Two Good Video Editing Programs for Beginners ─ Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14 and CyberLink PowerDirector 8

© 2010 Peter Free

 

17 August 2010

 

I recommend two of five video-editing programs for use by novices like me

 

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate (version 14) and CyberLink PowerDirector 8 came out on top.

 

Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 is cheaper than the top two, but it has some drawbacks, including lack of a “help” button.

 

Two other programs, by Womble and Nero, had completely unintiutive interfaces and minimal documentation.  Life is too short for that.

 

List of the five programs tested

 

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate (version 14)

 

See also ─ http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?

newsID=5436&review=Pinnacle+Studio+Ultimate+

Collection+14+Review

 

CyberLink PowerDirector 8 

 

See also ─

http://www.myeasydata.com/cyberlink-power-director-8-review.html

 

Corel VideoStudio Pro X3

 

See also ─

http://www.myeasydata.com/corel-videostudio-pro-x3-review.html

 

Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD 5.0

 

See also ─

http://www.myeasydata.com/womble-mpeg-video-wizard.html

 

Nero 8 Essentials for Sanyo

 

The recommended programs work on out-dated computers

 

I tested these on a Windows XP Professional computer with an Intel Pentium 4 (3.06 GHz) processor and 2 GB of RAM.

 

The camcorder the video clips came from is a now obsolete 1080p Sanyo Xacti VPC-FH1.  I chose it because reviewers indicated that it was one of the few whose files would run properly on a minimally competent computer.

 

Summary of findings regarding the top two programs

 

Studio Ultimate and PowerDirector 8 are both very good for simple video editing.

 

However, note that Studio Ultimate required about six times the computer drive space (2,037 MB) that PowerDirector did.  It also took all night to download on a relatively quick DSL line.

 

Documentation

 

Studio Ultimate comes with a 461-page PDF manual.  Pinnacle’s website also gives users access to helpful, well-organized video tutorials.  These videos are overviews of various functions.  They are very well designed to get beginners started.

 

PowerDirector has no manual.  Its list of tutorials is disorganized.  Individual videos are not particularly well-sequenced in logic.

 

Indeed, a couple of PowerDirector’s tutorials are incomprehensible in places.  The man who made them apparently does not understand the purpose of an instructional video.  His colleagues are more competent.  Overall, PowerDirector’s documentation is worse than mediocre.

 

That is not as comparatively bad as it sounds.  Most of the video editing industry appears to generate programs with no, or completely inadequate, documentation.  CyberLink, by making a minimal effort, beat everyone but Pinnacle.

 

User interface

 

Neither program is intuitive.  But both follow parallel tracks to getting where they go.  Consequently, once you have a minimal grasp on one, the other is easier to understand.

 

Studio Ultimate probably has a slightly better interface.  After watching its tutorials, the concept underlying its use of “room” buttons on the left sidebar is clear.

 

PowerDirector beasts Studio in a couple of places.  One is its provision of a subtitle room, which makes adding subtitles a snap.

 

Studio requires one to use its title room for subtitles.  That’s problematic because choosing fonts and sizes in Studio is more complex than doing the same in PowerDirector.  When one has a lot of subtitles to add, PowerDirector is a pleasure to use, and Studio is a drag.

 

In action

 

Both programs work well.  PowerDirector runs faster on my system.  Noticeably so.

 

I chose Studio Ultimate over PowerDirector because (a) it allows one to output MP4 movies identical to the format my camcorder produces, (b) its documentation is better, and (c) it crashed less.

 

Since my goal was to keep input and output files within the parameters of what my CPU and disk space can handle, the Studio’s provision of an MP4 choice for output was a nice touch.

 

PowerDirector was limited to outputting MPEG1 and 2 for my purposes.  My computer won’t run the less compressed output that PowerDirector can output.

 

QuickTime did not recognize PowerDirector’s MPEG2 files, so I had to run them on Windows Media Manager.  Apple has a MPEG2 component for QuickTime that would presumably overcome this problem.

 

A tip

 

Neither program was clear about how to get a video clip that was already on the computer into the program.  (Both address downloading directly from the video device.)

 

I found that simply dragging the files from the folder they were on in my computer to the “media room” or “timeline” of each program worked.  Be aware, however, that one must do this sequentially.  Neither program will permit a “select all” drag.  Nor will they permit one to dump the folder holding all the clips into the program.

 

Recommendation

 

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14 or PowerDirector 8 are both very good video editors for beginners.

 

Do use the trial period to verify that each program will run properly on your system.  In my case, PowerDirector 8 crashed just often enough to be annoying.

 

The also-rans ─ Corel, Womble, and Nero

 

Corel VideoStudio Pro X3

 

Corel’s VideoStudio Pro X3 looks like a nice program.  But it lacks adequate documentation and even a help button.  What sense does that make?

 

After fiddling with it a while, I decided that it was clearly inferior to Studio Ultimate and PowerDirector 8.  The slight savings in cost did not make up for its shortcomings.

 

VideoStudio’s uninstall function failed three times.  (De-installation takes forever to complete, even when it does work.)  I had to download and install the program again, which took hours, and then uninstall it just to get rid of it.

 

Corel is not likely to get future business from me.

 

Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD 5.0

 

Womble’s MPEG Video Wizard DVD 5.0 interface was challenging.  I gave up on the program because the documentation was completely inadequate.  Every time I tried to do something, it was as if the programmers had deliberately placed obtuseness in my way.

 

I am reasonably certain that someone who knows what s/he is doing would find it a competent program.  But I’m equally sure that beginners will not like it.

 

Nero 8 Essentials for Sanyo

 

Nero 8 Essentials for Sanyo was a laughable nightmare of programming stupidity.  It came with my Sanyo Xacti camcorder.  Launching the program spread a bunch of apparently unrelated icons across the computer monitor with no indication of what they were for.  (Sanyo’s instruction manual did not mention the software.)

 

Once inside each Nero component, it still was not clear what it did or how to do what it supposedly did.

 

The coup de grace for me came when Nero’s uninstaller program would not get rid of all the components its installation software had put on my computer.

 

Nero 8 Essentials for Sanyo went into the trash.  I will not buy another Nero product.