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All reviews for VideoStudio Pro

60 reviews, Showing 1 to 60 reviews


As the requirements indicate, it REALLY doesn't work on Win 7x64.

And by the way, Corel took over and killed ULead years ago.


Review by JoeG on Feb 22, 2022 Version: COREL Videostudio 2022 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




Best in its class Video Editing Software, Corel VideoStudio Pro Ultimate 2021 (64 bit). The functions are great but the best feature is the extensive and thorough help, online tutorials, manual and example videos. I've tried the other major competitors and keep coming back to Corel VideoSTudio Pro because of the 'how-tos' Corel should win some awards for it. I can always find out what I want to do and how to do it. Just added in this version: AMD acceleration. If you are just starting out in Video editing this is the place to do it. Great features for the professional too, especially if you need video editing occasionally. Superb value!

Review by Coisa Knuth on Feb 7, 2022 Version: 24.1.0.299 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




Bought this software 6months ago still could not edit a single video..Always crashing reinstalled 20 times.Tried all tricks and advices.No chance
My PC is powerful with a Amd Reyzen combined with nvidia .My old Powerdirector 15 has no issues.I have Ulead before and they were okay.


Review by Suresh on Aug 19, 2021 Version: VS Ultimate 2020 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 1/10 Functionality: 2/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




This software and the company's website look very pretty, and that may entice you to try it. Do not fall for this marketing seduction.

Both the Videostudio software and the add-on Multicam Capture software crash incessantly. Just for a little perspective, I am running Windows 10 Pro on a Core i7 8700 computer with 32GB RAM. There are more powerful computers on the planet, but this should be more than enough for this prosumer software - especially since they indicate a Core i3 with 4GB as the minimum. Secondly I have run other video editing software on my computer without problems; third, I have tried this software on three other computers and it crashes on those as well.

To make matters worse, the technical support consistently does not read what is sent to them. Just plain dense, I can't explain it any other way. Even When I request a refund... Here is a sample:

===
Chat started: 2020-12-07 11:16 PM UTC
(11:16:43 PM) LS Allen: Hello, please issue a refund for the following products:
- Corel VideoStudio Pro 2020
- Upgrade to Full-Featured MultiCam Capture

Reasons:
1. They both crash constantly
2. Neither MultiCam Capture Lite nor Full-Featured MultiCam Capture is capable of detecting two UVC webcams on the same USB bus
3. Technical support is unresponsive
4. These probems have existed for months with no resolution

Corel VideoStudio Pro 2020 Information:
Cleverbridge reference number: [XXXXXX]
Email Address: [XXXXXXX]
Purchaser Name: LS Allen
Serial Number: [XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX]

Full-Featured MultiCam Capture Information:
Order Number: [PW-XXXXXX]
Purchase Date: [xx/xx/xx, hhmm]
Email Address: [XXXXXXXX]
Purchaser Name: LS Allen

(11:16:45 PM) Corel Customer Support: This chat will be recorded for quality purposes. Terms of Use http://www.corel.com/en/terms-of-use/ | Privacy Policy http://www.corel.com/en/corel-privacy-policy/

(11:16:58 PM) *** Karthik joined the chat ***

[three and a half minutes later...]

(11:20:17 PM) Lee Allen: Hello??

[25 seconds later...]

(11:20:42 PM) Karthik: Welcome to Corel, My name is Karthik.
(11:21:08 PM) Lee Allen: Hello Karthik, my name is Lee Allen.
(11:21:36 PM) Karthik: May I know what software are you referring to?

=====
... it went downhill from there...

In another case, they sent me a version of software with a higher (later) version number in response to a problem I reported. Then I noticed that the website still gives the earlier version to purchasers. THEN the later software did not fix the problem. THEN when I reported this (with a different support person), they sent the earlier version as a "fix". !!!

You would probably do much better just staying away from Corel Videostudio, and for Heaven's sake don't even think about Pinnacle Studio, which was acquired and is still marketed by Corel. Pinnacle, one of the oldest video-editing packages, has a long-standing reputation for flakiness and instability -- even more so than Videostudio. I am just trying to spare you from my painful experiences of the past six months.


Review by LS Allen on Jan 31, 2021 Version: 64 bit 23.3.0.646 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 1/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




Do not blame the Beta Testers for issues with the program, most of the problems you are experiencing, were found and reported to Corel during the Beta test program, we are not responsible if Corel ignore our reports, like all the other NLEs available, marketing deadlines takes precedence over ensuring bugs are fixed prior to release.

Review by RobertOZ on Dec 23, 2020 Version: Corel VS2020 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 6/10




Junk of software. Abominable support. Do not buy Corel VS!
I have never seen another software product with such a good GUI design and such abominable implementation. Corel developers and testers do not perform their job properly. It looks like they do not have any idea about ABC of development process. Obviously, VS 2020 never has passed a comprehensive testing. The product in its current state is useless: it crashes and hangs up permanently. Simple operations (scaling, export, tab switching) cannot be performed. I had a long correspondence history with technical support. They could not resolve any of the problems during two months. They just kept sending me some old texts without any connection with current issues. All my requests for escalating to the development staff or to the management have been ignored.


Review by Alex Rudkevich on Dec 20, 2020 Version: 23.3.0.646 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 3/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




Coral Video Studio Ultimate 2020
Cannot render anything, crashes every time. Support poor, after many hours of trying suggested fixes still not working.
Re install software was their last fix. Still does not work
A total waste of time and money, Will not even discuss a refund.
DO NO BUY.
Shame as I had been using x5 for a long time without any issues.


