Support for latest video formats and a batch-media encoder, but supporting apps have seen little upgrading.

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.

A massive bundle worth the extra money, containing absolutely every tool a video producer might need.

Great real-time performance, particularly with high definition footage. But the EDIUS Pro software still needs a few more features to usurp the competition.

Surprisingly powerful for the price, even if the best features are reserved for the more expensive Plus version.

Not only slightly cheaper than the last version, but now Encore CS3 and OnLocation CS3 are included too.

Excellent features and performance, but it’s pricey and you need a suitably powerful PC to make the most of it.

The first Corel-branded VideoStudio adds one exciting new tool and lots of little improvements.

Editing performance with HDV remains sluggish, but DV-editing ability is formidable.

A more mature version, taking it from sound cleaning and score creation to a powerful soundtrack composition tool.

Great audio, but gaming ability hinges on the success of Dolby and DTS

Some powerful improvements – but you won’t get the most out of this unless it’s used alongside other Adobe apps.

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

Vegas has a huge array of editing features for the money, plus powerful bundled DVD authoring.

For many years, After Effects (AE) was the only real choice for PC video compositing - everything else was in a different price/hardware league. But in the last couple of years, with the steady improvement of Pinnacle's Commotion and the huge price drop in Discreet's Combustion, AE isn't alone anymore.

Yet another leap forward for After Effects, which cements its status as the leading PC video compositing tool.

Packed with features and closer to Adobe Premiere Elements, CyberLink PowerDirector 8 is close, but still not close enough.

Another big improvement, but this time it’s enough to make PowerDirector a worthy alternative to its mainstream rivals

A fully featured hard disk AVCHD camcorder with plenty of recording space

A fully featured hard disk AVCHD camcorder with plenty of recording space