|
|
|
Average Customer Review
Share your thoughts with other customers
|
|
|
The most helpful favorable review
The most helpful critical review
321 of 338 people found the following review helpful:
While not Final Cut it IS a powerful video editing suite.
|
Customer Video Review
Length:: 1:31 Mins
This entire video was made in Video Studio Pro X2. I purposely did it as fast as I could to show the power of the product (matter of fact this writeup took longer). Besides the obvious time line oriented video editing, there are a ton of video outputs that can be utilized whatever your ability. You can export directly to You Tube, or record it in HD... |
Published 22 months ago by J. J. Marino
|
› See more 5 star, 4 star reviews |
 |
116 of 120 people found the following review helpful:
Productive Program with a few bugs
VideoStudio Pro X2 is enigmatic program. It is an easy to use video editor, with powerful editing tools often found in much more expensive programs. Tools such as:
- Editing Masks
- Graphic overlays
- Color correction & brightness
- White balance & tone adjustments (very useful for indoor photography)
- Video rotation
- Ability...
Published 22 months ago by Chawks
|
› See more 3 star, 2 star, 1 star reviews |
|
|
321 of 338 people found the following review helpful:
While not Final Cut it IS a powerful video editing suite., October 25, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Length:: 1:31 Mins
This entire video was made in Video Studio Pro X2. I purposely did it as fast as I could to show the power of the product (matter of fact this writeup took longer). Besides the obvious time line oriented video editing, there are a ton of video outputs that can be utilized whatever your ability. You can export directly to You Tube, or record it in HD for watching in 1080. Direct to DVD authoring is another really nice addition.
I have used Final Cut Pro Studio costing $1300. While this is NOT as powerful at all, it does allow for a good deal of professional editing. It has a very low learning curve and if you just need to make excellent quality videos and not spend a very long time learning then this is the product for you.
You can import your own clips very easily, just drag and drop. It will even import your entire audio library. I tried to do a voice over for this video but my mic is really poor quality so it sounded very digitized. It allows you to add a voice over with 1 click though and I may redo this review if I can get a better mic. It is very refreshing the amount of video outputs this program has. If your a novice and want to make a video that is high quality for You Tube it is just a few clicks and you are done. The menus are easy to navigate and very intuitive.
About this video: Because I did not want to wait 3 hours to upload it. I rendered it at 30fps mpg. I am not sure how Amazon codec will re-render so I hope it looks nice when it is finally converted.
Thank you for watching!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
116 of 120 people found the following review helpful:
Productive Program with a few bugs, November 2, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
VideoStudio Pro X2 is enigmatic program. It is an easy to use video editor, with powerful editing tools often found in much more expensive programs. Tools such as:
- Editing Masks
- Graphic overlays
- Color correction & brightness
- White balance & tone adjustments (very useful for indoor photography)
- Video rotation
- Ability to add flash animations to your video
- Chroma key functions
- Surround sound mixing
- Stretching audio duration
From my tests and reading of the manual these functions seem to be relatively easy to use. However, the quality of the program is always found in the production process and the final output.
To test VideoStudio Pro X2 I imported a 30 minute avi file and had VideoStudio segment this clip into segments. Next, I placed these segments onto the storyboard and cut out a few unwanted clips at the start and end of video. Next, I trimmed the opening and ending clips using the clip trim handles. Finally, I applied an audio fade at the end of the video and burned the production to a dvd. All of these functions worked perfectly and quickly on a Pentium 4, 3ghz machine with 3 megabytes of ram. Impressive!
However, VideoStudio does exhibit some unstable behavior upon exiting the program. VideoStudio has given me a couple error messages upon shutdown. Strangely, neither of these error messages affected the editing and production process. My guess is that VideoStudio is not fully releasing the memory it was occupying.
Corel is close to having a class defining video editor. Hopefully, Corel will issue an update to fix some of the small but irritating bugs.