Review by Mjww on Oct 15, 2020 Version: VSpro Ultimate OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




yes I agree with mark was also told by ulead tht the 2020 will be the same
Video Studio Pro 2019 Does not work when capturing Digital Dolby. X10 works fine. Not sure what happened with the release. Ran patches with no luck. If you have a Digital Dolby 5.1 Camcorder you are out of luck with this release. Hopefully they will have a fix someday. also has no screen recorder ..


Review by mick mac on Apr 8, 2020 Version: Ulead Videostudio 2019 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 2/10 Overall: 2/10




The software crashes 90% of the time or freezes making it impossible to work with at all.

The support try to help but is rubbish overall. I would not recommend buying this at all as it just wastes your time.

I am sorry but I would not recommend this to anyone who actually needs video editing and production tools.


Review by Carl on Apr 8, 2020 Version: 23.1.0.481 OS: Windows 10 Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 4/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




The recent patch has improved the program greatly and is now useable.

Review by pepegota on Apr 5, 2020 Version: 23.1.0.481 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 8/10




I have been a loyal user of this software since Ulead days, before it was bought by Corel. It was a good program and easy to use-much better than Power Director, though PD has some better aspects. VS 2018 was a good program, but in VS2019 they made some basic changes with file placement, etc. and after that the program became mercurial-random crashes at unexpected places. Well, the hope was that these anomalies would be corrected in VS2020. To date that has not happened. A service pack should be coming and I hope it fixes things, but as of now I would stay clear of VS2020. It crashes more then VS2019.
I hope they get their act together because this is a fine program minus the crashes and freezes.


Review by pepegota on Mar 11, 2020 Version: 23.01.404 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 2/10 Value for money: 2/10 Overall: 3/10




An excellent program if they would only remove the bugs. Easy to use and efficient.

Review by Joseph on Nov 5, 2019 Version: 22.3.0.436 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




Video Studio Pro 2019 Does not work when capturing Digital Dolby. X10 works fine. Not sure what happened with the release. Ran patches with no luck. If you have a Digital Dolby 5.1 Camcorder you are out of luck with this release. Hopefully they will have a fix someday.

Review by Mark on Nov 3, 2019 Version: Video Studio Ultimate 2019 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 6/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 1/10




I am a Corel Videostudio user from Ulead period, but this latest version is an epic fail...
I can't explain myself, how a instable software like this, it was released without any test?
Installed on 3 different PC and the behavior is the same: constant freeze, and sudden crash. When i restart the editor he forgot some of the settings in preferences. Playback is choppy, with a lot of artefacts.
All the older version of VS is working ok on same PCs.


Review by imagecam on Feb 14, 2019 Version: 2019 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 1/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




This is not from Corel. The software is very buggy. They made the video track so clips can be moved to any position and stay put.
This introduced many basic problems. Ripple does not work. When you change clip position
in storyboard view and then go to to the timeline, the clip is in the wrong place. They jumped the gun on this one.
As a Corel user, Corel made me an offer to upgrade, which I did only to get my money back on their 30 free trial offer.
They are working on a fix. Go to the Corel site to get the updated version when it comes out. As of now it is not out.


Review by pepegot1 on Feb 11, 2019 Version: 2019 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 3/10 Functionality: 3/10 Value for money: 2/10 Overall: 2/10




I used Videostudio and Vegas in combination as alluded in the comment below, but Videostudio Pro X9 has improved so much that I rarely use Vegas anymore. The improvement in chroma key and motion have been very good reducing the need for Vegas and its complexities.

Review by pepegot1 on Jun 9, 2016 Version: Pro X9 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Those who proport the lack of intuitivness in Videostudio just miss the boat. It has a unique manner of handling input data, unlike other comparable software but, once noted, it is very easy to use-no comparison with difficult-powerful Vegas, which in most cases is overkill. Once you understand the overlay process, it is a piece of cake. However, there are those who are used to multiple tracks and must put items above the principal track instead below (overlay tracks) as in Videostudio. So much for such intransigence!

Review by pepegot1 on May 8, 2015 Version: Pro X8 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I use Corel Videostudio PRO X5 for my video editing. Then, one day I downloaded Vegas Movie Studio 11 Platinum and tried it out. The level of complexity between the two is enormous. Things that are easily done in Corel are more envolved in Vegas. Moving around with a storyboard editor, in Corel, is a simple matter. When you only have a timeline (Vegas,) it's a bitch to locate and move around efficiently with 50 to 60 clips or more. You must edit in small packets.
Also, in rendering, I was in for a big surprise-few talk about this. The author of "101 Tips, Tricks and Techniques," Bill Myers substantiated what I found out through experience. A one hour video, with many effects, can take over five hours to render in Vegas. I hate to think how long my European Trip Video, of over two hours, would have taken-over night to be sure. Apparently, Vegas lovers are not bothered by this fact. So, rendering and fexibility of movement are Vegas shortfalls to me.
Now that I mentioned the bad, here is the good. Vegas is extremely powerful in motion video, color correction, chroma key, and Pan/Zoom. It blows Corel away, to mention only these few things of which there are more. It takes a steep learning curve but, it is well worth the effort. "Nothing good of consequence is ever accomplished without exertion." So, I use Vegas for clip editing and effects and then put clips into Corel for quick rendering and flexibility. I take the best from both and with excellent result My videos produced by Corel are vivid, rich in color and clarity that I don't think waiting an extra four hours, or more, can noticeably improve upon.
Get Vegas for ZOOM!


