VideoStudio 9 is a relatively easy-to-use video-editing application that should appeal to those who have little video editing experience and want to create widescreen DVD-Movies with menus. Its MovieWizard makes it virtually impossible to mess things up, and the ability to output in DivX and MPEG-4 formats, add pan and zoom effects to images, create multiple animated titles, and add Picture-in-Picture (PiP) effects make it excellent value for money. There are some exciting new creative options too, but it's not quite as good overall as Pinnacle's excellent Studio 9.0 Plus. Nevertheless, it's definitely worth a close look.
Pros: Excellent transitions and effects; supports Flash animations
Cons: No automatic colour correction; poor chroma key performance
Low-cost video editing packages are increasing in popularity, especially as more and more consumers are buying digital camcorders and then wanting to share their videos with friends and family. Ulead Systems, like Adobe, Pinnacle Systems and Serif, targets this market with its entry-level video-editing suite, VideoStudio.
The latest release of the software lets you create DVD-Movies and slideshows and then burn them onto CD, DVD or the Web. With three different video editing modes, to meet the skill level and various project demands of both novices and hobbyists, VideoStudio 9 lets you take video straight off a DV camcorder and turn it into an edited DVD production in a matter of minutes. It also includes around 20 movie templates, should you want to tailor your production.
The new DV Quick Scan feature lets you save time by quickly scanning video clips on the DV tape and selecting only the clips you want to capture. Once the clips are selected, the new DV-to-DVD Wizard automatically turns videos into edited DVDs with a DVD menu, titles, transitions, and music. New mask effects create optical transitions to create a fluid-like effect and new video filters include particle effects like clouds and rain. Enhanced titling lets you place multiple titles on the same video frame and animate each title separately.
One of the most appealing features of VideoStudio 9 is that it lets you create a movie quickly without having to know the first thing about video editing. The software's intuitive three-step MovieWizard holds your hand through the entire video creation process, so it's virtually impossible to mess things up. The MovieWizard lets you choose theme-based introduction (such as Sports, Holiday, Vacation, and even Drive-in Movie Theatre) and exit graphics, text, transitions and music.
You can also transfer video from a TV or DV camcorder to your computer, and the shuttle control introduced in version 8.0 lets you navigate to the exact scenes of your source video to capture. To save time, the batch feature lets you convert video, images and audio files to different formats.
