Review : Ulead VideoStudio 6

VideoStudio 6.0 is Ulead's latest incarnation of their entry level Video editing tool. On a market par with tools Like MGI Videowave ( Now Roxio ) , Sonic Videofactory and Pinnacle's Studio DV , this tool targets the beginning to advanced videographer.

A lot of new features have been introduced in this version in respect to the last one. Amongst them

• Direct capture to MPEG. Ulead has partnered with Mainconcept to provide MPEG encoding in this product
• Scene detection. During capture Ulead will automatically detect scenes from the DV tape and split the output in separate easy to manage files
• Changed User Interface Ulead is migrating their tools toward a uniform Step-By-step user interface.
• Support for Cool3D text effects. You can import your designs from Cool3D directly onto the timeline.
• Optimized for Both Pentium 4 and AMD processors featuring 3Dnow!
• DVD authoring and enhanced CD and DVD writer support.
• Supports both VFW and WDM capture boards.

The Environment

The user interface is a streamlined GUI that will walk you step by step trough the creative process. The program does not restrict you to skip steps or jump around. You can edit your own way. It is simply there to streamline the design process.

The central element is the large Preview screen that show you what you are doing to the video. On The left side is the tool control panel. This shows you the settings and allows you to adjust any properties of the selected item. On the right of the main viewer is the Tool selection palette. Depending on the step you are in VideoStudio will show you your clips, effects, transients, titles or audio.

Starting a New project

When starting a new project, VideoStudio will ask you what kind of a project you want to build.

Depending on the selections you made during the installation of the program you might see here NTSC or PAL templates , or Both. To obtain both you must select both during the installation of the program.

The installer asks to specify your country and select the Video palette's based upon what you select.

The bottom checkbox on that screen allows you to install both.

You can change the setting later by selecting the Toolbox from the main screen.

Capturing Video

The capture box allows you to grab video from any Video For Windows ( VFW ) or Windows Device Model ( WDM ) compatible source. Of course DV over Firewire is directly supported.

You can also opt to capture directly to MPEG. The MPEG controls allow you to select MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and allows you control over the bitrate and other MPEG related settings.

The Batch tab at the top of this control panel allows you to do batch capturing. To do so simply play your tape and set in and out points using the the buttons or F3 and F4. When done you hit the capture button and VideoStudio will rewind the tape and capture the selected portions to disc.

The Scene detection automatically reads the timecode from the DV tape. a handy feature is to select an entire scene by right clicking on the scene and selecting Split By scene. This will cause this scene to become selected and added to the batch capture list.

The Seamless Capture feature will automatically split a file whenever it reaches the filesystem's limits. Under the FAT32 you are limited to maximum filesizes of 4Gbyte. This feature overcomes this.

You can also capture still images from the video stream.

The Storyboard

This is where you make the arrangement of your clips. The tools basically has 3 different modes. The classic timeline,

The Storyboard

and an enhanced Storyboard. You can use these to arrange your clips in any order you want.

Your video strips are shown in the browser on the right hand side of the screen. Arranging them is just a matter of dragging them to the timeline or Storyboard view.

Trimming them Is a matter of dragging the trim handles in the view window. The trim handles are the little sliders with the red arrows right underneath the view window.

Now is the time to do any special effects on the video strips themselves. Things like color correction , fad in and fade out are all within reach now.

The effects can be added by switching the browser panel on the left side from Video to Effects.

Video filters

Every filter comes with a number of presets. By clicking on options the Filter control panel for the selected filter opens ( image below )

In this case the color balance filter was chosen. The sliders for R G and B can be set for the beginning of the film and the end of the film. To do so on the preview screen set the scroller ( the little square slider under the image ) all the way to the left. Now you set the R G and B slider the way you want it. Next you move that scroller all the way to the right. When you move it you will notice that the R G and B slider move as well. When you reach the far right you can set the R G and B sliders again.

VideoStudio will proportionally change the R G and B settings between begin en end according to your settings. So actually you can have a filter that varies over time !. This is a very neat feature. You can also apply multiple filters on top of each other to create stunning effects.

Transitions

VideoStudio has well over 100 adjustable effects. The effects are categorized by type and you have to browse trough them. You can also make your own categories and store your preferred effects there.