Software Product Assessment

VideoWave 7 Professional is a low cost solution for small businesses needing to produce professional video for training exercises, web clips, or other applications where specialized staffing and video editing equipment and personnel are not available or economically feasible. (It is however marketed primarily towards home video editing.) VideoWave 7 Professional allows users to transfer, capture, edit and produce high quality videos that incorporate music, transitions, special effects, text credits and Dolby sound. Professional-quality DVDs and CD’s allow users to distribute material easily to needed end users.

The program offers dozens of professionally-designed templates and step-by-step instructions to guide you through the movie-making process. Powerful DVD authoring tools make it fast and easy to burn a Video CD, Super Video CD or DVD. Users can move or resize DVD menus, add motion to buttons or thumbnails, substitute background picture or audio, edit titles and text credits with complete control over fonts, sizes, color, motion effects and more. VideoWave 7 Professional includes high-quality titles, overlays, animations, DVD menu templates, background images, buttons, and audio clips. Over 40 categories of professionally designed Storylines are available to create training, and many other types of video.

VideoWave 7 Professional is an easy to use video editing software program that is both affordable and user friendly. While many video editing software programs can easily cost upwards of $1,000 and take extensive user knowledge, VideoWave is designed for the entry-level user that has specific (minimal) needs for video editing and production. Because the product is so user friendly, anyone with a good basic computer background can get in and start creating professional training videos from day one! By enabling the company to create eye-catching videos for training purposes the product will effectively train, and thus, improve the productivity of employees. The possibilities are limited only by the creativity of the user.

Compared to other video editing software, VideoWave offers users an easy way to create professionally edited videos. Because we envision the primary use for training videos we will relate increased innovation and competitiveness by examining the greater efficiency and effectiveness with which properly motivated and trained employees will create within the company. Of course users of VideoWave will be pleased with the ease of use.

• Pentium® PIII 800mhz (minimum), 1.2 GHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent, 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent required for real-time MPEG2 capture and burning (2.8 GHz CPU recommended)
• Cache requirements (unknown) (Pentium has 16KB built in)
• 128 MB RAM (minimum), 512 MB RAM (recommended)
• 110 MB free hard disk space for application (minimum). 1GB (recommended for installation of all components)
• 1 GB free hard disk space for video capture (6 GB recommended)
• VideoWave 7 is not a memory resident program
• 17” display (recommended)
• Mouse (recommended)
• Other devices: N/A – scanners/printers not used. No known incompatibilities.
  Additional needs for functionality:
• 1024x768, 16-bit color graphics card (minimum), 24-bit or 32-bit color (recommended)
• SVGA Video Card with at least 4MB Video RAM
• DVD (best) or 24x CD-ROM drive
• 16-bit Windows-compatible sound card & speakers
• TV Tuner or video capture board for analog capture
• Video or TV out required for output to tape
• OHCI compliant IEEE-1394 card (for use with DV Camera)

• Works on Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 1 or later) (Home & Professional), Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 or later).
  
• Is not Mac, Unix or Linux system compatible.
  
• Product is not network compatible unless purchased as part of the RoxioLicense Now! Program (additional costs involved.)
  
• Product offers some compatibility with other Roxio programs (PhotoSuite, DVDit, MyDVD Studio). Multiple file types may be imported into VideoWave for production: DV, AVI, MPEG-1 & -2, WMV, & Real video & audio. File conversion from other programs is therefore supported.
  
  Setup, installation, configuration, and customization concerns:
  
  Software set up/installation is easy. CD w/ dialog box & auto initializing provided. For functionality, capture card/TV tuner or IEEE 1394 card is needed. These may be previously installed in the PC or maybe external. Requires a basic understanding of video/computer cabling & ability to follow instructions. Software installation is as easy as inserting the CD into the drive. Process completes in several minutes. Help is provided via dialog boxes, manual provided, telephone & web support. Potential impacts on system files have been reported, however one reported problem (“We ran into very big technical issues with the Dell 8100/8200 machines running under WinXP with the Nvidia graphics card originally offered from Dell.”) This is precisely the system I have and I have no problems. Other reported problems include complete freezes, storage issues. I suspect people have tried to use Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and have disabled their computers. Other programs remain unaffected. When capture & processing video it is recommended that other applications be closed. Uninstall via the uninstall feature on PC.
  