Review by pepegot1 on Jun 12, 2012 Version: X5 SP1 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




VS Pro X5 Edits 50P/60P video. One thing is that you still can't set Project Properties for high definition formats. That is of no consequence to me as I do not use it. It is, and will continue to be, a significant problem for newer users who think it has a greater significance than it actually does or who actually try to use Share > Create Video File > Same As Project
The big negative mark against it is that if you want to make a template for it using the normal template making method of entering the properties manually, you are still limited to a max bitrate for AVCHD video of 18 Mbps when the new international standard is 27 Mbps for 50/60p (and 3D).
That aside, it works well and I have it. TitlerEX plugin (extra download) is good for making fancy title pages. I do not have the Ultimate version as I have Mercall 2.1 and other software to make up for their additions.


Review by pepegot1 on Mar 9, 2012 Version: Pro X5 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




VS Pro SP1 has been out for well over a month. This is nothing new but, VideoStudio Pro X4 Ultimate has just recently been released. It incorporates the Prodad, Mercalli 2 video stabilizer along with Boris Graffiti software. The video stabilizer actually works and gives tripod performance in many circumstances. For that alone it's worth the upgrade.

Review by pepegot1 on Sep 21, 2011 Version: Pro X4 SP1 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Very easy to use and works great with HD files.

Review by TGB on Apr 10, 2011 Version: X4 OS: Windows 7 Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




VideoStudio try buy software is Great, seriously it is brilliant! But a word of warning! The full versions wont import all video and audio formats as well as the trial version does, so if you don't mind spending hours converting or rendering your files to a substandard format that does import into Video-Studio and mind you with massive loss to your videos crisp definition then this crappy video suite is for you!

Also beware that every HD capable versions of Video-Studio all have major issues with AVCHD video clips, just do a google on just how massive this problem is by VideoStudio Users, so all in all - if you need to work with AVCHD or for that matter any HD video format withg out worrying if your quad or 6 core is going to crash or freeze which by the way does occurr quite often!

Then you are far better off to use any freeware Editor out there as they will do a much better job..


Review by Laidback on Apr 3, 2011 Version: All HD Versions OS: Windows 7 Ease of use: 5/10 Functionality: 3/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




Good easy to use software that has a continual improvement record.

Review by pepegot1 on Nov 19, 2009 Version: VideoStudio x2 Pro OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




Works great, easy to use.

Review by yardline on Nov 19, 2009 Version: X2 OS: Windows 7 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Using the Pro 11 trial version on an Intel Core2Duo w/2GB RAM, I couldn't get the darn thing to render a file without crashing.

The search for a feature rich, powerful yet easy to understand, affordable and STABLE editor continues.


Review by somebodeez on Sep 21, 2007 Version: UVS11Plus_TBYB_EUS OS: WinXP Ease of use: 6/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




I just upgraded to V10+ from V8. Actually I bought the full version since I found the hard way that Ulead upgrades don't work very well. I have a couple of comments. I mix still shots with video much of the time. First, the still pics I inserted were crystal clear - no flicker!!! I compared the encoding to V-8 with the built-in encoder and also encoding with TMPGENC. There is no comparison. I have no idea what they did to make this quantum improvement but would like to know. Second, the program would not load video from my new Cannon Elura-100. I used SceneAnalyser with no problem. The program is not perfect but getting better. I plan to use this program instead of Ulead Pictureshow which still has the flicker problem.

Review by bertmartin on Jul 25, 2006 Version: V-10+ OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 8/10




I've upgraded to version 9. There are two great improvements to VideoStudio. When inserting video in an existing track you can now select tracks (video, video overlay, title and two audio) to be "bumped up" to keep elements aligned. This was the major problem with this program. Second, there is an "audio control view" that allows you to adjust levels on the video and audio tracks.

There is one major caveat. You MUST go to the Ulead user forums on their web site and read the procedure for editing. Basically, when building a DVD, you must edit, convert and save each file to DVD-complient MPEG2, using special MPEG settings on the custom template. Then you assemble your video components in the DVD menu program WITHOUT anything in the edit timeline. Use the procedure and your creation process works well. Try to use the program intuitively and you may have horribly re-rendered video, take forever to author the disk or the whole thing may crash.

It was NOT Ulead that came up with this procedure. It was users who worked with the program who figured it out. Ulead hasn't publicized this or put it in their manuals. This is, IMHO, lousy customer relations, forgiven only because they are hosting this info on their company-owned web biard. But you have to dig to find it.

Although VideoStudio 10 has neat features (like, supposedly 10 video overlay tracks for super-duper composite shots) I'm not planning to upgrade anytime soon; this program does all I need it to do. Its heavily kinky DVD creation process may turn off the "easy to use" crowd, but if you're unwilling to learn your tools, you don't deserve to have any tools. The guide link below is the direct link to the appropriate article on Ulead's user web board.


Review by tomreedtoon on May 11, 2006 Version: 9.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 6/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 7/10




There are other programs that are better, if you have a grand that is. Otherwise this is about the best out there right now.

But of course you do need to be familiar with video editing in the first place.

IE:
Only use uncompressed AVI's as source to edit with.
Have enough of a machine to edit video on.
Spend the few hours necessary to actually learn the software.

Check out the Ulead Support board, much information on how to actually use it.

My 2cents


Review by lupsa on Mar 13, 2006 Version: 9.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I recently bought a Vivitar DVR-310 digital camera and this software was included with my purchase. As I have windows XP I didn't need to install any additional drivers or anything. I just stuck in the cd and installed the videostudio. Very simple and straight forward.

