Customer Reviews

Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Video editing is not simple and projects place the most severe demands on your PC. When you move to HD, the demands increase exponentially. Ulead VideoStudio 11, like any editor, does have a learning curve, so be patient. Be certain to read the manual that comes with the box or download it from their site in pdf and take it with you on your laptop or pda.

If you are just starting out as a video editor, you have some surprises ahead because it is a tedious job; not only to learn, but to produce. It is far more difficult than working with photos. If you are just looking to produce a short DVD movie from your camera, it is easy. But, adding titles, overlays, and audio tracks does take time.

I have had several months experience comparing the Ulead VideoStudio to Pinnacle Studio Plus 11. I find the features and reliablity of the Ulead suite to be superior to any of the consumer level Pinnacle softwares. In fact, my experiences with Pinnacle have been less than satisfactory and their support is non-existent. I would stay far away.

What is particularly nice about this product is that when you install and register, it is fully functional. There are no gimmicks requiring you to activate other features. Also, it doesn't seem to overtax your processor. With Pinnacle, my processor fan was on high the entire time and I experienced numerous hangups and crashes with the CPU @ 100%. Ulead doesn't do that. It does, however, pause in an inactive mode for a while when performing certain tasks like splitting scenes from your movie. These pauses appear to be hangups and provide no "...please wait", but eventually it comes back. Get another cup of coffee. Will you experience crashes? Probably, but fewer.

While I do like Pinnacle's editor a lot, I spent three weeks editing a series of digitized 8mm family movies into a one hour project. Pinnacle would only produce 41 minutes of the project either to disk or DVD. That was a lot of wasted time and their "support" could not solve the problem. If only Ulead would import Pinnacle projects; that would be a coup.

So, this review seems to be mostly what I don't like about Pinnacle Studio Plus 11, but for the reader's satisfaction I moved from that product to Ulead VideoStudio 11 and found some welcome relief as well as full features. I did spend three wasted weeks with Pinnacle and that is a sore point with me. The moral to my story is start with Ulead VideoStudio and when you get good at it, perhaps move along to high-end products like Adobe. My jury is still out for a while on this product, but so far it looks good.

I hope this was helpful.

Amended...just finished my one hour movie using Ulead VideoStudio 11. Completed the project over three days without one computer hang up or crash. The program is great and deserves five stars.

VideoStudio 11 is impressive. I also suffered through crummy, buggy previous Pinnacle Studio versions. I tried to install Pinnacle 11 on a 4 year old laptop but it complained that my driver was out of date (though it's not) and runs very slowly. Plus Pinnacle still nickel and dimes you for every little function and template that should be included ("you can download mpeg2 functionality now for only $10!") Adobe Premier Elements 3 would not install period due to having an older AMD processor. Plus Adobe can edit HD - but it can't output to HD formats? Okay . . . To heck with them.



Video Studio runs solid and fast, and my old laptop can even edit 1080i HDV just fine with the proxy editing function. The other programs don't have it. Capture is smooth and fast and scenes are detected quickly. Rendering is fast as well. And it has 7 video tracks where Pinnacle has only 2.



The other companies are not very up front about their steep hardware requirements. Do your research and make sure you have newish hardware and a good video card and lots of RAM if you go with something else. Especially if you have any hope of editing HD. Ulead just works. Don't bother with the base version though, it's kind of crippled compared to the Plus version.



Pinnacle 11 specifically the Ultimate version is still kind of tempting to me but only because it's got a very superior "Ken Burns" style pan-and-zoom program for still photos included as an integrated add-on. If that doesn't interest you then forget it.

I have used this on a new laptop running Vista. Thankfully, I have never had any speed issues with VideoStudio although it does crash on rare occasion. VideoStudio is quick to import videos, images, and audio from almost any source and equally speedy at creating AVIs, WMVs, DVD menus, etc. Although I do think that a power-user will quickly outgrow the simple interface, I found the UI so easy to navigate that it only took a weekend of use to feel like a pro. I did find, though, that some tasks that are probably easier to accomplish in prosumer video editing packages can be a bit laborious in VideoStudio. Specifically, rearranging titles and sound (which cannot be copied and pasted and can only be lengthened if there is enough room on the timeline (that is, you must first shorten one title in order to lengthen one adjacent to it; VideoStudio will not automatically make room for the lengthened title). Also, there are some limitations that can be become frustrating once you outgrow the program (e.g. there isn't a way to have title items fade in or out at different times; all items on a title slide will fade in or out at the exact same time). But once you get to the point that you've outgrown the program, it's probably best to step up to Ulead MediaStudio and learn the ropes there.

All in all, this a great little video editing program packed with a wide-range of useful features that'll keep you busy cranking out quality video projects.

Good luck with your editing projects.

