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 - Very powerful with minor usability issuesHere are the basics: * Captures video and photos from your hard drives, video input (camcorder, vcr, dvd, digital cam, etc.), tv tuner cards, all the normal stuff here. One highlight is that the software will accept both NTSC and PAL format input without issues - so feel free to share those videos with friends around the world. * Has a full suite of special effects that you can add to your presentation, and when I say full suite, I mean a LOT. Hundreds of transitions, overlays, titles, and effects. * Output options are vast - it's not just about writing it to a flat video file, you can send it back to a camcorder tape, mobile devices, youtube*, DVD and HD DVD, and more. It comes with all the expected menuing options as well (to create menu's on your DVD splash screen). Here's what I like: * File support can't be beat. No more limits to mpg, avi, wmv like you get in things like Windows Movie Maker*, this program pretty much reads everything including Quicktime* and Flash*, and as I mentioned before, PAL format too. This was a big win for me recently because I was putting together a video presentation that included video from the US and from India. Ulead was the ONLY program I had that would read the files without having to convert them first. * Effects are vast. If you are used to some of the cool transitions you get in Windows Movie Maker* you're familiar with things like flips, rolls, slides, shatters, etc. Ulead steps it up a notch with 3D flips and spins, colour masks, clock style transitions, texture effects, peels, pushes, rolls, slides, stretches, wipes, and more. It even comes with a set of pre-installed flash animations that plug right into your movie or overlay on an existing slide. * Audio options are significantly enhanced. Not only can you put it into waveform view, but you can dynamically change the volume and direction of the audio. These features are like Audacity* or Cakewalk* - you can drag and drop volume changes and even shift audio to left and right channels. This was pretty incredible to me and not something I've seen in any other movie maker software. Voice track is also available but not something I have used since I use pre-packaged audio for my movies. * Setting exact time for a slide. In other programs it's difficult to set a slide to display for an exact time down to the split second. Ulead makes this easy with a detail page for each slide that you can configure timeline and other functions. I use this all the time. This detail page also offers dynamic pan/zoom and resizing of the image you're using, and if it's an image, instant colour correction. Very powerful. If it's a video you can reverse it, change the speed, split the audio, and dynamically trim the clip. What bothers me: * Limited TITLE templates out the box. The templates they provide seem pretty hokey, but you can do some level of customization and then save your new template (I just wanted more out of the box) - the other issue here is that you have to create a blank colour box (with associated duration) and overlay the title on it. This is very different from other tools that will automatically create a title slide for you. Titles are very important to me, as well as credits, which this tool doesn't have out of the box. * Adding transitions and effects is clunky and time consuming. Drag and drop takes a while because of the distance between the transition and the timeline. Additionally, you can not highlight multiple sequences and apply a transition to each one en masse. In other words, if you want the same transition between 10 slides, you have to do it 10 times. Overall Rating: 4 of 5, with 1 point removed for minor usability issues and insufficient title templates out of the box. Summary: One of the most powerful video editing and movie creation tools I have used. Easily beats competitors like Roxio* and Windows Movie Maker*, although, for free movie creation, WMM* does provide a lot of functionality. For professional movie creation and the flexibility this program offers in input and output options, I'm very impressed. * Product names are copyrights and trademarks of their respective companies. Rating: - GoodThis product has improvement compare to the old versions....not easy to crash, and if it does, it will save the latest version and ask if you like to recover it ....this is a good feature. Rating:  - Best in Class!Amazon has the best price you will find exclusivley on this software package, and Ulead Video Studio 11.5 burns Blu-Rays (oh yeah!). I will say that to burn a 90 minute 1080 High Def video it takes this program about 8 hours to convert (once you are done editing), and then add another hour onto that to physically burn the Blu-Ray disk. So most video jobs are now "overnighter's" once they are ready to burn. BUT, well worth it in the end. I give Ulead AND Amazon 5 stars for this price and product. Rating: - Smooth Sailing for BeginnersAs a recent graduate I came from a university that thought nearly every presentation should be done in video format. They saw PowerPoint as an idea of the past. Several times a quarter I would have to head down into the dungeon (the basement where the media lab was housed) and slave for hours using their professional editing software and usually leave with completely frustrated at the unfriendly user interface. (And the majority of the time the videos did not transfer correctly or some other problem occurred.) Unfortunately the school assignments were my first real experience video editing and left a really bad taste in my mouth. That was until I used Corel's Ulead VideoStudio 11.5. It is extremely simple to install and use and left me with a sense of accomplishment rather than a sense of fear and horror. Additionally, there are great music files and video clips integrated in the software to help the beginner get started. Of course you could always import your favorite song or video clips from elsewhere if you are inspired. Something worthy of noting, I find it easier to use a mouse when using this program. I installed it on my laptop and I personally do not find dragging, dropping, and moving as easy on a touch pad. I have a cheap mouse I plugged in and it makes the act of editing simpler. Finally, you can quickly export the video to several formats. The one that makes me the most excited is the iPhone as I can show off my silly family videos to those I bump into without posting them on the net. Of course you can always quickly put your videos on YouTube if you desire. My advice to the beginner: Don't be afraid. There is an extremely thorough manual and this is great software to begin with. Enjoy! Rating: - Ulead Video Studio 11.5I received my Ulead Product a few weeks ago. It does exactly as advertised. It will handle my High Definition Video files and create a beautiful finished product.
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