a single frame. If you don't have two hard drives, this program may not work as well for you, but this is generally true of most video editing programs. The quality of the video captured was superior to that of some of the other programs and this program has some video editing features (including sharpening and contrast control) not available in competitive programs.

The software interface is user friendly and the controls intuitive. It only allows for two layers of video and three layers of sound, so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the competitors. However, this is sufficient for my purposes and I suspect it would be for most home users. It handles video overlay very nicely, has a very handsome and easy to use titling program, and allowed for music and voice-over narration to be inserted into the video. There are plenty of transitions which render correctly and reliably, which unfortunately cannot be said of all the competitors.

Although some other reviewers have observed the program is better for VCD than DVD, this was not my experience. I found mpeg2 output to be very sharp and used this program to produce a very high quality DVD. In fact, this program brought me as close to that elusive "broadcast" quality video for which hobbyists aim as I ever been. The VCD is probably acceptable as VCD goes, but DVD is far superior. I wasn't happy with the VCD output, but that is probably more a limitation of VCD in general than this particular program. If you're interested in making home movies, the investment in a DVD burner is probably worthwhile. The quality is dramatically superior and this program handles it well.

I have very few complaints with the program. I tend to mix still images with video in my work and was a little disappointed that the program does not allow you to import "tiff" files. Adobe Premerie allows "tiff" images, but this program forces you to convert your images to lower resolution "jpeg" files before you import them. However, the images rendered very nicely and I had no complaints with the quality of the still images in the final program. I viewed one of my movies on a 50 inch TV screen and had no resolution problems at that size.

If you're a very serious hobbyist or professional, this program might be too streamlined for your purposes. However, I suspect most home users will be happy with this program and if you're a novice thinking about editing some video at home and don't want to make a huge financial investment; this program is a great place to start.

I'm currently (slowly but surely) working on transforming over 100 hours of analog tape to digital format. It does take a long time to render videos from analog to mpeg format, but for my purposes, it works wonderfully! This is the product I've been waiting for since I realized that watching hours of video where nothing happens just to see a couple of good parts is not fun for anyone. It's very easy to cut out digital clips, easily and accurately, and set them to background music, add sound effects or video effects, or even clean up video. I had a bad habit of taking video in lower light conditions than I should have, but this product even helps clean up errors like that.

I haven't used the full range of features yet, but so far the only problem I've encountered is that sometimes the effects that render in the final product are much more extreme than what shows in the preview. For example, I increased the saturation on a segment of video, to make the colors appear more vibrant, but when I rendered the video to mpeg, the final product was more than just vibrant, the colors were pretty much neon and different than the original (blue lips, etc.). But, overall, I would definitely recommend this product!

This is based on the Sonic Foundry Video Factory 2 product (which uses the same engine as Vegas Video) with more content and extras. I have tried many products including Ulead and Roxio and this one allows you to make simple videos but has many powerful features that allows you to grow as you get more sophisticated. I'm not sure what the earlier reviewer was doing, but it can edit MPEG2 files just fine. I have prodced DVD compliant videos with my Sony DVD burner and they come out beautiful.

The biggest drawback is that the manual is comprehensive enough to be able to make a basic video, but does not cover any of the powerful features and how to use them like rotating the video, panning etc. You kinda have to experiment.

This software rules! I've wasted money on MGI Videowave, and Ulead Videostudio, but Video Explosion is better than all of these. It's incredibly easy to start making movies. I like the ability to use slow/fast motion in my videos, as lots of my video includes jumping off cliffs, surfing, stuff like that. You can choose what format to create your movies in, so its easy to make a short clip for an email, or a medium-quality movie for a CD-ROM, or a high quality DVD. I use a digital video camera, with a firewire (IEEE) cable to transfer video, and the end movie is just as clear as when I play it on TV directly from the camera. Its true that this software doesn't include a good DVD burning program, but I've been using 'Sonic My DVD', which came free with my Dell computer and it works great. All my family and friends think I should go into professional video production, but they don't understand how easy it really is. I haven't even begun to use all the sounds and short video clips that came with the software. If you're trying to edit home movies from a camcorder, then buy this software, you won't regret it!

