Customer Reviews

Corel VideoStudio Express 2010 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I have been searching and searching for a replacement for Windows Movie Maker since I now have a camera (Canon SX200IS) that shoots HD video. WMM doesn't support HD. Windows Live Movie Maker does, but you need Vista or 7.

Anyway, I have yet to find a decent video editor. I have tried MANY. Sony Vegas, Corel X2, Pinnacle, you name it. I want to trim video, insert video transitions, have multiple audio tracks, but most importantly, I want to be in control of the quality, file format and codec and I want the output to look as good as my original. But I digress...

Back to this software. Download the free trial. Be patient as it takes forever to download and install. You'll need that patience because the program appears to be a pig. It took like 30+ minutes to produce a 1280x720P video that was less than 2 minutes long. I can't imagine waiting for a 10-minute video. Even clicking on buttons makes you wonder if you clicked them.. There's a huge delay sometimes. And the PC I used is no slouch (Intel Dual-Core, 3 gHz, 2 gigs of RAM). This program appears to be 80% 'pretty interface' and 20% 'functionality'.

Also, if your accustomed to menus like file, tools, edit, view, etc., that will be no help in this program. By trying to make this program easy to use for computer newbies, they've made it hard to use if you already know how to use a computer and are looking for these familiar items.

By the way, the output file it created for me was garbage. First of all, it was MPEG and I wanted MOV. So I couldn't play it in Quicktime. When I used Windows Media Player, it only played the audio. I checked the file with another video program (AVS4YOU Video Editor, which is almost what I need) and the file was only encoded at 7500 kbps. My original was 23000 kbps!!! You have almost ZERO control over the output. You can't pick the codec, file format, bitrate, audio codec, ANYTHING. You can only pick file, DVD, email, YouTube, etc. Once you make a choice, the program selects everything else for you.

Back to AVS4YOU. Neat program. Really reminds me of Windows Movie Maker (great program in its day, and FREE). My only trouble so far is gettting a consistent output that is not jumpy. If anyone else knows of a great video editor, please comment. Money is no object at this point!!

Again, please download the program from Corel's website before you pay for this. If this software is for anyone, it's the person who's not particular about quality and is far from technical.

I really wish this system included half stars because I would rate this 3.5 stars. If you want to save videos to your computer, burn them onto a dvd or post them online and would not know how to do it - Corel VideoStudio makes it a breeze. If you are looking for software to edit or fine tune your videos - keep looking.

The installation of the software was fast and easy. The software is super easy to use. It walks you through the necessary steps. Personally, I did not like the software because once I choose an option, it made all the choices for me. It can post your video online, transfer, or burn it onto a dvd. There are no controls over the bit rate or format and a lot of the functions are automatically done by this software. I was not happy that my finished video ended up with a lower quality from the original.

This is a great option for people who want videos done for them and a poor option for those who want finer controls over the finished product. This software is a very basic package at a low price.

I'm writing this review in total frustration. Maybe I'll rewrite it later, but right now, my experience with this product is a poor one. I have used many video editing programs in the past. Nothing too advanced, just with enough features and ease of use for the occassional video creator. It seemed to me all of the other video editing software seemed basically the same, and that was fine with me. This product, however, is completely different than anything I've used before, and I did not expect I had to climb a huge learning curve before I could do what previously was simple. Like, for example, how do I add a single picture I want to edit into my video? I had to read the instructions to figure it out and then it seems you have to add the entire folder the picture is in before you can add a single picture. Why? How do I take a snapshot of a single frame for use in the video? Again, I had to read the instructions, but I never did find it. Later I stumbled on a way to do it, but I couldn't tell you how at this moment.

Maybe all Corel video editing software is laid out this way, but I am not used to it. Maybe if you came from using another version of Corel video editing software, you could find your way around better. But I can't. As another reviewer noted, they don't seem to like to use text. They have icons for most things and you have to figure out on your own where they are and what they mean. Buttons are in places you don't normally find them and represented by icons that don't normally represent what they do. You have wand over icons to figure out they are for (why isn't Help symbolized by a "?" like evey other software program in the world?). They are spread out all over the work area, as well, making you look in every corner for direction. I have yet to figure out what each section is or does and how I get there or back. I'm doing a lot of guess clicking. I didn't know you double clicked on the thumbnail to go to Express Edit (if there is an "express edit," is there a "normal" edit? I didn't find one).

Maybe I got a old or bad version? I reinstalled it thinking something was wrong. I think it acts differently now, but I still have a long hill to climb figuring this thing out. The only reason I have to stick with it is because this is a AVCHD editing software program, and that's what I need.

I am somewhat prejudiced due to my experience with Corel's photo editing "room" of this suite, so the Video portion would have to be awfully good to let me get past that.

It wasn't. They work so hard to make it simple for the novice that someone used to a more pure approach to editing and producing might have to struggle a bit to get a grip on how it operates.

