CyberLink PowerDirector 8 Deluxe

Video Upscaling and Fixing
A host of new tools and technologies are designed to save editing time and improve your video quality. Leveraging PowerDVD's video enhancing TrueTheater technology, PowerDirector delivers HD-like results from standard definition content by upscaling video resolution, smoothing out playback in slow motion and enabling virtual surround sound.
With easy-to-use settings, PowerDirector's TrueTheater technologies fix common video shooting errors such as extreme backlighting, poor white balance, and inadequate lighting.
Pro Results
PowerDirector 8's suite of design tools—for creating titles, animated objects, and disc menus—now offers a Particle Effects Designer, letting you experiment with movie-like special effects. As with PowerDirector's other design tools, particle effects can be uploaded and shared with other users on DirectorZone, PowerDirector's community website.
Enjoy working with more editing tools such as Reverse, Crop, Speed and Rotate video tools. For precise trimming, retain frame-level control with the patented Zoom-In Cut™.
While the expanded 16-track timeline offers more creative possibilities including the ability to cut & paste sequences to other parts of your production.

Faster Performance
The first consumer video editing software to be optimized for Intel Core i7, NVIDIA CUDA, and ATI Stream technology, PowerDirector delivers up to 5X faster performance for rendering effects and transcoding videos, with vastly improved editing and previewing speeds.

Shared Creativity
Ever wonder how home movies achieve memorable effects? Now you can by viewing other users' timelines and even sharing your own on DirectorZone.com. This unique glimpse into others' creative approaches is a remarkable learning tool, offering incredible insight for your own projects.
PowerDirector's unique "open editing" experience also lets you share special effects, video editing secrets, and a chance to learn from other users. Download, upload, and share an unlimited amount of effects, DVD menus, particle effects, and PiP objects via DirectorZone.
Ways to Show & Tell
Video editing software, PowerDirector, provides direct HD video uploading to Facebook and YouTube, enabling easy sharing on today’s most popular social networks and video blogging sites.
Or enjoy your finished movie in HD at home by producing Blu-ray Discs or AVCHD discs in high-definition resolution. If it's mobility you are after, you can produce playback files for your iPhone, iPod, or PSP.

System Requirements:

Operating System:

• Microsoft Windows 7, Vista or XP (Windows XP Service Pack 2 is required for HDV capture)

Screen Resolution:

• 1024 x 768, 16-bit color or above

Microphone

• Required for recording voice-overs

Processor:

PowerDirector 8 is optimized for CPU with MMX/SSE/SSE2/3DNow! Extension/HyperThreading technology

• AVI Capture/Production: Pentium 2 450 MHz or AMD Athlon 500MHz
• VCD Quality (MPEG-1) Profiles: Pentium 3 600 MHz or AMD Athlon 700MHz
• DVD Quality (MPEG-2) profiles: Pentium 4 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2200+
• High Quality MPEG-4 and WMV, QuickTime, RealVideo Profiles: Pentium4 2.4Ghz or AMD Athlon XP 2400+
• AVCHD and MPEG-2 HD Profiles: Pentium Core 2 Duo E6400 or Athlon 64 X2 5000+

Memory:

• 512MB required (2GB DDR2 above recommended for editing HD videos)

Hard Disk Space:

• 5GB required minimum (note: 400 MB is for Magic Music Library)
• 10GB (20 GB recommended) for DVD production
• 60GB (100 GB recommended) for Blu-ray Disc/AVCHD production

Video Capturing Device

• PCI or USB 1.0/2.0 capture device compliant with WDM standard (i.e. PC Camera and TV tuner with WDM driver)
• DV camcorder connected via OHCI-compliant IEEE1394
• DVD camcorder connected via USB 2.0
• Sony MicroMV camcorder
• JVC Everio camcorder (GZ-MC100, GZ-MC200)
• Sony HDR-FX1 (HDV)
• Sony HDR-HC1 (HDV)
• Sony HDR-HC1 (HDV)
• JVC GR-HD1U (HDV)

Supported AVCHD camcorders

• SONY HDR-SR1
• SONY HDR-UX1
• SONY HDR-CX7
• SONY HDR-SR7
• Panasonic SX5

Burning Device:

• A CD or DVD burner (CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW or DVD-R/RW) is required to burn VCD/DVD/SVCD titles.
• A Blu-ray disc recordable drive is required to burn Blu-ray Discs.

