Software: Serif Movieplus 4

Serif Movieplus 4

The release of Adobe’s Premiere Elements last year gave the video-editing market a shake-up, challenging vendors of other entry-level packages to get their acts together. Serif’s response has been to give Movieplus a major upgrade, overhauling most aspects of the program as well as adding a number of powerful new features.

One of the main areas of improvement is the redesigned interface, although it’s probably best described as functional rather than elegant. It looks a bit crowded at times, being split into a series of separate panels and a toolbar crammed with unfamiliar icons. The Timeline panel occupies the top half of the screen, and is where users arrange audio and video clips in a series of horizontal tracks. Unlike some low-cost editors, Movieplus allows users to create an unlimited number of tracks, to experiment with complex multi-track edits.

The bottom half of the screen contains three smaller panels. Chief among these is the Explorer, a browser that allows users to locate audio, video or graphics files stored on the hard disk. Most video editors provide a similar feature for sorting through media, but we like the clever preview option that Movieplus provides here. Users can play any audio or video clip within the Explorer simply by placing their mouse over it. This makes it easy to quickly preview multiple clips, and then get straight down to editing by dragging and dropping clips into the Timeline. Users can also preview the automatic scene detection by clicking the Show/Hide Scene button. This opens a smaller window that shows the chosen clip split into scenes, allowing users to choose one specific scene and then drop that straight onto the Timeline. It’s a clever and efficient way of handling audio and video. Underneath the Explorer is a series of small tabs for accessing various special effects and transitions, and these can be previewed by pointing the mouse at them.

Next to the Explorer is a larger Preview window that lets users view the edited project. The third panel is the Properties pane, which provides information about each clip and can be used to alter settings such as transparency and playback speed.

This interface arrangement initially seems a little odd, since most video editors put their timeline at the bottom of the screen, and many people will instinctively look at the upper half of the screen to preview their clips. However, there’s no law that says all video-editing programs have to work the same way, so this is more of an oddity than a major weakness.

Most of the other main features can be found in the Timeline window. The toolbar running across the top of it allows users to activate features such as the timesaving ‘auto-transition’ option, which automatically inserts a transition whenever two clips overlap. Double-clicking on any video track will also cause the track to expand, displaying additional features.

Key frames are a very powerful tool, and aren’t usually found in low-cost editors such as this, so Movieplus certainly gets points for providing good value for money. Key frames allow users to modify various properties over time, perhaps creating a customised fade effect by setting key frames at specific times and then making the video clip fade by different amounts at each one. Users can also produce animation or pans by using key frames to alter the size or position of a video clip, or of a graphic object that has been superimposed over the footage. Unfortunately, the key frame features aren’t explained particularly well, either by the program’s manual, or its online Help files. The same thing applies to other powerful features such as the picture-in-picture effects and the ability to create animated titles. So while Movieplus 4 provides a great deal of editing power at a very competitive price, Serif could still do a bit more to make that power accessible to new users.

Cliff Joseph

PCs: Demonite Ultimate SLI Pro

We haven’t seen a Demonite PC since its manufacturer Carrera SSC went into li quidation. Its brands were bought by Watford Electronics about six months ago. The Ultimate SLI Pro has the same stylish (if a bit plasticky) ATX case as other Demonite PCs.

Whereas previous Demonite submissions have been overclocked, the Athlon FX55 at the heart of this PC arrived in standard form, clocked at 2.4GHz. That’s not to say it can’t be ramped up – the MSI K8N SLI Platinum motherboard is well suited to overclocking. It has lots of memory and voltage settings that can be tweaked manually, or integrators can dynamically overclock by a specified percentage. We were pleased to see a pair of 512MB DDR440 Ram modules from Kingston included. This memory uses a heatsink to reduce the chance of damage or system instability as a result of overheating when being overclocked.

The Ultimate SLI Pro sent in for review was poorly configured and gave an average performance. The Demonite PC relied on the motherboard to automatically assign its own Bios values. It received a Sysmark 2004 score of 206. This memory configuration also proved detrimental to 3D performance. Despite having a pair of Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra cards in an SLI configuration, potentially the most powerful graphics solution in the group, this PC only managed a 3Dmark05 score of 5,332. Plus, with a monitor that has a slow 25ms response time, it could struggle with 3D games or movies.

It is a shame that the Demonite PC was not optimised. There’s nothing inherently wrong with its specification, but we think the company should have put more effort into building this system.

Rory Reid

Software: Cyberpatrol 7

Cyberpatrol 7 is aimed at protecting children from inappropriate internet content. This update allows users to add customisable profiles for each person that uses the PC. These are integrated with Windows user accounts, so protection is available the minute users log on. The software also blocks chat rooms, monitors instant messaging conversations and lets users view which web sites have been accessed over a two-week period. Anti-spyware and anti-phishing protection is also included, but sadly the software lacks a live technical support line.

Rory Reid

Software: Bitdefender 8 Professional Plus

On the surface, Bitdefender is just another integrated security suite offering anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall facilities. What sets this package apart is that it includes two years of product updates, two-user licences and 24/7 live online assistance.

This latest version boasts a new interface designed to be easier for home and small office users. The anti-spam and anti-virus modules worked seamlessly with our email accounts and Bitdefender’s virus database is updated every three hours. While Norton Internet Security is still our favourite, this latest version of Bitdefender is a quality package.