Amazon.com Review

Visual Communicator Plus is an innovative and sophisticated software application that allows you to produce broadcast-quality presentations and videos through your PC. Although it doesn't offer the intricate split-second editing or the sheer number of effects of some home moviemaking suites, the program features a super-simple interface and enough pioneering amenities to impress any audience.

Visual Communicator Plus imports various forms of media files, including AVI video, JPEG graphics, and WAV audio, and captures raw video footage directly from a DV camcorder. Instead of the time-consuming timeline and storyboard editing procedure common to most video editing packages, this program allows you to quickly drag and drop your elements into the Action Area, where it is then automatically processed. Developer Serious Magic has integrated a number of stock elements to help get your message across more effectively, including nearly 200 screen transitions and effects, 200 sound and music clips, and 40 super-slick animated backgrounds and virtual sets.

Visual Communicator Plus also offers several predeveloped scenes featuring a professional TV anchorperson, although your subject matter must fit a specific set of parameters to make sense of the very narrow script. Furthermore, as competing products such as Nova Development's Video Explosion Deluxe offer thousands of predesigned audio-video elements and advanced video effects such as Gausian blur, the Visual Communicator Plus effect roster seems comparatively limited.

But the most unique and powerful aspect of the package is that it quickly and easily converts any computing environment into a TV-style studio. To do this, merely suspend the enclosed 6-by-5-foot piece of green fabric behind you and then record yourself speaking into a standard Webcam. The program intelligently recognizes the green fabric as a Chroma Key background, which it will digitally replace with your choice of images or animated scenes. In short order you can be a roving reporter standing in front of your home movie of the Grand Canyon, or perhaps a product spokesperson extolling the virtues of your new cheese grater as images of the cheese grater circulate behind you.

Best suited to anyone who wants to put themselves in the center of the action as a pseudo news correspondent or narrator, Visual Communicator Plus will infuse television-style sparkle into virtually any business or personal video. --Gordon Goble ... Read more

Features

• The automatic teleprompter makes you comes across like a seasoned professional speaker
• Work with Adaptive Visual Elements(AVE) to employ high-quality digital graphics and give your production the big-budget treatment
• No dealing with video timelines or other complicated video production tools -- an intuitive user interface makes creating & editing simple
• Real-time special effects engine makes it easier than ever to add fades to black, titles, and other attention-grabbing special effects
• Create instant magic when you use the incredible built-in green screen tool -- a click of the button puts you anywhere in the world!

Reviews (7)

Incredible Results for the Money
I purchased VC Plus after reading about it's various awards. It truely does what it claims. I bought the Logitech Pro 4000 webcam to use with it at the same time. Installing both products, configuring the camera, setting up proper lighting (two 500-watt halogens from my garage bouncing light off the ceiling), and tweaking the green-screen background effects took about two hours altogether. After that, wow! Recording professional broadcast videos on my PC (Athlon 1600XP with 512MB RAM, GeForce 2 400MX, and WinXP Pro) is easy and fast. Honestly. I'm recording a series of training videos for clinical microbiology students. Incorporating PowerPoint slides (as JPEGs) and shot video from a DV camcorder is easy. Adding screen shots of Windows apps (alt+PrtScn) is also easy (use Paint to save to JPEG first). All this content can be set to trigger during broadcast recording with various transition effects (they give you tons of effects to use). You can rehearse as often as you like, then do a recording. After that, you then publish the recording in either AVI or Windows Media format (I strongly suggest using Windows Media format); you can use third party apps to convert an AVI-published broadcast to Real or QuickTime formats, but I found the Windows Media format to give the smoothest and sharpest display with excellent compression. Why bother with anything else? Soon the SeriousMagic website will offer an upgrade to allow recording in Windows Media 9 format (which is absolutley unbelieveable in quality and compression). The VC Plus package microphone worked fine, but I suggest laying the included green-screen fabric on the floor and placing books on it to reduce the fold creases, otherwise fine lines will appear in your recorded background. There is a new (11/02) VC Pro version available only on the SM website, but the extra cost (double) did not justify the price for my needs right now. VC Plus gives you everything you need to make terrific training or announcement videos for any purpose. Wonderful stuff. Also included is an Alpha GC Titling editor that you can use to create your own broadcast-quality screen titles and text (if you don't like the numerous included ones). The manual is great, but I wish some extra "advanced" tutorials were included or available on their website...I'm already moving beyond "novice mode". Gone are the days of tedious video editing. You can add MP3s and WAV music clips anywhere along the broadcast. Truely nifty. The SM website has loads of sample videos to watch before you decide to buy. VC more than delivers as promised. By the way, I don't work for the company...I work for a rather large medical center in Los Angeles.

Not what the Advertise
I have a new PC and everything required and still have a fuzzy picture and lots of noise.Need a lot of setup time to make it work.Not what I expected.

Not What They Said
Looks like a great product if you can get it to work.I purchased a Logic web cam, have a new 1.2 GHz computer and did everything the manual said, and I still can't get it to work.My image is very fuzzy and has lots of noise. It is taking a lot of time to set up but the operation of the product looks fairly simple.Over all not what I expected.

What a difference pro tools make to create serious magic
If this package contained only the software it would still be one of the best tools for creating professional quality videos you could get at any price.However, it also comes with two items that seem simple, but dramatically increase the value and utility of this package.The microphone that ships with it will make sure that your audio sounds professional and does not pick up ambient background noise. The real (dare I say "serious") magic comes from the foldable green backdrop that lets you project backgrounds against your subjects in the video. Using this bit of magic you can do a video of grandchildren in California, but make it seem as though they are playing in front of the Pyramids or Taj Mahal.

