Tenomichi has taken the innovative interface technology seen in 3D Edit, and shoehorned it into a general-purpose interface called 3D Media Center. As the name suggests, this aggregates media-related apps together into one friendly front-end.
The applications are represented by large 3D-style icons depicting the appropriate device. The functions included range from 3D Edit 4 itself, to reasonable music, TV and DVD playback options, plus an app for downloading videos to a portable device and a photo slideshow creator.
There are three different versions of 3D Media Center: Gold, Silver and Bronze. Silver lacks portable device support and a few effects extension packs for 3D Edit. Bronze also loses the slideshow app. But the biggest omission from either is Nvidia's PureVideo Decoder Bronze. Although some of the hardware acceleration features are primarily aimed at Nvidia GPUs, it benefits ATi products too.
PureVideo is used with the DVD application, supplying the necessary MPEG2 codec, but it's 3D Edit v4's engine that powers many of the other functions. The 3D Mobile app, for example, allows you to drag files to or from your mobile device, using the hardware-accelerated 3D Edit engine to re-encode where necessary.
However, you don't get all these features straight away. After installation, you need to register your serial number. You'll then be emailed a licence key file, plus links to download a codec pack for the 3GP and MPEG4 formats used by mobile devices. Nvidia's PureVideo Decoder Bronze isn't supplied on the CD either, and will be sent to your registration address. It's all rather annoying, although Tenomichi is planning to make PureVideo part of the install in the near future.
Also be aware that while Tenomichi is pricing 3D Edit v4 Gold at the same price as the 3D Media Center bundle, the updates for the latter will be more consumer-orientated. So if your video editing-intentions are a little more serious, the standalone option is the sensible choice.
System Specifications
Windows 2000/XP onwards DirectX 9 graphics card with Pixel Shader 2 support
Verdict
Reasonable value if you're buying 3D Edit anyway, but this is otherwise a white elephant.
Author: James Morris
PC Pro Online