Customer Reviews

PowerDirector 7 Deluxe [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

This is the third version of my review of this product. It originally received a 2 star rating from me because of software problems, but there was an undocumented fix, and the issue has been solved. But a stern warning to those who are considering the purchase of this program. Do not base your final decision to buy PD7 based upon the trial version. The trial works fine, but the full retail version has issues and bugs that may cause the program to be either severely disabled or run erratically.

Now for the review:

PD7 has a very well rounded suite of special effects, titling routines, automatic color balance, photo adjustments, and a series of "magic" effects that will help you to assemble a slide show, add music to your videos, correct for defects and a host of other things with just a few clicks of your mouse.

The layout for the editing screen is non-cluttered and well designed. For those who are familiar with video editing, it will only take you a day to get used to the operation of how to perform all the tasks. For those who are new to the world of video editing, it will take a little longer, but since the software is easy to learn, you'll have a minimum of problems.

Rendering of your videos for DVD, YouTube, and other devices is lightning quick, depending on the power of your PC's processor. I have an Intel Core 2 Duo running at 3.0GHz and rendering a one minute test video complete with sound track, 23 special effects, scrolling titles, and many graphic transitions took 64 seconds to render. Truly amazing. Burning a DVD is a snap as the menu system takes you through the steps quickly and efficiently. PowerDirector also provides an assortment of pre-made menus for your videos, if you can make them work.

PowerDirector also has an extensive online community where you can get free downloadable member created templates for your video productions.

The primary reason why this otherwise excellent video editing software doesn't score a higher rating is due to some of the serious bugs found in this program. One glaring one has to do with burning DVD menus with your production. The module is broken and will crash the program. Users have been complaining about this problem and others for many months without a fix. Although the incidents are well documented, Cyberlink has not fixed the issues and usually sends out a form email asking users to do horrendously complicated things with their PCs to try to solve the problem. If you are not PC savvy, you can literally damage your PC until it won't run at all.

The bottom line is that even if you are a PC whiz, the advice from customer support does nothing to fix the problem. Other customers report other bugs and are left in the lurch with no solution.

Hopefully, these issues will be fixed in the very near future, but if you are looking for a solid video editing program, you'll be taking your chances with Power Director 7 because you'll never know if you are one of the lucky where PD7 might be compatible with your PC.

If not for the broken modules, this would be an easy five-star program. As it is now, it seems to be a software program in progress and there is still a way to go before Power Director 7 can be considered fully functional.

Power Director 7 is a very powerful program, but the lack of bug fixes, modules that don't work, compatibility problems, and a customer support department that only sends out boiler plate emails to their customers instead of addressing the problems they are having is a major drawback for those who are contemplating the purchase of this program.

At the moment, I will keep the software in the hopes that CyberLink will fix the bugs, but so far, it doesn't look too promising.

UPDATE: PD7 is not compatible with all DVD burners it would seem, according to their members. But the issue of not being able to burn their final DVD projects has a temporary solution.

The forums, which serve as a means to help users out of their problems, is filled with old timers whose only solution to your problems is to "reinstall the software." There is rarely any sympathy for anyone who says they have a problem. You'll get an earful of "Well, this never happened to me," or the more frequent, "It's not the program, it's YOUR fault," or words to this effect.

Customer service, while quick to answer, will give you loads of advice that usually boils down to, "reinstall the program." The senior members of these forums really need to take a step back and realize that new comers and people who experience problems with their software are a result of the software bugs that are in the program and that the idiotic mantra that they all spew..."reinstall the program," is as much help as a rock falling on your head.

PD7 is extremely powerful but also, it would seem, very sensitive to what is on your computer as well as the type of hardware you have on your computer. If it works, it gets a solid 5. But because of the unresponsive forum help and customer service which is fast, but not very helpful with solutions, I would not recommend this program to anyone who isn't already extremely computer literate. If you don't know how to clear your registry, update your drivers, or swap out a DVD drive, you may be in for some serious headaches if you start to encounter problems with PD7.

Let me say that I've used Pinnacle and Sony and Power Director 7.0 blows them both out of the water. Power director is very responsive and fast to edit changes with litle lag time. It only takes me half the time to create a movie with Power Director since the tasks are automated. The navigation is far simpler and intuitive with the chapter division and menu layout. You have unlimited access to additional transitions, backgrounds, and menu layouts (whereas the others nickel & dime you for it). My family is amazed by the videos and it's more exciting with effects and background music.

