DivX Author 1.5

'DivX Author' is a DivX editor. It might seem similar to Windows Movie Maker, but it has many more features and it works faster. With this program, you can have your own studio. You can cut scenes or frames from your video files and you can even add subtitles to your video files. If the subtitles are shifted, you can adjust them very easily with the help of the 'Subtitle Time Shifter'.

The program is structured in five steps. The first step is 'Start' and here you can set the basic settings for your project. 'Source' is the second step and here you manage the source files and the overall structure of your project. During the second step, you can also create a complete video slideshow from picture files with the help of the slideshow editor.

The third step, the most interesting, is the 'Menu Creator'. Here you can create professional DVD-like menus for your video files with the help of a wizard. This is highly configurable and you can manage almost every detail of a video creation process. After you set the options in 'Menu Creator', you can preview your work in the 'Simulation' tab, which is the fourth step of this program. The last step is the 'Output Stage', where you actually create the DivX Ultra file.

Because of the wizards, the user interface is very intuitive and easy-to-use.

Pluses: High speed cutting and editing.

Drawbacks / flaws: You have to read the 'Help' file to understand some of the buttons' functions.

In conclusion: This is among the best cutting and editing programs I've seen yet. I recommend you to try this, if you think it might be useful to you.

version reviewed: 1.0