CommandPost bundled with MGI VideoWave 4.0

CommandPost is a handy USB console with Jog/Shuttle, T-Bar, Joystick and bunch of buttons. While the console alone can work with most video editing software the bundle comes with predefined control set for included VideoWave 4.0 The Jog/Shuttle allows you to move in video as you would expect on real video editing machine. The buttons right above Jog are assigned for Mark points (In, Hold, Hold End, out) the T-Bar has assigned functions (Brightness, Effect Level, Transparency, Volume...) depending on the VideoWave window you and the rest of the buttons have functions like Capture, Open, Save, OK... The Joystick seems to do nothing but it is expected to work as a mouse.
The CommandPost alone cost $199 on videonics site and VideoWave 4.0 cost another $99. For a bundle $149 this is a pretty good deal indeed since it is indeed cheaper than the controller alone. There is one small problem - normally the CommandPost should work with any video editing software but this one in the bundle doesn't have the universal software supplied and so it works only with the VideoWave. However you get a note that for $49 you can purchase from special Focus sitethe an universal software allowing to use any video editing application. This is a bit underestimation of users IQ, because anybody can turn the controller bottom up, read the label that say it is made by videonics, go to the web site and download the software as an update for free.

How it works then? I have to say it works better than I was expecting. I expected a toy-like plastic controller with not very smooth implementation in VideoWave. Wrong. The CommandPost is one of the few well made devices with though plastic top and metal bottom with small rubber legs. It doesn't move when you are working with it and the feel solid. You can take off the blue plastic mask with button description and put your own if you wish.
I would prefer that they made it in black instead of the fashion semi translucent white plastic so it doesn't look like made by Rubbermaid. (I swear my cutting board in the kitchen is made from the very same plastic - at least I know CommandPost is washable in washmachine) Other than this, the device is what it claims to be, with a solid feel.
How it works in the software then? Another nice surprise - it works smooth! You turn the Jog and the video moves in some steps, you use shuttle and the video rewinds or forward. Push the play button above and it start playing, touch the Jog it stops and you can advance by frames (well VideoWave doesn't let you do editing in exactly frame by frame, but the steps are quite small anyway, let's say bunch of frames). Pretty much like the real thing. Using Jog is faster in VideoWave than using mouse for the same thing.
In cutting room you can use the Mark point buttons, another time saver so basically you can select and mark the in/out clip without touching mouse.

VideoWave 4.0

Nice software for beginners with decent MPEG capabilities. Not much new from 3.0

VideoWave is a low cost storyboard type video editing application and if you buy a bundle such as the CommandPost above then it is even cheaper or basically free. Actually expect to get VideoWave 4.0 bundled in many new video-related hardware such as FireWire cards, video cards etc... It is of course the easiest way how to get decent Go-Motion full MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 codec from Ligos and bunch of video and audio editing materials (backgrounds, clips etc...) GoMotion is one of the fastest codecs and on PentiumIII 700 you may even get something like 2-3 time slower encoding than RealTime would be.
I am certainly not a fan of the storyboard type applications because of its limitation. I like time line type (such as Premier or even Magix Music Maker).
Anyway VideoWave has pretty decent implementation of the mpeg video editing, it is virtually the same if you load mpeg or avi. The 4.0 has a scene detection, where you can let software automatically divide one take into several clips. That means you don't have to capture each take into separate files. Just capture the whole length and let the software cut it in pieces. It seems to work somehow, but once I started autodetection, I couldn't stop it until it looked through the whole 10 min video. (in 10 minutes, god bless for task manager!).
VideoWave is a good application for start or home video, however I don't see much breathtaking improvements in comparison to the 3.0 version. (Hopefully more stable and the GoMotion is faster) There are few new things like Time Warp and the scene detection...

