Powerdirector 8 Ultra

Sorry about the formatting, Amazon is removing all my spaces when I publish even though it looks fine in the editor.

Computer Specs:
Intel Core2 Duo @ 1.86 GHz
2 GB RAM
256 MB Video
32 bit
Windows Vista

My test:
Added 2 videos.
Added image stabilization to one
3D transition between them.
Rendered the project.
AVCHD in and MPG2 out (both in full HD, 1920*1440, Dolby 5.1 if available)
Video length 4 minutes and 20 seconds.

Overall Review:
**** Corel Video Studio Pro X3
**** Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
*** Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
**1/2 Adobe Premiere Elements 8
** Magix Edit Pro 15
* Roxio Creator 2010
* Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14

Package Options:
My reviews are against the top versions of each product line. You will find that most of the differences between the top versions and the base are Blu-ray export options, and some add some extra sound options. See for yourself the option that suits you at the manufacturer's website in their respective product comparison guides.

Windows 7:
All seemed to work for me in windows 7, 64 bit with 4 GB RAM. I didn't do any tests with it b/c I wanted to use an older machine that would come closer to representing the average computer. This includes Roxio 2009, but not 2010 for reasons stated below.

Final Opinion:
If you want something super easy to use, then I would go with Cyberlink PowerDirector 8. If you want something with a bit more power that you can grow into, I would go with Corel Video Studio Pro X3. Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro plus 9 may very well be good, but I see no reason to purchase it with the power of the Corel package.
If you are a masochist, go with Adobe, Magix, Roxio, or Pinnacle.

DETAILS:
Adobe Premiere Elements 8
65 min render time
Pros:
You can search effects
Layout was good but not great
Interface was pretty straightforward
Cons:
Virtually locked my system
Slow and temporarily froze frequently
Output menu was cumbersome

Corel Video Studio Pro X3
19 min render time
Pros:
Great Output menu
Very fast
Easy to use user interface
Proxy editing*
Autofit for timeline
Cons:
No search function for effects
*edit*
After further review of this software, I had to knock it down from 5 to 4 stars.
I noticed more and more buggyness from the software the more that I used it.
It wasn't enough that one couldn't use it, but it was enough to be a bit frustrating at times.
*edit*

Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
30 min render time
Pros:
Output menu was nice
Very nice and easy to use layout
Cons:
No Blu-ray output
*edit*
Blu-ray output is available on Ultra.
After further use of this program, I have some issues with it and have lowered it to 4 from 5 stars.
I was disappointed with the menu editing in that you can not do text only menus, you can't really "customize" menus, and their stock menus total a whopping 2. They state they have thousands online, but almost all of these are menus that are horrible junk ones that others have created. There are literaly a few that are good or better. In addition, you can not search these menus, and the sorting is poor at best to browse them.
*edit*

Magix Edit Pro 15
41 min Render time
Pros:
Simple
Cons:
Poor user interface
Oversimplified (Too simple I think for most people)
Very Cumbersome to use and add effects
Output options were confusing and cumbersome
Extremely limited options for PC output (which is what many will be doing)
A couple of lock ups

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14
Pros:
Nice little finished project to see what can be done
Nice interface for editing
Cons:
ONLY SOFTWARE that I was not able to import a video
Locked up my system many times and left errant process running at 80% CPU
Took 50 seconds just to load the import video TAB
When I selected videos to import and hit start import, absolutely nothing happened
Tried one of their movies and went to help to find stabilization and it crashed on me b/c I didn't have enough memory
No Blu-ray output
Cons on install on windows 7 computer:
Failure on export of file on all formats
I actually tried Pinnacle about 10 years ago and had absolutely nothing but problems. Spent many days downloading patches just to get it to work. Then, like a moron, I did an entire project and when I went to burn it, the burn failed every time. I see a decade later, I still can't export a file.

