Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Video editing is not simple and projects place the most severe demands on your PC. When you move to HD, the demands increase exponentially. Ulead VideoStudio 11, like any editor, does have a learning curve, so be patient. Be certain to read the manual that comes with the box or download it from their site in pdf and take it with you on your laptop or pda.
If you are just starting out as a video editor, you have some surprises ahead because it is a tedious job; not only to learn, but to produce. It is far more difficult than working with photos. If you are just looking to produce a short DVD movie from your camera, it is easy. But, adding titles, overlays, and audio tracks does take time.
I have had several months experience comparing the Ulead VideoStudio to Pinnacle Studio Plus 11. I find the features and reliablity of the Ulead suite to be superior to any of the consumer level Pinnacle softwares. In fact, my experiences with Pinnacle have been less than satisfactory and their support is non-existent. I would stay far away.
What is particularly nice about this product is that when you install and register, it is fully functional. There are no gimmicks requiring you to activate other features. Also, it doesn't seem to overtax your processor. With Pinnacle, my processor fan was on high the entire time and I experienced numerous hangups and crashes with the CPU @ 100%. Ulead doesn't do that. It does, however, pause in an inactive mode for a while when performing certain tasks like splitting scenes from your movie. These pauses appear to be hangups and provide no "...please wait", but eventually it comes back. Get another cup of coffee. Will you experience crashes? Probably, but fewer.
While I do like Pinnacle's editor a lot, I spent three weeks editing a series of digitized 8mm family movies into a one hour project. Pinnacle would only produce 41 minutes of the project either to disk or DVD. That was a lot of wasted time and their "support" could not solve the problem. If only Ulead would import Pinnacle projects; that would be a coup.
So, this review seems to be mostly what I don't like about Pinnacle Studio Plus 11, but for the reader's satisfaction I moved from that product to Ulead VideoStudio 11 and found some welcome relief as well as full features. I did spend three wasted weeks with Pinnacle and that is a sore point with me. The moral to my story is start with Ulead VideoStudio and when you get good at it, perhaps move along to high-end products like Adobe. My jury is still out for a while on this product, but so far it looks good.
I hope this was helpful.
Amended...just finished my one hour movie using Ulead VideoStudio 11. Completed the project over three days without one computer hang up or crash. The program is great and deserves five stars.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus

VideoStudio 11 Plus is video editing and DVD authoring software for anyone who wantsto easily produce professional-looking videos, slideshows and DVDs. Capture video from the latest HD camcorders and create amazing High-Definition HD DVDs. Work quickly with timesaving template-based Wizards, or express your creativity with powerful hands-on tools. Fix common video problems with one-click corrective filters, generate Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio tracks, and add pro-quality titles and transitions. Share your movies everywhere, from iPod to DVD to YouTube to the latest Home Theater systems. Award-winning VideoStudio sets the standard for powerful features and ease of use.

Click here for more information about Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus

Read More...

Photo Album 7 Deluxe Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I had little photo editing experience when I used "Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe". I found this software suite to be an excellent digital photo editing tool for basic users. It allows novice users to perform complex or seemingly impossible editing tasks with little more than intuition and this tool. It is not a resource designed for the advanced user or photographer who needs more sensitive and professional tools.
It allows the user to easily organize, sort, edit, share, retouch, and, in general, explore creatively with your digital photo file. It guides the user in linking music with slide shows and video presentations, including song selection and music synchronization.
This suite is simple and intuitve for any user in my estimation. It loads easily and its features can be addressed through drag and drop icons in a fairly user friendly manner. I found the retouching tools to be the most useful as well as the most fun element for me in my explorations. All the standard retouching tools are available including erasing blemishes, whitening teeth, eliminating red eye, and even a painting on a suntan tool.
The intuitive interface allows easy organiztion of your photos from sort, find, search by various identifiers (name, text, date, etc.)to editing and sending. There are a large number of project templates (calendars, scrapbooks, collages, etc.) that I did not explore. Lastly, the working with videos section seems equally simple and self-explanatory but I have not done any video editing yet.
All in all, many of the features of "Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe" can be found in freeware or among resident tools on some computers. But this software suite has combined a large number of useful digital photo and video editing tools into one simple user friendly package. Believe me when I say I enjoyed several hours exploring many of its features and I am definitely a novice at photo editing. I recommend this product for what it does and how it does it.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Photo Album 7 Deluxe

Corel Photo Album 7 Deluxe is your complete digital photo editing suite! Enhance your photos in an instant with easy photo-fixes and effects. Use powerful editing tools to remove blemishes, whiten teeth and paint on a suntan, so everyone looks their best! Make scrapbooks, greeting cards, calendars, collages and more using hundreds of professionally designed templates. Email, print or save your photos on DVDs. Download, view, trim and show off video clips. You can even combine photos, video clips and music to make an amazing slide show you can burn to DVD to play on your TV. Photo Album gives you all the tools you need to make the most of your photos and videos.