However: after working with it for a few more weeks, I am obligated to say once I could get past the way it operates, even if it is a constant distraction, the end result is quite acceptable. But as far as first impressions-

I am a great user of tools, I firmly believe that the simpler a tool is, the easier it is to use. One need not think about the operation of a hammer the whole time one is trying to drive a nail. Or loosen a bolt, or clamp a board, And yet, now we have cordless electric hammers and C-clamps, and even a battery powered crescent wrench.

The interface, file management and process here is as needless and distracting as a rechargeable battery on a hammer. (Or the noise that thing makes, you ever heard one?)

The process of video editing is fairly straightforward: you will want to cut out parts and move them around. So we now find out, it is possible to oversimplify something to the point of obfuscation. And at the same time, the user interface is so warm and friendly and processor happy I almost feel guilty that I hate it so much, but I am perfectly fine with a more conventional way of managing my files and videos.

A simple example: I wanted to excerpt a short segment from a video and post it to Facebook. To do this the fast edit function works fine, you just select the clip, trim it and then go to "Share" and select the Facebook option. Which at least works- unlike Photo Express, which would hang every time. However, you do not have the option to edit details of the file before it uploads. Saving it to a file and then posting more conventionally is the way to go, although here too the weird file management gets in the way- you can only save to the root "My Videos" folder, and I have yet found a way to redirect the save.

And on a very speedy machine, rendering a 15- second clip to WMV format took about 8 minutes...


I worked with this application for many, many hours, took a half-dozen pages of notes, but in the end found my initial reaction unchanged. I could feel like I have wasted this time trying to learn just the rudimentary functions of editing here just to write a review and then uninstall it- but if I am going to devote any time at all to learning to use a particular editing device, I would like to think I am not going to resent it every time I have to use it. I would rather spend as much time as it takes to master something that will be a joy to work with.

I am getting the feeling it is quite capable in doing everything one could need in a simple video editor, and I will continue to work with it and post updates as I learn more: but even so, my reaction to the interface remains unchanged.

Perhaps a computer novice, as well as someone new to video editing might take to this immediately, but I will set my sights- and allocate my resources elsewhere.

Having tried to actually use this produce several times over the past few months and the only thing I can say is don't buy it.Its difficult to navigate and slow to process video. The formats you choose to convert to are also buggy.

Pros:
Pretty interface

Cons:
Hard to navigate
Slow to process
buggy output

I seriously tried to use this but its very difficult to use.

I requested this from Vine because I had good luck with Video Studio products in the past. In this case, however, I have to say my disappointment was extreme.

I have not been able to use the product. While it's rated for a requirement of 1GB RAM, this application is so RAM intensive, that it brought my system to a standstill. Trying to import my media files was a prolonged and tedious process, and the entire thing would repeatedly hang up my entire system. The first time I ran it, it even went so far as to crashing my system completely. In other cases, I couldn't close it, even with task manager, and had to do a hard reboot, since my system wouldn't even respond enough to shut down.

I would not recommend this product for anyone. The flash interface for this program is just that, flashy, but it's completely unnecessary and causes too many problems for even a computer geek like myself.

Don't bother. Spend your money on something else.

I have another Corel Photo Album on my Windows Desktop. When I tried to install this Corel Video Studio Express I kept getting weird error messages stating it was installed and needed to be removed and reinstalled. However, nowhere on my PC could I find the software to uninstall it. I called Corel tech support and spent about 1/2 hour on the phone with them. They sent me a link with an alleged fix that was absolutely worthless. I spend a lot of time on several computers in my house. As a result, I've spent a lot of time with different tech support folks from varying software, hardware and modem/router manufacturers. I really wasn't interested in pursuing this matter further as this was an Amazon Vine product.

I'm sorry but this should have been a straight and simple install but it turned into a royal pain in the butt. For all I know this may be a great product but don't count on good quality support from this product's manufacturer.

The aim of this software suite is to provide "average" users with an all-in-one media archiving and creation program. It bills itself as a jack-of-all-trades, but the unfortunate reality is that this piece of software is a big disappointment. First of all, the bloat: this program weighs in at 1.5 GB once installed, which would be okay if the performance (encoding, etc) weren't equally slow. I've used just about all of the big video suites: Premiere, Ulead, Roxio, etc, and this one was nothing special, and felt lightweight. The layout is confusing and not at all intuitive - it eschews a directory/file structure that people are used to in favor of a baffling layout that frustrated me right off the bat. To add insult to injury, this program insists on cataloging all of your files. There is no "no, thanks" option, nor can you even cancel the media scan! This is okay for people with a few hundred photos, but even moderately-sized media collections will take forever, and WILL be cataloged, no ifs ands or buts. Bottom line, there are other software suites in the same price range that do just as good a job, and in many cases do it better.

I have been using VideoStudio since Version 7, so I was really looking forward to trying the latest release. Mostly I hoped that 64- bit processing would speed up rendering. Unfortunately, I dislike more about VideoStudio 2010 than I like about it.

First, I must say that I don't know if the "Express" tag means that this is a light version of VS. Corel is still featuring VideoStudio 12... er, X2 (which I own)... on their website, but I don't know what that means. Anyway, this is a review of VideoStudio 2010 Express (VS).