I've been working with VS9 for awhile without any major problems but thought I could upgrade to 11 and get some new features. All I can say is that it has some bugs. For example, after creating a project with images and video mixed, I had trouble creating the final video because of the 3D Transitions that I used in between images (It kept coming up with "Unable to load library"). Apparently, for alot of people, VS11 has trouble rendering the 3D Transitions. When I switched everything to fade, it rendered ok. Then I had problems actually burning the video (It kept coming up with "Unspecified Error"). There are also some issues with MP3s encoded with LAME. So I went back to VS9 to burn it. I suggest reading the Video Studio Forum on the Corel Website and seeing what problems people are running into, before buying.

I have been authoring and editing video for several years and I was looking for a new program that did the editing. I have used corel programs before and was always pleased with their performance so I did my research and settled for this program.

FYI: when you are looking for a new program and want to test it out, you can usually get free trials from the manufacture. Just go to their website and download the free trial. I usually buy else were though because I can get a better deal.

It has the option of a straight dv transfer and within a few clicks you have a finished product with menus. It also has a more advanced option were you can add transitions (162 options), video filters (50 options) and they include "oil painting", "old film" and "Kaleidoscope", you can even add flash animation to your film. You can capture with this program using your dv or av input on your video card or even from a dvd you put in your dvd drive on your computer. It also has the capabilities of producing a HDDV!
All in all I love the editing part but I use DVD workshop 2 for the menus because I have more options. This program does ok with the menus but they are basic that is why I gave it a 4 star instead of a 5.

I've had this program for a few weeks and it delivers excatly what it
promises. After fightning with crappy programs like Pinnacle Studio 9
& 10 for the last few years this program is like a Godsend. If you're
used to Pinnacle systems,there is a slight learning curve, but the time spent getting to know this software is well worth it. True Ulead doesn't have nearly as many special effects as Pinnacle, but Ulead doesn't crash your system every ten minutes like Pinnacle Studios.
Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus is a straight forward video editing program and it kicks butt!

Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus
by John C. Lee, Thousand Oaks PC Club

After Corel Corporation acquired Ulead Systems earlier this year, it released the latest version of Ulead's video editing and DVD authoring program, VideoStudio 11 Plus. Ulead has incorporated a few new features and enhancements, but retained most of the program contents of its preceding version including the same three program options. The DV-to-DVD Wizard provides a 2-step procedure to burn a DVD disc directly from DV tape. You scan the DV tape at a speed from 1X up to 10X and select the scenes you want to add to your movie. Then you apply a theme template and burn to DVD. The Movie Wizard option is designed to guide novices through a simple three-step procedure to a finished movie. The VideoStudio Editor lets advanced users perform more sophisticated video productions. Its comprehensive interface contains a preview window for full editing with a step-by-step workflow to capture or import clips, organize or edit the clips on the storyboard or timeline, and then enhance your production with overlays, animated text, video filters, transitions, effects and audio. In the VideoStudio Editor you can also use the DV Quick Scan option to select the scenes you like to include in the movie, before batch capturing the video clips to the Timeline.
Scanning a DV tape using the Scene Detection option in the DV-to-DVD Wizard usually results in a large number of scenes. A 24-minute DV tape that I scanned showed more than 30 scenes with some scene durations as short as a few seconds. This significantly slows down the capture time, because the DV tape has to go back and forth to seek the beginning frame of each scene before it starts the capture. I have found it is more convenient and faster to work with a smaller number of scanned scenes or video clips. I hope that Ulead will provide an option to merge scenes or video clips in future releases, to enable reducing the number of Timeline video clips or the number of scenes with the DV-to-DVD Wizard.
VideoStudio 11 Plus comes with the convenient feature of an expandable timeline scale which can zoom up to individual picture frames for precise trimming, and 6 overlay tracks for picture-in-picture and montage effects. You can also resize or reposition the overlay pictures and add fade in/fade out, transparent masks, frames, and flash animations or chroma key effects in each of the six overlay tracks.
Two new video filters (DeBlock and DeSnow) were introduced in VideoStudio 11 Plus. DeBlock is used for filtering out blocky artifacts or mosquito effects found in highly compressed videos. DeSnow does a very effective job of removing analog video noise or noise from digital videos shot in low light.
Another new useful feature is the White Balance and Auto Tone Adjustment in the Color Correction Option Panel. The White Balance gives the option of manual or auto adjustment of ambient lighting and color temperature, while the Auto Tone Adjustment automatically corrects the color and tonal qualities of the video clip or still image. This is a very convenient tool. I use it almost exclusively for my video editing.
VideoStudio 11 Plus supports multiple format inputs. You can mix these inputs on the Timeline. The new MPEG Optimizer will analyze the bit rates of all the input clips to arrive at encoding settings for the best quality and least rendering time.
In addition to DV and HDV camcorders, VideoStudio 11 Plus now supports AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition), which is a new hard drive or disc-based camcorder format developed jointly by Panasonic and Sony.
The most notable weakness of the application that I found is the slow rendering time. A 45-minute video project with only a few overlay and audio additions took about 2-hour rendering time, even after I set a high priority to the VideoStudio task and disabled all the other msconfig tasks and services. Another nuisance I detected is that the program tends to slow down as I added more overlays, audio tracks, and effects to the project.
VideoStudio 11 Plus comes with a printed User's Guide and online help. However, I find the organization of the online help to be less than desirable and uncoordinated. You practically have to search through the whole online help to find the topic you want. In some cases it either does not exist or is very confusing. The following shows some examples:
(1) The Multi-trim Video is a very convenient tool for trimming unwanted segments from a Timeline video clip, and its online help is well documented except the X-Delete Icon. The popup shows a confusing tip, "Remove selected clips (Delete)", and the online help does not explain whether it means "Remove selected clips from the Multi-trim tool" or "Delete selected clips from the Timelime". I had to run through several trials and errors to find out what the Delete icon really does. It means to Remove the selected clips from the Multi-trim tool and not Delete the clips from the Timeline
(2) Ulead likes to use uncommon terms such as Lower Field First or Upper field First that not many users are familiar with. Yet the field order option between Frame-based, Lower and Upper Field is shown in 5 dialog boxes for the user to decide on. Nowhere in the online help and search, can I find the explanation of the field order. I finally obtained the answer from Ulead's Tech Support, and it is more involved than I expected, as indicated in the following:
Your project's field order should match your clip's field order. Digital video is primarily Lower Field (Field A), and analog video is Upper Field (Field B). Frame-based is for computer monitors or progressive scan TVs (or slide show only projects). Digital video from a mini DV digital camcorder is normally Lower Field First, although with a mini-DVD or hard-disk based digital camcorder it is normally Upper Field First.
(3) I found that several dialog boxes ask for the same kind of settings such as file format, frame rate, compression, etc. This leads to confusion and uncertainty as to which dialog box settings determine the final output. For instance, there is no need to have a default field order setting in File>Preference dialog box when you already have it in the File>Project Properties dialog box. Also, there is no need to have a dialog box of Make Movie Templates Manager inside the Tool menu when all the settings are fully covered in the Video Save Options of the Share>Create Video File. The same is true with the superfluous Information dialog box in the Share>Create Disc step.
My suggestion to improve the accessibility of the help is to use a cross-reference system. Each topic on the online help would be assigned a reference number like 1-A, 2-B, etc., and all the dialog boxes and if necessary tool tabs be given pop-up tips with reference numbers corresponding to those in the online help.
VideoStudio 11 Plus is a well-conceived program and easy to work with, once you have spent enough time to familiarize yourself with each of the multitudinous options and dialog boxes. But most of the important features with the exception of a few new ones were already contained in its preceding version 10 Plus. If you already have the version 10, I see no reason to upgrade to the new version, unless you really need those new features as discussed in the above. But if you have an older version than version 10, I think it is worthwhile to upgrade to this new version, because there were many changes introduced into version 10 from version 9.
System Requirements (for general and Proxy HDV Editing)
The System Requirements for the Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus can be found in the webpage
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175714229358
Ulead Systems' website is http://www.ulead.com. Ulead provides e-mail technical support and the self-support from its online learning center. The e-mail support service has been significantly improved since the take-over by Corel Corporation. You can get a response in no more than two days, as compared to "No Answer" before the take-over.

