Review of Power Producer 5 Ultra |
Robert Jeffree (Media Reviewer)
Robert Jeffree is an independent reviewer of software and a contributor to the review platform on SoftDeko Media. The assessments, comments
and views expressed are his own, he writes from a users perspective. To assess the product yourself, please download the trial version onto your PC.
|
Power Producer 5 is available in two versions, Power Producer 5
Ultra and Power Producer 5 DVD, and unless you already have Blue
Ray/AVCHD or are considering upgrading in the near future. Then
the DVD version is all that you need.
Most users will still be using standard definition and they will
probably be disappointed in the lack of editing and authoring
capabilities. That's not to say that there is anything wrong with
this program, it performs remarkably well in all its functions, it
just that the standard of advanced functionality is below what you
would expect from a program of this type.
The video editing capabilities are restricted to A/B cut, merging
and splitting, for anything else it is necessary to use an
external editor. Bundled with PP5 is Power Director 6.5 Express
which can be used for advanced editing. Unfortunately PD6.5 is too
limited in its capabilities and for any worthwhile editing you
would need to use the full version of PD6 deluxe.
One good inclusion, is the ability to keep or delete the selected
scene in A/B cut, a feature that is not available in PD6/PD7
Music and voice-overs can only be added to video clips using the
advanced edit icon and using the PD6 utilities
PD6.5 cannot be used as a standalone editor as it is not possible
to create DVD, if you click on the Create DVD icon, it displays
the message that this version does not support Blue Ray/AVCHD and
asks you to upgrade, no mention of standard DVD creation.
The chapter creation functions of PP5 is very impressive, a test
video containing 7 scenes and 24 chapters, was created, each with
motion thumbnails, rendering and burning of a 2.5 Gb video took
just 25 mins. When played back on the TV all the scene and chapter
functions worked correctly.
The above image shows a title template with 6 chapters per page,
this was created in Power Director 7 Ultra and automatically
included in PP5 templates, note also the use of trapezoidal motion
thumbnails available in PD7
Why does PD6/PD7 have such problems with chapters and thumbnails,
when it’s a breeze for PP5?
With images, the slideshow tool does have a motion pan & zoom
effect, which can be utilized, but only on an all or none basis.
Clicking on the advanced edit icon, opens PhotoNow, not PD6.5, so
it is not possible to use the advanced image features of PD6. You
do have the ability to change the order of the images and set one
as a thumbnail, but you would expect this facility anyway.
Music can be added to image files and the slideshow can be set to
match the music duration
PP5 has a range of disc utilities which all function correctly
Whilst at the moment PP5 can use PD6 Deluxe for advanced editing,
with the imminent release of PD7 this will not be possible. A
patch should be made available to allow PP5 to use PD7 as its
advanced video editor. It seems that the version of Power Director
bundled with PP5 is always one version behind what is currently
available and this should not be acceptable.
Overall, serious video editors would be more inclined to use PD6
Deluxe/PD7 Ultra for video or image creation, then import into PP5
for its advanced chapter setting features, but for users who just
want to import their videos and images for basic creation of
DVD's, then Power Producer 5 could be just the program they need.
Power Director 6.5 Express is placing a .grf file in My Documents
for every action carried out, and they are not auto deleting, it
is not acceptable for these files to remain on a users computer,
CyberLink have been informed and requested to correct the
situation
My performance ratings are as follows:
Ease of use 5
Stability 5
Reliability 5
Price/Performance 3
Overall Rating 4
My lower marking of Price/Performance is purely based on the functionality of PD6.5 Express, which I feel is not really adequate for the job it is supposed to do
This is not a problem if a user already has PD6 Deluxe installed, you could therefore uninstall the Express version.
Also, PD6.5 Express cannot be used as a stand alone editor, as the create disc icon is not functional.
|