  Implementation, training, and integrations into operations:
  
  Training material is primarily manual based. Tutorials are included in the installation software. On-line help files have some exceptional flash tutorials. No training workshops found, however there are “support groups” that focus on video work that might be useful.
  
  Documentation:
  
  The manual provided is concise (52 pages in English) Also in 5 languages. The manual index is adequate. There is not a glossary, but users may find http://www.webopedia.com/ most useful for understanding terms. There is no quick reference sheet. Trouble shooting help is provided on-line. Online documentation comes in the form of the Roxio Technical Article Knowledgebase. There is no keyboard template.
  
  User interface:
  
  GUI is used and is intuitive with logical icons, named buttons, etc. (User friendly).
  Menus are used, but limited; pull downs have basic function appropriate to the task being performed. Mouse is used to start/stop, change functions etc. Icons, buttons, toolbars, are simple, clean, and intuitive. Left mouse clicking offers some additional options (limited). Drag and drop tools allow easy movement of video segments. The program dims controls that are not appropriate at a given time.
  
  Security, back-up and recovery concerns:
  
  Software purchased as a single license offers no internal security. Back-up procedures are not addressed in this software. (Standard back-up procedures should be utilized to avoid loss of data.) Auto back-up is not available. No known recovery features via this software. File encryption is not supported.
  
  Warranty including support and servicing information:
  
  MONEY BACK GUARANTEE for defective product only. Depends on where purchased as to effective dates. Support is included via on-line self-service tools: FAQ’s, discussion groups (these are active), tutorials, or free support chat and email or paid ($35/per incident) phone support. NO 800 number is provided. Upgrades are encouraged. Roxio offers owners of older versions (1-6) a $29 upgrade to version 7. Add-in/add-on products were discussed in the system requirements section. Software price is minimal, $50. PC needed to run software, and support devices to input and output projects can be costly. (Minimum to run & produce output for a new set up is about $1,100) I own the product. I have found it to be very user friendly, intuitive, and productive. (When I purchased my PC I configured it specifically to work with video – perhaps for this reason I have not experienced any performance problems.) Others have had less success (below).
  
  How do others feel about the product?
  
  Others have had both good and bad experiences with VideoWave.
  

  A negative review: The biggest problem that was reported was the lack of customer support. One reviewer seemed so utterly frustrated with the support (or lack thereof) that he went on to list every minute complaint in his review of the product. From what I saw it sounded like he tried to install VideoWave on a system that was too old and didn’t have the power & speed the software needs to function. The rest of his ranting was trivial and sounded like someone who really didn’t have an intuitive sense. The problems he mentioned were things I figured out on my own by trial and error. (Perhaps if I’d contacted customer support I’d be frustrated too.)

  A positive review: Reviewer liked the features in Videowave like drag & drop, menu building that allows multiple items on the screen and snap-to-grid feature that keeps items neatly aligned. They found the templates to be a helpful aid in customizing the look and feel of the project. They liked the six audio track feature. The reviewer found the tutorials very helpful and once they began working within the GUI it became easier to edit clips. The installation proved to be easy and they commented that they liked the effects and transitions that are available to make professional looking movies.

  Because video work is very memory intensive I suspect many of the problems are due to the product being installed in systems that simply do not have the power to crunch all the data.
  
  Summary and general recommendations:
  
  VideoWave is an excellent product for the price. Although some people might be drawn to it thinking they can produce home videos, having the right PC configuration and powerbase is going to be key to working successfully with this software. Whether for home or small business use, VideoWave offers a substantial number of built in features that allow beginners to produce professional videos on the first try. To make the most of VideoWave purchasers should confirm that they have the minimum (preferably the recommended) specifications available on their systems. (Just because a system had the min. specs. when first purchased doesn’t mean they are still available. Users frequently load too many memory intensive applications and files onto systems without consideration for future needs.) Systems set up for video work needs to be robust and be dedicated to video work to function at the highest possible level.
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  VidoWave Software Product Presentation