Click here for more information about Photo Album 7 Deluxe

Read More...

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Corel line of graphics software has always carried the burden of being the second choice and often the second experience of Adobe software users. Those who encounter the software after experience with the main Adobe-produced rivals (Illustrator and Photoshop) will experience it very differently than those who are looking to learn professional graphics from the start with Corel.
Though I am a very experienced user of Adobe products, I tried to experience Corel Draw (the vector graphics portion) and Photo Paint (the bitmap graphics portion) with an eye toward evaluating it as someone who wasn't already comfortable with a different interface, but who was interested in a professional level graphics package, as well as someone who may decide to transition away from the pricier Adobe products. I will offer my perspective from both of these viewpoints:
As a newcomer to pro graphics:
There is a lot of power and flexibility. Photo Paint offers alpha channels, lighting effects, masking, and a good selection of filters for those who want to "play" with images. It is able to open and save to a variety of file formats and can rasterize vector images. A lot of functions are quite intuitive (e.g., image straightening, filter effects), though programs with the breadth and depth of a professional program have a great many levels and no one who is new to them can grasp them immediately or without underlying knowledge of what all the terms mean. It's important not to mistake this graphics package as one designed for the hobbyist or person looking to modestly tweak images for web pages. The complex functionality it possesses is to allow folks working in industries that need finer work to get it done and it certainly allows for that and more.
In terms of how easy it is to understand the programs, CorelDraw is definitely a lot tougher to grasp, but that is the nature of vector graphics programs. However, I do believe that the way in which points (which are called "nodes" in Draw) are edited when working with Bezier curves could be more intuitive. Having to select each node and change its type by clicking a button in order to alter the way in which the control handles work is tedious. It'd be much better to have a modifier key to "break" curves where desired.
The help files and tutorials are excellent and I had not trouble tracking down information to help me do what I wanted to do. However, an absolute beginner will likely need to do the video training for more hand-holding than I required. It's hard to get your head around the way computer graphics work, but Corel certainly provides the tools to try if the user is willing to take the time to learn. The software can only take you so far when it comes to something this complex.
Corel also provides a huge variety of templates, clip art and fonts which Adobe does not. This makes the entire package more appealing to folks who work in publishing but do not create custom content and mainly want to tweak clip art or stock images.
As an experienced Adobe user:
One immediately resists every part of the interface which does not conform to what one is used to in Photoshop and Illustrator. This is much more troublesome in CorelDraw since drawing works best when one can use the tools effortlessly to gain the desired result. If you're looking to make the change to break free of Adobe's higher prices, the first thing you have to do is be patient with the interface differences. Some gritting of teeth may be involved. You'll likely find, on the whole, that some things are better in Corel's interface and some are worse compared to Adobe's, though Adobe's interface has a more professional and polished feel. The filters in particular sometimes have a cheesy and clunky feel to them, though they are easy enough to use.
The second thing you have to do is make sure that all of your native file format files (.ai and .psd) have been saved into more universally accessible formats (EPS, TIFF) as neither PhotoPaint nor Draw will reliably open all Adobe native format files. In my tests, native Photoshop files always opened but sometimes with missing layers. When I attempted to open an Illustrator native file, I was told the file was compressed (though it was not) and that it needed to be re-saved in an uncompressed state. Resaving as an EPS file fixed the problem.
Conclusions:
* If I wanted to prepare myself for work in the graphics industry and wanted something less expensive than the Adobe CS package, I'd not hesitate to buy this suite to learn the ins and outs of professional graphics, particularly if I were planning on working freelance. However, I'd keep in mind that most publishers will work in Adobe software and I may need to learn their software eventually if I were to pursue office work.
* If I were working in a publishing industry which did small amounts of editing of vector and bitmap images and needed to do color adjustments for professional printing, I'd seriously consider the Corel Suite though I'd investigate how effective the color separations worked for my particular needs. However, I would not rely on it for layout work (nor would I rely on Illustrator or Photoshop for layout) unless I only worked with flyers, brochures, posters, or other very short documents.
* If I were an Adobe user looking to break free of the expensive shackles of Adobe software, I'd have to think long and hard before making the change as there would be some productivity loss getting acclimated to the interface and some differences in functionality that I may not want to accept.

