Review : Videowave 5 by Roxio

Camera seeks editing tool, will travel.

By Vincent Himpe

While Roxio is very well known for its CD creator tools, it is normally not associated with video or image processing tools. Their acquisition of MGI last year has given them a firm foot in the imaging and video field as well.

Roxio has released VideoWave 5 Power edition already a couple of months ago, so time to have a peek at what this thing can do. This product is targeted towards beginning and enthusiastic videographers. Marketed on a par against tools such as Pinnacles' Studio DV, this program is more than yet another DV editor. Read on to find out what makes it different.

We have the retail version of Videowave 5.0 Power edition under test. Although the most other Roxio programs can be bought on-line and downloaded from the Roxio e-shop, this would be impractical for VideoWave. The sheer size of the files alone makes it impossible for all but the fastest download links.

Inside the box are 3 Cd roms, a quick installation leaflet, the licence agreement, the CD key and a getting started guide.

A separate card holds a warning message that "This program is designed to assist in reproducing materials you have the rights to, or have obtained the rights to use them. Unless you hold these rights you may be violating copyright law and could be subject to payment of damages or other remedies" it goes on to say that "You should contact your legal advisor an case if in doubt"

Interesting little note. With the increasing action of the RIAA ( Recording Industry Association of America ) on DMCA ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act ) and their attempts to halt illegal copying, Roxio apparently wants to prevent being sued for producing tools that might be used to violate copyrights. They put the responsibility at the end user. Very smart move.

One CD is the installation disk, the other two contain a variety of sample video, audio and other media that can be useful in assembling your own video.

When launching the program, the first thing that pops into view is the principal dashboard. I Use the term dashboard because that i what it looks like. A Clean stylish uncluttered user interface that shows you what you need to see for every task at hand.

The user interface has the usual elements found in video editing tools, but is organized differently from any other editing tools. The user interface is centered around the Preview monitor and element browser. On the left you have the function selector ( the dashboard). A timeline area is on top and the tool controls are at the bottom. While different from most tools this structure is very logical

This approach allows you to follow the user interface from top to bottom and left to right, just like reading a book. You start at the timeline, select an item to edit, this can be either a video segment or transient, go to the dashboard and select your function. The element browser shows you your options, and the preview monitor shows you what it will look like. Last the function control allows you to modify the settings.

When done you start again at the timeline window where you select the next free panel and do this all over again until everything is in place. For people coming from a classic editing layout, like Premiere and Studio DV, where timeline is at bottom, controls are right, this seems awkward at first, but you get used to it very quickly.

Video capture :

Videowave 5 can capture from an DV source, or any device supported by windows VFW or WDM driver.

VFW i an older standard. If you capture for these sources the actual control panel will change since this driver type brings its own control panel along.

WDM ( Windows Driver Model ) are drivers specifically written for Windows 2000 / Xp and can not be run on windows 98 or millennium. Newer hardware often comes with these drivers. It offers a uniform interface to the application controlling the device trough such a WDM driver.

When you are running 2000 or Xp and have such a driver then videowave will show you its own control panel. The image above shows a Sony Camcorder hooked up to the firewire port. Since this is a WDM based device you get full device control immediately from within VideoWave.

Audio Capture:

Here again you can capture form any source, but also directly form a CD. Simply pop in the CD and select Audio Capture.

You can Enable cd control for Videowave so it can control your computers CD drive directly from within the program. Simply click on Settings and make sure that under audio the checkbox "enable CD control" is checked.

The process is amazingly simple. Just drag the clip of your choice from the source material bin to the timeline and drop it.

Arrange all the clips in the order of your choice. Done! Nothing more to it. Dead easy.

Other video editing tools show you so called A/B timelines with transition inserts and more information that might confuse a beginning videographer. Videowave shows you simply a strip of film that represents the chronological happening of events

The filmstrip on the left shows two rushes (video segments) on the timeline. The only thing that i missing is the transient in between But that is for later in the editing process.

You can change the duration of a clip ( called 'cutting' )just click on the trim buttons. The preview monitor wilt show a button to set the start and stop of the clip. Presto !

Once the mix is complete you can add transitions by simply selecting the transition menu and dragging the transition of your choice on the timeline.

When you drop it between 2 clips that's where it will be inserted.