P.S. If you are looking for a slightly less powerful video editor that is even easier to use you might want to check out Serif's MoviePlus X3. Both of these programs appear to be far more stable than my old Pinnacle Studio versions 8, 9 or 11.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
Finally, Ease of Use, Advanced Editing, and Stability Combined, October 27, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I like making home videos, however, like most users, I want to dive right in without first being required to read a 2-inch thick manual to simply get started. On the other hand, I don't want a wimpy underpowered editing app that focuses so hard on being easy that it leaves out essential creative features. I tried several different applications on both PC and Mac platforms. I kept finding that the apps were either feature-rich yet complicated to use or easy to use but lacking in features. I was just about to give up hope when I got the chance to try Corel VideoStudio Pro x2. I think I finally found the perfect balance. This is a great program for the typical home user. From capture to burned DVD disc, it was really easy, straightforward, and offered plenty of options to really enhance the movie. Installation was simple with no complications. After install, it fired right up with no significant impact on system performance. I installed it on a dual-core Centrino laptop with 2GB of RAM and running Windows XP. I never experienced any lockups or crashes. The interface is clean, free from unnecessary clutter, and the controls are logically placed and easy to locate. I connected my camera to my laptop via 4 pin firewire. It immediately detected my Panasonic mini-DV camera and offered several capture options. I opted to capture in MPG2 format. You can capture in uncompressed formats as well, such as AVI. The program menu controls were logically placed and easy to access. There are tabs along the top labeled Capture, Edit, Effect, Overlay, Title, Audio, and Share. Clicking these tabs brings up the applicable options panel. I was trimming video, stretching audio, and combining clips with ease. I also tinkered with the many transitions, titles, and special effects. I never had to refer to the owners manual while creating my first DVD. Even using the chroma key to replace a transparent background, (blue screen and green screen effects), is relatively simple for a newcomer. I experienced no dropped frames and the resulting DVD was pretty nice with animated menus featuring clips of the video. The video quality was very good and played with no problems in a set-top DVD player. There are plenty of nice DVD menus available and everything, from capture to burn, is completed within the one application. The entire rendering and burn time for a 15-minute DVD was under 20 minutes. However, that was for a MPG2 capture, so rendering an AVI file or a file or a clip with heavy effects will obviously take a bit longer. If you are really in a rush and just want to quickly capture from camera to disk, there is a feature to do this. There is also a quick DVD feature that will quickly capture, create, and burn a themed DVD disk of your footage if you're not interested in editing. Other output options include HD and Blu-ray, however I don't have a Blu-ray player or HD camera yet, so I couldn't test those features. It also has a direct upload to Youtube and an option to export as an flv file.
Overall, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better combination of professional features while retaining ease of use. This program is so much fun to use because you can jump right in and do some really creative and advanced editing right away. It shouldn't be a chore to put together a nice home movie. If you need professional editing power with numerous audio and video tracks, and dozens of ways to tweak the raw footage, look elsewhere. However, If you're a home user and wish to dive right into the process and have a ton of fun while making a pretty good looking home movie in the process, you can't go wrong here.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
56 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
A once-good product stumbles badly with this version, January 30, 2009
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
I've alternated between using Adobe Premier Elements 1 and Ulead Video Studio Version 7 and Version 9 over the last few years. If I occasionally needed to do something fancy, with a lot of picture-in-picture compositing and /or key-frame-based effects, I used Premiere -- although its interface was so annoying that for more normal projects I used Ulead, which I found to be a bit lacking in effects quality but overall extremely solid and easy to use.
I downloaded a trial version of Pro X2 and gave it a cursory test. The new effects looked great and overall I was pleased, so I bought it. I am now VERY sorry I didn't give it a more thorough test.
Post-purchase, I used Pro X2 to open one of my older Ulead 9 projects -- a pretty simple one, about 4 minutes long, consisting of about 12 short pre-rendered AVI files, 2-3 transition effects, and one audio track. In Pro X2 I made a very minor change, only adding a credits slide at the end. Nothing cutting edge.
When previewing the project, everything looked great. Then I rendered it as an AVI file.
I first became suspicious, however, that it took around 30 minutes to render (on a new, dual Pentium laptop with 2 gb of RAM, running XP3), whereas the original project had taken only around 15 minutes on an older machine running Ulead 9.
Then I saw that the resultant AVI file from Pro 2X was around 300 mb, vs 100 mb for the Ulead 9 project -- very strange since the two clips, burned to identical formats, differed from each other in length by only about 5 seconds.
