Audio and Photo Editing
DVD Disc / Blu-ray Output
Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 can burn to just about any type of disc currently available including Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD (single and double layer), CD, AVCHD and SVCD.
It includes about 115 templates and 3D titles which you can use to create custom interactive menus with up to two layers. It can also burn directly to a disc from an analog source, such as from a TV card or camcorder and can convert video file formats in a batch processing mode as well.
Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus comes with a big library of customizable titles, more video transitions than you will ever need as well as various audio, video and photo effects.
Cyberlink with the release of Power Director 7, introduced a downloadable content sharing site called DirectorZone where users of the software can share assets like DVD menus they create in an online community setting.
Video Editing Effects / Video Transitions
Magix have introduced their own version of this type of service called Catooh.com.
Whilst the Cyberlink DirectorZone's content is mostly free, only a small amount of the Catooh content is free with the rest attracting either a small fee or more depending on the asset. While I certainly don't class this as a deal breaker I think Magix would do well to try to foster a more community minded spirit in that area.
Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 p.2
Magix Audio Mastering Suite 2.0. can add voiceovers, restore audio and includes an audio mixing board, an equalizer, a compressor and it can add stereo and audio effects as well. VST plugins are compatible. It also includes 60 sound effects templates and it can split audio tracks from video recordings.
Most of the video editing features can be applied to photo images such as cropping, resizing, image rotation, color correction and adjustment as well as contrast and brightness.
Help / Documentation
Magix include a number of video tutorials that cover all the basics on using Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus and a Help file but if you get stuck you can ask a question on the user forum and from what I've seen you should be pretty good to get an answer. The forum has an active user base with lots of tutorials and FAQs.
Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus has made huge inroads into bringing stability and user friendliness to their already feature packed product. Whether it is compelling enough for you to switch from your existing video editing software would very much depend on your current set up. It would be well worth your while to at least download the trial and see what you think.
For a first time buyer Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 would make a fine choice for a number of reasons. It has a great feature set that is beginning to encroach on the prosumer market which is a clear indication that Magix is not only here to stay but here to make their mark. Highly recommended.
Summary
Ok, so lets take a closer look under the hood...
Video Capture / Video File Playback
Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus will import all common video, audio and image file types, depending on the source of your files (camcorder, download etc.).
You can drag and drop, capture or import. It will handle AVI, DV-AVI, MPEG (1,2,4), MXV, MJPEG, Quicktime and HD WMV, HDV and AVCHD video files.
You can also import WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, MIDI, Dolby Digital Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio file types as well as JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, TGA and more image file types.
Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus also includes support for batch processing of files.
Playback in all cases was smooth and responsive except for AVCHD which I have mentioned already...it was ok but not of the same standard as the other file types.
Video Editing
One of the major problems Magix Movie Edit Pro had up until this version was the video editing interface. The designers attempt to include everything as well as the kitchen sink within easy reach simply resulted in confusion.
The new video editing interface has been redesigned and streamlined into a far more intuitive module allowing quick access to timeline view, storyboard view and all the common tools you would need.
Features such as video filters, video effects, cut, trim and crop are all easy to get to and use. The preview screen worked well even with quite a few filters and virtual cuts in place and was pleasantly easy on computer resources.
I tried a few times to make sure the program would be holding lots of data in memory then did some silly things intentionally to get it to crash or display choppy behaviour but it handled it all quite well.
Video Rendering / Video File Output
Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 exports to most of the current popular video file formats and is compatible with just about all online services like YouTube, Daily Motion, Metacafe etc. It includes a direct upload button for YouTube and you can also create and export video files to many portable devices like iPhone, PSP, and PDAs.
Most importantly it also offers a "Smart Rendering" feature able to recognize files within a project that do not need to be converted upon final output. This preserves quality especially in already highly compressed files.
