Customer Rating: 
Summary: making Moviemagic
Comment: Filmmaking and video editing are not strengths of mine or applications I plan to spend a great deal of time with in the future, but I would not consider myself a neophyte either. I have authored DVDs with other software programs, created titles, added subtitle tracks to movies, combined sources from multiple input media. I have tried Roxio Creator 10, Windows Movie Maker and a range of freeware applications. My objective in this case was to capture, contrast and compare a specific group of scenes from three versions of the same film and burn the files to DVD with menuing and commentary. I tried to duplicate the same procedures in each of the software packages, starting with WMM and concluding with ULead. My impressions were ULead was not any more difficult to comprehend than the others but it did offer more flexibility and enhanced features that resulted in what I consider to be a superior end product. I cannot discount that `practice' with the other packages may have rendered this software more intuitive however, I found the GUI as easy, or easier to understand and follow than WMM or Roxio, and I elected to use video editing in lieu of the wizard feature.
While I only gave it a cursory overview, I happen to be a stickler in some areas like documentation so the inclusion of what I consider to be a thorough user manual - albeit in miniscule type size- rather than requiring the user to log on to a website and download huge PDF files is a big plus in my opinion. On the other side of the ledger however, I could not register the product as I received a pop-up error message informing me I had attempted to register a `legacy version' that is no longer supported.
I did have some installation issues, not with the process itself but rather with outcomes. Installation procedure automatically hijacks default status for copying/playing DVDs, all image display, and contributes to performance degradation by installing at least three start-up applications InterVideoDVD (and this is WinDVD8 while 9 is the current standard), CorelPhotoshop monitor and calls Quicktime, if it is already on your hard drive. It is not an uncommon practice among software creators, what is uncommon here is I do not recall seeing an option during the install to maintain my current default programs. This application seems precariously close to bloatware in my view. I have 4GB of memory, or 3Gb or relevant memory with Vista but when this application is open I cannot run any other background activities that require higher resource allocation like Outlook. One major sidenote, any program that starts off with the advisory you may want to double cache size is by definition a resource hog. While the system requirements indicate this software will work in a 512mb environment, I think anything under 1Gb is just asking for frustration.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good and fun product, but does have issues
Comment: My only comparison to this product is the horrible capabilities of Windows Movie Maker. Compared to Movie Maker, Videa Studio 11.5 is outstanding. But, it's not perfect. I have the minimum system requirements for using the software. I received an error every time I imported a new video into the software, when there really wasn't an error. The software seriously struggles through playing back portions of the video with multiple layers. I can only blame my minimum system abilities for this, but I still found it frustrating that I could not view my finished video seamlessly without the playback stalling out. Maybe the minimum system requirements are rated a bit too low? I think there is also a problem with the automatic save feature (default is to save project every 10 minutes). When re-starting the software, a message comes up to "recover" the previous project. I disabled the automatic save feature and this problem seemed to go away. I have not yet learned the full capabilities of this software to make everything run smoothly, however, I was able to learn an abundance of features for editing and special effects. I use this software for editing amateur videos of ATV riding. I was able to include music, special transition and filter effects, titles, plus layer up to 6 pieces of video for basically 6 pictures in picture. I was very impressed with the features provided in this software. The Chroma Key and Mask features are my favorite effects. It's perfect for what I need. I did need to spend some time reading the manual and using trial and error to figure everything out, but it was fun to see the results of my labor. I give this project 4 stars overall, which may be too high due to my lack of comparisons to other products. But for me, an average user who wants more editing features for the "wow" effect, as compared to Windows Movie Maker, this was the perfect product. Easy to figure out and still things to learn. One final note is the extra bonus CD making this the "Plus" version was not very useful or exciting or even necessary.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Doesn't live up to its hype
Comment: Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus [AMAZON.COM EXCLUSIVE]
I ordered this product because the reviews rated it very highly. When I tried to use it, I found that there was no documentation on how to output in various formats such as .avi, .wav or MPEG. The editing features are outstanding, but I now have a two hour video which will only show on the computer that has the ULead program on it. Corel would not even listen to my question without my giving them a credit card for the $15 "support- single question" charge. I had this same support problem with Corel in regard to their WordPerfect and switched to Microsoft Word, which is excellently supported. I am now in the market for a Microsoft Video Editor. Preferably one that understands the ULead proprietary format.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great video editor for hi-def, but not a complete package
Comment: PROs: Has many of the features of the more expensive packages.
Easy to use
NOT a memory hog, works fine with 1 GB RAM
CONs: Processor hog, you won't be able to do much else on your PC while this program creates a DVD.
While it does do basic DVD burning from your created video, it does not import DVD files for editing. It does not recognize VOB files as a viable format to use when creating a video. So if you want to use DVD/VOB files from a previous creation you still need your original format files like AVI, MPEG, ad nausium or buy an additional DVD authoring software package.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Install on a powerful PC with a high end video card for decent or even acceptable performance.
Comment: We spent more time testing the video edit features and didn't deploy the software onto a host with a video capture nor did we load video from a DVCorder, instead we used private DVD files furnished by others and other vid files from the web.
The interface is clearly intended for the amateur like us, one of our friends who is also a die hard Sony Vegas user like many of the other reviewers here commented on this fact and held Sony Vegas side by side to show us the simplicity of ULead.
Blending files is tedious at first and less than straightforward compared to the simplicity of the rest of the application but easy once you realize all the required steps.
We also installed the package on our Toshiba Quosimo, it was the most expensive model we could buy a year ago and has a huge screen and too heavy to really be called a laptop but the ULead package seemed to struggle.
When we installed the package on our teenage son's gamer box which is over two years old and had the best video card at the time, the ULead package performs admirably without annoying latency and lapses.