I then beagn to download my first movie and set of photo's I had taken with the camera. They downloaded as .ASF files and were converted to mpeg files whilst creating a cd that would be playable in all cd and dvd drives (known as a vcd).

I then created my first VCD and hey presto! I had my very first VCD which was playable in all DVD players. The speed of the playback was rather slow and distorted so I re-created the VCD and increased the playback speed (this increased the speed of the sound as well making us sound like we were on helium!)

I then went on to create my third VCD but this where the problems started. The software just wouldn't create a disc. it stopped converting my .asf files from my digi cam. I uninstalled and reinstalled many times but to no avail. I tried saving the movie file as a WMA, mpeg and pal vcd file but i kept getting failure messages half way through burning my movie on to a cd.

In the end i just got fed up. I tried looking for file converting software and managed to find a free trial for a software that converted my .asf file to an mpeg. I converted my video file to mpeg using this software and then tried creating a vcd again on ulead videostudio v.8. it worked!!!!!

It is still working I have created many VCD without a problem. I ended up buying the software that helped me create my mpeg files from shareware: SUPER DVD CREATER V8.5 MPEG FILE CONVERTOR.

Ulead Videostudio v.8 is great ,you can create excellent special effects on both video's and photo's and you can add mp3 and wav music as well as sectioning your movie into parts so that you can select which clips you want to keep and which clips you want to discard. You can add titles, overlays, control the speed of playback and add voice overs. A very good and straight forward editing suite . It's very user friendly and perfect for basic users. Just make sure your video and image files are converted to mpeg format before creating a movie.

I still don't know why my movies don't playback at normal speed once they have been transferred to cd. I have constantly had to increase the playback speed during the editing process. This a problem that needs to be addressed as it affects the speed of the sound on the video. Normal playback speed is set at 100% but i have had to increase it to 110% each time.


Review by crazymoviemaker on Jan 3, 2006 Version: version 8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I have used numerous tools for editing and authoring, and I keep coming back to video studio. Excellent product. Needs more filters and the rendering engine could be improved (both in high end quality and file size) but overall it produces good to great quality. Editing is top notch. Nothing else I have edits as well. Its ability to edit without reencoding is excellent. And its cuts are frame exact. Authoring is a bit simple, not nearly as customizable as others, but it does what I want it to do and I have not yet tried vs8. Great product. You can easily pick up a special edition version on ebay for less than 2 bills ($20). Everyone should own this and they will use it.

Review by syeager on Feb 2, 2005 Version: 6se and 7 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




I have been using Ulead Video Studio now for the past 4 years. Now that VS8 is out it is a great capture - edit- burn program. As with any program, when you spend time on it, it becomes rather easy to work with.

Review by bennetts on Feb 2, 2005 Version: UVS8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




I agree. This is where improvement is urgently needed. You cannot edit exactly. What you select and what you get are not the same. If they could make this work well, it would make it an excellent program-especially if re-encodeing does not take place.
I use Cuttermaran which is an excellent editor-save only the need to demux.


Review by pepegot1 on Nov 10, 2004 Version: 8.01 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




It's pretty lame and often truncates the end of clips. The only Ulead Video program that I find at all useful is DVD Factory, and then only if you do not need to compress the audio. Otherwise, I still stick with Vegas and DVD Architect.

Review by starofradiance on Oct 18, 2004 Version: 8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 5/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 2/10 Overall: 4/10




Ulead Videostudio 8, is the budget version of the Ulead Media Studio Pro 7. Both do DVD burning video capture like with all Ulead video, but these two are the worst I've seen in doing it easy. Ulead Media Studio Pro 7 is so expensive, and complex to use, and I still can't get it to work right with MPEG 1/2 files it's more for DV and high end stuff. Has a lot of features, almost like Virtualdub, just not easy to use as Ulead DVD Author Workshop 2.21 is.

Ulead Videostudio 8 is a memory hog, it's very, very slow to load and do anything in it even on a P4 2.4GHz with 1MB L2 and 1GB DDR RAM. I ended up pulling it off and switched to Ulead DVD Workshop 2.21 and TMPGenc DVD Author 1.5 instead for editing Mpeg. One thing I forgot to mention in my previous postings is that TMPGenc DVD Author has full frame-by-frame editing and it's very quick FF/RW. None of the Ulead programs have that well the Videostudio has something like it but it's harder to use (you got to dig around it) and not easy either.

Good luck all!


Review by tipstir on Oct 6, 2004 Version: 8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 4/10 Functionality: 4/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 4/10




I've had VideoStudio 7 for close to a year now since it came bundled with my DVDRW drive. However, I found the software EXTREMELY buggy and unstable and not very intuitive; I found the workflow and commands very odd...not similar to any other video software. I've tried many, many times to edit video, author a DVD, repair files, and was never able to complete any task. Well, after recently reading several glowing reviews of VideoStudio 8 I downloaded and installed the trial (30 days, no limitations). Well, I'm quite pleasantly surprised! It's like totally different software... not only does it seem very stable (no crashes yet), the feature set seems way more extensive than that in version 7. I've only been using it for a few days but I may just have to pay for the upgrade.

Review by flbuzcut on Oct 4, 2004 Version: 8.0 trial OS: WinXP Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10




I loved and enjoyed the limited edition (VideoStudio 7 SE DVD) that came with my Pioneer A06 burner. I was delighted to find that the program would import files from non-commercial DVD's. Well, I started to work on a project. I had to reload Windows XP Pro for another reason. And when I did...boom, the AC3 audio from the DVD's didn't play in the editor!

