My final evaluation of magix Movie Edit Pro 14 Plus

[JohnnyO]

When I first tried this software, I was excited about all of it features. It was a new toy and I enjoyed editing with it.
As time goes by, I used it more and more,and my videos got very complicated, as I have done with Premiere Elements.

So here is the concludeion. Magix MEP14 Plus is so unstable and full of bugs that it is not worth the time to use.

It does have some use. It does a really good job with the MPEG-2 files my TV capture card produces. It has add detection, auto chapter markers, and you can create a menu automatically which shows clipf from your movie as the video background. I will continue to use this software for this purpose.

As far as editing video goes, I have had more crashes, unpredictable and mysterious rearrangements of my timeline, and buggy results at times. I have worked very hard to get my videos to look good, and have had successful results, but it is not worth the frustration.

It may have some use for creating small clips to use in Premiere Elements if you wish, but to use it for your entire video is a frustrating waste of time.

[Steve Grisetti]

Ouch! A scathing review, Johnny, but definitely one I'll heed!

Thanks for taking a bullet for the rest of us.

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks for the report Johnny

[RJ Johnston]

Despite the bugs, I prefer using it over Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas Studio. While I have found several bugs, I have a solution for most of them.

It's definitely not for the newbie. But it has way too many advantages to be ignored. I haven't created anything with Premiere Elements for some time, while I have made 4 DVD's with MEP. I don't know what I would use Premiere Elements for anymore, except for some special effect.

[Paul LS]

Robert, have you had any luck installing the .exe plugin files that can be downloaded from Magix for Movie edit Pro Plus? They are the VirtualDub plugins, I know you can probably track down and install the .vdf files but I was after the VHS combination of plugins that is on the Magix download page. When I run the .exe files it says they are installed but do not appear in MEP... plus I can not find the installed .vdf files on my harddrive.

[RJ Johnston]

Paul, I used Diskeeper Undelete to get the plugins. The last folder they are in before they get deleted and copied nowhere is here:

c:\documents and settings\rob\local settings\temp\MGXVDPLUGS\Videoplugins

I removed the Local Settings folder and the Temp folder from the exclusion list in Undelete. That way the plugins just end up in the Recovery Bin (replaces the recycle bin).

You can also download them from the internet. I don't know if all those plugins can be downloaded from this webpage, but here's an index: http://www.thedeemon.com/VirtualDubFilters/

If you use Yahoo to search for plugins, it will flag dangerous web sites that it knows about.

[Paul LS]

Thanks Robert, I used TuneUp Utilities Undelete to recover them. Great...

[Paul LS]

Oops, spoke to soon. I recovered it and installed it but MEP says it is not a valid DLL plugin... it is the fxVHS.vdf plugin. I will search for it on the internet.

[Paul LS]

Ok, I downloaded it and installed it and it works fine. Cheers.

[RJ Johnston]

The fxVHS.vdf that you download from Magix does work. I just tried it. You'll have to try Diskeeper Undelete sometime. It replaces the recycle bin. Whatever files you explictly delete or whatever files some other process deletes behind the scenes goes into the recovery bin. You don't have to worry that part of the file was overwritten by something else after it was deleted.

[Paul LS]

I thought that maybe TuneUp Utilities did not recover the file properly... the size was different from the downloaded version. I will look into Diskeeper Undelete. Thanks.