There are some features I really like that are much needed and very valuable. VS 2010 can adjust the brightness and white balance of a video, as well as reduce noise and/or camera shake. I did experiments with both brightness and camera shake, making fairly large modifications. The results were good. There was some loss of sharpness - Corel warns of that - but it was acceptable at the resolution I was using. Which brings me to the first thing I *don't* like about the software.

My test files were a 3.5 minute and 4 minute video that needed some work. After a while (which I will describe later) I committed my work to DVD, only to find it wouldn't play. I looked at the DVD on a computer and it was not the expected VIDEO_TS folder, but rather it was a structure I had never seen. After some research, I learned that VS had created a Blu-Ray format on the disk.

I cannot understand why VS would put a Blu-Ray format on a non-Blu-Ray disk. Maybe there is a reasonable explanation, but I could find no way to change the format, and therefore was not able to view any video on a DVD (I don't have Blu-Ray). It was annoying and I was tempted to quit at that point, but I plugged on in hope of learning more about the program. And that brings me to the second thing I don't like about the software.

A huge disappointment was that VS took 2 hours and 15 minutes to render my 7.5 minutes of video and burn them to DVD, a process I attempted twice with the same result. Using the Windows 7 DVD Maker (which comes with Windows 7), I was able to add a title to the same videos and burn them to DVD in under 15 minutes. I don't know why VS was so slow. Later I made an MP4 file in VS with the same videos, and it was much faster.

I'd started, as I usually do, with the idea that I should be able to run the program without first reading the manual. After all, companies like to advertise that their software is "easy to use." Unfortunately, Corel seems to have decided that "easy to use" is achieved if all the program options are hidden. You start out with a blank work area. There are "Videos", "Folders", "Albums", and "Projects" buttons on the left of the screen, and "Import", "Create", "Print", "Share", and "Search" across the top. There is a "Media Tray" button on the bottom.

At this point I decided I'd better RTFM, so I did. I read all of the documentation that Corel sent with the software, looked in vain for documentation on disk, and then went to their online documentation. None of it was very good, and although I did pick up some program basics, I was unable to find answers to any of my questions. If anyone decides to buy VS, I suggest you at least skim the documentation before trying to do anything. There are some features that are, perhaps in the name of "simplicity", hidden quite well.

Even after reading the documentation, there were some things I had to figure out on my own. (Maybe Corel supplies better documentation with the retail version of the program, but I have no way of knowing that.) For example, somehow I'd stumbled on the brightness and other options I mentioned earlier, but later I could not find them. It turned out that to see those options you have to double-click on a file in the Media Tray, after which a very faint (simplicity!) "More Tools" tab appears at the far right of the work area. Click on that and the video editing options are available.

When you create a project and have files in the Media Tray, it isn't easy to see what's going on. An 'A' (presumably for 'ASCII') appears between the files, but various methods of clicking on it didn't achieve anything. I did eventually figure out how to vary the length of a transition. However, one time I somehow overlapped two video files and they played at the same time, which was... interesting.

Another thing I don't like is that VS will only import folders, not individual files (unless you go to the trouble of putting just one file in a folder). It is possible to import a folder and then drag one video to the Media Tray, but that creates a lot of unnecessary screen clutter.

The final annoyance arose when I had VS loaded but was working in another window. My computer slowed down dramatically, and I had to search for the reason. It turned out that VS was attempting to download and install an update. Perhaps it was not the fault of VS that my computer slowed so much, but I was unable to find any way to tell VS to not update unless I request it.

Later the update file was downloaded, but the update failed about halfway through, with a message that the downloaded file was corrupted. I tried to find that file, delete it, and start again, but so far I have been unsuccessful.

To sum up, VideoStudio 2010 Express has some very nice features, but it is very difficult to use effectively, and I was not able to burn a non-Blu-Ray DVD. There might be solutions to all the difficulties I mentioned, but I have been a software engineer since 1985 and I was unable to find any of them. (Maybe I'm just too old, I admit.)

I had a bit of a problem installing and it getting hung up doing whatever it was doing, but finally kicked in. But it's not terribly flowing and responsive. Not so appealing if you have significant edits or working with various types of media.

However, it is a very stripped down, straightforward, editor and creator of video with photo abilities. If you are not doing something too involved and fancy, and are very new and confused about video editing, this should be ok for you. It is easy to use, it just gets progressively slower and jumpy the bigger your project becomes.

If you need something to work with YouTube video blogs to give an extra pop. This is fine. A 10 minute video, a couple titles, images etc. it's the perfect fit for you. An hour long documentary, not so much. It does make it easier to import video and transfer files, and has a direct export to YouTube feature. In other words, if you are a youtube vlogger, and that's all you do, sure.. it's a lot easier to deal with that the YouTube upload page. If you don't have photo editing, there is a lighter version of PaintShop pro that works fine for minor edits. And if you are working with something confusing just trying to make a DVD, this is a good plus as WinDVD is included.

It's well worth the money, but for a specific user. I feel I am a bit more advanced at this point, but will certainly refer to it when I have a minor edit or upload.