Note, the captured files DID play in Windows Media Player with audio. But the AC3 audio didn't play in the editor (and it did before).

So, I upgraded to the Ulead VideoStudio 8 via ESD. I also bought their AC3 plugin. It works okay, but...STILL no AC3 audio from anything imported!

I'm hoping to get this resolved, but so far no luck. As it turns out, the "transcode problem" actually helped. I ended up playing my DVD's in a home type player, dubbing the audio and video into my Digital8 camcorder, then dubbing the tape into VideoStudo via Firewire. It worked, and I had my audio back. However, doing it live with passthrough proved impossible. The "buffer flush" killed things. However, by dubbing from the tape, VideoStudio stops the tape, waits for the buffer to flush, then resumes again. This seems to occur with anything longer than 5 minutes or so on my 1 GhZ Athlon system. But it's something I can live with.

Aside from that, and the inability to insert video in the timeline without having to manually move other elements like audio and video supers, this is a neat little editor. If you plan, and assemble your elements from front to back, it actually works pretty fast.

And yes, Ulead's customer service is slow, but their forum provides a lot of help and discussion.


Review by tomreedtoon on Aug 28, 2004 Version: 8.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10




Ulead VideoStudio 8 is stable, easy to use and produces great results. I used the fully functional trial version for 30 days and then purchased the full version for $50 with a competitive upgrade rebate.

I have mainly used Pinnacle's Studio 8 but I have tried many other video editing softwares and in my humble opinion VS8 is the best. What I really like about this software is the large preview window, faster rendering, the user interface and the fact that it will let you create video_ts folders of any size.

wwjd


Review by wwjd on Aug 12, 2004 Version: 8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




I have had VS 6.0SE, 7.0SE, 7.0, and now 8.0. Had some configuration problems, finally worked them out on my own. Ulead technical help is awful. Non-responsive, issues canned answers, etc. Ulead support forum on their website is the REAL support for this product. Once I got the issues resolved, I am extremely impressed with VS8.0. New auto music is awesome for providing music tracks for home videos, easy to use and works great. Tons of new transitions, images, filters, video clips. Editor very easy to use, you can rapidly go between sound, effects, clip, and all other editing modes. Project save / rendering methods work great. Output quality is excellent. Did a 15 minute video of my kid's 5 year B-day party with custom titiling, photo slideshows, music, etc., from DV source and digital camera. Perfect DVD output. Great program

Review by pbanders on Jul 19, 2004 Version: 8.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




One of the easiest to use video editors around. If you are familiar with any other editor in the $99 range, you would already be familiar with this app.

I especially like how easy it was to creat picture in picture and even added multiple animated Titles. You can be creative without worrying about 'work-arounds' or crashes. This probram was verystable on my machine and I created a great music video for my nephew's garage band.


Review by ggrussell on Jun 26, 2004 Version: 8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




The AC3 plugin is out. Does a nice job too.

Just used VS8 to do the editing for my bother's wedding. The new quicktracks audio is great for filler music. Only complaint I have is with the fact that they changed the project file so it cannot be read by the current version of Media Studio Pro. Oh well....


Review by theseus01 on Jun 24, 2004 Version: 8.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Exact same problem as previous poster. Constant transcode buffer flushing with VS8, never with VS7. These occur when the system cannot transcode the DV stream on the fly. My system is a P4 2.5GHz w/ a dedicated 200GB drive for capture. Same useless advice from Ulead tech help, which, by the way, is the worst tech help I've ever had. No callbacks, no response to emails, poor advice, lack of concern on their part, etc.

Solution is to reload VS7 on your system. You can have multiple versions of VS on your system with no problems, I have 6, 7, and 8 loaded. Workaround is to record in DV and transcode later.


Review by pbanders on Jun 24, 2004 Version: 8.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 7/10




Thought this was a significant upgrade from ver 7.0 - but not so - "keep getting flushing dv transcode buffer" error message when attempting to capture after about 6 mins - Ulead said to defrag and check the dma and write behind cashe. Did that - no help - No info in book on transcode buffers and their email tech support bites! Glad I didn't uninstall 7 as I am using it - Feel like I wasted $50. Never got the dv buffer flush message with 7 no matter how much i tried to record. Kinda frustrating. Would be nice if there was a "reset to default" bar/button to restore original defaults concerning recording data. The videos I made with 7 are fine - nice to be able to drag mp3's to spice up home movie videos. Easy to title sections - I like the auto transitions when adding a couple of hundred still photos at the end of the video. A little learning curve, to be sure - but worth the $ - Video 7, that is.

Review by jackthebear on May 29, 2004 Version: 8 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 5/10




Always loved Video Studio, and this new version is fabulous, love the new ability to tweak the audio, smart sounds are a god send for thoser of use editing wedding videos and runnign out of background music, overall very impressed!

Only one, rather annoying, problem. as with the first version of Video Studio 7, the audio goes mad on cross fades (it fades dow, then suddenly increases to maximum volume), so after editing a whole 3 hour video you have these rather anoying audio problem runnign all the way through, and adding a manual audio fade in and out to each clip with a cross fade on does not work. Hope they bring out a patch for this soon, as it's got to eb one of the most used transistions during video editing!


