Customer Reviews

Corel Digital Studio 2010 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Corel has for years been the coulda shoulda also ran in multiple areas. Their CorelDraw/PhotoPaint graphics package is arguably as good as Adobe's Illustrator/Photoshop, and at times and for versions was perhaps better. Their WordPerfect was a true contender to Microsoft's Word, before MS's Word became the de facto standard. Their Ventura publishing program was considered by many to be the best desktop publishing program available...until Corel seemingly stopped promoting it and allowed Adobe and others to overtake it in that arena.

Unfortunately, bad management, bad decision and bad marketing have all but doomed Corel to second (or third) banana status over the years. That doesn't mean their software isn't good (and sometimes outstanding), but it means they don't have the market presence of Adobe, Apple and Microsoft.

At any rate, I came to this software package with some hopes, based on the software in Corel's library.

This package essentially ties together multiple multi-media apps into one convenient, moderately priced package. You get Corel PaintShop Photo Express (photo editing software), Corel VideoStudio Express (video editing software), Corel DVD Factory (CD/DVD burning software) and Corel WinDVD (DVD viewing software). Most people already have some sort of DVD burning software and DVD viewing software (in many cases an OEM version of WinDVD), so the big hooks here are the photo and video software.

So far, so good.

Unfortunately, it turns out that all the software is limited and dumbed down. If all you need to do is change the size of your photos, or "auto fix" them, or play with a limited number of goofy effects, then this program will work fine. But try to get under the hood, and there's really not a lot of "there" there...OK for Grandma--and maybe even great for Grandma because lack of options means lack of possibilities to get confused--but not so great for anyone used to, say, Photoshop Elements.

The video editor is similarly lacking. I came at this with experience with both Apple's iMovie and Adobe's Premier Elements. Both of those programs are superficially easy to use but allow a lot of serious editing to those who want to get more involved. The video editor in this suite seems to offer something similar to the glossy high level stuff in those two programs, but not much in the way of deeper options. Again, this might be great for Grandma (if you have a Grandma who would actually attempt to edit a video, which would make her the most unusual Grandma I know), but isn't going to satisfy someone more interested in producing cool videos...

One nice feature of the photo and video editing programs is that they can automatically upload stuff to places like FaceBook. I tried this feature, and it worked fine. But again, similar features are offered by Adobe and others.

As for the CD/DVD writing software...I tried it once for the purposes of this review, and it worked fine. But again, it has very limited options compared to something like Nero or Roxio, and most people interested in serious burning have one of those already installed.

The WinDVD video viewing program is very good. It is also widely distributed for "free" in OEM form with DVD drives, new computers, etc. There are only two widely used commercial (not for free) video viewing programs: WinDVD and PowerDVD, and they both have their strengths, but either would be acceptable. When I first got this software, I hoped that the WinDVD included would be the higher end package, which supports playback of HD/BlueRay format DVDs. Unfortunately, no. This is just the standard version that (as noted) you probably already have.

On the whole, you get a lot of software in this bundle, but element of the package has shortcomings.

The photo editor is inferior to the popular Adobe Photoshop Elements.
The video editor is significantly inferior to the popular Adobe Premier Elements or Apple's iMovie.
The CD/DVD writing software is inferior to offerings by Nero and Roxio.
The WinDVD software is excellent, but many (if not most) will already have either the similar OEM version of WinDVD or else the competing PowerDVD. The included version does NOT support HD or Blueray, so it offers no real advantage to the DVD viewing software you already have.

If the idea of simplicity and all-in-one-box appeals to you, this may be your best selection. Admittedly, this box of software is appreciably cheaper than buying all four pieces of software from any vendor(s). But if you plan to get beyond the basics of photo and video editing, you may regret this choice in the end.

I'm rating this product a 4 out of 5 stars due to the fact that I feel this software being overly simple. For me coming from Vegas 9.0 Pro and FCP 7, I'm used to editing with multiple tracks of video, color grading, adjusting audio tracks and adding smooth transitions... Sure, if your new to video editing, this may be just what your looking for, but don't expect to do much beside basic cuts, goofy transitions and working with a few generic templates... (I think IMovie, a video editing software that comes with most new MAC computers is a far superior to this program.)

If you're a video blogger this may be exactly what you looking for, as all you have to do is import your footage, add any transition or effect you want, and export to Youtube, (One of the cool features of this program is that it allows you to upload directly to youtube.) On the flip side don't expect to make a really complicated video with this program.

Recap: Corel's Digital Studio is in no way a replacement for Professional video and photo editing software Like Sony Vegas or Apple's Final Cut Studio, however it does have it's place. For starters it cost only a fraction of What Sony Vegas 9 or Final Cut Studio would cost.)


Overall these are my final thought on this product:

PRO: VERY easy to use!

CON: Overly Simple...

This is a program that claims to do it all, video editing, photo editing, DVD making, DVD watching, etc. And it kind of does. Sure there are better programs out there, but they'll cost you. For the casual user you could do a lot worse than this.

The Photo & Video editors and the DVD creator all share the same layout, so if you learn one, you've pretty much got 'em all figured out. There is a gallery of your images in the center and a library of your images or videos, depending what part of the program you're in off to the left, sort of like iTunes when you're displaying the album covers in your music library, and there is a media tray on the bottom. A pretty smooth and easy to understand interface.

