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33 out of 33 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"very Intuitive"
Pros: Intuitive, easy navigation, fast, stable, excellent Video Filtering
Cons: insufficient audio tools, .VSP files not compatible with Movie factory 4
Summary: I try all new video editing and DVD Authoring software as soon as it is released. So far Video Studio 9 has performed better than any comparable software on the market. Roxio 7.5 is good and has better integration and audio editing, but its VideoWave and DVD authoring programs are not as capable as Uleads. Pinnacle is a buggy mess that has NEVER produced a complete project without multiple crashes or freezes, Cyberlink is ok for basic editing and Adobe Premiere Elements is counter-intuitive and much more difficult to navigate. Video Explosion V 1.5 is one of the better programs (identical to Sonys Vegas) but needs to be updated.
With that said, Uleads VS 9 has a very intuitive interface with loads of transitions and video filters. All effects and filters are editable to suite your project. I have worked with it for about 3 weeks now and produced a number of projects (slideshows and videos) and found it to perform almost flawlessly. My only complaint is that it needs much better audio editing tools. Something that will allow it to blend or splice sound tracks would be nice. Every project produced has worked flawlessly. Render times for a 20 minute video on my machine were about 20 minutes and that was after adding multiple filters and transitions with a motion menu. (My system is a P IV 3.2 Mhz, 1 Gig Kingston Hyper X mem, RAID 0 array with 2 x 10,000 RPM Raptor 36 Gig HDs and a 200 Gig ATA 133, 7200 RPM Hd for video storage and working and ATI 9800 PRO AIW 128 Mb video card).
Overall, I found this to be the best program for the hobbyist or beginner. At least download the free version and compare it to the others.
A word of advice. This program will NOT burn a disc if you have Roxio on your system. Roxio must be removed or you will not be able to burn a disc. Also, if you purchase Ulead Movie Factory 4, be advised that it will not import the Ulead VS 9 .VSP files. You will have to render any project to an mpg file then import it to MF 4. This limitation is only with VS 9 VSP files and not with previous versions of VS. Ulead is fixing this problem
beullar
- 2 replies to this review
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I use Roxio 6.0 OEM suite and Ulead Videostudio 9.0 and have no problem whatsoever rendering and burning movies.
Will not be uninstalling Roxio anytime soon.
Mike G. -
I just did a comparision test on Adobe Premium Elements 2 vs Ulead Dvd Movie Factory 5. I was surprised at the results.
Both processed avi into mpg and burned a dual layer Dvd at about the same speeds. Adobe did it in 2.75 hours and Ulead did it in 2.5 hours.
I compared the quality. Both were burned at maximum quality setting using mpg. The image quality was slightly better using Adobe. The Ulead displayed jagged edges on the bottom and it actually "distorted" the images slightly from the original. I am certain of this because I compared the stills of the processed avi from Ulead and Adobe using Virtual Dub. It's easy to see the difference side by side. And super easy to see the difference when comparing the original with the processed files.
I did this same test using 2 different avi files. Both produced the same result. The Adobe was slightly more detailed and produced an almost exact duplicate of the original when converted into mpg. Ulead did not do this on both my tests. It changed the original and make people look slightly fatter. You could not notice this if you just watched the video, but I noticed it when watching both processed dvds at same time using my split screen large high definition tv!
I was going to buy the Ulead because it seemed more fancy with features than Adobe. And I always heard Adobe was always so slow in processing fles, but now, I will stay with Adobe. I will probably upgrade to the Adobe Premium Elements 3 now.
Oh, and Just one more note. I have used Virtual Dub for a long time. And now I am losing confidence in it. I have the latest version now. It seems the default "full processing" mode does not process an avi file cleanly. I learned this the hard way.. because I deleted my original avi files before realizing that Virtual Dub creates errors and minor distortions when using the "full processing" mode. It does a PERFECT job if you just use the "direct stream" settings. I still love Virtual Dub for editing. Its great for deleting junk frames, but I will never rely on it to reprocess my avi files. It messed up many of my home movies and this was done using several versions over the past few years and over several computers.
Hope this info helps somebody.
charlie
