MagicSports 4.0 adds football to a growing list of sports for which the software can analyze and compile highlight videos Fans of American football who are too busy to watch every game may enjoy the latest edition of Cyberlink’s MagicSports software.Version 4.0 adds football to a growing list of sports for which the software can analyze and compile highlight reels, alongside soccer, baseball, and Sumo wrestling. MagicSports will watch a three-and-a-half-hour football game for you, clip the most exciting moments, and compile a 20-minute video you can watch and share with friends.The auto-editing program can even trim the final video to as short as three to five minutes. And the software is just in time. National Football League regular season games started last week.MagicSports uses several techniques to analyze a game, then ranks highlights according to importance. A four-star classification is a must-see highlight, and will be added instantly to the final video. The game scoreboard is a major indicator for the software, because point changes and other information from the board can be cross referenced with crowd noise and movement on the field near the end zones.A scoreboard change to first and 10 from a prior view of third and 15 without the ball changing hands, for example, tells the software that a team made a big play to gain a first down. Or a sudden change such as first and 10 for one team to first and 10 for the other team, along with crowd noise, might tell the software an interception was made or a fumble recovered. Similar techniques are used in soccer. Activity near the goal, crowd noise, referee whistles, scoreboard changes and game stoppages all indicate to the software that a highlight clip might need adding to the final video.MagicSports 4.0 is available now online from Cyberlink’s Web site. It costs $49.95 and runs on PCs with an Intel Pentium 4, 2.6GHz microprocessor, or better, and 256MB of RAM.Cyberlink continuously tweaks and improves the software, and it is constantly working to include more sports. Tennis is already under development, and might be included in the next version, engineers at the company say. Software Development