Cyberlink PowerDirector 5 review

Low cost video-editing software can be amazingly sophisticated, but if you're just prettying-up your home movies, the advanced features in programs like Adobe Premiere Elements can be too complicated and confusing.

PowerDirector takes a different approach, focusing on making the editing process as straightforward as possible

The friendly-looking interface bears more than a passing likeness to Pinnacle Studio, even down to the way the timeline can be zoomed in and out by dragging the time ruler along the top. Dedicated buttons give quick access to effects, transitions, text styles and your video clips, all of which can be dragged directly onto the timeline or to a thumbnail per clip storyboard display if this feels easier to work with.

PowerDirector's Magic tools are designed to achieve complex edits with the minimum of effort. Magic Clean successfully provides automatic colour correction and audio noise reduction, while Magic Cut chops up clips into shorter ones according to various user options, although the random-looking results mean it's no substitute for choosing your own edit points. Magic Motion adds pan and zoom effects to slideshows, while Magic Sound adds cheesy music that's easily adjusted in length to fit your production. Version 5 introduces Magix Fix, which compensates for shaky camera work and Magic Style, which generates themed intro sequences.

Also new to the latest version of PowerDirector is support for HDV cameras, such as the Sony HDR-HC1 camcorder we reviewed last month. Capturing HDV is just the same as with standard DV cameras - just plug in a FireWire cable, find your place on the tape and hit record. Exactly the same editing tools are available as well, but while there are decent options for exporting HD projects, you can't record them back to HDV tape.

It shouldn't take long for new users to know the software inside out, partly because of the friendly interface, but also because its editing power is pretty limited. Text is well catered for, with some superb animation presets and formatting options, but the effects offer limited user control and only one can be applied to each clip. Most frustrating is that effects start and stop abruptly, even when the clip they're applied to is gently dissolved into another one.

Basic edits are awkward to achieve too. The timeline is clumsy and imprecise, making it hard to hone in on an individual frame to trim to. Although previews are smooth on a fast PC, the preview window is slow to update when jumping to points on the timeline, especially when working with HDV footage, and the interface in general is sluggish when moving and trimming objects on the timeline. Clicking on a clip for editing switches the preview from Movie mode to Clip mode, which plays just one clip at a time - there seems no benefit to this and we found ourselves constantly having to switch manually back to Movie mode.

PowerDirector 5 has some friendly features that will appeal to non-technical users, but its clumsy core editing tools are frustrating, whatever your ability.

Author: Ben Pitt