I had tried 3 different programs (including 2 Ulead programs) for editing videos before I bought this one. This has been the easiest to learn and understand. It's easy for me to transfer my DV movies straight to the computer and put them on VCD. I can adjust the sound, create overlays, add sounds, music, titles, and several effects; it's endless. I've also made some slide shows from photos that were scanned in. The best part is that once you create the movies/videos, you can save them in just about any format--this is great because anyone can watch the video without having to buy the software.

I can't judge the quality of the DVD writing experience, as I have yet to create a DVD with the Video Explosion.

The only drawback is the limited DVD authoring options - it comes with the Sonic authoring software that is packaged with the many writable DVD drives. Otherwise, the user interface is very well-designed, and there's plenty to dig in to. You won't run out of new things to experiment with anytime soon.

Update: I did notice the "strobing" effect when you render in "NTSC-Better" mode. So I took the advice of another reviewer and rendered in "NTSC-Medium" mode. The strobing went away, and there was negligible degradation in picture quality. And rendered in half the time, to boot.

I tried and returned every other video editing program before I found this beauty. Its very easy to use, very powerful, and Nova actually provides customer support....In one day, I made three beautiful VCD's with several audio tracks, titles, effects etc. etc. If I can do that, believe me folks, you can too. Not sure how it works with DVD's as we don't have a burner. But VCDs play in most DVD players (ours at least) and the quality is pretty good. All I know is this: Every other program I tried on Windows XP had some huge frustration, hangup, or unexplained procedure that should have been simple (eg burning to disc) but was instead a nightmare. (Maybe its XP) This package was a breeze.

After reading so many great reviews about this product, I bought it. I have used MGI, ArcSoft, Windows MovieMaker 2, and others. I was very happy with the ease of use and powerful editing features. In fact, bang for the buck, this is the best package I've seen. It includes excellent tutorials, and a really slick interface. Once you get a feel for the layout, it is very easy to use and allows you to edit video, video overlay, add music, sound efffects, etc.... That being said, if you are planning to burn DVDs, get something different! The MPEG 2 output format was apparently an after thought, added to the package, and it produces very poor output.
It appears that the software was designed to output video CD quality, and the DVD ((MPEG 2)output was added later. Either the frame speed does not match the industry standard, or the rendering software is very poor. In either case, the software is useless if you plan to burn DVD. Any motion in your DVD has a trailing effect, making it appear out of focus (almost like a stobe effect). I used the same video clips with MGI, ArcSoft and WMM 2 and got beautiful results when I burned a DVD. Its too bad, because as far as editing, this program wins handsdown!

This program retails for less than $100. Don't expect it to be used by Steven Spielberg. I bought it several years ago in an Office Max because I was in a hurry to put together a crude edit of a home movie. However, from the day I started using it up until now, I continue to be impressed with its capabilities, ease of use, and reliability. I keep discovering new features, and am yet to outgrow it after creating about half a dozen pretty ambitious home movies.

I am retired now, but when employed as a software engineer, my specialty was user interface. I am very critical of poor interfaces. Video Explosion got it right. The ability to introduce and edit transitions and special effects on the timeline is excellent. Menus are clear, and provide good clues to drilling down to extra features. The help facility is first rate. And, most importantly, the program seems to be bug free.

I have not used any higher end video software, so my perspective is limited. I am not a pro, but I work very hard to make my home movies as professional looking as possible. For the price paid, this package continues to impress me, and certainly to fill my needs. In that sense, it is like my bicycle (a pro level Trek) - the tool is still much better than the user.

This video editing software is easy to use, feature rich, and doesn't have the annoying "skin" look that so many others have. It is incredibly good at applying filters on the fly and has a wide range of output formats. It is also very economical with your disk space. It uses the clips in-place without copying them into the project. The only blemish I have found so far is that it leaves files on your disk next to the imported media files. I am a programmer and my educated guess is that these are index files used to access the movies and audio files quickly during previews. Given the benefit they provide, I was unwilling to knock off even one star for this small annoyance. The files can safely be deleted and will be recreated the next time you open the project.