Review by thete on May 26, 2004 Version: 8.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




After Pinnacle Studio 9 failed I went to the trial version of ulead's video studio and it performed as expected. Works great with my old cheap analog capture card and created nice DVD files for burning. There is no doubt that I'll buy the product after using this trial version. Users are well advised that before you work with this or any video studio product 1. Turn off your Internet access card (modem or network) 2. Use a seperate hard drive w/DMA access for your video data and defrag it 3. a computer running less than 1.0 and less then 512 mb of ram will have a hard time catching its breath.

Review by filmking on May 13, 2004 Version: V8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




VS 8.0 makes slideshows that are so much better than VS 7, which I did not use for that purpose. Interface is cleaner than VS 7 and function smoothly. Ability to control sound track volume makes for good slideshows and video too.

Review by pepegot1 on May 12, 2004 Version: 8.0 OS: WinNT4 Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




I have been using VideoStudio since version 6. Version 8 adds some features that we have wanted to make easier (pan and scan) and at least one new feature (moving text along a line defined by the user). I have used Sonic product as well, and am not impressed.

If this program were bundled with DVD MovieFactory 3 it would be perfect. But then you wouldn't have to buy that program, would you.

DVD MovieFactory 3 adds the ability to use AC-3 audio and building slide shows without making them as a movie, something that they have left out of VS8. If you set the program not to re-encode mpgs that are already compliant, you can use it instead of the VS8 Create disk option without encoding twice.

I still like the program and keep coming back to it even though it doesn't have every in one box. It is a good program for those who are novices or prosumers on a budget.


Review by theseus01 on May 12, 2004 Version: 8.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Positives - seems to be quicker than previous versions and for me the big plus is a consumer priced prog that handles my 16:9 clips correctly (even with 4:3 overlays) and the output in AVI or MPEG looks good (unlike Nero Vision Express).

Negatives - the DVD Authoring side is pretty weak compated to other similar priced prog (eg Nero Vision Express).

Well I'm now the prowd ownder of both VS8 (for editing 16:9 avi) and NVE for burning the DVD.


Review by jmone on May 3, 2004 Version: 8 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




Still no AC3 plugin for version 8.
Note to Ulead:get with the program and give us some usefull features otherwise why should I upgrade?


Review by MOVIEGEEK on Apr 29, 2004 Version: 6 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




IT,S a GREAT products

Review by jempolmaut on Feb 1, 2004 Version: 7 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 10/10




Ulead® VideoStudio™ 7
Hello, this is my take on Uleads product. A brief back ground, I was given a Sony DRU-510a DVD recorder for a birthday gift The intention was for me to turn family VHS videos in to DVD’s to preserve the life of the video’s. The Sony came with MYDVD 4.5 I looked at it and did the upgrade at the Sonic web site now running version 5. After many trials I did get it to burn but it takes forever to encode so I started looking for something that would work a little faster I found the Ulead product and starting working with it, I love the user friendliness and the final DVD looks great. (The only problem I have is I backup my 2 year old son’s DVD’s using DVD Shrink but the Ulead will not read the .VOB files) So as far as usability it great but I am still looking for a more robust product. I would also like to thank DVDrHelp site for the great reading and help.


Review by petetmt59 on Jan 30, 2004 Version: 7 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




This came packaged with Ulead Movie Factory 2 with my Pioneer A06 DVD burner. I've historically hated Ulead's products dating back to Video Studio 3 and 4, but i have found one very worthwhile use for this program. (In the bundle, at least) it can encode 100% compliant AC-3 (Dolby Digital) 2.0 audio. It didn't do this originally, but entering the lines:
PlayAC3=1
DecodeAC3=1
UleadAC3Encode=1
ADVANCE=1
into, well, basically any section of the *.ini files that come with the program, especially the [MPEGVIO] and [VIODriver] sections of UVS.ini and DVDMF.ini . this will enable advanced settings in the SE version under the MPEG-2 template options, making this an almost usable program.

The video quality is not great, I often demux the AC3 stream from the finished file and use it with the original video, since one of Ulead's shortcomings is the inability to output an AC3 file without it being attached to an MPEG-2 video. Mine will play AC-3 off the timeline. (I also have this site's freeware AC3 codec installed, and possibly some older version of WinDVD 2000). I can play/edit/re-encode files captured with any other program i've tried (Vdub, ATI MMC, AviCap).

as far as the interface, it's not really that intuitive, and more than that, it's bulky. You have to split the audio from the first video stream if you need to move it on the timeline, the preview is huge and not resizeable if you want to work with bigger thumbnails of the timeline. The cuts don't look frame-accurate. (Who'd have thought you'd go to a submenu of "Share" at the end, instead of "Encode" or "render"...; instead of looking at a giant cartoon speaker on audio preview, how about a waveform?..., etc...). when you change settings in your encoding templates -- max bitrate, avg bitrate, encode quality -- the program seemingly using a random formula and changes them.

if you want a real clean, intuitive interface, get a Sonic Foundry product, like Vegas Video or Video Factory. The only drawbacks to those are a) vegas is $$$, b) older versions had the fairly crappy Ligos GoMotion MPEG codec. (the newer ones use the MainConcept MPEG codec, which is far better. Ligos does OK at DVD-level bitrates, like 5Mbps, but noisy/blocky at VCD or SVCD bitrates)

for a free add-on to my DVD-burner, I'm pleased it makes 100% compliant AC-3 (which BeSweet and ffmpegui don't -- try it on a pioneer player) but that's about the extent of its usefullness. I've also found that TMPEG DVDAuthor is a much better solution than the packaged Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 tool. Use the packaged Nero Xpress to burn the TMPG projects, no sync issues as with the Ulead MF2.


