New major release - Corel (Ulead) Video Studio X2 Pro
 

VideoStudio X2 - Video Editing


My preliminary results with AVCHD have been quite positive, but I need to do some more testing.

Larry

X2
 

Is X2 the replacement for Video Studio 11.5?

There are actually 2 new releases, this "Pro" version and a lesser "non Pro" version. The replacement for V11.5 seems to be the "non Pro" upgrade and the Pro version has more features and higher cost.

It seems odd to me that Ulead / Corel choses to offer 2 versions with a small price difference between them. Magix and others do the same thing. Seems to add more confusion but this may allow them to sell more total copies.

Larry

Hi,

I think there is some licensing that is involved...

My best,

Mike

So Larry, after some of your testing, does this program lose any PQ when rendering AVCHD, or does it seem to have lossless rendering (or whatever)? And I would be interested in knowing how you compare it to Nero, which I know you really like.

Thanks,
Mike B

Mike(s),

The deluxe versions do indeed have more h.264 and thus could very easily be a licensing cost passed along only to the people who want / need h.264.

I like Corel / Ulead software very much, and would probably chose it over virtually any other program for AVCHD authoring since it offers Smart Render to eliminate re-rendering, Smart Proxy to allow full real-time previews with no re-rendering, and a very large range of filters, effects, templates, titles, etc.

People frequently criticize the user interface as being a bit disorganized / confusing / complex, and I have found this to be true for most new users as well. Having lived with Ulead software since its original inception nearly a decade ago, I am entirely accustomed to it, but it can be a deal-breaker for some users.

Both Video Studio and Nero Vision produce equally excellent disks with no re-rendering in the same very short time period, with Nero having the advantage of being much cheaper, maybe half the price of Ulead Video Studio Pro. No doubt Video Studio is a much richer feature set, and blows Nero away when it comes to chromakey / greenscreen, multi-track and overlay track, built in ability to layer moving drawings, painting, highlighting on top of video, output formats, etc. It also has a much bigger NLE customer base (Nero Vision is really an unknown product IMHO, and only the AVCHD support makes it stand out so much in my opinion). This larger Ulead customer base means a much richer set of 3rd party content, tutorial and other aids, templates, etc.

The latest build of Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 is also very good as regards Smart Render, instant previews, and feature set, and is becoming a true contender. Again, like Ulead, it is considerably more expensive and complex compared to Nero Vision, but the more sophisticated user can find a lot more capabilities and features and content compared to Nero as well.

These 3 programs all are fast and relatively cheap, and I would be very hard pressed to say that one is truly "the best". That is why I like to recommend the free trial download and comparison process, although I am learning that the trials apparently (at least in the case of Nero) do not contain the entire h.264 codec support, presumably a licensing issue.


Larry

Thanks Larry.

Is interface/features much different from the Ulead Media Studio (if you happened to use one)?
I've been using UMS Pro for a number of years, from version 6.0 through 8.0, and really enjoyed it but since Corel abandoned UMSP's development, I'm looking for an alternative NLE with a smart render AVCHD support.
Would you recommend this Corel Video Studio X2 or it'll be too much downgrade for me after Ulead Media Studio?

Thanks

Stas

Stas,
When Ulead offered Media Studio and DVD Studio, these programs had many more choices for format and content but could not handle the newer codecs and HD formats. The latest Video Studio X2 Pro will not allow you to design all of the details of the menu and disk structures / navigation, and is generally a downgrade, but it will do the Smart Render and AVCHD very well if you can live with the limited custom design features.

Why not download the trial and see if it has enough features for you? You may even be eligible for the $59 upgrade price since you are a prior customer.

Larry

Thanks Larry.

I will definitely try a trial version of this program as soon a I build my new computer, hopefuly next week (my old one wont handle AVCHD in any way). I keep in mind few other programs to try for AVCHD editing, like Pinnacle 12, Vegas Movie Studio 9, Nero, but I will probably start with Corel X2 Pro.

Stas.

Sounds good Stas. Just as reminders:

Pinnacle 12 Ultra - always re-renders and very noticeable reduction in image quality.

Vegas 8 Pro - no menus or navigation; always re-renders

Sony Movie Studio 9 - can't make AVCHD disks; always re-renders.


Larry

Thanks. It is very important to know. There is a lot of confusion about recompression issue these days and how different programs can handle simple cut edit. It's been always a high priority to me to maintain original quality of my footage. 70% of my clips are cut edited so I'd prefer a program which keeps those parts untouched.

Me too Stas, and my percentage is more like 90%. Picture quality and very rapid workflow are huge benefits. Rendering on these other programs takes, on the average, 5.3X real time on my super fast workstation and much worse on laptops. Who wants to literally tie up a computer and wait for that many hours.... ?