Click Here to see more reviews about: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 lets you tackle creative graphics and design projects withconfidence. New tools make it easier and quicker than ever to deliver any creative project, fromlayout and photo editing, to illustration and bitmap-to-vector tracing. Powerful text and layoutenhancements give you the look you want plus market-leading file compatibility makescollaboration easy. Updated high-quality content, a step-by-step Hints Docker and new tutorialswritten by experts get you started fast. Professional and aspiring designers along with anyonewho needs to express creative ideas will be able to turn their ideas into professional results: fromdistinctive logos and signs, to striking marketing materials and eye-catching web graphics.

Get 47% OFF

Click here for more information about CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4

Read More...

Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This entire video was made in Video Studio Pro X2. I purposely did it as fast as I could to show the power of the product (matter of fact this writeup took longer). Besides the obvious time line oriented video editing, there are a ton of video outputs that can be utilized whatever your ability. You can export directly to You Tube, or record it in HD for watching in 1080. Direct to DVD authoring is another really nice addition.
I have used Final Cut Pro Studio costing $1300. While this is NOT as powerful at all, it does allow for a good deal of professional editing. It has a very low learning curve and if you just need to make excellent quality videos and not spend a very long time learning then this is the product for you.
You can import your own clips very easily, just drag and drop. It will even import your entire audio library. I tried to do a voice over for this video but my mic is really poor quality so it sounded very digitized. It allows you to add a voice over with 1 click though and I may redo this review if I can get a better mic. It is very refreshing the amount of video outputs this program has. If your a novice and want to make a video that is high quality for You Tube it is just a few clicks and you are done. The menus are easy to navigate and very intuitive.
About this video: Because I did not want to wait 3 hours to upload it. I rendered it at 30fps mpg. I am not sure how Amazon codec will re-render so I hope it looks nice when it is finally converted.
Thank you for watching!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Corel VideoStudio Pro X2

Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 is powerful video editing software for creating high-quality HD and standard-definition movies, slideshows and DVDs. Work with video and photos from camcorders, digital cameras or mobile phones. Edit your footage quickly and easily with the time-saving Movie Wizard, or take full creative control with professional tools. Add eye-catching animated menus and titles, transitions, music and special effects. Even paint, write or draw freehand on your video. Show off your movies on standard DVDs, or high-definition AVCHD and Blu-ray discs with stunning menus. Share on mobile devices such as PSP, iPod or iPhone, upload directly to YouTube, or watch with Corel WinDVD, the world's No. 1 playback software.

Get 19% OFF

Click here for more information about Corel VideoStudio Pro X2

Read More...

Photo Explosion 4.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have been using Adobe Elements 4 to improve my pictures but I was forced to make a change when I recently purchased a new PC running Windows 7. Upgrading my Adobe Elements would have cost $100 so I looked for alternatives. I was a bit suspicious of Photo Explosion. After all, its price was $30 with a $10 mail-in rebate. However, it turns out to be a great package. Easy to use and far more capability that I will probably ever use. And, the software comes with a very useful manual. I haven't had a decent manual in years from anyone else. I recommend, without any reservations that you buy Photo Explosion.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Photo Explosion 4.0


Photo Explosion 4.0 Easily transform a series of photos into 360-degree or wide-angle panoramas.View larger.

Click here for more information about Photo Explosion 4.0

Read More...

Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I used 3.0 all the time to open up a photo, add some quick text for a logo on top of my photo. I would then add a frame around the photo (there were several different options of cool effects), to block out some of the background stuff in the photo.
The new version, does not have a simple Insert Text feature like 3.0 did. 3.0 allowed you to insert text, and grab the selection bar windows to easily move it around, rotate it, make the text bigger, etc.
With 4.0, you first have to select the text tool, then increase your font (and change it if you wish). If you want to move the text, you have to then select the move tool (another step). If you want to rotate it, you then have to go to the menu, and go through a couple of steps before you manually have to put in what degree angle you want to rotate it. It was much simpler and easier in the old version because you could do it all from one place.
I used the magic effects and frame features all the time in 3.0, there was alot of cool black and white effects that you can make a pic look really elegant (I'm a cake decorator so I used it to block out the background so the cake would be focused better). In 4.0, you can't do it in the Image Editor.
The step in 4.O:
1. Create a new project in Project Studio
2. Add your photo.
3. Add your border (which are horrible,theres no magic effects anymore, and no elegant black and white effects to place around your pic).
4. If you find one you like, you then have to save your project.
5. Then you have to export it to a jpg.
I'm really surprised they took out some functionality of 3.0 and made everything more difficult. I'm now searching for a software that will allow me to quickly add text and some elegant photo effects around the edges.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0

Get 20% OFF

Click here for more information about Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0

Read More...