But the really bad news came when I watched the resultant AVI file. The timing was WAY out of sync -- up to 7-8 seconds in some places. This completely ruined the project, which had been a tightly-timed music video. I tried re-rendering 4 times -- twice more to AVI, and twice to MPEG3 -- with same result.
All the great features in the world are irrelevant of you have no control over your final video.
I consulted the help file, which said nothing about this problem. I did notice that under the Troubleshooting section they did offer the generic advice that if Pro X2 isn't working properly, it might need repair, available by clicking Add/ Remove programs in Windows Control Panel, and then selecting the option to repair. Problem was, there was no option to repair -- only the option to remove the program or not. Why on earth give such fictitious advice? What were they thinking?
I refuse to pay Corel the required fee for tech support -- charging for help with something so flawed is a scam in my opinion. I will be seeking a refund.
By the way, just to be sure the problem wasn't with my new machine, I arranged the clips, music and title slide in the 5 year old Adobe Premier 1 which I installed on the new machine. It rendered perfectly.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
Errors abound and support is terrible!, December 16, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
We bought this upgrade from Video Studio 11 after my wife spent over 80 hours creating a video that would not render. Even with the upgrade, it appears the software will not use all of my 4Gb of memory nor does it use all of my 4 processors. Still would not render the video. By the way, it is only a 30 minute video put together from pictures and digital video clips of our family, not a big deal, right?
After 4 days of talking with Corel support(and paying them for it), we were told that we had to remove all of the transitions (which were all supplied with the software) and render the video again and then drop them in (50+ of them) one at a time to find out which one wasn't working and then "just don't use that one". This is unacceptable. Their product crashes every 5-10 minutes during use and after that many hours of work we still cannot burn a DVD even with hours of time spent with their support line trying to fix the problem.
My opinion is that if a company cannot get their product to work that they owe a refund or should definitely not charge you for the support call.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
Good improvement over older versions, has a few quirks and manual not useful., November 10, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I have owned the previous versions of Ulead Video Studio. My understanding is that
Corel took over the program. In comparison to my older version I found the following:
Pros:
* Many more ways to export your video.
* One program both inputs and burns to DVD.
* Software pretty intuitive for those who have used some video editing software.
* I LOVE that it will automatically do the following: insert transitions between photos,
make a movie from a template, burn straight from camcorder to DVD.
* You can easily convert a bunch of files that are in different formats into a file of consistent format. It takes the program a little while do to this (may depend on your processor) but does not require a lot of work on your part.
* Much more creative control and many more choices of output than say, Windows Moviemaker.
Cons:
* Software a steeper learning curve for newbies. I did have a neighbor come over to try to make her own short video with her photos who was a video editing virgin. She is reasonably computer savvy. I simply pulled up the program and let her try. She had some trouble, even after reading the manual, but was able to produce her own montage in about an hour.
* If you are the kind of person who does not mind experimenting and looking around in the software to learn, you will have no problem. The manual is not much use.
* Imported video file size is larger than in the older Ulead versions. I could fit 100 minutes of imported camcorder video on one DVD using the older Ulead. With this program I can only fit about 90. I believe that this is due to the more complex titles thatCorel uses but I am not sure.
* When burning DVDs it will sometimes give an error that it could not finish, but the DVDs are fine.
HELPFUL HINT: However, after corresponding with Corel I was given this
information which is VERY useful. It is not in the manual.
Corel tech support has reviewed the materials you sent and suggests changing the Project Settings in the create a disc menu. This will reduce the size of the video allowing it to be burned on one DVD.
1 - Click on Share and then Create Disc.
2 - In the bottom right, you will see Project Settings (the middle icon with the gear). Click on the Project Settings icon.
3 - Click on change MPEG Settings.
4 - Select the settings that best suits the project.
This allows to you fit more material (at the slight expense of quality) onto the DVD.
Overall an improvement on my Ulead Video 6, it does seem a little unstable, freezing up every once in a while. This may, however, be due to the processing speed of my computer.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Easy to Use!, October 28, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 is quality video editing software so the first thing I would recommend is that you have a computer with a dual-core CPU and a good graphics card. It will also support High Definition (HD), so a good AVCHD or HDV camcorder would also be preferable for the best results. I must emphasize that this is a not must though; this software is very flexible so it will work with almost any type of video standard.
