Questions & Answers

Q. What is MGI VideoWave 5?

A. Designed for home and business PC users, MGI VideoWave 5 is the latest edition of MGI’s popular digital

video editing software, first introduced in 1997. Unlike other non-linear digital video editing packages, MGI

VideoWave 5 uses a storyboard approach to producing video movies, which is an essential feature for easier

video editing.

Q. What's new in MGI VideoWave 5?

A. MGI VideoWave 5 now includes:

• DVD Authoring, the ability for just about anyone to create their own high quality movies on DVDs, Video

CDs, and MiniDVD (DVD content on CDs). Unlike other video packages that offer DVD authoring as a plug-in

with limited scope, the DVD authoring capability in VideoWave is seamlessly integrated as part of the

application.

• A new MGI-developed MPEG encoder, for capturing and producing both MPEG 1 and 2 videos. The MGI

MPEG encoder is optimised for the Intel Pentium® 4 processor, taking advantage of the processor's new

architecture for improved performance.

• The ability to capture digital video that exceeds the 4GB Windows file size limitation.

• Support for inclusion of audio tracks created using Microsoft WMA (Windows Media Audio) format.

• Designed for Microsoft® Windows XP® and optimised for the Intel Pentium® 4 Processor.

Q. What is the difference between MGI VideoWave 5 and professional-level video editing products?

A. MGI VideoWave 5 is an affordable, consumer and business oriented product that offers comprehensive,

professional level tools and features, and an easy-to-use interface and logical workflow that requires only a

minor investment of time and effort for the end user to master. The tools and features are specifically designed

to help businesses and consumers capture, create, edit and publish their videos to DVD, VCD, CD, DV, VHS, or

the Web. Professional level products require a substantial amount of time and effort, and sometimes even

formal training and education to be able to use them. Professional products' feature-sets are also specifically

designed for creating video for broadcast.

Q. Does VideoWave 5 come bundled with any hardware devices?

A. There are numerous OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that bundle VideoWave, ranging from PC

manufacturers like Dell, IBM, Gateway and Compaq to peripheral manufacturers like ATI and Yamaha. MGI

released an OEM edition of VideoWave 5 in September 2001 and expects to announce new licensing

agreements shortly.

Q. Which DVD burners are supported?

A. MGI VideoWave 5 supports all commercially available DVD burners (DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW).

The DVD authoring capability also supports multiple output formats – standard DVD for a consumer electronics

player or DVD for playback on any computer equipped with a software-based DVD player or Video CD.

Q. What DV support is provided?

A. MGI VideoWave 5 supports any OHCI-compliant (Open Host Controller Interface) IEEE-1394 card, making

the process of getting DV video into and out of a computer simply a matter of connecting the camera to the PC

and running VideoWave. There are no special or unique configuration settings required, regardless of which

combination of PC, camcorder or IEEE-1394 card the user has. An added benefit of the IEEE-1394 interface is

what is known as ‘device control’. This feature enables VideoWave to control your camera – play, pause, stop,

rewind and fast-forward your tape all from within the application!

Q. What IEEE-1394 hardware is supported?

A. As a result of MGI’s work with Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Lucent Microelectronics and others, VideoWave

supports any OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 hardware. Other peripherals manufacturers are beginning to adopt

IEEE-1394 as the means for high-speed data transfer such as hard drives and digital VCRs.

Q. What video capture cards are supported?

A. VideoWave 5 supports any video capture device that includes Video for Windows (VFW) drivers or Windows

Device Manager (WDM) drivers. MGI includes capture templates for all the leading video capture cards. The

templates are preset with all the necessary settings a user needs to capture video for a particular project. The

user simply selects a template to match their hardware device and the type of video they want to produce, such

as ‘ATI All-in-Wonder for VCR’, without having to figure out and adjust complex settings, such as frame rates

and codecs. More advanced users can, of course, edit or create their own templates, saving them for future use.

A current list of supported cards is on the MGI VideoWave web site (www.videowave.com).

Q. What other technologies does VideoWave 5 include to make digital video production simpler and

computer resource efficient?

A. VideoWave includes a number of technologies to make the video editing and publishing process easy. The

list includes:

• SmartDV

SmartDV only decodes and re-encodes the parts of a video that have actually been changed as a result of

editing, which is typically a small part of the total production. Parts of a clip that have not been altered are

simply copied to the final output. By avoiding the extra step of decoding and re-encoding unaltered

segments, SmartDV produces DV video much faster (copying is faster than decoding and re-encoding).