Review by patrickm on Jan 18, 2004 Version: 7.00.0140 SE DVD OS: Win2K Ease of use: 5/10 Functionality: 3/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 5/10




I'm here to talk about how much I like VideoStudio. Specifically I'm a big fan of the Video Editor and have been using it for about two years now since version 5.0 through to 7.0. I was just reading what a certain "billcoffin" wrote below and thought I should contribute, if for nothing more than to debunk the ridiculous complaints he had about this package.

He claims that the interface is "wildly unintuitive". For somebody who claims to have been in the software development business for twenty years with a degree in comp.sci from Berkley, this stretches believability. VideoStudio uses a VERY common timeline based interfaced for it's video editor, used by everything from Macromedia Director/Flash through to almost every other video editor on the market. It's DVD production tools look like every other idiot-proof DVD creation kit. If anything, the interface is so intuitive and easy to use, one could complain that ULead's package is lacking a lot of features seen in high end packages like Scenarist and Maestro. Their timeline interface was even easier to use than Adobe Premier's. If you don't understand timelines, you shouldn't be getting involved with video editing or DVD production. Maybe he should have taken a degree in video production instead of comp.sci.

Billcoffin claims it won't edit MPEGs captured by anything other than their package. This is laughably false. If this were the case, nobody would buy it. I've edited tons of stuff with Video Editor that were captured by lots of other programs, with absolutely no problems, crashes, or errors of any kind. Another user claimed that it wouldn't handle HuffyUV, which is also false. I've captured tons of stuff in HuffyUV and used VideoEditor to piece it together into VCD/SVCD MPEG, compliant or otherwise, with no problems at all. As long as you've got the same HuffyUV codec installed as the one you used to capture with, it'll work just fine.

Billcoffin claims the audio renders with clicks and pops. If it's doing that, he's doing something wrong - I've never seen it mess up the audio at all. He also claims it's slow. It loads up in about 5 seconds on my P3 750, and that's a slow system by todays standards - if that's not fast enough, he needs to upgrade his hardware. He said it crashed when he tried to uninstall it. I've never seen this happen, with either versions 5, 6, or 7. Maybe he (a comp.sci graduate let's remember) should stop running WinME and upgrade to a real OS, like 9x/XP or even Linux.

Quite honestly, it's one of the best packages on the market, and ULead keeps getting better and better. Their newer versions of DVD Workshop are promising to support sub-picture captioning - something a lot of other packages are WAY behind on. They're not Adobe, but they're doing really well, and version 7 is a vast improvement on 5/6.

Highly highly recommended. Don't listen to the naysayers.


Review by teshia on Jan 3, 2004 Version: 7.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




This tool creates compliant MPEG-2 files, good !

Its only - but severe - drawback is to do not handle AC3, Ulead should sell a separate plug-in for that.

Its editing comercial-out functionality is a blast, wonderful;

It never crashed, hence I rated 10 as functionality.

I have never used it to burn a DVD though, I only use it for editing comercials out, add transitions, build final compliant movie, and, most important, capture real-time MPEG-2. It doesn't drop frames, like ATIMMC......

HuffYUV codec doesn't work with it, but I only make real-time MPEG-2.

As it isn't expensive and it's not dificult to use, I recomend it. Make sure to get the extra CD with tutorials, very helpful.

I think Ulead makes good products, I'd stick to their software.

Zetti


Review by zetti on Dec 31, 2003 Version: 7.01 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




Counter-opinion to the previous post. I've had no trouble using VS7 to burn over 200 discs, VCD's and DVD's, from various sources, including non-VS7 captured sources. The UI is workflow based and is simple to use. The "Extract Video" feature is worth the price of the SW alone. Rendering could be quicker, I agree on that point. As for my level of experience, I have an EE and 22 years in hardware and software design for a major semiconductor manufacturer.

Review by pbanders on Nov 26, 2003 Version: 7.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




I spent more than 50 hours trying to learn how to use this product and learning how to work around its bugs. I gave up and bought Sony Screenblast, which is working quite well for me. Here are some problems I had with the Ulead product:

The user interface is wildly non-intuitive. Absolutely baffling. Even after 50 hours of intensive effort, I couldn't figure out its behaviors. Also, the help system was clearly tacked on as an afterthought; it's in Adobe PDF format, so you can't search it, it's hard to read, and the index is laughable. The text is completely inadequate. If you buy this product you will have to use the online web boards (which are actually quite good) to figure out how to use it.

They say you can import media and edit it, but this is not actually true. It will edit mpegs captured by other tools, but when you try to burn a DVD it crashes with no diagnostics. A phone call to tech support established that you cannot render a file unless it was captured by VS (Video Studio). (There is a workaround, but the tech support guy didn't know about it.)

The output audio is bad, with occasional clicks and pops inserted.

On a larger project, it gets horrendously slow. (Other programs, like Screenblast, are slow to load but are quite quick once loaded.)

I had one crash, after which VS was no longer able to start. I tried to uninstall so I could re-install, but that caused system errors. Fortunately the original installsheild .exe could uninstall. But this one crash cost me half a day of experimentation just to find the way to re-install.

The feature set is not very rich compared to Screenblast at about the same price. I've also used ArcSoft ShowBiz, which has a lovely interface but cannot render acceptable output. And I've also used a few really low-end tools.

