Video Factory 2.0

I tried VideoWave and had such a difficult time as I had NO manual and MGI was not helpful. I heard about Video Factory 2 from disgruntled VideoWave users and gave it a try. The manual is helpful, the Show Me tutorials are helpful and the online help is extensive. I'm very new to video editing and this program seems to be quite intuitive for new users. I'm working on a long project and feel I've got a better chance of finishing with this software.

I tried this product because I do a lot of video editing. It is a good idea to use multiple products as even the best products can do them all. I found this product to be outdated and simply "cheap". If you want a professional quality software, go elsewhere. Just looking at the interface you will notice how cheaply done it is. The use of pan/crop tools to place logos over designs was a bad idea. This software is not user friendly and can be confusing. I have a lot of experience with video editing and this one even confused me. The product output, the most important factor in deciding, is second-rate. I have used other software at the same price that are much better than this. If you are a beginner at video editing, stay away from this junk. If you are a pro, you're better off with any other software out there.

Here's the best way! SonicFoundry's Video Factory is an excellent video editing tool: you get two seperate video streams (one to overlay text onto your video and even create scrolling credits!) and three separate audio streams (voice, music, and sound effects!). While they are called voice and music streams, you can put whatever you want in it. The video transitions (fading, etc) are unbelieveable! You can fade directly from one clip to another, or just fade to black. Video Factory took me approximately 15 minutes to learn the basics using their highly effective tutorials. I've already edited home movies taken on mini-VHS tape and turned a lot of funny scenes into a "best-of" my family movie. The resulting movies you can make are great for presents for relatives. And best of all, you just tell Video Factory what you plan to do with your finished movie - put it on a VHS tape, put it on the web, email it - and Video Factory will pick the optimal format to turn your movie into.In other words - I highly recommend it!

Video Factory is filled with bugs and Sonic Foundry's support will not help you with the glitches or provide a patch. You will find that you will be doing some editing and find the frame rates dropping at the edit points. And that's with a pc that has double the required power. It all starts off great until you do some real editing and then all hell breaks loose. I found that the final video output was low in quality. I suspect that that is why this software is so cheap. I found that even Ulead, which comes free with many hardware products, is much better.

I have a Kodak DX3600 that takes video clips, but they are in Quicktime fromat. (Note: This is a great camera!) I needed a video editor that would accept Quicktime files, and then output a completed production in a nice compressed MPEG format. This video editor does all that and more. Its easy to use and the production options are great. I have also tried the Ulead Video Studio. This software is more intuitive and works better. Its also cheaper! You can't go wrong with this. I love it!

I tried MGI VideoWave 4.0, Pinnacle Studio 7, and Ulead 5.0, but Video Factory 2.0 was by far the easiest to get to work. The open design is easier to work with than the console type like Ulead and Pinnacle.What I like best is being able to easily align the video and the sound tracks. Just drag and drop, plus you can easily slice and dice either audio or video.Best product that I tried in the [price] range, for stability, performance, and GUI.

I poked around with a couple of other movie makers, but thank God I stumbled across this one (demo came with the Deras Flynn video book). It's completely intuitive with great interactive tutorials that hold your hand through every concievable step; in an hour I was burning VCDs of my kids snowboarding with smooth scene transitions and a music soundtrack I added as an afterthought. Maybe 5 1/2 stars.