Adobe Premiere Elements 8 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Updated 09/23/2010
Adobe released Premiere Elements 9 Trial, I have experienced none of the problems with Ver 9 that were present in the stability challenged Ver 8. PE9 remains 32 bit and is slow but it is stable, it is a very usefull editing tool for short projects and lower resolution video. Skip PE8 and go directly to Premiere Elements 9.
Updated 03/03/2010
If you like to get "under the hood" of your computer and spend countless frustrating hours sorting out performance problems, Premiere Elements 8 is for you. PE8 has numberous fatal flaws some of which have been traced to conflicts with Realtek Audio drivers and Nvidia graphics driver installation software, other are the direct result of the feature bloat that was added to this release. These conflicts and issues render the PE8 useless to those that have Asus and Nvidia hardware or software on their computers. Asus and Nvidia are major players in the computer hardware industry; the extent of the conflict problem can be seen in the large number of reviewers that have given PE8 a very low rating. This type of conflict should have been sorted out by Adobe in beta testing before the product was shipped. Adobe released a patch 8.01 (02/26/2010)to address several of the problems plaguing PE8, some users report slight improvement but stability is still questionable. A large percentage of users report that even with the patch, Nvidia's newest drivers and ulilizing all know user researched tweaks, PE8 refuses to perform as advertized. PE8 does not work well in AVCHD, also do not consider this software if you are using 1080 resolution or above.
By all means download the free 30 day trial version from Adobe to test compatibility with your PC before purchasing this product or wait untill Adobe releases a patch to solve the stability issues many are experiencing. You may also wish to try PE7 which has very good stability and isn't bloated with marketing gimmicks and useless "new features" of PE8.
*******************************************************************************
I received my copy of Premiere Elements 8 and Photoshop Elements 8 today. Installation was fairly easy with both programs but I can't see any improvements over PE7 unless you consider being even more resource dependent an improvement. The one feature that I was really hoping for in this version continues to be absent, PE8 cannot write Blu-Ray format to a file, disk only. The conversion of videos from PE7 to PE8 also caused many problems, skipping frames, refusal to render,dropping sound and repeatedly hanging the program during rendering of a four minute video. I have a new dedicated video editing Asus P6T,Intel Quad Core i7 with twelve gig of ram, Windows 7 64 bit ...what does it take to satisfy Adobe PE8? Those who give high marks to PE8 must have a server farm in their basement or are not editing in HD which slows PE8 to a agonizing crawl. Do not buy this software if you are filming in HD and your videos exceed five minutes or are multi track, PE8 simply can't handle the load of Blu-Ray quality editing, a fatal flaw for those of us with newer equipment. I have used Primere Elements for many years, I wish I could continue using it but it just can't meet the demands of multicamera HD. Sony Vegas is a far more suitable editing tool for HD, there is however a learning curve to overcome with Sony's unique "event chain" interface.
I recommend that all users of PE7 skip this upgrade as it offers nothing in usefull functionality or performance. I honestly don't see how Adobe can justify calling PE8 an "upgrade", it is simply a destabilized PE7 in a new box. The best feature is that PE8 does not overwrite PE7 so you will still be able to access and edit your PE7 videos which PE8 refuses to update or edit. Save your rupees for PE9, 10, or 11, PE8 is the upgrade that never was.
Bad Software: What to Do When Software Fails


Click Here to see more reviews about: Adobe Premiere Elements 8

With Adobe Premiere Elements 8, the newest version of the #1 selling video-editing software, making incredible movies is easier than ever. Bring all your video clips and photos together in one convenient place where you can easily find, view, and manage them; protect them with automatic online backup and 2GB of free storage; and then dive right into a full range of creative activities. Create your movies with smart, automated options that save you time and effort. Enhance your stories with professional effects and sound. And share movies with friends and family in interactive online experiences and on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, mobile devices, and YouTube.