Roxio Creator 2010
Pros:
-----
Cons:
They don't allow a trial download. I contacted them asking them if I could download a trial and even noted that I was a current customer. I personally like the 2009 Roxio. It was a nice "all-purpose" program. They told me that I had to buy it. I was offered a money back guarantee, but to do so, I had to send in a letter of destruction. This is way too much effort on my end to see if your software works for me.
I find it ridiculous in this day and age that you can't have a trial version of something, especially when EVERY ONE of your competitors does. In addition, this is how they were treating an existing customer!
You throw in all the compatibility issues that can occur in software in general and video software in particular, and that leaves me to think they have nothing to hide.
As icing on the cake, the following sentence was in their reply.
"Creator 2010 does support AVCHD software and hasn't been know to have any issues thus far!"
I replied to them about this OUTRIGHT LIE! First, you can read the compatibility issues on Amazon. Second, as a person that writes programs, there is no such thing as bug free software, especially video editing software.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
14 minute render time (NO ANTI-SHAKE IN RENDER, see below)
Pros:
Computer stayed pretty responsive during render
Savable packages of effects
How to guide is nice
Cons:
Couldn't search effects
Very, very cumbersome to use
Couldn't find stabilization
The render time approximation stayed at around 1 minute or 2 left the entire time
Here is my issue with Sony Vegas. I have compared its features with many of the other programs and they are all very similar. Now, when compared with Corel Video Studio Pro X3 and Cyberlink PowerDirector, they are virtually identical. I personally think Sony leaves their software cumbersome so that it "looks/seems" more powerful.
I was definitely most disappointed in this product because it was the one that I was looking the most forward to using. When I say that it is cumbersome to use, it doesn't mean that it can't be used. Let me give an example. I am a programmer, and in something like excel, I like the ability to write my own code to create functions and tools that it doesn't offer or to tweak ones that it does. HOWEVER, when I want to enter numbers in boxes, I just want to enter numbers in boxes. I don't want to click in a box, go to a menu or right click, select some gadget and then enter a number. It is ok for complicated things to be complicated, but simple things should not only be simple, but also INTUITIVE.
The main thing that I saw that you could do in Sony Vegas that you couldn't do in the others is change your transitions (both audio and video) ramp as far as how quickly they come in and go out. I am not talking about changing the time, but how your out video accelerates out and how you in video accelerates in during that time. It is a cool feature, but something that 99% of people will only not use, but won't care about either.
Another thing, the image stabilizer should be easy to do, and it may be. However, I did a search in help for stabilize, stabilizer, sta, shake, anti, etc. and could not find out how to do this very simple thing. This worries me greatly that if this isn't readily available in the help docs, then much of the other stuff probably isn't either.

*A note on proxy editing.
Proxy editing is basically you working on a very low def version of your file, but when it comes time to actually render your output, the original file is used. Some view this as a crutch because they say you should be able to optimize the software to work with the high def video. My opinion is that if I can work faster, then I will work faster. Who cares what my resolution is while I am editing. If you have the fastest software out there for HD, and you can do your edits in very low def and it is even faster still, then why would you not want that?

I will basically review Power Director 8 Ultra as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, but first I will compare it with some other programs.
Computer Specs: (Computer 1)
Intel Core2 Duo @ 1.5 GHz
2 GB RAM
32 bit
Windows 7 Ultimate

Computer Specs: (Computer 2)
Intel Core2 Duo @ 2.93 GHz
4 GB RAM
64 bit
Windows 7 Ultimate
Tests Included:
Captured 1 new video.
Recoded 1 old video and added for editing.
Converted the recoded video
3D transition between them...

Programs Compared:
Video Studio
Nero
Power Director
Windows Movie Maker.

Older versions of Video Studio produced by Ulead are not compatible with Windows 7 Ultimate, but they will run on Vista. The newer versions; ieProX2 and ProX3 are.

Nero 8 through 10 all work with Windows 7 Ultimate.

I purchased the Power Director 8 after reading pro reviews in Top 10 video editing software and consumer reviews on Amazon.com. In the past, I found that if you just want to do very simple minor editing with limited transitions, cutting and splitting clips and emailing short clips, don't spend money on sophisticated software, use Windows Movie Maker. It comes with older Windows versions and is available for free download to Windows 7 as part of the Windows Live package.