SmartDV only works on files that have been originally captured in, and are being produced in, DV format.

• MPEG

VideoWave 5 allows you to capture, edit and publish in both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. It can also capture in

MPEG-2 format regardless of the source video and hardware you have. MPEG-1 is the original standard

developed to compress 24 frames per second film playback to suit the bandwidth available on a standard

CD-ROM player for the CD-I and VideoCD format. MPEG-2 was developed for broadcast video

applications. MPEG-2 is capable of broadcast quality and is used by satellite distribution systems like

DirecTV. The new DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) video standard also uses MPEG-2 compression.

• Scene Detection

This technology scans the video clip to automatically find scene changes – based on changes in colour –

saving each scene as a separate video clip for easier editing. Each scene can then be renamed if required.

A manual setting is also provided, which eases the often tedious process of rewinding and fast-forwarding

through long scenes to split them into smaller, more manageable clips.

• StoryLine

The Storyline lets you focus on telling a story using images (i.e. storyboarding), the most basic of the

traditional tools used in the conception and development of a movie or video production. Using this

approach, the MGI VideoWave 5 user can concentrate on the story, and forget about the timeline with its

multiple audio, video and transition tracks.

• Templates

VideoWave 5 includes a series of Storyline templates for such events as birthday parties, weddings and

graduations, as well as business presentations, which provide tips and tricks on how to make better, more

interesting videos. These templates also include high quality content to help kick start your production with

title tracks, audio and overlays. The templates are pre-configured for creating output formats such as

‘VideoCD’ or ‘Web Video’. More advanced users can edit or create and save their own templates.

• CD Audio Extraction

This feature allows you to make precise digital copies of music from your Audio CDs to use in your videos.

You add music the same way you would add existing video. Insert the audio CD you wish to extract music

from. In VideoWave’s library, click the Open Folder icon and point to your CD drive. You will see a listing of

all the audio tracks. Simply click on the one that your wish to copy.

Q. How much disk storage is required to publish and save a minute of video on a PC?

A. You must have at least twice as much disk space as the length of the completed video as you will need to

have space for both the original clips and the final video. The size of the final video depends on several factors:

frame size, frame rate, and level of quality or compression. There is always a quality – size trade-off. The

extreme case is DV which has a fixed frame size of 720 x 480 and a data rate of 3.6 Mb / Sec. This results in

216 Mb of data per minute. Conversely, MPEG-2 can be chosen as the compression format, which allows you to

vary the data rate anywhere from 625 Kb / Sec (37.5 Mb per minute) to 1.25 Mb /Sec (75 Mbytes per minute)

Q. How does VideoWave 5 make it easy to publish videos on the web?

A. VideoWave 5 includes a new ‘Publish-to-Web’ option, which automatically posts the user’s video to MGI’s

video portal community (back-end service is provided by POP Cast). Registered VideoWave 5 users will be

given 10MB of free disk space for sharing videos with family, friends and colleagues. The service also includes

tools that make it very easy to e-mail a link to the intended audience as well as add video greeting cards.

Q. How do I publish videos to MGI’s video sharing site?

A. VideoWave 5 supports the two leading file formats for video streaming – Windows Media and RealVideo.

Simply select one of these two file formats (up to a maximum data rate of 250 kbs) when producing your video,

then select the ‘Publish to Web’ button. A Web browser will be launched pointing you to MGI’s video portal and

guide you through the simple process.

Q. Can I mix different video file types, such as DV, AVI and MPEG to create a video?

A. You can combine several types of video, audio and still image files to publish your video, including all those

mentioned. In addition to these, VideoWave supports all the other video codecs that may be supplied with, or

specific to, your video capture card. VideoWave 5 converts all the clips to the output format of your choice when

you publish your video.

Q. How does VideoWave 5 work with digital photos?

A. You can import any image file saved in several digital image formats for use in your video. Still images can

be enhanced with special effects and transitions to provide the illusion of motion and action. In fact, you can do

everything with still images that you can do with moving ones. Using MGI PhotoSuite you can incorporate

additional graphics in your video as backgrounds, openings or as information screens. You can create these