I installed and used this software on Windows Vista 64 bit and Windows XP SP3 computers without any problems; both have a dual-core CPU's and good graphics cards. I also have a HDV camcorder.
This is my first time at using Corel VideoStudio, I have used Pinnacle Studio up until now which is also a great video editor. I admit I am very impressed with VideoStudio, whilst it has similarities to Pinnacle it is different enough to make it stand out on it's own as an excellent video editing tool.
My first impressions were how simple VideoStudio is to use. Once you start the program you have three choices: VideoStudio Editor, Movie Wizard, and DV-to-DVD Wizard. The Videostudio Editor is if you want to edit your video manually. The Movie Wizard semi-automates the process. The DV-to-DVD Wizard is straight from your camcorder to DVD.
I prefer to do things manually so I use the Editor. It is still simple - when you start it, you have 7 tabs which you can select: Capture, Edit, Effect, Overlay, Title, Audio, and Share. These encourage you to take everything step by step which is a good approach along with using the timeline. The timeline is basically a way of keeping track of what you are laying down in your video. To add to the timeline you right click on the part of the project you are doing and select 'Insert to'. You insert it to the area of the video you are laying down such as `Video Track', 'Music Track' etc.... Of course this is the simple explanation, there is a lot more to this program.
Some of the great features I have noticed so far are the Picture-in-Picture and Montage Effects, the Animated Titles, the support of Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound, the Painting Creator which lets you draw freehand or paint freehand on your video and the host of Filters including some which can make your videos look vintage in style. There are also a load of export options. I am not a 'YouTuber' but that is one of the export options. You can also save to almost any type of format including HD discs.
The bonus program included with VideoStudio is WinDVD 8 Silver. This is not the latest version of WinDVD but it is still a great player.
As with any good video editing software, you decide how far you want to take the program - this one has a ton of features, too many to describe in one review but I highly recommend getting it if you need a cool video editor which supports all kinds of formats, will help make you custom movies and then copy it all to the type of media you need.
My final word is that Video editors are a lot of fun, there is nothing better than adding your own special touch to your videos and there is no excuse now because it is so easy with software like this.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
conversion quality is too low, December 2, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
Like many of you, I am no video editing professional. I just need a simple tool to stitch together the videos taken in my digital camera and convert them into MP4 format.
The original format comes out of my camera is Motion JPG like almost all digital cameras, those files are pretty big. I was hoping by converting to MP4 it would save me some disk space.
But I found the quality of the converted MP4 is rather low, the color is faded and some details, highlights are lost. The output bitrate is **FIXED** at 2000k for MP4 format, That's right, you read me correct, you can NOT change the setting! Contacted customer support, they claim this is normal. So now I ended up having to keep both the original files and converted files -- totally destroyed the purpose of buying it the first place. very disappointed.
I haven't tried editing my videos yet. From other reviews the editing function seems to be ok, but the point is, if the output result is in such a low quality, what's the point having a powerful editor?
====================
OK, Some Updates
I sent two emails to Corel. In the first email I asked if the bitrate
can be changed. This is their reply:
"""""
Thank you for your e-mail. By designed, the maximum bitrate for an MP4 in VideoStudio X2 is 2000kbps.
Unfortunately, we cannot adjust this as of the moment.
"""""
I got pretty angry and sent them a 2nd email stating if this is the quality they can archieve, I would like to return the product. And guess what? Now they reply saying yes the bitrate CAN be changed! It involves several steps to create a different MP4 profile, tedious, but doable. Now the output quality is much better. This is another case that a perfectly good product might be easily ruined by some junior support guy.
Now I would recommend the product. But again, if you just simply need to
slice, concatenate video clips, the ffmpeg tool on linux is very good and it's free.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Lots Of Extras - Big Learning Curve (For Me), December 29, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I became fairly adept at using "Windows Movie Maker" along with my video from my Sony HandyCam (4 megapixel) and my Flip Video Ultra. But I found myself becoming overwhelmed with all of the features with the Corel Video Studio Pro X2! I saw the fact that it is blu-ray compatible as a big plus (even though my computer does not have a blu-ray drive - yet) and the ability to make a 5.1 surround sound video was a big selling point. I do like making small films with music, but had not experimented much with specials effects. The Pro X2 has almost too many options.
