Canopus first made its name providing top-notch 3Dfx cards. Realising the deadly competitiveness and pace of that market, however, Canopus has moved on and repositioned itself as a company specialising in video editing.

Hitachi DZ-MV100A

Digital video is a rising star, with DV camera sales increasing from year to year and digital software sales to consumers and enthusiasts alike also on the rise. It's a welcome trend, to be sure, but with all such trends there is a widening gap between the digital haves and the have-nots, with no easy way to share video between.

Like its direct competitor Ulead DVD MovieFactory, Pinnacle Express can be used to create VideoCD and SVCD discs as well as DVD titles. Unlike Ulead's program, however, it supports slide shows as well as video...

Video editing can make or break those home movies of your latest adventure or that important business presentation. Until recently you only had the choice of some expensive professional, or some fairly crude software packages, but over recent years Ulead has put video editing within the reach of most video camera users, and at a reasonable price.

This camera is so small you can put it in your pocket just like a mobile phone, yet it packs quite a punch. Compared with earlier cameras, the DCR-IP7 has been improved and added to, and is no longer just a video camera for home movies and still shots.

There was a time when Pinnacle dominated the PC video-editing market. But, after its initial success with the DV500, the advent of sophisticated realtime editing seemed to leave the company behind. While it was a good product, the company’s Pro-ONE arrived when competitive products from Matrox and Canopus had been available for some time. The Pinnacle Edition PRO 5 is an entirely different matter.

Home videos are great fun but we seldom manage to record each scene on our cameras in exactly the right order to create a flow of video and sound that is pleasing and easy to watch. In many cases it could bore the socks off most viewers.

Photoshop moves beyond photo editing to conquer completely new territory.

There was a time when semi-professional video editors and home-video enthusiasts had little choice but Adobe Premiere. Back then, video capture and output depended on proprietary hardware, which often only worked with its bundled software.

In the mid-1990s a debate raged over whether we would eventually end up watching television on our computers, or whether television would take over from the PC. In 1995 a PC called the MyGeNie went on sale boasting that you could watch TV while you worked...

The menu setup panel is where DVD menu layouts are customised with thumbnails, backgrounds and music.

AVCHD support and some useful new effects keep this as the leading entry-level video editor.

A new interface, smart albums, guided editing and photo merging keep Photoshop Elements ahead of the pack

It’s the stills camera that thinks it’s a video camera. A high definition video camera.

A great entry-level video editing app, but Montage is the only major addition unless you go for the Ultimate edition

Creating your own custom DVDs and VideoCDs becomes fairly simple with Adaptec's MyDVD Video Suite 4.0 from Sonic Solutions.

Great design and comprehensive features make it a truly great Media Center PC. Only the price lets it down.

HD camcorders enter the mainstream once and for all. With image quality like this, there’s little reason to spend more.