ShowBiz DVD 2 - Workhorse or Old Gray Mare?

I used to own a 1978 Chevy Camaro, and wear my hair in a mullet. Let’s talk about the car, though. It had an engine. It had wheels. It had seats. It didn’t have any bells and whistles. It was a stock, stripped-down, bottom-feeder, basic Chevy. There were all sorts of options that I could have had: power windows, power door locks, air conditioning, louvers, sport wheels, a T-top, an AM-FM cassette player, and a fuzzy steering wheel cover. I didn’t have any of those things. I couldn’t afford them working at the daily newspaper in the late 80s. The automobile life I lived was a boring, no-frills, gunmetal gray Chevy Camaro existence. When I opened the ArcSoft Showbiz DVD 2 application, I was immediately transported back to the driver seat of my 1978 Chevy Camaro.

The user interface of this program is the same color as my Camaro. It is gray and colorless. Showbiz DVD has about as many features as my Camaro. It feels stripped down and basic. Now don’t get me wrong, this program will capture, edit, and produce video. My Chevy Camaro took me to work. It just wasn’t that fun.

The software application does have everything you need to capture video content from your camera, edit that content, produce a file for the Internet or another computer, and make a DVD. The timeline/storyboard view for movie clips and audio tracks is very simple. It has transition effects and text animations for titles. You can create a simple slideshow or music video with this program. You can edit and customize the menus for your DVDs. Let’s look at a few of this application’s key abilities.

The application is simple to use. You can easily see your work in either storyboard view or on a timeline. There are very few buttons compared to similar programs. The buttons take you directly to the place they say. The effects and transitions seem a bit dated, but there is a nice amount to choose from. It is very easy to understand how to apply an effect or a transition. It is a simple, straightforward video editing program. It recognized my video camera instantly. I was able to capture 90 minutes of video with just a few clicks.

This program also has a “Quick DVD” option. You can make a few choices on settings and watch while this program captures and edits your video for you. The beauty of this program is its simplicity.

What's Not: 
If you’re buying a stripped-down Chevy Camaro, you would expect to pay stripped-down Chevy Camaro price. This program retails for $99.99. You can buy an application with many more features for the same money. For example, when I clicked on the icon to make a label for my DVD, it took me to the website to pay more money for a different program. There are other programs that have this feature without having to make another purchase. The program seems dated; the only other reviews I could find that were written on this program were over two years old. This program is not part of a suite. For the same money, you can buy a suite that has exponentially more features.