Top reasons to buy Adobe Premiere Elements 8
Do it all with one powerful yet easy-to-use product Use Adobe Premiere Elements 8 software for all your video needs. Import and manage your video clips; edit them together yourself or choose automated options to effortlessly create incredible movies; enhance your movies with professional-quality effects, sound, titles, and Hollywood-style motion menus; share them on the web, on disc, and everywhere else; protect them with automatic online backup and 2GB of free storage--enough for up to 24 minutes of DVD-quality video or 1,500 photos; and view them anywhere you are.
Create a polished movie instantly Using creative techniques from Hollywood directors, InstantMovie automatically edits together your best clips with coordinated music, titles, effects, and transitions from your choice of movie theme. New customization options enable you to get just the results you envision. And all-new themes are included.
Quickly find the clips you're looking for Want to find your best video clips or clips that meet a particular set of criteria? The Auto-Analyzer automatically tags your footage and photos for quality and interest, and a variety of smart search options make it easy to zero in on just the media you need.
Make movies with drag-and-drop ease Create your story fast in the Sceneline, an easier alternative to the more traditional video-editing Timeline. Make your movie by simply dragging and dropping thumbnails of your clips, transitions, and effects.
Edit and preview in one convenient place Edit and view your movie in one convenient place--the large Monitor window--where you can easily trim and split clips, drop filters and effects right on a frame, create fun picture-in-picture effects, type titles and text right on the screen, and more.
Add professional-quality effects and transitions Add entertaining graphics that automatically follow the action in your movie. Easily combine elements from different scenes for entertaining results. And add visual appeal with hundreds of amazing special effects and TV-style transitions, including several all-new options.
Energize your movies with music Use SmartSound to add a variety of musical soundtracks that automatically adjust to perfectly match the length of your movie. Even synchronize scenes to the beat of your soundtrack.
Get creative inspiration Bring your ideas to life with relevant tutorials that appear just when you need them. New tutorials help you explore creative possibilities.
Conveniently share your movie and enjoy the latest technology Follow easy steps to create your movie once and then share it in many ways, including on disc, the web, or mobile devices. Share on high-quality HD or Blu-ray Disc, so you can enjoy your movie on virtually any screen, from your iPod to your HD flat screen TV.

Top new benefits of Adobe Premiere Elements 8
Experience the ultimate media management hub Bring all your video clips and photos together in the powerful, easy-to-use, fully featured new Organizer--the hub of yourvideo and photo experience. Easily find, view, manage, and protect your media, and then dive into a full range of creative activities and start enjoying your memories.
Save time with new automated options Make movies with less effort. Adobe Premiere Elements can automatically fix shaky footage and color and lighting problems, trim away all but your best footage, and balance audio elements to give you professional-quality sound throughout your movie.
Enliven the action with artwork and animations Add sparkle to your scenes thanks to an all-new library of artwork, including fun frames, objects, and animations.
See the same video clips and photos on every computer Forget trying to manually maintain your clips and photos across multiple computers. With automatic syncing, media added or edited on one computer will automatically be synced to another.
Share memories in fresh, exciting ways on the web Showcase your videos in one-of-a-kind Online Albums with your choice of dynamic, animated templates. Adobe Flash technology lets viewers interact with your videos for an entertaining experience. And share via public or private galleries--friends and family won't have to register to look.
Get the big picture See the full effect of your video clips and photos from within the Organizer with new full-screen previews.
Enjoy support for Windows 7 Take advantage of support for the new Windows 7 platform and the hands-on capabilities of Windows Touch technology.

Get 70% OFF

Click here for more information about Adobe Premiere Elements 8

Read More...

Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Sorry about the formatting, Amazon is removing all my spaces when I publish even though it looks fine in the editor.
Computer Specs:
Intel Core2 Duo @ 1.86 GHz
2 GB RAM
256 MB Video
32 bit
Windows Vista
My test:
Added 2 videos.
Added image stabilization to one
3D transition between them.
Rendered the project.
AVCHD in and MPG2 out (both in full HD, 1920*1440, Dolby 5.1 if available)
Video length 4 minutes and 20 seconds.Overall Review:
**** Corel Video Studio Pro X3
**** Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
*** Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
**1/2 Adobe Premiere Elements 8
** Magix Edit Pro 15
* Roxio Creator 2010
* Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14
Package Options:
My reviews are against the top versions of each product line. You will find that most of the differences between the top versions and the base are Blu-ray export options, and some add some extra sound options. See for yourself the option that suits you at the manufacturer's website in their respective product comparison guides.
Windows 7:
All seemed to work for me in windows 7, 64 bit with 4 GB RAM. I didn't do any tests with it b/c I wanted to use an older machine that would come closer to representing the average computer. This includes Roxio 2009, but not 2010 for reasons stated below.
Final Opinion:
If you want something super easy to use, then I would go with Cyberlink PowerDirector 8. If you want something with a bit more power that you can grow into, I would go with Corel Video Studio Pro X3. Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro plus 9 may very well be good, but I see no reason to purchase it with the power of the Corel package.
If you are a masochist, go with Adobe, Magix, Roxio, or Pinnacle.DETAILS:
Adobe Premiere Elements 8
65 min render time
Pros:
You can search effects
Layout was good but not great
Interface was pretty straightforward
Cons:
Virtually locked my system
Slow and temporarily froze frequently
Output menu was cumbersomeCorel Video Studio Pro X3
19 min render time
Pros:
Great Output menu
Very fast
Easy to use user interface
Proxy editing*
Autofit for timeline
Cons:
No search function for effects
*edit*
After further review of this software, I had to knock it down from 5 to 4 stars.
I noticed more and more buggyness from the software the more that I used it.
It wasn't enough that one couldn't use it, but it was enough to be a bit frustrating at times.
*edit*
Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
30 min render time
Pros:
Output menu was nice
Very nice and easy to use layout
Cons:
No Blu-ray output
*edit*
Blu-ray output is available on Ultra.
After further use of this program, I have some issues with it and have lowered it to 4 from 5 stars.
I was disappointed with the menu editing in that you can not do text only menus, you can't really "customize" menus, and their stock menus total a whopping 2. They state they have thousands online, but almost all of these are menus that are horrible junk ones that others have created. There are literaly a few that are good or better. In addition, you can not search these menus, and the sorting is poor at best to browse them.
*edit*Magix Edit Pro 15
41 min Render time
Pros:
Simple
Cons:
Poor user interface
Oversimplified (Too simple I think for most people)
Very Cumbersome to use and add effects
Output options were confusing and cumbersome
Extremely limited options for PC output (which is what many will be doing)
A couple of lock upsPinnacle Studio Ultimate 14
Pros:
Nice little finished project to see what can be done
Nice interface for editing
Cons:
ONLY SOFTWARE that I was not able to import a video
Locked up my system many times and left errant process running at 80% CPU
Took 50 seconds just to load the import video TAB
When I selected videos to import and hit start import, absolutely nothing happened
Tried one of their movies and went to help to find stabilization and it crashed on me b/c I didn't have enough memory
No Blu-ray output
Cons on install on windows 7 computer:
Failure on export of file on all formats
I actually tried Pinnacle about 10 years ago and had absolutely nothing but problems. Spent many days downloading patches just to get it to work. Then, like a moron, I did an entire project and when I went to burn it, the burn failed every time. I see a decade later, I still can't export a file.Roxio Creator 2010
Pros:
-----
Cons:
They don't allow a trial download. I contacted them asking them if I could download a trial and even noted that I was a current customer. I personally like the 2009 Roxio. It was a nice "all-purpose" program. They told me that I had to buy it. I was offered a money back guarantee, but to do so, I had to send in a letter of destruction. This is way too much effort on my end to see if your software works for me.
I find it ridiculous in this day and age that you can't have a trial version of something, especially when EVERY ONE of your competitors does. In addition, this is how they were treating an existing customer!
You throw in all the compatibility issues that can occur in software in general and video software in particular, and that leaves me to think they have something to hide.
As icing on the cake, the following sentence was in their reply.
"Creator 2010 does support AVCHD software and hasn't been know to have any issues thus far!"
I replied to them about this OUTRIGHT LIE! First, you can read the compatibility issues on Amazon. Second, as a person that writes programs, there is no such thing as bug free software, especially video editing software.Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
14 minute render time (NO ANTI-SHAKE IN RENDER, see below)
Pros:
Computer stayed pretty responsive during render
Savable packages of effects
How to guide is nice
Cons:
Couldn't search effects
Very, very cumbersome to use
Couldn't find stabilization
The render time approximation stayed at around 1 minute or 2 left the entire time
Here is my issue with Sony Vegas. I have compared its features with many of the other programs and they are all very similar. Now, when compared with Corel Video Studio Pro X3 and Cyberlink PowerDirector, they are virtually identical. I personally think Sony leaves their software cumbersome so that it "looks/seems" more powerful.
I was definitely most disappointed in this product because it was the one that I was looking the most forward to using. When I say that it is cumbersome to use, it doesn't mean that it can't be used. Let me give an example. I am a programmer, and in something like excel, I like the ability to write my own code to create functions and tools that it doesn't offer or to tweak ones that it does. HOWEVER, when I want to enter numbers in boxes, I just want to enter numbers in boxes. I don't want to click in a box, go to a menu or right click, select some gadget and then enter a number. It is ok for complicated things to be complicated, but simple things should not only be simple, but also INTUITIVE.
The main thing that I saw that you could do in Sony Vegas that you couldn't do in the others is change your transitions (both audio and video) ramp as far as how quickly they come in and go out. I am not talking about changing the time, but how your out video accelerates out and how you in video accelerates in during that time. It is a cool feature, but something that 99% of people will only not use, but won't care about either.
Another thing, the image stabilizer should be easy to do, and it may be. However, I did a search in help for stabilize, stabilizer, sta, shake, anti, etc. and could not find out how to do this very simple thing. This worries me greatly that if this isn't readily available in the help docs, then much of the other stuff probably isn't either.*A note on proxy editing.
Proxy editing is basically you working on a very low def version of your file, but when it comes time to actually render your output, the original file is used. Some view this as a crutch because they say you should be able to optimize the software to work with the high def video. My opinion is that if I can work faster, then I will work faster. Who cares what my resolution is while I am editing. If you have the fastest software out there for HD, and you can do your edits in very low def and it is even faster still, then why would you not want that?