If you still want to buy it, do NOT under any circumstances buy it online. I did. First I found that some key features were not included. (They are included in the boxed version.) No-one tells you this, even during the online registration procedure. I only found out on the web board. To get these features, you have to download 10 files that total 97 megabytes. The FTP server is not very responsive, so I spent two days downloading. The download was not installable, so I talked to tech support and found that my "try before you buy" version was wrong, so I had to download a legitimate version. (Again, I had to learn the hard way.) So it took me about a week to get up and running. Ulead simply doesn't understand e-commerce.

Overall, the money I spent on VS was money flushed down the toilet. And my weeks of work were wasted -- I should have quit earlier.

BTW, I have a degree in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley and have been in the software development business for 20 years, so I'm not easily intimidated by software.


Review by billcoffin on Nov 25, 2003 Version: 7.01 OS: WinME Ease of use: 1/10 Functionality: 3/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




I do slideshow projects pretty often with background music, special sound and music effects, transitions, video effects, etc where might have a series of still photos followed by a live action video clip, then more still shots. Special effects requires proper timing and video slideshows offers this feature. Something most other slideshow programs cannot.

I recommend this program to anyone doing slideshow and/or video projects for VCD, SVCD, and DVD in MPEG1, MPEG2, or AVI. It has great features and is very easy to learn with a complete help file system.


Review by bottle-necked on Oct 26, 2003 Version: V7.0 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




The software is very easy to get to grips with. It has a few drawbacks.
When converting a video file created from another source such as a graphics card MPEG 2, it has a very annoying habit of re-rendering that takes ages. This is despite setting the capture device at the appropriate settings that Video Studio will use.
When using its built in capture tool - it will not crop video and the bottom lines from captured video tape look awful. That is why I use the ATI - All-In-Wonder, guide like at (lordsmurf.com).
Other capture cards might produce better results as this graphics card produces a "Field order B" type file instead of field order A, that will play in most machines.
That being said - it is very easy to use and although the menus are basic , my kids think I am great and tell their friends that their dad makes great DVD's.
Nuff said.


Review by Airedale1 on Oct 22, 2003 Version: 7.00.1400 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 6/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 6/10




An awsome program that is intuitive. It is easy to use, but has enough bells and whistles to keep you happy long term.

Biggest problem is the DVD menu creation is not even close to Sonic MyDVD. However it blows the clothes off of the program that ships with MyDVD for editing video.

Buy it! You shouldn't regret it!


Review by theseus01 on Oct 14, 2003 Version: 7.01 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




I’m an amateur photographer, trying to integrate our travel videos (Hi8 analog) with lots of digital still photos and display them as accurately as possible on an HDTV set. In the process, I need to clean up the video, which contains lots of blooper footage scattered everywhere. I also need to inject voiceovers here and there to augment the sound track on the video.

After taking careful note of many of the comments in these and other forums, I got ADSTech Instant DVD 2 Capture unit which includes Ulead’s Video Studio 7 SE DVD, DVD Movie Factory SE, along with ADSTech CapWiz and Muvee Auto Producer.

Bottom line: I was able in produce a pretty fair 65 minute DVD, starting from scratch, in a little more than a week, with surprisingly few headaches, using Video Studio 7 (updated to 7.01).

Capture: I was able to capture my Hi8 analog tapes with no problems after I realized the futility of trying to edit out bloopers during the capture phase. The best method was to capture the whole mess into 3 or 4 huge MPEG2 video files and then use Studio 7 to edit. BTW, I used a small desk fan blowing directly on the IDVD2 box during capture and experienced NO capture problems from excessive heat (a problem noted by earlier users).

Video and Photo Edit: Studio 7 provides an intuitive interface for video editing that permitted me to select precise cuts from the captured video and paste them into a Storyboard. The digital photos had been cleaned up earlier and stored on CD. Studio 7, read them directly from the CD and I was able to pull them into the Storyboard, between video clips, as appropriate. It is also easy to overlay titles (or other video clips) anywhere in the video stream.

Sound Edit: The Studio 7 edit screen includes a Timeline display where I was able to introduce sound clips at precise points in the video stream. I imported music and voice clips directly as sound files and could pull them into Timeline, where the duration, volume, and fade in/out characteristics could be set. Sound editing gave me the greatest fits because Studio 7.01 became unstable while editing sound and crashed repeatedly on my system. Frequent saves were the workaround.

The whole project consisted of four Studio 7 Project files. I pulled these together in the last phase to create the DVD. It was easy to build the DVD menus and submenus and select an icon from the video frame for each menu item. My quibble here is that although arbitrary video frames work as icons, Video 7 could not be coaxed into transferring to that frame – it insisted on transferring to evenly spaced time intervals in the video track.

The final rendering took 1 h. 40 m. for my 3 GHz Pentium 4 to produce the final disk image of 4.2 GB (I had used the default 8 Mbps bitrate). The actual DVD burn took about 12 min. at 4X on an NEC ND 1100A burner to Memorex DVD+R media. The DVD plays perfectly on my Philips 724 player.

The HDTV picture is perfectly proportioned with progressive scan off and slightly stretched horizontally with progressive scan on. I would sure like to see the digital still photos displayed at HD resolution of 1080 lines someday.


Review by jchunter on Sep 20, 2003 Version: 7.01 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




Great program. Excellent editor, makes it a snap to edit out TV commercials. SmartRender vastly accelerates rendering, tons of encoding options. Would be the greatest program ever, IF, the idiots at Adaptec would get with Ulead so that I could capture directly from my DVD Media Center (non-WDM) into VideoStudio...

Review by pbanders on Sep 4, 2003 Version: 7.01 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10


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