While the green screen and microphone are professional touches, the real magic is in the software, which is a self contained environment for creating videos - not merely editing them. I love the templates that provide a 'program format' such as news, the animated backgrounds, and stock video and sound clips.

Creating a video CD requires a CD ROM writer and video CD software (I use EZ CD Creator, but most other CD ROM writing software has this capability - you need to check before you buy however). Visual Communicator produces AVI files, which can be streamed across the internet or placed on a CD ROM for replay.

The package also includes a 130-page book titled "Personal Broadcasting Handbook" that is filled with tips and techniques.

You'll need the following minimum hardware and software to install and use the software: Windows® 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 or XP, a Pentium III processor or equivalent, a 16MB AGP graphics card with 3D acceleration and Internet Explorer 5.0 or above. For interfacing camcorders you'll need a video input card, such as a Firewire or analog capture device that is compatible with your camcorder. You also have to make sure that the interface has a Windows DirectShow compativle driver.

If ever there was a killer application looking for a market, this is it. Visual Communicator has business and personal uses that will allow anyone with the right equipment and a touch of creativity to make compelling presentations in the business environment and send greetings to friends and relatives that are far beyond what one can do with paper. It's also useful for proposals, training and just about any other use that will be enhanced by visual communication.

It's rare that I say this about software...
But I really wish I could award more than five stars!

I heard about Visual Communicator on the Kim Komando radio show, and she just raves about it. I think she's a pretty reliable source, so I decided to check it out. Not only am I not sorry I got this, I *am* sorry I didn't get it much sooner. This really is *the* software for: anyone who's ever tried, and failed miserably, to create a home/business video; anyone who's ever tried, and failed miserably, to use some of the "simple" video production packages; anyone who's ever wished he could "throw together" a really slick video presentation for work, school, a club, or family; and anyone who delights in having friends and family "ooh and aah" over something cool *you* created.

Setup is painfully simple: install the software, tack up the "green screen" cloth, assemble your camera (and lights -- more on that in a minute), and get going. The "personal broadcasting handbook" included in the package leads the user through a basic tutorial (your first video production) and lets you get your feet wet. The rest of the book is clear and concise, and the online help is even better (how refreshing!). It's no exaggeration to say that even a reasonably-intelligent child can make stunning videos with Visual Communicator (in fact, one of the previous reviewers is 11 years old).

Perhaps the very best feature is the amount of work and forethought the software creators put into the supporting elements: titles, transitions, effects, and a thousand other production details the average person would never think of. For example, applying and editing effects: how many other video editing software packages require you to set "in" and "out" points, choose from a list of semi-meaningful effect names, click "OK," and hope for the best while it takes several minutes rendering your effect? And then, if you don't like it, want to change it, or want to move or expand/contract the timing of the effect, you do it all over again and wait for it to re-render. Not Visual Communicator. All effects and transitions are done "on the fly," meaning you can preview them in real time, add or delete them at will without having to render the entire video sequence again, and edit placement and timing by dragging the effect's icon in the timing "tray" next to the teleprompter window. Now *that's* the way it *should* be!

There are numerous "styles" and templates included for use in creating video, along with a wizard that helps you focus on your information while taking care of the details (like making sure all the text and backgound styles are consistent). The wizard is extremely helpful, but adventurous or advanced users can skip it and use any of the template/style elements directly. You can import other video clips, audio clips, and still images for use in your video, all with the same drag-and-drop ease as the effects. You also have options in formatting your finished video: you can publish everything from highly-compressed .asf files (suitable for emailing or placement on a web site) all the way up to uncompresed .avi files (plan to have a *lot* of hard drive space for this!).

And what review would be complete without mentioning Visual Communicator's crowning glory, the green screen? If you've ever watched the weather man on TV pointing to "an approaching front" and wanted to do the same, or wished you could make a video of yourself standing on the moon, now you can! VC Plus includes an "official" green screen cloth (official in the sense that it's the optimal shade of green for the software to key to it to create this effect). Tack it up behind you, make sure you have very good lighting (poor lighting will lead to some interesting effects, making you look like you're one of Star Trek's unfortunate "red shirts" who didn't quite re-materialize from the transporter!), and the output is nothing less than amazing! I think this is really the "killer app" of Visual Communicator -- this, and the high-quality effects and template material. You don't have to use the green screen when creating your videos, but I think once you've used it and seen how spectacular it looks, you will no longer consider it "optional."

Also included in the VC Plus package is a clip-on microphone. It is worlds better than your standard PC mic, and helps eliminate a lot of background noise. If you've ever priced a quality clip-on mic, you will see that the price difference between VC and VC Plus is reasonable; in fact, you could say they're selling you the mic and giving you the green screen cloth for free.

If you have a video camera (camcorder or PC cam), and your system meets the [reasonable] requirements to run the software, this is a package you will use often, love to use, and love to see the reactions of people viewing your creations. I recommend it *highly*! ... Read more

Features

• Send pages on-demand from your PC to any pager
• Schedule future repeat pages right from your desktop
• It automatically route your e-mail messages to your alphanumeric pager
• Use HotPage for sending private and top-secret messages; there's no interaction with an operator
• HotPage works with Microsoft Exchange, Windows Messaging, and Outlook