Consumer Editor Reviews - Introduction

Whenever I review a consumer or prosumer video editor, it involves multiple days of testing not only the program I'm reviewing, but also the most relevant competitors. The results are generally incorporated into a short cohesive review that hits the highlights but not the underlying detail. A single screen replaces the dozens usually involved in the process.

For years, I've been promising myself to create some pages that detail the complete analysis, with sample clips, screen shots and comparative frames that illustrate the key differences between the programs and show why some rate high while others are downgraded. So here we are.

The following pages detail my tests of Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0, Magix Movie Edit Pro 10, Pinnacle Studio 9 and Ulead VideoStudio 9. They express my views of features and performance, not those of the magazine that published the review.  These are unedited, and will be pretty rough, but in the next few weeks I will ask the product folks from the respective companies involved to look them over and let me know of any errors.

This hasn't happened yet (as of 4/6/2005), I will let you know when it does.

Until then, please send any comments or observations to jan@doceo.com.

Capture and import capabilities

Timeline and storyboard features, library functions, trimming, preview and other ancillary functions.

Color correction, backlight correction, image stabilization and low light videos

Describes the capabilities and performance of blue screen, slow motion, picture in picture and other artistic effects and effect controls

Mixer, rubber band controls, noise reduction, normalization and other audio-related features

Transition related features and functionality [Under Construction]

Features relating to adding text titles to video productions [Under Construction]

Pan and zoom, red-eye removal, matching slide show to background music track.

Output features and quality for DV, MPEG-2 and Windows Media [Under Construction]

Features relating to DVD authoring and burning DVDs [Under Construction]