Click Here to see more reviews about: Corel VideoStudio Pro X3

Work as fast as your creativity moves you with Corel VideoStudio Pro X3--HD video-editing software for serious movie making fun. Now twice as fast, it has everything you need to import, edit and share standard or HD movies and DVDs. Start with an amazing new collection of professionally designed templates from RevoStock and real-time, studio-quality effects. Stay on the creative track with a huge palette of intuitive and powerful video-editing tools. Then share your story everywhere, from YouTube to Blu-ray and everything in between.

Overview VideoStudio Pro X3 kicks the movie making process into high gear, giving you the ultimate playground for creativity. Your complete HD video-editing program, it gives you a rapid head start with professionally designed templates, real-time, studio-quality effects, polished titles and smooth transitions. Super-charge your workflow with GPU acceleration and multi-core Intel CPU support for faster editing and rendering. Quickly assemble video clips in new Express Edit mode or go deep with advanced video-editing tools. Then share your videos on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DVD, AVCHD and Blu-ray discs, iPod, PSP and more.
Complete HD workflow--import, edit, burn and share standard or HD video
GPU acceleration--edit and render twice as fast, especially with HD video
Professional content--get $500 US worth of studio-quality RevoStock templates
Express movie making--create movies in minutes, then fine-tune with advanced editing tools
Real-time effects--work fast with live previews of special effects like RotoSketch
Blu-ray authoring & burning--author with Hollywood-style DVD menus
Online sharing--send directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and mobile device

What's included?
Main application Corel VideoStudio Pro X3: Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 gives users the power, speed, and creativity to produce professional-quality video. Now dramatically faster, this end-to-end video production package delivers advanced editing, as well as professional templates, stunning filters, powerful real-time effects, and online sharing to Facebook, Flickr and Vimeo in one complete package.
Supporting applications and content
Corel DVD Factory Pro 2010: Video enthusiasts can finish their masterpieces with full HD and Blu-ray authoring using Corel DVD Factory Pro 2010. Support for a wide variety of disc formats and devices--including HD formats, such as Blu-ray and AVCHD--simplifies sharing, preserving, or taking digital media to go.
Corel VideoStudio Express 2010: When users want to make fast edits or quickly create a movie project, Corel VideoStudio Express 2010 is the way to go. In a few steps, anyone can combine video clips, photos, music, and voiceover to create a great-looking video project.
DV-to-DVD Wizard: The DV-to-DVD Wizard lets users capture video from a DV camcorder, add a theme template to it, and then burn it directly to DVD.
NewBlueFX: Renowned for giving video enthusiasts and professionals plug-ins for easily and creatively customizing media, a variety of NewBlue filters and dynamic animated effects are built right into VideoStudio Pro X3. Exclusive to VideoStudio Pro X3 is the NewBlue PiP Animator, which can customize and animate any picture-in-picture window.
RevoStock Movie Templates: A new partnership with RevoStock gives VideoStudio Pro X3 users a variety of new professionally designed movie templates.

What's New Create, edit, render and share faster than ever with VideoStudio Pro X3--the best video-editing software for making HD movies. Now two times faster, it simplifies your entire workflow so you can focus on the creative aspects of movie making, without your software getting in the way.
Dramatically enhanced speed and performance
New--Hardware acceleration for Intel Corei7, NVIDIA CUDA and AMD
New--Launcher--quick access to express or advanced editing modes
New--Express Edit mode--make movies in minutes!
Enhanced--Smart Proxy for faster previewing and more responsive HD editing
Enhanced--All-new interface for a faster video-editing workflow

Studio-quality effects and templates
New--Professionally designed templates from RevoStock--worth over $500 US!
New--Real-time effects, including NewBlueFX filters with key framing
New--Effects for compositing and video animation, including RotoSketch and AutoSketch
New--Multi-track filters that let you add effects to each of your tracks
New--GPU-accelerated high-speed filters with real-time preview
New--Customizable, royalty-free audio tracks from SmartSound
Enhanced--Title effects for easy compositing

HD enhancements
New--Blu-ray authoring with Hollywood-style menus, titles, transitions and effects
New--HD authoring to standard DVD media
New--Web-ready files--save HD MPEG-4 files for the Web with H.264 compression

More sharing options
New--Upload directly to Vimeo, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr in standard or HD
Enhanced--DVD authoring--output to CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc
Enhanced--Save to more file formats, including AVI, FLV, MP3 encode, AC3 5.1, AVCHD, HD MPEG-2 and MPEG-4
Enhanced--Send to more devices, including iPod, iPhone and PSP