Larry

Yesterday I downloaded the trial version of Video Studio X2 Pro and did some work with it. I captured some footage that I had shot with my SR11, did some minor editing and then burned as AVCHD onto a DVD+R disc. When done, I tried to use the PMB AVCHD player to play this AVCHD disc. It said it could not read the disc. Apparently, there is more to AVCHD than I thought; like slightly different language from program to program?

This afternoon I will go to my local BB and try the disc on a couple of BR players.

I also burned the same footage from the SR11 and made a regular DVD on a DVD+R disc. It played fine on a regular DVD player, as I expected, but it had upper and lower bars instead of fitting the screen of my 42" 768 plasma. No matter what I set the TV screen to, there were some bars present. That surprised me.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Mike B

Mike,

I've never used the PMB player which came with your Sony Camcorder, Picture Motion Browser, but I am guessing it is not designed to handle menued AVCHD disks. The free PMB software which comes with the Sony as well as the free software which comes with the Canon consumer HD cameras is extremely limited, particularly for handling AVCHD playback.

Regarding the black bars you are seeing on the standard DVD you created, did you select the 16:9 format for DVD creation (widescreen)? Did it play within the Ulead in widescreen mode or did the preview in Ulead also show letterboxing?

Larry

Thanks Larry for your response.

Yes, I noticed just now that I didn't select the 16x9 aspect ratio. When I did another SD burn, I selected 16x9 and it looked just fine. Live and learn.

Took the ACVHD disc to BB and it played just fine on a BR player.

What do you mean by "menued" AVCHD disc?

Mike B

Mike,

Some programs including the rather expensive Sony Vegas / DVD Architect suite, make AVCHD, but these immediately begin playing a single clip / movie when the disk is inserted, and have no method to select any form of navigation except for start and stop. "Menued" disks are the type you see virtually all the time from Hollywood and elsewhere, with the user given a variety of choices at the top level and optionally many choices below as well. A typical menued disk might have top choices which include "Play All" or "Select Chapters" and the lower menu might then provide individual chapter buttons for each chapter. The AVCHD disks can be made to look identical to commercial disks with the right software, since they can have a "First Play" clip which precedes the menu (perhaps containing some commercial message or preview), followed by many layers of menus to navigate all over the disk. The nicest program I have used in this regard, Nero Vision 5, allows all of this as well as transitional effects which smootly carry the viewer from one menu to another, or from a menu selection to the start of a video clip, just as Hollywood normally does. This is one of several reasons I encourage people to take a look at Nero Vision 5.

Larry

Thanks Larry.

Nero Vision 5. Do you like that better than the new Ulead so far? And, are there add-ons that I must purchase to make either program complete?

Mike B

Mike,

I answered this first question for you earlier in this thread. Please see reply #6. I will most likely continue to use Nero Vision to make AVCHD disks given the beautiful user interface the menus and transitional effects provide. But the Ulead new version is pretty cool......it is the first NLE I have seen that lets you take a map and trace an animated route on it, for example. Each of these programs has strengths and weaknesses, and using the trial versions is probably the best way for any individual to make the choice, if you are only buying and using one.

Nero needs the HD DVD Blu Ray plugin in order to allow it to do all of the tricks I have referred to. I only realized this yesterday when Mircea and Steve were unable to see certain features and I did a bit more research. Ulead is complete with no more addons if you buy the Pro version.

Larry

Ok, went back and reread #6. Since I have downloaded the free download of the Ulead program, I will continue practicing with it. I hope that when/if I get the full program, there is a nice manual with it.

As for those other programs you like, I will take a look and see if I can download a trial version.

Thanks again for your time.

Mike B.

Mike:

Here is the 236 page user's manual.

This should get you started!!!

Larry

humyo.com - vstudio.pdf

Also, for the benefit of anyone who has an interest in most manuals for all Ulead and Corel products, here is a useful link:

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=29318

Larry

Thanks Larry.

Mike B.

An alternative way to use PMB for basic playback is to take just the video m2ts file (if outputting to an AVCHD format instead of a new format), stick it in a directory, and then have PMB look for files in that directory. Once recognized, you can play the file back by double-clicking on it, by selecting with a right-click, etc. I use this because I don't produce DVDs anymore. My real target is playback via a PS3 with external hard drive to an HD TV, and the PMB playback is fine for computer viewing which I really don't do that much.

Since I bought a new computer for this, I have a large hard drive and have put all of my past and present video onto it. PMB does a decent no-frills job of playing it all back via file selection as described above. I have a mix of HDV MPEG-2 and AVCHD videos.

One note: I have one AVCHD file only that was edited in Corel VideoStudio that has odd behavior when used in PMB. If you double-click to play this file, PMB ends up displaying a white screen with a stylized S (or broken line?) in the middle. It will not play the video if you click on the Play button, etc. But I just discovered tonight that if you click on the "Slideshow" button in PMB once you see the stylized S, this video plays back beautifully. All the rest of the AVCHD files I've edited with VideoStudio play back without having to use this workaround, and this one is much smaller than some so it's not a size issue. I'd love to know what development glitch resulted in this behavior.