Corel VideoStudio X2

Corel VideoStudio X2 Standard earned the “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award” with its exceptionally clean interface, smooth playback, ease-of-use, and options tailored to both video editing beginners and experienced techies. Where other video editing products hide common functions behind menus, masked within a cluster of icons, and in less than ideal stages of the editing process, VideoStudio keeps them up front and easily accessible due its well-designed interface.
To aid first-time video editors, VideoStudio X2 launches with a splash screen where you’re given three options: the VideoStudio Editor, the Movie Wizard, and the DV-to-DVD Wizard.

The DV-to-DVD Wizard will take video directly from your DV camcorder and burn it to a DVD. It’s a simple two step process with a few editing options like scene detection and marking, and perfect when you just need to capture and produce a video quickly.

The VideoStudio Editor brings the full complement of video editing functionality to bear, including multi trimming, inserting effects, transitions, audio, and everything else VideoStudio X2 can do.

The Movie Wizard lets you capture and import video and do a few basic edits before burning it to disc. Its functionality puts it a step above the DV-to-DVD Wizard and a step below the full VideoStudio Editor. The Movie Wizard has automatic scene detection and splitting, multi trim capability, and DVD menu templates.
You can easily burn your videos to DVD and video CD with VideoStudio X2 Standard. For added flexibility, a few extra dollars will get you VideoStudio X2 Pro, where you can also burn to Blu-ray and AVC-HD discs, and you get hundreds of additional video and sound samples, extra special effects, and more.

Review of Corel Video Studio X2

Image Gallery

Click here to view (22) images in our gallery

See more...

Video Capture/Playback:  

We captured from an old JVC camcorder using an USB video transfer connector. The time required to capture our 14 minute video was exactly 14 minutes This 1:1 ratio is standard when pulling from DV tape.

Thanks to VideoStudio’s Smart Proxy technology video playback was smooth. With Smart Proxy editing, users – even on midrange PCs – can enjoy the same benefits as if they were using a high performance video editing workstation. By using lower-resolution files for editing and previewing a project, VideoStudio X2 requires fewer system resources, which results in faster, smoother playback and editing of video. This was especially helpful editing standard definition video, and we can only imagine its beneficial effects on editing HD video, which is much more resource intensive.

In VideoStudio X2, Corel also optimized its usage of dual-core and quad-core CPU systems. We noticed our dual-core system was more responsive and encoded faster than our Pentium 4 3GHz system. A great new feature found in both standard and pro versions of VideoStudio X2.

Editing Tools:  

Whether editing Grandpa’s arthroscopy or your nephew’s birthday party, you need to view your clips in a timeline or storyboard mode, add video, picture, text, audio, and music tracks, and trim/split your video into sections for better continuity, adding transitions, and enhancing with effects (Corel calls them Video Filters).

Once your video is captured, the first thing you want to do is trim and divide the video segment into clips. Trimming is marking the beginning and end of an entire clip, while multi trimming is useful to divide one segment into multiple clips. Multi trimming is extremely useful when you need to remove an inappropriate scene, or mark it for inclusion in a blooper reel. We found VideoStudio X2’s trim and multi trim tools both powerful and easy to use in that we moved frame by frame quickly. It’s important to note that VideoStudio X2 utilizes non-destructive editing, so no matter what you do to a video segment, the original is never permanently cut or overwritten.

So knowing that we couldn’t actually RUIN anything, we decided to let VideoStudio automatically detect scenes and trim accordingly. The results were impressive, as many of what we termed “non productive” segments were trimmed down to their very own scenes which we could move or delete at will. We did find that you'll have to manually add transitions yourself.

Export/Production:  

Once your edits are complete, you can save your work to a number of formats. Standard formats include FLV files for YouTube, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, AVCHD, WMV HD, RealMedia, Windows Media, and QuickTime.

For more portability, upgrade to VideoStudio Pro X2 and convert your videos to iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and PSP-compatible files.

Editing Effects/Transitions:  

VideoStudio X2 Standard comes with 65 Video Filters, or effects, to enhance your video, and they’re easy to apply. Just drag one over your video clip and the effect is instantly applied. Chaining effects is also possible, so if you want to use the Anti-Shake effect in combination with the Brightness & Contrast effect on a particular clip, it’s a simple matter of dragging both effects over the intended clip. Effects are customizable as well, so you can adjust brightness, contrast, and the strength of the Anti-Shake effect and compare the results.