What can I say about Nero. Even though it wasn't reviewed in the Top 10, it has long been a standard and the most complete suite of audio/visual authoring software. I used it to recode an old 4:3 DVD so that I could convert it to 16:9 in Power Director 8. I would be at a loss without this program. However, there are some difficulties in editing Chapters, especially sliding to an exact frame. It is also complex and limited in menu creation. However, it is rock solid in burning DVDs and CDs.

The older Video Studio programs were wonderful to work with, especially with ease of capturing and editing. They also would burn an MPG or AVI file quite well. However, when finalizing the burn to a DVD, I constantly had problems with lip sinking. It got to the point where I would capture and edit in Video Studio then print to a file. Then I would open the MPG file in Nero, create the lesser menus available in Nero and burn the CD. Whew! In all fairness, the new Corel versions of Video Studio may have these problems resolved, but it leaves a little bad taste.

When I upgraded all my computers to Windows 7 Ultimate my Video Studio would not run. I tried running in the virtual XP mode, but it wouldn't run there either, because the virtual only has a minimal display resolution that is not compatible with high resolution programs such as games or video editing. I had to make a choice, upgrade to Video Studio Pro X3 or Power Director 8. I contacted Corel to see if there were update patches for Window 7, there were none. They told me they didn't even have a list of Ulead customers and I would just have to buy their software. This, of course, made me angry with them. I had received a free trial download of Power Director 8 with my new video cards so I installed it and began my comparisons. I soon found that in order to burn a DVD and use some other features, you had to purchase an upgrade to a full version and an extended download package was required which was extra. I did acquire it anyway.

The Good:
Power Director 8 is a very powerful program with some wonderful features. I shoot most videos in 16:9, but sometimes I have some 4:3 clips that I want to insert. These convert quite nicely with this program. I also find that inserting transitions, applying effects are quite easy. It has the capability to upgrade 2 speaker sound to virtual surround, or if you have 5.1 speaker setup, you can burn to that. Once everything is ready, it does a very good burn producing an excellent product. It also has direct uploads to You Tube and Facebook if you care about that.

The Bad:
I found the program workable because I have had a lot of experience doing this and was able to figure things out with some effort. However, tutorials are few and documentation, while plentiful, is confusing and complex. I think this is not a program for beginners unless they have a lot of time to experiment and are willing to make a few coasters along the way.

The Ugly:
The technical service is a joke. I can understand charging for technical assistance after six months, or even 90 days. However, new customers who are bound to be confused should have telephone support available for a set time period. Not Here! They don't even offer live chat. If you want to talk to someone, it's $30. You can get some free help via e-mail, but it takes about 48 hours to get a response and then it just connects you to a URL. I really do enjoy using the program as I am slowly figuring things out, but if I had known they have such little concern about caring for their customers before I bought it, I would probably have gone with the Video Studio.

Summary:
It's powerful, and can be fun when you figure things out and adapt. It produces a good final product. All the programs I listed have strengths and weaknesses but are generally good if you read the reviews and are wise in your selection. There are a lot of other products out there. I have tried many of them and most are just junk. Buyer Beware.

I truly hope this review is helpful.

I purchased and have worked with this program for a while now. It has one small flaw. It crashes frequently. Doesn't sound small, does it. Well, after exploring information on Power Director's online site, I discovered that this happens with some systems, but that those who have this problem can go into preferences and disable auto save (which saves about every 10 seconds). Apparently the crash occurs when you are doing a procedure simultaneously with an auto save. One caution, if you do turn off auto save, do a manual save (one click on the save button on top) periodically...always a good practice with any application.

Apart from the initial serious problem that quickly became a very small problem, this program is amazing. It is wonderful for video clips and slides alike, for editing clips and for creating videos for You Tube, DVD, AVCHD or blu ray. It is the same program that the Deluxe is, except that it provides the necessary upgrade for high definition videos. I tried many editing programs prior to the purchase of Power Director, and I highly recommend this program.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 40 reviews  2.9 out of 5 stars