CyberLink PowerDirector 4: Video Editing and Authoring Package
Written: Jul 31 '05 (Updated Aug 13 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Complete video editing authoring package
Cons: Some features are not professional grade
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line wants to be a star.
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| Gr8ful's Full Review: CyberLink PowerDirector 4 for PC |
PowerDirector 4 is a software package for capturing, editing and producing video. It is a single package that takes the user through each stage of the production step-by-step all the way to burning the video to DVD or VCD, dumping to back to DV camcorder or creating a file for email or web streaming. The interface is easy to use and fairly self explanatory but the help menu covers any questions that may arise. PowerDirector 4 is great for making home movies, streaming web video and emailing short clips but is not powerful enough for professional use. There are many great features to this software but there are limitations to what you can do.
First Look
When you first launch the program, the interface opens and looks surprisingly like Windows Movie Maker in many ways. There are indeed many similarities between the two software titles but PowerDirector 4 has capabilities that Movie Maker does not and the similarities are only similar on the surface.
You will see the familiar timeline for your clips, which is separated into 6 parts. These parts are for video, effect, PiP (Picture in Picture), title, voice and music. Icons on the top left of the screen have pop-up information telling what each is for when you hover the mouse over them. The layout is fairly simple but as with any video editing software it will take some time to figure out completely.
Capturing
Video
When capturing audio or video you can choose which source you want to capture from. You can capture from DV camcorder, TV/VCR, Webcam, Microphone or Audio CD. When you choose “Capture” from the top menu, PowerDirector will search for capture devices and sources on your computer and you can choose which source you want to capture from.
When capturing from a DV camcorder you have the option of capturing in MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or DV AVI format. The capturing feature of this program is my favorite. It captures in excellent quality in MPEG-2 and DVD AVI. As a test, I captured 14 minutes of video in both formats and could not tell the difference when playing the files back. I also noted that no frames were dropped in that time period either. This has a lot to do with the computer itself and the hardware installed but it does show well for the software too.
Audio
Capturing audio is labeled as “microphone” on the menu, but I found that you can change the recording input on the sound device (sound card) and capture from line-in, CD audio and other sources (depending on your sound card’s capabilities) as well.
Audio captured with PowerDirector is recorded in PCM WAV format in 16-bit at 44kHz. This is CD quality and very acceptable for recording audio from voice, tape or other source. The only downside is the file size of the audio. Even though the files are larger than MP3 or other types of compressed audio, WAV files are of excellent quality and are best used for video editing to retain the quality when mixing into the video project.
Webcam
Capturing video from a webcam is not the best way to record video but if it is all you have then this feature comes in handy. In order to get sound in the video you must have a microphone turned on with the camera or have a camera with a built in microphone and set the recording device to microphone on your sound card.
Webcam video is less than quality in the first place but with PowerDirector you retain what you have. What you see on the screen is what the captured video will look like. Most webcams do not exceed 640x480 resolution so your video will not look as good as recording from DV since DV resolution is higher.
TV/VHS/CABLE
Recording from Cable, TV or VHS tape is a little more complicated since first you must have a way to get the video into your computer. This requires a video card (capable of video input) or video capture card that has either RGB, S-Video or RCA video input for capturing. Your source (TV/VHS/Cable) must also have one of these outputs to send the signal to the computer.
If you have all this, you can record from Cable, television or VCR tape fairly easily by plugging in your cable, making sure the device is sending signal (basically make sure it’s on) and start recording.
No matter what you capture, the time allowed for capturing to the hard drive is strictly limited by the size of your hard drive and the format you are capturing in. AVI takes the most space so capturing in this format will give you less total time for capturing but it also gives you the best quality video. I have a 300GB disk for capturing video and in AVI format I can get about 3 full days of video (72 hours approximately). Capturing audio in PCM WAV format gives me just over 19 days of recording time (456 hours approximately).
Editing
Editing the video sequence is done simply enough although it takes time and practice to get the desired end result. The editing features of PowerDirector are decent and easy to apply but I would not recommend it for professional video editing. The software offers powerful editing features for making home videos and movies but it is just not professional quality in all aspects.
PowerDirector incorporates what is called "Magical Editing tools". Some people may find these magical tools helpful; like "Eagle vision" for adjusting brightness, contrast and calrity automatically.
You can also trim video down with these tools and add pre-edited music. I personally do not use these features (I do use Eagle vision) but some may have need of them.
You can split scenes very easily by right clicking on the video clip where you want to split it and choosing “split” from the pop-up menu. This is one thing I like very much because it makes it easier to divide two scenes captured together. With Ulead Video Studio you have to add the scene twice in the timeline and adjust the time of each video clip to the desired point to create the same kind of split. This is a useful feature in PowerDirector for adding transitions between two scenes where there was originally no place to put a transition.
Magic Tools
For those interested in easy to use tools for video editing, here are some of the features of Magic Tools.
Magic Music
Magic Music composes music for your video and will automatically set the time to fit the video. It will also create a fade-in and fade out. I use my own original music for my videos but if you don't have that option and you want music that is not copyrighted by someone you can use this feature to create a music theme for your video. There are several themes and types of music to choose from.
Magic Cut
This feature can automatically clip the video for you. You can choose options to keep or delete scenes with people talking, scenes that zoom in or out or for long or short clips. I personally like to edit my own clips but this feature can make it easy for people who are in the learning process for making videos.
Magic Clean
Magic Clean makes it easy to "touch up" your video and photos. It can reduce background noise and wind in your video clips as well as adjust brightness and color automaitcally. You can also use it to adjust color balance and brightness in photos as well as eliminate red-eye. Eagle Vision is a part of this feature and works very well for adjusting contrast and brightness with the click of a mouse.