A feature unique to VideoStudio X2 is a Rotoscoping tool that allows you to “draw” onto the video. Useful for tracing routes on a map, giving yourself a beard, or just plain scribbling, the Rotoscoping tool is fun to play with.

With 129 transitions in VideoStudio X2, it’s unlikely most home video editors would need more. Again, inserting them into the timeline is a quick drag and drop process.

VideoStudio also has 31 Title Templates for beginning or ending credits, title text and whatever snarky text you want to put over your video. All of the titles are editable, so you’re not stuck with canned text, and you can position, scale, and rotate them to your heart’s content.

Disc Creation:  

When creating a disc, you can choose whether or not to include a menu for easy navigation of chapters. VideoStudio comes with 6 menu templates, and if you don’t find any of them to your liking, you can create your own. Multi-layer menus are not supported in VideoStudio Standard, but you can add chapters at fixed intervals or VideoStudio can automatically detect scenes and make them into chapters for you.

VideoStudio Standard burns to DVD and Video CD, and if you're itching to burn to Blu-ray and AVC-HD discs, for a reasonable price you can upgrade to VideoStudio Pro X2 and burn away!

CyberLink PowerDirector 8 Deluxe

You thought you had a lot of old home movies lying around before; a couple of cabinets full of film that you’re going to go through “some day.” Then everything went digital (and high-def). Now you have even more home footage sitting somewhere on your desktop. Or maybe you have a budding film producer in the family. Whether you’re trying to archive your footage, create wedding slideshows, pare down your travelogue to a palatable highlight reel, or create a full-length feature film, you’re going to need a solid video editing software.
Cyberlink’s PowerDirector 8 is one of the best video editing software solutions available, combining all the right features (and then some) in a professional and easy-to-use video editing package. We are pleased to award Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 Deluxe with our “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” for continued excellence in performance and innovation.
PowerDirector combines a good balance of simplicity and versatility. The software takes advantage of technology and has so many professional-grade tools, but it’s easy enough that you can actually use it.
Standout Features:

• Direct upload to YouTube and Facebook
• Particle Effects
• SD to HD up-scaling
• Impressive list of output formats, including files for your iPhone, PSP, PS3, Xbox, and Zune
• Automated “Magic” Editing Tools

We also have no problems with the fact that this intermediate video editing software is available with a low-end price. It’s even on sale for 20% off through online retailer Herman Street.
For all the great features found in PowerDirector Deluxe plus the added benefit of being able to burn Blu-ray discs (as well as capture and burn AVCHD), we definitely recommend the upgraded Cyberlink PowerDirector Ultra.

Review of PowerDirector 8 by Cyberlink

Image Gallery

 

Video Capture/Playback:  

Capturing video in PowerDirector 8 Deluxe is simple, whether you’re using input content from your camcorder or importing from a flash drive or hard drive. PowerDirector supports all major formats (MPEG-2, AVCHD, VOB, VRO, DVRMS to name a few, and will work seamlessly with your old SD camcorder, newer HDV camcorder, DVD camcorder, or even your digital camera. (Trying to get your VHS tapes to DVD? You may want to refer to our article "Copying VHS to DVD")

PowerDirector is fully equipped to provide faster input, rendering and output by taking full advantage of your PC’s power. PowerDirector supports Intel Core i7, nVIDIA CUDA, and ATI Stream technologies, so video editing is even faster. The software can utilize up to 8 cores (16 threads) of processing power, so even high-def video is easily dealt with.
For even faster video editing of HD content, PowerDirector can create a standard definition copy of the original and provide quicker response with “Shadow Editing.”
But don’t worry if you don’t have a top-of-the-line PC with advanced technology. We loaded the software on one of our (overtaxed) test computers, and had no problems installing or running the software. And if you’re thinking about upgrading, PowerDirector 8 is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 and dual monitor setups.

Free Video Editing Software: Create & Edit Movies For Free

Looking for a good video editor or movie making software that you can download for free ?

It's only a myth that you need expensive video editors for video editing tasks like adding scrolling texts, subtitles or custom animations - you will find such features even inside free video editors that we discuss here to help you produce video podcasts, home movies and online web video easily.