I have a Panasonic HDC-SD1 videocamera. I have been editing now for several weeks. There is a semi-steep learning curve trying to figure things out; ie. when I first tried to upload my video files onto the computer, I had a hard time trying to understand how. Now its simple.

Also, I found on the Internet, a forum where someone has produced step by step procedures on how to use this software and different projects, ver 10, that proved invaluable. Once you see the guy do it, you think, "I can do that". Just do a Search.

I have not had any software - computer related crashes as some have reported. I have a 2.8Ghz witha 6800 series video card and 1GB of Ram.

As others have stated, you must be patient in learning this software, but if you want to produce non-boring family videos, this is a good software package. I was able to add and mix in still images into my video product, do pans, zooms, add titles, then add music over the entire 2 and half minute video I produced for myself as a practice project. I then burned to a dvd with no problem, which played fine on my basic dvd player. Uploading to my iPod was just as simple.

Very happy with my purchase and enjoying the creative outlet.

I recommend before purchasing, using the free trial period that the companies offer, which is usually a month. I had downloaded Vegas Movie Studio Platinum from Sony, Adobe's Premiere Elements 3 and VideoStudio 11 Plus. Of the three, Corel was the best and by far the easiest. Sony's software I just found too difficult and tedious, but I found myself easily picking up VideoStudio. The ability to create 5.1 sound and the level of detail when you add music is great to really make your DVD's look professional. ITunes Plus music has no problem working with this software either. There are loads of special effects, transitions and filters to give it that personal touch.

I have been a user of Video Studio since version 5. It has always been my favorite for editing mpg files. It now has more bells and whistles.
We have had a problem using their SmartRender progam. It is an option when saving out a video file. We have had to turn it off to prevent locking up the computer. Other than that I love this stuff. I never had a problem with version 7,8,9 or 10. For the price it is great. The program is intuative making it easy to teach others.