It was fairly easy to download clips from my hand-held Sony and my Flip Video to the editing screen. The Pro X2 takes just about any type of video from any source. Its all simply `drag and drop'. Its easy to lengthen, shorten or cut/edit any piece of video. If your video is of high quality, you can actually have a 1920 X 1080 size video which is as good as it gets for a large flat screen television. You can also drop in any music along a separate `timeline' as well as another `timeline' for vocals or narrations. I was also able to do small `montages' by overlaying other video and pictures (kind of like `picture in picture (PIP). Like "Windows Movie Maker" there are tons of various cross fades or transition from video clip to video clip. It was also very cool to be able to `slow down" (slow motion) action and not have the audio affected at all.
Special effects are numerous and when you get overwhelmed, you can actually toggle back and forth so you never have too much information on your `timelines' at once. If you use blu-ray, I understand that you can insert `menus' in your blu-ray discs just like on the ones you rent. I can't wait to get a blu-ray drive. If you have an older or poorly lit video, there is a color and tone correction and it does a fairly good job, even with old splotchy videos. If you are into titles, you can easily insert these anywhere on your screen in any font or color you choose. You can even put a backdrop in any color to make it stand out against the video. This is best for titles and end credits, but I suppose you could have it run the entire length of the video. Other extras are synching your slides to the beat of a song, simulating your handwriting (didn't use this one) and the Chroma Key is very cool. Its like a blue screen in special effects films where you can make the background anything you want and superimpose yourself or your subject onto it. The lines around the front ground subjects are slightly imperfect, but it still looks cool. Imagine yourself walking along a beach in the south Pacific instead of the city - that's the kind of effect you can do.
Sound is a big thing for me, so when I saw 5.1 surround was available, I went crazy. But, I cannot get it to work past stereo. I don't know if it s my Acer Aspire desktop, my Windows Vista or this program, but I just cannot get 5.1 to work. Now there are over a dozen or more surround sound clips you can choose from in the 5.1 surround menu that are very brief (less than 30 seconds), but you can repeat them. However, as cool as they are in 5.1 surround, they are mostly percussion and not very exciting. I contacted Corel about the 5.1 problems and they told me what to do to correct the 5.1 (you just drag the sound clip to the on-line speaker, of which there are five plus the subwoofer in an easy diagram) but it didn't work. You can easily amplify sounds, get rid of annoying hiss and adjust volume levels at any time. However, the 5.1 surround just has me stupefied. Maybe when I can figure it out, I'll come back and revise this review, but at the moment, this program is better than "Windows Movie Maker" only in the choices of extras and special effects.
I am still experimenting and this review is two months plus after playing with this program. I hope to have conquered all the problems some time soon. For the price, the Corel Video Studio Pro X2 is still a bargain, even with a bit of a learning curve.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
So far, the winner!, November 15, 2008
This review is from: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (DVD-ROM)
I bought a Sanyo HD1010 to take on my vacation, which by the way is a wonderful camcorder...After I took about 30 gigs worth of video, I needed a decent software to make movies. I have downloaded trial versions of Corel Video Studio Pro X2, Sony Vegas, Cyberlink Power Director, and Nero..all in their most recent versions.
I have done a small not very scientific test with a couple of clips.
I took a couple of short clips and simply place them in timeline and make a final video using the highest best quality available of the software.
I compared all of them by viewing in Windows Media Player and Nero viewer.
Corel Video in HD format gives almost 'you're there!' feel. The sound, the details that I don't even remember seeing while I was there, were all captured. I keep looking at the finished video and amazed.
Same clips from Sony and Cyberlink were great but compared to the output Corel produced, they were 'good enough' but not awesome.
Since I'm not an expert in video editing technologies, I have no idea why this is so and this could be subjective. However, I showed the same clips to my husband and my daughter and they both agreed about Corel's final file to be almost life-like.
I think this is the winner for me so far and will buy the full-version soon.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
