Price: $120
Website: www.magix.com
Many of the features we disliked about
Magix Movie Edit Pro last year still bother us on this latest version. When you
delete a clip, the separate parts don’t automatically join together; exporting
our video took almost five minutes; playback is jerky; and there is often a
delay when viewing real-time previews. We also had to register with Magix to
get access to the full range of features, despite having already paid for them.
Magix
offers more precise customization options
On the plus side, menus and titles are
intelligently labeled, so it’s easy to find your way around tabs and options.
We also liked having tools and effects
built into clips on the timeline. For example, you can get straight to common
effects by clicking the AB button on the clip; change the brightness by pulling
down a virtual blind; and get to popular tools from the right-click context
menu. This makes editing much faster because you don’t have to switch between
tabs and menus to access many of its options.
Magix has the same range of transitions as
the other programs we tested, but offers more precise customization options.
When you put a transition onto the timeline, it sits across the join between
two clips, rather than at the end of one or the start of the other. Magix was
the only program to do this and it made a noticeable difference to the level of
control over transitions, making our videos look smoother and more
professional.
In addition, the audio mixer was the most
precise in our tests, and the image-stabilising tool was the most accurate.
Another small but useful extra is tabbed timelines, which let you edit multiple
videos simultaneously.
Verdict
Magix narrowly missed out on a place in the
top three. It has some great features that are within easy reach and simple to
use, but exporting videos takes ages. The software struggled with playback and
previews when editing our HD file, and it often stopped responding for seconds
at a time. It was easier to use than PowerDirector, but didn’t perform as well.
Corel VideoStudio Pro
X5
Price: $90
Website: www.corel.com
Corel has hardly touched the layout and
design of VideoStudio since we looked at it last year, which will please
regular users but makes the software look dated. However, there are some unique
new features, including built-in screen recording, and you now get HTML5 output
and an updated template library. It’s also one of only three programs (along
with Magix and Premiere Elements) that lets you fully customize your workspace.
But tools and edits are buried within menus and subfolders, which slows down
the editing process, as does switching between tabs.
Corel
VideoStudio Pro X5
It imported files in just seven seconds,
but took six minutes and 45 seconds to export our finished video (the slowest
software here). Playback was often jerky and the final video quality,
especially of title graphics, didn’t match up to the others.
Verdict
Corel VideoStudio X5 has a couple of
standout features that impressed us, but its dated design doesn’t live up to
the fresher-looking award winners, and the final quality of its movies isn’t as
slick.
Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12
Price: $90
Website: www.sonycreativesoftware.com
All our award winners have a wide range of
features, catering to both beginners and advanced video editors. However, Movie
Studio Platinum 12 is over-complicated and fiddly, and would baffle even the
most experienced editors, let alone a novice. For example, there are sometimes
up to three different ways o perform the same task, such as splitting a clip.
This is unnecessary.
Because
the edits are so sophisticated, they look polished and refined when you get
them right
The software doesn’t include any wizards,
or simpler versions of complicated edits, so it takes a while to get to grips
with. The grey design is also rather uninspiring.
Because the edits are so sophisticated,
they look polished and refined when you get them right. As a result, Sony’s
finished video looks the most professional of the lot, and the software handles
HD videos with ease.
Verdict
You get lots of features, high-quality
editing and a strong performance for your money with Sony’s Movie Studio
Platinum, but you need it invest a lot of time and patience in perfecting how
to use it.
Pinnacle Studio 16 Ultimate
Price: $150
Website: www.pinnaclesys.com
We found Pinnacle Studio 16 frustrating to
use. It’s meant to have fused the best bits of both Pinnacle 15 and Avid Studio
(last year’s Silver Award-winner, which has been discontinued as a product in
its own right), but it’s made the software more complicated. The layout is
messy, with dozens of icons, and it’s not clear what each one does.
Performance is particularly poor. The
program took five minutes to launch, importing a video took over a minute and,
at times, there was a noticeable lag when opening a menu.
Pinnacle
Studio 16 Ultimate
Pinnacle has similar features to other
software but they’re hidden away. However, when you do find them, they’re
sophisticated, and our finished video looked professional. It’s not enough to
win us over, though.
Verdict
Pinnacle Studio 16 fell short of the mark
in just about every category. It’s expensive, slow and difficult to use. The
software is confusing and less user friendly than previous versions.