Summary: making Moviemagic
Comment: Filmmaking and video editing are not strengths of mine or applications I plan to spend a great deal of time with in the future, but I would not consider myself a neophyte either. I have authored DVDs with other software programs, created titles, added subtitle tracks to movies, combined sources from multiple input media. I have tried Roxio Creator 10, Windows Movie Maker and a range of freeware applications. My objective in this case was to capture, contrast and compare a specific group of scenes from three versions of the same film and burn the files to DVD with menuing and commentary. I tried to duplicate the same procedures in each of the software packages, starting with WMM and concluding with ULead. My impressions were ULead was not any more difficult to comprehend than the others but it did offer more flexibility and enhanced features that resulted in what I consider to be a superior end product. I cannot discount that `practice' with the other packages may have rendered this software more intuitive however, I found the GUI as easy, or easier to understand and follow than WMM or Roxio, and I elected to use video editing in lieu of the wizard feature.
While I only gave it a cursory overview, I happen to be a stickler in some areas like documentation so the inclusion of what I consider to be a thorough user manual - albeit in miniscule type size- rather than requiring the user to log on to a website and download huge PDF files is a big plus in my opinion. On the other side of the ledger however, I could not register the product as I received a pop-up error message informing me I had attempted to register a `legacy version' that is no longer supported.
I did have some installation issues, not with the process itself but rather with outcomes. Installation procedure automatically hijacks default status for copying/playing DVDs, all image display, and contributes to performance degradation by installing at least three start-up applications InterVideoDVD (and this is WinDVD8 while 9 is the current standard), CorelPhotoshop monitor and calls Quicktime, if it is already on your hard drive. It is not an uncommon practice among software creators, what is uncommon here is I do not recall seeing an option during the install to maintain my current default programs. This application seems precariously close to bloatware in my view. I have 4GB of memory, or 3Gb or relevant memory with Vista but when this application is open I cannot run any other background activities that require higher resource allocation like Outlook. One major sidenote, any program that starts off with the advisory you may want to double cache size is by definition a resource hog. While the system requirements indicate this software will work in a 512mb environment, I think anything under 1Gb is just asking for frustration.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good and fun product, but does have issues
Comment: My only comparison to this product is the horrible capabilities of Windows Movie Maker. Compared to Movie Maker, Videa Studio 11.5 is outstanding. But, it's not perfect. I have the minimum system requirements for using the software. I received an error every time I imported a new video into the software, when there really wasn't an error. The software seriously struggles through playing back portions of the video with multiple layers. I can only blame my minimum system abilities for this, but I still found it frustrating that I could not view my finished video seamlessly without the playback stalling out. Maybe the minimum system requirements are rated a bit too low? I think there is also a problem with the automatic save feature (default is to save project every 10 minutes). When re-starting the software, a message comes up to "recover" the previous project. I disabled the automatic save feature and this problem seemed to go away. I have not yet learned the full capabilities of this software to make everything run smoothly, however, I was able to learn an abundance of features for editing and special effects. I use this software for editing amateur videos of ATV riding. I was able to include music, special transition and filter effects, titles, plus layer up to 6 pieces of video for basically 6 pictures in picture. I was very impressed with the features provided in this software. The Chroma Key and Mask features are my favorite effects. It's perfect for what I need. I did need to spend some time reading the manual and using trial and error to figure everything out, but it was fun to see the results of my labor. I give this project 4 stars overall, which may be too high due to my lack of comparisons to other products. But for me, an average user who wants more editing features for the "wow" effect, as compared to Windows Movie Maker, this was the perfect product. Easy to figure out and still things to learn. One final note is the extra bonus CD making this the "Plus" version was not very useful or exciting or even necessary.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Doesn't live up to its hype
Comment: Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus [AMAZON.COM EXCLUSIVE]
I ordered this product because the reviews rated it very highly. When I tried to use it, I found that there was no documentation on how to output in various formats such as .avi, .wav or MPEG. The editing features are outstanding, but I now have a two hour video which will only show on the computer that has the ULead program on it. Corel would not even listen to my question without my giving them a credit card for the $15 "support- single question" charge. I had this same support problem with Corel in regard to their WordPerfect and switched to Microsoft Word, which is excellently supported. I am now in the market for a Microsoft Video Editor. Preferably one that understands the ULead proprietary format.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great video editor for hi-def, but not a complete package
Comment: PROs: Has many of the features of the more expensive packages.
Easy to use
NOT a memory hog, works fine with 1 GB RAM
CONs: Processor hog, you won't be able to do much else on your PC while this program creates a DVD.
While it does do basic DVD burning from your created video, it does not import DVD files for editing. It does not recognize VOB files as a viable format to use when creating a video. So if you want to use DVD/VOB files from a previous creation you still need your original format files like AVI, MPEG, ad nausium or buy an additional DVD authoring software package.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Install on a powerful PC with a high end video card for decent or even acceptable performance.
Comment: We spent more time testing the video edit features and didn't deploy the software onto a host with a video capture nor did we load video from a DVCorder, instead we used private DVD files furnished by others and other vid files from the web.
The interface is clearly intended for the amateur like us, one of our friends who is also a die hard Sony Vegas user like many of the other reviewers here commented on this fact and held Sony Vegas side by side to show us the simplicity of ULead.
Blending files is tedious at first and less than straightforward compared to the simplicity of the rest of the application but easy once you realize all the required steps.
We also installed the package on our Toshiba Quosimo, it was the most expensive model we could buy a year ago and has a huge screen and too heavy to really be called a laptop but the ULead package seemed to struggle.
When we installed the package on our teenage son's gamer box which is over two years old and had the best video card at the time, the ULead package performs admirably without annoying latency and lapses.