Roxio VideoWave Movie Creator

Suggested Retail: $50 (Win only; pre-installed on Dell desktops and laptops) roxio.com

Because of its price, you might assume that VideoWave Movie Creator offers the bare minimum in video-editing tools. You'd be wrong. For starters, the program has three movie modes: CineMagic, StoryBuilder and StoryLine Editor. CineMagic is the greatest "for dummies" utility I've seen. You dump your footage into the PC, throw in some music, pick a mood and voila, you have an unnervingly clever edit of your birthday party complete with slo-mo "sensitive" moments. The second mode is StoryBuilder, where you pick a themed template (Christmas, Baby Bath Time) and your own clips, to which it adds a beginning, an end and some bad music. Frankly, it's not that cool. StoryLine Editor by itself is much like Movie Shaker or iMovie, except that it's got over 100 different special effects and transitions, from a Fine Young Cannibals-style crazy mirror to a shattering-glass scene change. If you're lazy and want to impress your friends, you start with CineMagic, then carry that project into StoryLine Editor and crank up the dazzle. My end product is a dadaistic mess that's simultaneously beautiful and unwatchable.

It's no accident that the fun stops just shy of the DVD burning process. Roxio's big DVD-burning initiative — a total overhaul of the classic Easy CD Creator — is due out sometime next month. Meanwhile, VideoWave Movie Creator offers a boring set of overly thematic DVD templates. You've got your blue Baby Boy and your pink Baby Girl, plus the similarly pastel Anniversary, Winter and Business. Unlike the other programs, none of Roxio's templates are animated. They are, however, easy to use, and you can make a DVD without ever once knowing what file format your movie was in.

Bottom Line: For $50, this is the perfect program to get you up and running quickly if you are new to digital film editing.