Aplux Reviews

I bought this product based on the reviews from this site. While I see how this software certainly could be great (very powerful and easy to use) it failed me in two key areas:

1.) For whatever reason, the AVI files from my Cannon Powershot S400 digital camera are not compatible with the Video Deluxe 2 Software. The Magix support staff, of course, blamed Cannon and provided no help whatsoever, even though the Cannon AVI files work fine with competitor software produced by Roxio and ArcSoft. Considering the popularity of Cannon cameras, this incompatibility is a major liablity.

2.) Again, for whatever reason, the Video Deluxe 2 software crashes my computer every time I attempt to burn a VCD or DVD. Again, the Roxio and ArcSoft software work fine, so the problem is only with Video Deluxe 2.

Despite downloading the most recent patch, it is a shame this software is so riddled with bugs. It certainly has tremendous potential if not for the bugs.

I have used this program with mixed success. While I love the multi-track editing feature, the interface took a bit of getting used to. The printed manual was not very helpful at all, and onscreen help was no better. Regardless, I was able to create some very nice digital photo slideshows with dazzling transitions and smooth music scores. I even made a few short videos with synchronized split-screen (PIP) effects from my camcorders.

But it takes an embarassing long time to load large movie files, and often crashes from simple video clip manipulation operations such as copy and pasting on large files. Then I have to wait while it reloads the movie clips again, followed by another crash, etc.

Because of the bugs and crashes, I found it to be most comfortable creating slideshows and short video clips no more than 5 minutes in length. Any larger projects were simply a waste of time and cursed with crashes.

I had little trouble capturing digital video from my Samsung MiniDV (FireWire) camera, or NTSC analog video through my ATI All-In-Wonder card, although it had noise trouble with mono audio sources.

I just wish they had spent a lot more time debugging the software before releasing it.

It took some time to get a handle on it, it's not simple at first like Pinnacle. But once I got it, its been great. I like it way over Pinnacle Studio 8. It does everything I could ask and more. Pinnacle was easy at first but you can do so much more with Video Deluxe 2.0. I did have a problem with the sound not matching the video but after getting a patch from Magix it has been working great. You can do so much with this program. I keep trying new things with it. Tons of fun and for this price can't beat it.