|
Ulead VideoStudio 10 Plus:
The Best Of the Rest!
 I have used or reviewed many video software packages But Ulead VideoStudio 10 Plus is the one that should satisfy most everyone from the beginner who just wants to copy their family video footage to DVD all the way to the upper mid-level video nut who wants most of the bells and whistles of the more expensive professional video software without the large learning curve and dollar outlay.
 If you are a good videographer and don’t walk with your camera turned on while pointed at the ground or at some part of your anatomy (not to say that I do that) then you can easily copy your vacation or other videos right from your camcorder to a DVD using the Ulead VideoStudio 10 Plus “DV to DVD Wizard.” Of course you need to be able to connect your camcorder to a USB or firewire port in your computer and place a DVD in a recordable DVD drive. Once that connection is established you just follow directions. I am not kidding it works. Of course you will end up transferring all the little imperfections that editing will remove but who cares. The job is done! You can then copy the DVD as many times as you wish and send it off to anyone interested. This is a great way to start learning the ins and outs of this software.
 If you want to be guided step by step and have a few options that will allow you to edit out the 20 minutes of the view out your plane window since it will bore the crap out of anyone but YOU. If you left the lens cap on or really did tape that 3 minute picture of your left leg (or something even grosser) then the VideoStudio 10 “Movie Wizard” is where you need to go after you try the easy DV to DVD Wizard.” This is the basic-video-editing-and-spiff-up-your-vacation-videos-without-killing-yourself area of this software. It will capture your entire video on your hard drive so you can view it in Windows Media Player and always have access to the copy. Movie Wizard has plenty of editing capability, allows you to pick a template to give it a professional look, adds music if you want it, add a text menu, and burn the final result to a DVD.
Since I mention that you can copy the entire video from your camcorder to your hard drive I should also mention that VIDEO is A STORAGE HOG!. It doesn’t matter what editing software you use. A one hour video will use at least 13 gigabytes of your hard drive. I have so much video on my drive (135 Gigabytes) that I am looking for another external storage device that has at least 300 and maybe 500 gigs of storage. The edited version, when converted to the type of files that fit on your current DVD, will take up about half the DVD for each hour of Video you have. This is an estimate so don’t shoot me if it is wrong.
 On the other hand you big guns out there who are willing to go the high road and spend the learning time must go to the top level of this product “VideoStudio Editor” to make really great video productions. With 6 multiple overlay tracks you can produce picture-in-picture and montage effects, Dolby 5 channel surround sound to make your home movies sound like a 16 Plex movie theater, an anti-shake filter to smooth out those shaky frames, Mpeg-4 support to make videos for portable electronics, and full action menus or text menus with added special effects that will help you make professional looking and sounding video movies.
The midrange “Movie Wizard” works fine for me but I do find myself moving more and more to the “VideoStudio Editor” when I need that extra tweak that removes a small part of a clip or an entire series of bad or too long footage. Working with Clips seems to make the entire job more palatable.
I could go on and on but I have to stop somewhere. I do find this software easy to learn and easy to work with. I am not a quick learner but VideoStudio 10 Plus has allowed me to dip my toes in and get results while still working toward the next level.
At $79.00 It is a buy. Currently (until January 2, 2007) you can buy it for $59.00 on their site. Click Here!
For more details on VideoStudio 10 Plus Click here.
|