On the top of the interface there is a range of options and if you scroll your mouse over them you get more selections. Easy to understand. Editing images couldn't be easier. The editing tools slide out from the right. True, as others have said, they are pretty simple, but I think they will probably satisfy most people.

Within the past 18 months, I've become more and more a fan of Corel products - until Digital Studio 2010. I encountered so many problems with this software that I've removed it from my computer and don't anticipate attempting to use it again.

Here's my experience:

Just entering the license number was a pain. I'd get to a certain point entering the code and the program would flip back to the license agreement. Start all over again. Not exactly the best introduction to new software.

I began my evaluation of the software with the photo section. Now I understand that this product is for home use, but there are few photo improvements that can be done with this product, and, as a long-time user of Photoshop, I found the lack of tools frustrating.

Next, I got caught in an upgrade loop. I upgraded as requested, restarted the computer, and was immediately caught in the loop that continually wanted to upgrade and restart. After the second upgrade, I refused further and got out of the loop, but how would a not-so-computer-savvy grandmother handle this?

Next, I encountered so many screen freezes that I was forced to removed and reinstall the program (Reinstall #1).

The program installed WinDVD 10, as indicated by a desktop icon, but when I clicked on the icon - nothing! The computer could not located the execute file.

At this point, I removed and reinstalled again (Reinstall #2), but still, no execute file could be located. And now, I was done. Rather than spend more hours in frustration, I removed the program from my computer.

This is the first Corel product that has thoroughly disappointed me. I hope they'll take it back to the drawing board and work out the bugs in a hurry. As it stands now, it does not work or play well with my Vista Premium operating system.

The box said it is windows 7 compatible but the program wouldn't even finish installing on my computer. I switched to Cyberlink's Power Director 8 and it appears to work flawlessly (so far).

I bought Corel Digital Studio recently, and have never had so many problems trying to get a piece of software to work properly. It has four components: DVD Factory, Video Studio Express, Paint Shop Photo Express, and the WinDVD Player. The player isn't any better than Windows Media Player, which is free with Windows (or you can just download the VLC player, which is also free). The Picture program is crude and simplistic - I have an Arcsoft program that came with my Canon scanner almost ten years ago that is clearly superior. So only the DVD Factory and Video Studio are of any use (at least in theory).

CDS looks great in theory, but it doesn't work, and has a major design flaw. I spend many hours installing and uninstalling it, e-mailing Corel help (getting mostly generic replies with links to irrelevant help articles), and pulling my hair out trying to get it to do what is says it does. Even adding the two patches doesn't help. Using the somewhat confusing Roxio suite is a piece of cake compared to CDS. If you try to run it on a low-end laptop (say a dual core running 1-2 GHZ) it is agonizingly slow, taking hours to render a DVD to burn it, not to mention constantly jamming and freezing. But if you try to load it on a newer Windows 7 quad core computer, it wouldn't show the video and other files you want to work with in its main library window, failing to create the "monitor folders" it needs to keep track of files (at least in my experience).

The basic design flaw is this. Unlike most CD, DVD and picture manipulation programs, which have a Windows Explorer-like window from which you pick and choose the files you want from your hard drive for the project at hand, CDS is designed to load ALL your music, video and picture files into a library window before you use it the first time. Right away this causes problems: first, on some computers it won't load certain types of files, or simply jams or refuses to update your files; second, there's no easy way to find specific files, especially once you've already started a project; third, this slows down the program to a snail's pace. Also, you can't just click and drag files from Windows Explorer into CDS: oh no, this would be too easy!

In short, unless you are a masochist who loves pain and frustration, don't buy this product.

Well - $160 Australian dollars and I've just un-installed the software never to use it again. I was mainly interested in the video editor but found it horrific to navigate. Simply a nightmare for anyone who desires absolute control of the editing process. Menues are very different from the standard Windows format, completely unintuitive and would take you days to learn. Perhaps good for a computer novice creating very simple home movies, but for everyone else I would advice caution. Extremely disappointing and a huge waste of cash.

I cannot recommend this product. The performance is bad on my Quad Core, 8GB, 64 bit system and feature set is too light

Corel has done a nice job providing a clean interface that is shared across the prodcut set. The software will index your images and videos on your computer when it work. I pointed the software to my images folder and it failed to add about half of the subfolders. You create slideshows and videos, the burn to a DVD that you can send to your family. The photo editing options are pathetic. (Sepia / B&W and little else)

Corel had really butchered the Ulead product line. Yes these are the express version of the main productss but there is just not enough features to justify paying more than $30 for this prouduct. You are better going with the Adobe Photoshop Elements / Adobe Premiere Elements or using free products. Google has done a great job with Picasa by the way..

After 15 minutes, I uninstalled this awful software.

First, it won't allow you to open a second photo for editing; it closes the program after each attempt.

More importantly, it fails at the most basic photo editing tasks. Point and shoot folks like me want to adjust brightness and contrast, and we like to be able to have that automated. That most basic function is buried deep in a hidden menu on the right.

I cannot think of any software that is less intuitive. Avoid. There's tons better freeware.

When I looked at purchasing this all the reviews looked good. When I got it the instructions were very vauge. The install was really slow.
Then when I tried it and made a slide show, I could not save it as a video file. I went to the website for help nothing helpful. very frustrating program.