By J.R. Bookwalter, December 11, 2008
Windows users on a budget have good reason to chuckle at us poor Mac users, if only because Windows has a much larger variety of pro-level video editing software for cheap. Entering the fray comes another impressive choice with Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 (which rises from the ashes of the former Ulead VideoStudio).
Billed as a complete HD solution, VideoStudio Pro X2 covers the gamut, with support for Blu-ray, AVCHD and HDV camcorders as well as a host of media-friendly export options, including direct upload to YouTube and mobile devices (among them, the iPhone and iPod Touch). So how does it stack up to the competition? Let's dig in and find out.
Getting Started
VideoStudio Pro X2 requires Windows XP SP2 or better (including Vista) for installation. The manual includes detailed instructions for getting any optional hardware installed that you might need to take advantage of the software (including analog video converters), although most current-era systems should be good to go with USB 2.0 or FireWire/i.LINK.
The software installs in a snap, and when you open the program, you're presented with a launcher with three choices: VideoStudio Editor, which opens the full-featured editing program; Movie Wizard, which is a simplified moviemaking interface for new users; and DV-to-DVD Wizard, allowing you to quickly capture video, add a theme and burn it to disc. The launcher also lets you set the option to use 16:9 widescreen for your projects, which is off by default.
Most DV readers will spend the bulk of their time in VideoStudio Editor, where you'll find a nicely laid out screen with tabs at the top for Capture, Edit, Effect, Overlay, Title, Audio and Share. Below and to the left is the Preview window, with the clip Library next to it and the Project Timeline at the bottom. It's a layout reminiscent of higher-end programs such as Adobe Premiere, so experienced editors should feel right at home, while Corel has done a good job keeping things simple enough for newbies.
I happened to find myself overseas visiting my wife's family when I started testing VideoStudio Pro X2, so I captured some HDV vacation footage from our Canon HV20 using my trusty Apple MacBook Pro running Windows XP SP3 via Boot Camp (which basically turns your Mac into a Windows PC). I had a few initial quirks capturing my footage to a portable 60GB Iomega hard drive via FireWire, so I swapped the connection for USB 2.0 and the problem went away. (I suspect it's a Boot Camp issue and not related to the software.) I was then ready to move on to the Edit tab.
The Little Things
Editing in VideoStudio Pro X2 is similar to many other programs: drag clips from the Preview window or the Library bin and view them in the Timeline window in either Storyboard View (which Corel claims is the fastest and easiest method, with each clip in a small box complete with a thumbnail so you can tell what's what) or the more traditional Timeline View, which enables you to trim clips by grabbing the head or tail, moving them to different tracks and even adding titles and overlays.
My favorite aspect of the VideoStudio Editor turned out to be the Multi-Trim Video feature, which basically breaks one large clip into multiple segments for you. In my case, I captured an entire 60-minute HDV tape of our overseas travel, dragged the whole clip into the Timeline and selected Multi-Trim Video. Now all I had to do was play or skim through the video, clicking in and out points at the spots that I wanted to keep. The new selected clips show in a small bin at the bottom of the Multi-Trim window. When finished, you simply click OK and your single large clip is ''automagically'' split into all of the smaller selected pieces, ready to be trimmed further or have transitions and effects added to them. This is a feature I'd love to see ported to my NLE of choice, Apple Final Cut Pro, because it makes short work of home movies and other such videos that are shot in a linear fashion.
I was also impressed with how simple it was to add titles, transitions and other effects to a project--and rest assured that VideoStudio Pro X2 comes with an ample supply of presets, probably more than I've seen in competing packages. Among the new features in the Corel-rebranded VideoStudio are Painting Creator, which allows users to paint, draw and write directly on a video while recording their movements, and NewBlue Film Effects, a collection of five filters with 81 presets that re-create the motion, dirt and dust from antique movies to ''age'' your video creations.
Proxy Editing
Among the other new features Corel has brought to the table is enhanced ''Smart Proxy'' editing, which allows the user to edit HD content as easily as working with SD footage. Aimed especially at lower-end PCs, VideoStudio utilizes lower-resolution files for editing and previewing a project while maintaining full res for final output.
In my test, the Smart Proxy feature didn't work as well with the HDV footage as I had hoped. Because of the amount of time that it was taking for Smart Proxy to render my clips, I chose to throw caution to the wind and cut most of my footage in raw HDV. While the editing process itself was fine, the preview was abysmally slow to the point of being almost unusable.
Thinking the problem might have been caused by my use of a MacBook Pro running Windows XP, I moved my project to my home theater system, which is a native HP desktop running Windows Vista. Performance seemed a little better there, but it still wasn't great. (I also ruled out the portable hard drive by copying the media to the internal hard drive and relinking it, to no avail.) Thankfully, using the Multi-Trim method sped things up greatly, and I was able to get a reasonable frame rate during Timeline editing by tweaking some of the project settings manually. Corel informs me that this is a new issue they are working to address with a future software update, but the good news is that the same footage captured in SD worked like a charm.
Strong Output
VideoStudio Pro X2 is a master when it comes to final output of your project. Clicking the Share tab brings up a host of output options, including Blu-ray output, AVCHD conversion, the aforementioned mobile device support and YouTube direct upload, as well as standard DVD creation.
With a few clicks, I was able to port my edited 37-minute vacation video to DVD, complete with animated menus and a lot of customization. Encoding seemed on par with competing packages, and there was access to plenty of advanced settings, should you need them.
Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 roars onto the sub-$100 NLE scene as a real challenger for Sony Vegas and other competing suites. Available in both basic and pro versions, I've only scratched the surface of everything that Corel has done to upgrade VideoStudio, but suffice it to say that this is a suite that's well worth a look.
.
|