Having just installed the program today I was unable to get the video to preview in the large preview window on the upper right. I could only hear the audio. Sent a support question to Cyberlink and received a prompt response about how to trouble shoot the situation. Among the suggested cures was to change my resolution to 1024 x 768. I have a large monitor and that is not a good resolution for viewing. I was also supposed to uninstall over CD/DVD burning and media application softwares like Nero, EasyCD Creator, Sony Vegas Movie Studio and Direct CD etc. Two burning softwares installed on the same computer are know to cause conflict due to common files in them. Sadly, I have to return the program, because I'm not going to part with my other burning programs including Sony Vegas Movie Studio. They've all been cooperating very nicely. This program has to go back...and I'm really embarrassed because another program I bought for my new Vista machine couldn't be used with my large fonts. (The Print Shop Deluxe 23.)

That's really the only thing i can figure about cyberlink. Tried to post a question on there about why the program wouldn't work and asked for help. A bunch of people basically told me it was my fault or I had to reinstall the program. The program crashes and freezes on me for no reason at all.

No customer support. No forum support. This program is terrible. I can do simple stuff with it, and its easy to understand, but cyberlink hates anybody who brings up questions or complaints.

What a bunch of jerks.

Btw, just saw this on the Cyberlink forums. I'm not kidding you when I say the forum support is antagonistic to anyone who dares criticize there awful product.

Here is the comment by one of the forum members:

"After installing and having the crash problems that everyone is experiencing, I find it hard to believe these guys are even in business. Why have support as an option if you really dont get support! These guys also have the huburous to ask for improvement ideas for hte NEXT version when this version is buggy and crashes constantly!!!!

HOW DO I GET MY MONEY BACK!!!!"

And the reply from the unhelpful moderator who only knows how to tell people who need help to go away...(the original title of this user's post was "How do these guys stay in business?!" Here is the mod's answer...

"I changed the title of your Post.

This is a forum for CyberLink members to discuss and share their users' experience. CyberLink customer support will not reply in the forum regarding the technical issues. Topics or replies with attacking or illegal messages will be deleted by the forum management directly.

I have now locked this post. You've been given instruction on where and whom to contact.

Dafydd
[Moderator]"
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With help like this, do you really want to buy this product?

Needed to clean up some vacation video and make copies for friends. Based on reviews, purchased this and within a few days had created the DVDs. Some editing is tricky, but overall, not so hard as to discourage as newbie. Down & dirty creation (with little/no editing required), use the Power Producer.

This software is amazing! I downloaded the free trial first from Cyberlink.com, fall in love with it instantly, and bought a box right away! I have a lot of home videos but I just kinda leave them in my computer. Then one day I saw the baby video that my friend made for her new born daughter, and it looked so professional and fun! She told me it is PowerDirector that made the video look so pro.

The user interface looks trendy and surprisingly easy to use, also many editing and authoring features to fix and produce video. Even with an amateur like me with little creativity, can still turn boring home video to exciting movies! And if you need more resources for making the video, you can link to this DirectorZone.com (I think it's Cyberlink's online community website), and download more resources, such as effects and templates. Or you can download unlimited authorized pictures and audio from Flickr and Freesound (for free!). I think making an impressive video would be a great gift for friends and family, also great for your own memory; especially when the videos look so pro! And it's not expensive. I would recommend it to everyone, from beginners to enthusiasts.

This product creates professional quality videos but if you have a question or need instruction....good luck. The tutorials are limited. They don't have a support phone number and an email response can take days. I would rate the product 5 stars and the support 2 stars.

-I've been trying to find a reliable video editing program since 2005. I started with Pinnacle. That was a waste of time with all the crashing and hang-ups. I then used a Power Director 4 program which at the time was great. I fell in love with Cyberlink, but it didn's do 5.1 Surround Sound which I use with my Sony Cam.
-I've been back & forth with other programs that did 5.1/widescreen. Anyway, Cyberlink finally got into 5.1 Surround with this version, so I was really glad. I've been trying to edit my Mexican Riviera Cruise video since I got back last SEPT/08. It is now April/09 and I must have started the project about 10 times already. The problem is the audio synch. Once you get into a large project, that's what you get. The color and picture is fantastic, but the audio synch problems are too much. I have a really expensive high-end Alienware Desk (XP-is my operating system) that I bought last year, so starting projects is not a problem. I don't get hang-ups or anything, but I do notice that when I use the Editing box, moving that cursor does freeze up at times.
-I have wasted so much time trying to edit my trip. I'm very patient, so I figure it's a learning experience. I am now going to Corel-Video Studio X2-it seems to have a better engine. The program is definitely much more stable. Hope this is the program. If you're doing any editing that goes past 30 minutes, find another program. I still like Cyberlink products, so I won't give up on them. I'm just giving up on Cyberlink Power Director-7-Ultimate. Hopefully, they'll fix the bugs on Power Director 8.

This is a good editing software product. I have used Adobe Premier Elements 4 and Like Power Director 7 better.

From the constant hangups to not being able to keep sync on larger projects, this editing program is highly overrated. It is feature rich as long as you can get it to keep running without hanging up. If you only need it for short clips then it is fine, but don't try a large project. The tech support is of absolutely no help! Stay away!