Cyberlink PowerDirector 11 Ultra

Excellent video editor! My son wanted to start putting out YouTube videos, and most of the apps that I already had weren't really up to the task (at least not easily). So after doing a Google Search, I came across a review of the popular apps, and this one seemed to be the best deal and had most of the best features. I went with the older v11 because I am not planning on using multiple camera inputs, but I might upgrade later just for the improved rendering speed. When I purchased this I was using it on an older dual core system, but now I have it on a high end Intel i7 system, so I'm already spoiled by the improved rendering speed that came with the system upgrade. To give an idea of the improvement, my son's first video was 12 minutes long 1080p 30fps and it took well over an hour to render on my old dual core PC. On the i7 based PC the same video rendered faster than real-time -- under 8 minutes!Editing is very easy to do. It's very easy to add subtitles and/or annotations, music tracks, voice overs, watermarks/logos, etc. It comes with a nice assortment of fancy transitions, and the enhancements are easy to use (but do slow down the rendering).My video camera isn't anything too fancy -- a Panasonic Lumix FZ200. It does a good enough job that I don't really feel the need to use any of the enhancement utilities.Overall just an excellent piece of software, rather low learning curve (I tried Sony Vegas and PowerDirector is MUCH easier to use), easy to use, fast rendering (on a fast PC), stable, and rather inexpensive compared to the competition.

I've just recently gotten into video making, and was looking for a step up from Windows Movie Maker. One of the products i came across was this one.After reading some of the negative reviews from users about this product, I was a little hesitant to buy it. So I downloaded the 30-day trial, and I gave it a spin. For basic video editing, I found it to be exactly what I needed, plus a little more.I bought the full version about a week ago, and I still feel the same way about it. I love the system for keyframing opacity, scale, movement, etc. Basic corrections to the color of video are also great. It includes just enough to not confuse a newbie (i.e. no color wheels). Even the titling system is a step up.I've only had one problem with freezing so far. It stopped right in the middle of a render. But, I don't have a lot of RAM, and I had been making a lot of edits before the render, so it shouldn't be a problem in the future.Overall, PowerDirector has made great first impressions, and I look forward to editing some larger projects on it in the future.

First the Good news:I have used PowerDirector 8 for several years. It did the job but crashed all the time. But I still used it.I downloaded the trial version of PowerDIrector 11 for a new computer i just bought. This software works 10 times faster (literally) than PowerDirector 8, and hasn't crashed yet. It's so much better!Now the bad news:I bought this from Amazon, from one of their "sellers".The disk was defective. It would not install. Got error messages. (And understand, I'm a professional IT person, so it's not like I don't know how to install software.)I contacted Amazon. They sent me to the Seller.I contacted the Seller ("AndrewSet"). They would not accept a return -- even though it was defective -- because "the box has been opened". (Someone please tell me how I could have determined that the disk was bad without opening the box.)The Seller said I had to contact CyberLink directly. ("We're sorry!")CyberLink does not publish a phone number.So I managed to open a "trouble ticket" on their site.I have gone back-and-forth with their technical support person for several WEEKS now.They wanted me to prove to them one thing after another:"Show us a screen shot of the error; make sure that is's a FULL screen shot!""Run this diagnostic utility of windows and send us the output file.""Show us the invoice for this purchase from Amazon.""Prove to us that you contacted Amazon about this return; let us see a copy of the email."I gave them everything they wanted. They still won't replace the CD. At one time, the customer service rep said she'd "escalate the issue" for me. (Huh? She isn't authorized to send me a replacement CD?) Amazingly, that "escalation" must have been rejected within CyberLink. That was a week ago. No outcome - good or bad - from it.I replied with 2 replies to one of their questions. Unfortunately, their trouble-ticket software automatically opened a new ticket for me with my 2nd reply. Apparently, this made my request go back to the beginning again. So, they then asked me to prove all of the same things again. (No joke.)I replied by sending them a link to my previous trouble ticket on their own web site, which had all the answers to their questions. With that, they then denied that they even needed those questions answered. (I have all this in writing.) (What?!!!)All of that .. and they *still* won't send me a replacement disk (CyberLink's customer service did offer me a "download", but that's not what I want, and that's not what I purchased; I purchased a *disk*, specifically, because I want a permanent copy of the software.)So ... there you go. It's good software. However, in my case, at least, I still don't have what I paid for -- and I'm tired of fighting these people. I guess "greed" has won the day ... at least as of the date of this review.Is this what America has come to?

After countless hours creating, producing and burning bluray disks of a recent trip, the title frame kept freezing when played on my DVD player connected to our 55 inch Samsung TV. I was able to isolate the problem by using Sony's Play Home Memories software that was actually free with my new Cybershot camera.Ultra only supports 30fps AVCHD video. This caused my bluray player to freeze upon loading a mandatory title page since it and my TV only support either 24fps or 60fps. I've got the Samsung TV that runs at the 120Hz refresh rate.I did find a workaround to save all my effort by running the .mt2s file created from PowerDirector though the Sony Play Home Memories software with add on bluray support. Worked like a charm though the interface is very basic. I've deleted PowerDirector and won't be using it further since it is too clumsy to go this route and the features were really cheesy, obscuring the quality of the video and pictures with too many gadgets.Very frustrating since the trial version of their software doesn't allow AVCHD conversion, only Mpeg2, which worked fine at lower quality. I had to buy the full version to find out it wouldn't work with my DVD player/TV. Beware!