Magic Motion
Magic Motion adds a zoom out and pan feature to photos automatically. You can choose the area of focus and Magic Motion does all the rest for you. The effect is nice and gives a professional feel to slide shows. It also helps keep the video "moving" when using photos in a video sequence.
Transitions
The transition effects are good and unlike Windows Movie Maker, they are smooth and easier on the eye. Movie Maker transitions are more abrupt but PowerDirector makes changing scenes smooth and seamless. There are also a lot more transitions available in PowerDirector with 128 different transitions to choose from.
Adding a transition is as simple as dragging the desired transition to the timeline and placing it in the video field between two scenes. You can determine the amount of time the transition takes to complete by right clicking the transition and choosing “set duration” from the pop-up menu. The default length of transitions is 2 seconds.
Effects
Video effects have their own field in the timeline and can be placed anywhere along the timeline. You can set the length of time an effect is displayed by stretching the effect in the effect field by clicking on the right edge and dragging to stretch it out. You can move the effect by clicking in the center of the effect and dragging to move it from left to right along the timeline.
PowerDirector offers some nice video effects that are possibly professional grade. I am not a professional video editor but I was impressed by the quality of the video effects in this software package. These effects are great for music videos and adding some spice to an otherwise boring video sequence but as an amateur video editor with some experience I recommend using them sparingly or your video could easily become overrun with effects. This could detract from the actual video itself so you want to use them with taste and deliberation.
Titles and text
This is one area where I was a little disappointed with PowerDirector. I guess I am just used to the very professional grade text tool in Ulead’s Video Studio but PowerDirector’s text tools leave a bit to be desired.
You can add titles and text anywhere in the timeline just like you can with Video Studio, but that is the end of the similarity. With PowerDriector you are bound to your chosen font and font size for the duration of the text in each text field. With Video Studio you can use multiple fonts and sizes in each individual text field. The area where I have the most problem with this is in the end credits of my videos. I like to use the typical scrolling text from bottom to top for my end credits and have the names of people slightly larger than the job they are getting credit for.
With Video Studio this is done easily, but with PowerDirector you can’t change the font sizes in the scrolling text unless you use several fields and then you have gaps in the scrolling text. It just doesn’t do it right.
If you are adding simple text to a home movie this is sufficient, but if you need professional looking text in your video you might want to try something else. I will say that the text features of PowerDirector are much better quality than Movie Maker and the text shows better after final rendering also.
Volume Control
Setting volume levels for your project is really easy in PowerDirector. You have three separate volume controls for video, voice and music which can be adjusted independently of each other. You can also have each clip in the compilation fade in or out individually as well. This is useful for fading in video volume over narration or fading out music at the end of a scene.
Each clip can be muted individually as well so if you have a video clip that you don’t want the sound to be heard (like when making a music video) you can mute the video clip and just have the music playing.
PiP (Picture in Picture)
This is a neat feature that I haven’t seen in any other video editing software that I have. It allows you to have pictures or video displayed inside the main video frame. For example: you can have a video of the beach in the main video frame and have a video of a surfer riding a wave in the PiP window at the same time.
The PiP window can be moved anywhere in the main video frame and can be adjusted for size as well. This is really neat for all kinds of applications. I can think of many times I could have used this feature in the past. Videos where you may have two different angles and want them both displayed are now as easy to do as adding a PiP window.
The video inside the PiP window will have no sound so you don’t have to worry about two sound tracks or aligning sound from two different angles of the same scene. You can also use this feature to display a slide show with a video background. This is a really neat feature.
Production
Producing your end product is easy with PowerDirector. You are guided step-by-step through the production phase. Each step is explained and you are given simple choices to create a video file or video disc.
Step one is to choose what kind of video you wish to create. You can create a video file, streaming video for web, make a disc (VCD/SVCD or DVD) or you can write the video back to DV tape.
Step two is to choose the format for the video output. These options depend on your choice in step one. If you choose to write back to DV tape, you must have your DV camcorder attached to the computer before moving on to step two. If you chose to make a disc in step one, you will now choose what kind of disc. If you choose streaming video for web you will now choose the output format (WMV, RealVideo or Quick Time Movie).
Step three will execute your choices and create your output video for you. If you are making streaming video or a video file , click start and the video will be rendered into your chosen format.
If you are making a disc, you can author your disc here by creating menus and styles using Cyberlink’s PowerProducer which is included in the package with PowerDirector. Simply click on “Continue Authoring” and PowerProducer will launch with your video sequence already loaded. After you have created a menu and added any additional video you can burn your disc from this interface.
PowerProducer 3
PowerProducer is a fairly powerful program in its own right and the fact that it comes with the editing software is a major plus. You don’t need to purchase two software titles for a complete editing package. PowerProducer allows for creation of simple menus for VCD, SVCD and DVD discs and even has some motion menus as well. You can customize the buttons and menus somewhat and preview it all before burning to disc.
PowerProducer is not my program of choice for burning video discs but for people who are looking for a software title that does it all without having to purchase several titles, PowerDirector 4 is a nice package that includes everything you need to create a movie on your computer.
I will not elborate too much on PowerProducer since I plan on writing a review of it soon as well.
Conclusion
PowerDirector 4 is a good editing program aimed at people who want one software title to do all the work. I wouldn’t recommend it for professional video editing but it is a great package for most amateur video editors and home video creation. Cyberlink has done a good job of packaging a lot of features into one single editing package.
Thanks for reading,
Gr8ful :-)
Recommended:
Yes
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