Customer Reviews

Videowave 5 Power Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

When the program arrived I immediately attempted using it. Within 3 hours of using the program I was unable to load my video onto my computer with sound. I am almost completely sure I was doing it correctly because I am experienced with similar software and thoroughly read the users manual. To make matters worse my (computer) system shut down (what it said was) due to new installed hardware.

Do not do the same thing I did: I read the negative reviews and thought I would give it a try anyway.

Sure, the editing tools are great and it can make even the simplest MPEG's look great. But it never works and tech support will put you through the ringer trying to get it to run again. I have uninstalled and reinstalled more time than I care to remember. I have fixed system files I didn't even know existed. Don't waste your money. I am still trying to get Roxio customer service to answer me about getting money back so I can purchase something decent. We only bought this for the DVD capabilties as we have a newborn baby and I have in three months of having this software not been able to create a single DVD, only a whole bunch of CD's for friends and family.

I can't explain in polite terms just how much I loathe this product. Like others, I have installed, run clean ups, and reinstalled it numerous times. The customer support is expensive ($35/incident and only good for 30 days from the date you call) AND the call is INTERNATIONAL (to Toronto), so your pocketbook is hit twice for the 'support'. The bottom line issue, for me, which is not resolvable is that Roxio products do not 'get along well' with Adobe products so if you have both in your system you will most likely end up with DVD burning issues in your Roxio AND Adobe software (I believe that most people whose hobbies include video and still photography have at least one Adobe software product in their system). And my non-resolvable issue was only determined as a final note after having `fixed' all the many other problems I encountered, with my paid tech support and a hefty international long distance bill (I really wanted this product to work). I had capturing, audio, burning, copying, and crashing issues. My goal was simply to create home DVDs of my new daughter for my friends and family. If this is your goal and you value the little free time that you have during the day, please don't waste it on this product.

Some reviewer said "Easy to use interface, well balanced features, and stability stability stability... Formerly MGA, now Roxio (that's to bad)." What a load - probably from the Roxio company. I have the program and while I haven't had as many problems running it as some of the other people who have reviewed this software, this is anything but stabile. It's basic and a few of the features would not work no matter what was done. This is for the beginner and depending on what your intended output is, this could be great or it could be a real pain (i.e. simple mpeg movies - great. DVD or web - a REAL pain).

Don't part with your money if you expect too much but I still use this depending on what kind of an output I'm looking for.

Simplicity plus! The best I've tried so far and I have tried a number of them. Knocked off a few movies fairly quickly and the finished product looks quite professional. One problem I had that took a while to figure out, since Roxio and the electronics store that I purchased it at kept passing the buck, was that the manual tells you to lay your soundtrack by pointing to a frame of the movie. Unh Unh.....doesn't work.....you have to lay it by pointing to the timeline track. So much trouble for such a simple solution but other than that I give it a big thumbs up!

I would not reccomend any Roxio product even to my worst enemy!! I have had nothing but problems with my videowave product. None of my technical questions are answered on their web site and to get any one on one help, you need to pay for it! The absolute worst support you can ask for. Save yourself the headache and don't even think of buying videowave!!!

I have a lot of experience with computers as a physicist. However, I have not been able to install this package without error massages showing up after having tried different ways for 8 days. My three emails sent to Rixio got only one very slow response, which was not helpful at all. After that, no one there responsed my emails. It seems the support team does not exist any more.

I now have the software installed on my PC by ignoring the error massages and tested it. I have used several video editing packages and DVD authorizing packages. The VideoWave is strong on simple video editing but extremely weak on DVD authorizing. There is a bug for the audio mixer for the video editing section. The program freezes when you click the audio mixer button. I am nto sure this is due to the bad installation or not. For DVD authorizing section, a fatal problem is that different mpeg files can not be included as chapters under a title, but only as different titles. This means you can not have the generated DVD play as a continuous movie. The main menu will show up whenever a title was completed. Then you need to manually choose another title to play. In order to avoid this problem. One may go back to the video editing section to have the movie files merged into one file (takes a lot of time). Doing so, you will find it would be very difficult to have your movie with optimized file size to fit in your DVD disc. This problem should not happen if designer of the overall configuration of this package ever generate a single DVD movie himself. Roxio should learn how to make a DVD athorizing section from the Sonic MyDVD package or DVD Complete from Dazzale, though the later does not support DVD+R.

Besides, the transcoding procedure of Video WAve is almost 2-3 times slower than that of Sonic MyDVD package, which makes the DVD burning painfully long.

This product don't work. I did everything correctly and never could get it to work. No Help from Roxio either. Save your money.

This is such a mixed bag. The way it captures video from my miniDV camcorder is effortless. The way it allows you to edit footage is pretty straightforward and logical. Then it takes an age to convert the footage back to miniDV format or DVD output. And then the problems start.
PLEASE DO NOT buy this software if you want to produce your own home DVDs. Adding film segments and resizing frames and changing fonts takes an age; adding chapters to break up each movie results in lost chapters on playback; transcoding from AVI to DVD takes forever.
Some of this was supposed to be resolved with Easy Media Creator 7, but check reviews on that too before wasting your money.
As others have said, tech support is non-existent from Roxio, so you will be stuck on your own with something that's frustrating to use and seemingly full of bugs.

Easy to use interface, well balanced features, and stability stability stability... Formerly MGA, now Roxio (that's to bad).