Continuing the
process of integrated the recently acquired Ulead titles into its portfolio of
products, Corel has released VideoStudio 11 Plus. This product brings video editing and DVD
authoring capabilities to the Corel family.
Following a rather lengthy installation process as various files are
copied and set up on the designated drive, plus a system restart, VideoStudio
11 Plus opens with a menu that offers a choice of working with the VideoStudio
Editor; Movie Wizard; or DV to DVD Wizard.
The Editor module provides tabs allowing you to switch between capture,
edit, effects, overlay, title, audio and share sections. Material can be captured from external video
devices, DV tapes plus imported from DVD/DVD-VR and mobile devices. You can also bring in files stored on your
hard disk. Along with the more common
video formats such as MPEG-4 and DivX, you also get support for the new AVCHD
standard providing high definition content.
The content can be displayed in either storybook or time line
mode. You can then work with the clip as
a whole entity or have it automatically broken up into scenes before adding
transitions selected from various categories.
Options are available to add cue points to help jump to specific frames;
use a colour correction tool, which includes white balancing either in
automatic mode or with the aid of a colour picker; remove blockiness with the
DeBlock filter and remove noise created by analogue television signals or low
light captures with the DeSnow filter.
Overlays and titles can be added as required while audio levels can be
adjusted manually as the program does not appear to have the capability to
adjust balance levels automatically when handling multiple clips. However you do benefit from Dolby Digital 5.1
sound support.
Opting for the Movie Wizard brings up an interface consisting of a
preview screen; picture book strip showing scenes from the selected video; and
a panel listing options that include capture, inserting video and images, plus
importing from a mobile device. Several
different themes are available for use with your movie. Using a template adds a title and end frame,
which can both be edited plus allows the inclusion of background music. Further editing can be carried out within the
main Editor module before creating a video file or disc.
As you might expect, the DV to DVD Wizard leads you through the
process of viewing available content, displayed as thumbnails, stored on a
camcorder before making a selection and burning to the appropriate media. Just as with the Movie Wizard, you can select
from different theme templates and make your choice of quality for the saved
content.
Corel ULEAD Video Studio 11 Plus - video editor
When it comes to the actual process of producing your MPEG content for
saving or burning to disc, you can lean heavily on VideoStudio 11 Plus MPEG
Optimizer feature. This technology will
scan through and analyse the content to determine the best format in order to
cut back on unnecessary re-encoding and thus save time for what normally can be
a long drawn out process. Sitting along
this optimiser feature is the ability to pause the rendering process. This can prove useful if you need to complete
other tasks within a specific time period.
Along with the main program disc and the A5 size user guide, a
companion disc is included in the box.
This disc holds various audio, video and image content. You also get a copy of Ulead Disc Image
Recorder and WinDVD 8 Silver for playing your DVDs and AVCHD discs created
using the program.
This latest version of VideoStudio software has certainly added to the
product's feature list that already boasted multiple video tracks, anti-shake
filter, ad-zapper, Smart Proxy (working with lower resolution content to speed
up editing) and DVD menu transitions.
Now there is the MPEG Optimizer, colour correction, DeBlock, DeSnow and
the support for AVCHD format. There is
also the useful player. Expect to pay
£60 for a product that deserved a user guide of bigger proportions. You will need to be running Windows XP or
Vista on a Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM and 1GB of hard disk space. For those intending to carry out HDV editing,
the specifications increase to Pentium 4.3GHz with a minimum of 1GB of RAM.