Don't throw out your old m-jpeg device yet!
ATI AIW Radeon combines Radeon video card with TV tuner and video capturing functionality which claims to be a real time MPEG-1 and MPEG-2.
First I must say it is a very good video card but I will not talk about its 3D or 2D features since any video card in that price would have pretty much the same amazing performance and to be honest the game would look probably as good as with your year old video card... It has nice TV tuner and time shifting recording (so you can pause live TV and watch it later) But it is NOT good for video editing.
MPEG seems to be a hot topic these days especially if many DVD players can play VCD (MPEG-1) or SVCD (MPEG-2). People are always looking for real time mpeg encoders, because if you want to make VCD from your video tape, you need to capture it probably on 5 GB hard disk in AVI and then encode it to 500 MB using free software encoders which takes quite long time (it could take even 6 hours of encoding time).
There are 2 types of real time encoders - one using adjusted Ligos Go-Motion software for real time encoding (ATI uses this one) and the other using hardware encoders (WinTV, Dazzle II) Most of the video cards implement software encoders since there is no room to put both video card and hardware encoder on one AGP card without risk of fire. And two card or external box is of course more expensive.
For software encoders you need fast computer. ATI claims on their box that Pentium III can do a full frame 720x480 MPEG-2 in real time, which is, well true if you don't mind many dropped frames and totally audio-video out of sync. More reasonable would be 352 x 240 where you can go easily with 6MBit/sec.
In my opinion the best was always MPEG-1. MPEG-2 was showing or pixelation or was dropping frames depending on settings. Also MPEG-1 allow easily go to 480x480 or larger sizes without dropping frames.
ATI produces files which are incompatible with VCD or SVCD even if you will set all the proper settings so you can't burn it to CD. There is cure by using some free mpeg tools from internet to demultiplex and then multiplex sound from/to video but I think it would be matter of good will for them to support VCD or SVCD settings since GoMotion can do it. But they don't. You can't even set required VCD 1,150 Mbit/sec for MPEG-1 since the slider won't allow you to do it and you have no place to enter the numbers directly (only to go to registry and change settings directly there). Too bad..
Quality - Whatever I tried, the files were never as good as simple m-jpeg compression of the same widh/height (for example Matrox Marvel G400 TV with hardware zoran m-jpeg). To use ATI Wonder for video editing is simply no good. You save some space capturing to mpeg instead to m-jpeg, but not as much as you would think. The other idea was to capture to AVI with m-jpeg software codec (for example PICVideo) but here the ATI card give another nasty surprise - the maximum resolution to capture avi is 320x200! Remember using Marvel G400 happily capturing 720x480 without dropping a single frame and with outstanding quality, well also huge files.

TV tuner is OK and with a bonus time shifting recording. You watch TV (for some reason on computer) ,telephone ring, so you just click pause and the live TV pause and starts recording on hard disk. Later you just hit play and you watch the time delayed show or during commercials you can fast forward and catch with live. For some people this is revolutionary, for others just an excuse to watch more TV.

Disappointed? Well there isn't anything much better for MPEG in this price range anyway. I mean you may get WinTV or Dazzle II (both should be compatible at least with VCD) with hardware mpeg encoding, but the quality would stay pretty much in the same ATI range. Something may be better, something worst. Let's be honest, the real time MPEG isn't here yet unless you are prepared to spend $2000 for professional mpeg hardware.

And if you planning to edit the videos before final export, the capturing to mpeg would have very little benefits.

Comparing the results to the year old Matrox Marvel G400 TV with hardware m-jpeg you would appreciate Marvel's crisp picture and great video quality.
Oh, Matrox is launching new model G450 TV which I am afraid looses all the benefits of the G400. Instead of zoran m-jpeg chip I think they implement the very same Ligos software MPEG-2 encoder as ATI. They also don't mention the connector box any more. I expected 450 to be a step forward in video editing but I think it is a step toward regular user. Anyway, we will see later when they will finally release it (it was delayed quite some time)

I guess we would need to wait at least another year for: reasonably priced DVD recorder, cheap DVD media and quality MPEG hardware encoder without the price tag.

Looking at all consumer MPEG cards - there isn't anything extraordinary - but see for yourself:

ATI AIW
WinTV
Dazzle 2
MovieMaker (Creative)