I used Cyberlink Powerdirector for quite a while for various reasons. I used PowerDirector 9 and that's what this post will cover but PowerDirector10 is out now. For a couple of reasons, when I upgraded, I bought Adobe Premiere elements 10 instead. If I had just needed to do RC videos I might have stuck with PowerDirector longer than I did.
Powerdirector has some marvelous features for making "home movies".
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/overview_en_AU.html
The absolute best thing on offer is it's ability to use nVidia and ATI hardware accelerated encoding and shadow files for editing. This means that Powerdirector runs well and compresses relatively quickly on quite low-end systems (where Video Editing is concerned).
It's also well up there in features on offer.
- easy to use titles, credits and transitions.
- a large range of titles, credits and transitions.
- a large range of output formats.
- direct upload to Youtube, Facebook and other video/social networking sites.
- multiple video and audio tracks.
- image stabilization effect to take out shaking from hand-held cameras.
- easy to use zoom effect.
However, it does have it's drawbacks and foibles.
- While it's fast and delivers high quality video on output, the files can be quite large. This is partly due to the compression used but mostly due to the intense nature of many of the effects, transitions and titles. They look great but it all impacts on your video file in the end.
- The image stabilization is good when there's plenty in the background for it to reference but when it's a plane against a blue sky it's not all that good. For normal video this isn't a concern at all but it's a bit of an issue for RC planes which can be a little frustrating at times.
- It has some issues working with multiple HD files which can cause the video compression to hang. You can work around this by putting all the files through Windows Live Movie Maker and joining them all into one high quality file but it's a bit of a pain, especially of you don't have a lot of hard-drive space or are in a hurry.
- It does have some stability issues and occasionally crashes. Save frequently!
HOWEVER!!!
It's a great program all up. It's powerful and runs smoothly even on lower-end computers. It's also easy for just about anyone to pick up and use the basic features like titles and credits. You don't need to read the manual for most of it, it's laid out well enough that you can just play with it on a piece of video and get the hang of most of the features.
This video was made with Powerdirector and includes the usual stuff plus volume adjustments, zoom, image stabilization and minor colour corrections.
If you would like to give it a try there is a 30 day trial version you can download from here;
http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/trials/powerdirector/download_en_AU.html
The trial is fully functional. It has a reduced range of titles, transitions and effects and places a watermark on the video you make but otherwise you can create complete movies. You can test it and see how easy it is to use, see how it works with your hardware and compare it to whatever you are using already.
My verdict;
I actually really like this program. I bought the Ultra edition for the native 64 bit version (deluxe is 32 bit only) but for the most part you can save your pennies and get the Deluxe. The huge deal about Ultra is it's ability to edit 3D video from stereoscopic cameras so if you don't have one of those it's no great loss.
For $89 (deluxe) or $109 (ultra) it's not "breaking the bank" so to speak for the quality features on offer. It's lacking some features of other programs but those generally cost more and it's doubtful if you'll use them anyway. Where I am interested in these programs is personally is in very few key features.
Zoom - The zoom function has to be smooth, be able to track the plane well and be relatively to use. The zoom in Powerdirector is quite easy to use though it's got some boundary issues. It's not always immediately apparent if the frame will wander off the video leaving you a black edge. On some long files the duration between marker points can be a little long but simply splitting the video file fixed this. Overall it's a workable feature that doesn't take a rocket scientist to use.
Stabilization - This has to work. I always work with the highest quality of video I can and on many cameras the image stabilization for their max rezolution just isn't that great. This means I need to be able to do it through the software! The stabilization on PowerDirector automatically zooms the image for you so your stabilization doesn't wander off the edge of the video which makes it especially fast and easy to use. The only drawback is that it's not that great unless there's a fair bit of background for it to reference. As I said earlier, a plane against the blue sky won't see much stabilization going on. Other than that? Nice.
Output quality Vs file size: I generally upload to youtube in 720p which can end up being quite a large file. The quality has to balance out with the file size so I'm not needlessly uploading files that are larger than they should be. This is mostly a time consideration for me rather than a usage-allowance issue. I have a sizable allowance (200GB) so I'm not overly worried about uploading large files in that respect. It's more an issue of time. However, Powerdirector's smooth previews during editing and hardware assisted compression more than save the extra time the larger files take to upload.
In the end, the issues with using multiple high-def files was a deal breaker for me. This is something I constantly do in my RC Plane and other videos and pumping through another program to join everything was getting annoying beyond belief.
Not everyone has this issue and there's workarounds for most people, it's just a personal preference that made me "change brands". I haven't uninstalled PowerDirector though, it's still there to be used. It's just no longer the one video editing suite that suits all of my needs. I'll still use it when the opportunity presents itself.
Powerdirector is, despite it's issues, a fast and easy to use program that's much more suited to low end systems than other programs offering the same features. Some programs struggle on my system during editing because of the previews but PowerDirector is always smooth. Even with hardware acceleration turned off, the shadow-edit files help dramatically by previewing in a lower quality. They take time to generate in the background so it can slow your system down while they are generated but that's an excellent time to go make yourself a fresh cup of coffee!
If you are on a low-end system and want to work with hi-def files and rich features, PowerDirector is almost a must!
Notes:
All comments are based on my Desktop computer:
AMD 965 Black Edition (not overclocked)
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-D3 motherboard
4gb Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 DDR3 ram (running at 1333mhz)
Seagate Barracude SATA II 7200rpm hard drive
XFX Radeon 6850 2gb (used by some programs, not by others).
Not anything special but not low-end either.
All raw video edited is 1080p .MOV files
All music added is in MP3 format.
That being said, I've used PowerDirector since before my computer upgrade. PowerDirector ran well on my old Pentium 4D system which was a quite aged piece of hardware. It's not hard to buy a cheap computer these days that is better than it was in overall performance.