But before that, do check the installation DVD that came with your handycam or digital camera - most camera vendors like Sony, Canon and Panasonic generally provide a decent video editing software with the camera. If that doesn't help, here's a list of best and free video editing software:

Windows Movie Maker - The best video editing tool for Windows that's absolutely free and chances are you already have it installed on your computer as part of XP SP2. Microsoft Movie Maker has all the basic video editing tools plus a good collection of transitions and video effects.

There's an in-built movie titler that lets add you styles to text titles including ticker taps, zoom and even the scroll effect. And if you are feeling lazy, just hit the AutoMovie command to have the entire video produced for you with intervention.

Related: How to Edit YouTube Videos with free video editing programs.

Avid Free DV - Avid Free DV, poor cousin of Avid Xpress Pro, has all the basic video and audio editing features and allow you to put video in two tracks simultaneously. They have an extensive collection of tutorials online to help you get started quickly.

Support both Mac OS and Windows XP platform. Infact, you can even play with keyframes for generating custom moves and transitions. Ships with the Avid Title tool.

Online Video Editing Programs

Jumpcut.com - Jumpcut is a web based video editing software and now it's even part of the Yahoo! family. You upload a video or small clips just like importing inside a desktop software.

There are dozens of transitions and special effects. You can import photographs from your Flickr or Facebook account to mix them with the videos. The jumpcut editor is intuitive enough and there is good title support as well. And your movies are published online automatically. Perfect for quick vlogging and video podcasting.

JahShaka* (discontinued) - An open source video editing software that is currently in Alpha stage but has features found only in expensive video editing software suites.

Works on Mac, Linux and Windows. The interface might take some time for you to get started otherwise the software is definitely the most powerful one out there. And the price is just right. $0. Also does 3D effects which you won't find in other free video editors.

Conclusion: While all the above free video editing software will satisfy the needs of most amateurs and home movie makers, you can probably consider Adobe Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio, Ulead Studio, Sony Vegas, Nero or Muvee Auto Producer for more features and better control over the final video output. They have trial version to help you try out the software before actually buying it.

Best Software in Video Editing

When you are about to engage in video editing, you must answer this question first – What do you want to do? There are so many video editing tasks but you can’t possibly do everything unless you’re a pro. Most of today’s videographers prefer to do certain editing tasks but not all of them. So when choosing for the best software, you must consider the things that you’re planning to do; this is the only way of getting the best software for you to work with.

It’s ordinary to see a lot of attractive promos when you’re shopping for the best software, online and offline. There are even programs that come with a free camcorder; don’t be fooled by these things. Stick to your needs and get the appropriate software if you want to end up with a software program that’s useful.

Firstly, you need to look at the format. What is the format that you’re currently working on? Do you want to create a final video or movie of the same format? The input is largely determined by the material you’re using – a DVD recorder, camcorder, etc. The input may be standard definition or high definition. The output can be in DVD wherein MPEG2 files are written on the DVD, in HDD, Blue Ray Disc, handheld devices, computer viewing, and many other formats.

Focus on the source of your files because the output will be mostly of the same format. Choose software that ensures ease of work with the particular input format so that you will not encounter any difficulty.

Sellers of various software programs see to it that their products are ‘attractive’ to the eyes of customers. Even if the program is not what you want, the seller can make it something that you want and so you’re tempted to purchase such software program.

The next thing that you need to consider is transition. When a scene changes, you should insert transitions between the clips. Transitions can be straight cut or cross fade and there are still others that you can use. You see, each software program usually offers about 50 different transitions.

Overlay tracks is another great feature of editing software programs. You can see this effect on movies and TV shows. A very good example is the news wherein you can see the station logo, tape readout, and a video of the reporter on a particular scene. Controlling the overlay tracks is important so that you won’t make a mess on the video output.

The audio control feature is limited in most consumer video editing programs. Just as the word suggests, the software is used mostly for editing videos and not audio. If you want to have maximum audio control, get advanced software packages used by pros.

DVD authoring is another feature that attracts videographers. You can use this if you have high definition materials. Make sure that it provides 10-20 menu templates for full customization.

Rendering is one of the most important features. The file is not finished until you render it; all the changes you’ve made on the video material are ‘virtual’. After rendering, the final video material is saved in viewing format.

Still looking for the best software in video editing? Focus on your needs and wants. If you know the video editing tasks that you’re about to do, then you can easily purchase the right software.