MainActor 3.6 by Main Concept

The package
Transfer: DV and analog capture
Format conversion: VideoEditor
Editing : MainActor Video Sequence r
Exporting: MainActor DV-out
Conclusions

MainActor from Main Concept is a complete video editing software package. For a price of $99 (plus $30 for an MPEG-2 plugin, to my opinion a valuable option) you can capture video both from digital and analog source and import stills and graphs form various formats. Editing possibilities are basic but sufficient; it comes with a large array of effect and transitions, a 2D and 3D title generator and nice other features. Projects can be exported back to a DV tape through a Firewire card or saved in several formats. The reviewed version is 3.65.

1. The package

The straightforward installation will create a folder called MainActor containing a help program, capture programs, editing programs and a DV-Out program.

Let's have a look at the capture modules.

2. Transfer: DV and analog capture

The common restriction for DV-capture and DV-out applies: it will not work for Windows 95, 98 (First Edition) and NT. If you run it under one of these operating systems you will not get an error message but you will not be able to select a device. Analog capture works without any problems with Windows 98.

After launching Video-capture a list with installed devices will be presented from which you can make your choice. The program recognizes the installed drivers on your system and WDM drivers.

On the bottom of the window you can select the drive where you want to store the captured video. Make sure that you select a drive that is fast enough.

The following capture parameters can be set:
-preview : enables you to watch the movie while capturing. If you experience lost frames during capture, disable this option.
-Audio Format : the frequency, 8 or 16 bits, mono or stereo
-Video Format : picture size and color mode and other settings that your capture card allows
-Video Source : fine tuning of the video like white balance, brightness, saturation etc.
-Video Compression : selection of the desired codec (be careful, not all codecs on your machine will work)
-Video Other Settings : specify if you want to capture video only, audio only or both. Here you can also specify a maximum file size and force synchronization of video and audio

After you have specified the required settings you can start the capture by pushing the button at the bottom of the window. The program will also ask you whether you want to capture one image or a series of images. Somewhat peculiar: the speed is expressed in duration per frame. So, 0.040 second/frame corresponds with the PAL standard of 25 fps.

3. VideoEditor

The purpose of this module is to convert file type formats and alter timing. Most interesting use of this program is that you can create a movie or Animated GIF from a series of stills or break down a movie in a number of stills. Another possible application is to recreate an existing movie using another codec. The VideoEditor accepts the following formats: 8SVX, AIFF, AU, AVI, BMP, DL, FLI/FLC, GIF, GIF-Anim, IFF, IFF-ANIMX, JPEG, MacPICT, MPEG-I (MPEG II if you have the plug-in), MPEG-Audio, PCX, PNG, PPM/PGM/PBM, Quicktime, TGA and WAV.

The main window consists of three sections:

At the left hand side you open projects are shown. Each project is separate, you can not mix data from one project with another.
At the upper right hand side a list of the frames from the movie or the list of stills stills (in case you load a series of stills) is shown, including timecode, compression and image size and sound size.
A preview window is placed at the right bottom part of the window, where you can preview the project including sound.

You can select a number of frames by SHIFT-clicking and save the series of stills or movie in a separate file.

While testing the program I found that it is very sensitive: if you import an illegal file type, the program often responds by crashing without giving error messages! Also the program sometimes takes a lot of time to load movies making you think that the program hangs.

4. MainActor Video Sequencer

This is the most interesting part of the package. MainActor VideoSequencer is a very powerful video editing program. It allows all kinds of transitions, titles and some very fascinating special effects. If you are used to a program like Studio7 from Pinnacle you may have some difficulties to find your way around in MainActor.

When launching the program a window opens where you can enter the desired parameters of your project. Be aware that you can not import a DV-AVI if you choose an SVCD project. The supplied templates are standard for PAL, but you can easily create your own templates and safe them.

After clicking OK in the previous window the main window for editing your movie opens. Since it contains a lot of different information it is best to have your screen set to 1024x768 in order not to have certain windows partially hidden.

The four main windows are the Timeline, the MainActor Browser, the Timeline Player and the Preview window, that you can hide or view through the View menu.

Most functions are accessible through the pull down menu, the tool bar or by right clicking on the specific item. If you don't have your clips available at this time, you can also capture them from here by clicking on the camera icon in the toolbox.

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