More speed across the board Don't get tripped up by technical delays--create, edit, render and share twice as fast with this new version!
New! Launcher VideoStudio Pro X3 gets you right to the task at hand with the new Launcher. From one convenient location, you can start express editing, more advanced video editing, the DV-to-DVD wizard, or DVD Movie Factory 2010 for DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring and burning.
New! GPU and CPU Acceleration Dramatically speed up your entire movie making process with NVIDIA CUDA and Intel Core i7 optimization.
New! VideoStudio Express Make quick edits, or combine video clips, photos, music and voiceover to create a professional-looking video project in minutes.
Studio-quality templates and effects Get a creative head start with professionally designed templates from RevoStock, polished titles, and studio-quality audio and video effects.
New! Movie Templates VideoStudio Pro X3 offers the best-quality movie templates in its class, including over $500 US worth of templates from RevoStock. Turn video clips into polished movies in an instant, with Hollywood-style titles, transitions, pans and zooms, credits and more.
New! RotoSketch Transform videos, video frames and photos into animated clips and hand-sketched drawings in a few clicks. By simply applying a filter, you can turn media assets into realistic animations or digital art.
Enhanced! Title Effects Create stunning titles in seconds by adding multiple title tracks and effects, then customize your work to get the perfect look.
End-to-end HD video production Import, edit and share HD video.
Enhanced! HD Capture and Import Import HD video from anywhere, including HDV, AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc and JVC HD camcorders. Import standard video from DV and analog camcorders, and Web, USB and still image cameras.
Enhanced! Blu-ray Authoring and Burning Create your own Blu-ray titles, and author menus for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, including BD-J menus.
New! H.264 Compression Get incredible HD quality in smaller files by creating HD MPEG-4 files with the H.264 codec. This makes it easier to share videos on a variety of devices ranging from low-powered cell phones to high-powered Blu-ray devices.
Unlimited video sharing Upload, burn, copy and share any way you want.
Enhanced! Online sharing Share your movies with your own personal network or with the entire world in a few simple clicks. Upload your videos and slideshows directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr.
Enhanced! Format Flexibility Save your movies to AVI, FLV, MP3 encode, AC3 5.1, AVCHD, HD MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and more.
Enhanced! Copy, Convert and Burn Copy movies to your device of choice, including iPod, iPhone, MP3 players (USB) and PlayStation Portable (PSP). Burn CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and AVCHD discs. You can even burn HD video to standard DVD media to play on a DVD or Blu-ray player.

Get 77% OFF

Click here for more information about Corel VideoStudio Pro X3

Read More...

ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My wife and I saw a demo of this at a education industry trade show and very impressed on the overall photo management capabilities, they have a more sophisticated term called digital asset mgmt. I had photos in so many different folders and drives, especially our wedding photos. This program automatically identified them, helped us organize quickly into categories and help rate them in importance to us. The program looks identical to the windows operating system so our user experience was a breeze. The photo editing feature is good, but not great. We bought this for the management part and its worth every penny just for that. I highly recommend to anyone with alot of photos and who feel they are unorganized on their computer.

Click Here to see more reviews about: ACDSee Photo Manager 2009

Click here for more information about ACDSee Photo Manager 2009

Read More...

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Lets face it, Adobe Photoshop sets the standard for photo editing, but it's not in most people's price range. The latest version of Photoshop is between six and ten times more expensive Than Corel Paint Shop Pro PHOTO X2. (Wow, what a horrendously long and annoying name.) Photo X2 (as I'll call it from now on) approaches Photoshop in complete feature richness and with a decent interface, yet at a fraction of the price.
Notice I said "feature richness" in describing Photo X2. If you are a relative beginner or you don't retouch your photos in certain ways, I'd actually recommend Photoshop Elements over Photo X2. Elements has a better interface, more "automagic" features and works faster than Photo X2 and is about the same price.
I've used Photoshop, Elements, Corel Photo Paint and also JASC Paint Shop Pro (and some other things, too). So why didn't I buy the latest version of Elements or Photoshop instead?
1. Photoshop is too expensive for me to justify for my personal and hobby use. I use it at my work for image editing since my workplace pays for the software license there. But when I'm paying I'm looking more closely at price vs. performance. Though Photoshop has the performance, it doesn't rate so well on the price scale.
2. Elements is really nice for me to use about 85% of the time, but then there is the horrible 15% of the time that I want to use a feature that Adobe has gutted out of their software for the "Elements" version. Then I have to play around with copying the image into another program (some of them free) to adjust the curves (or whatever) and then copy it back in afterwards. The gutted feature set of Elements is a large, though occasional, annoyance. Plus I really don't use most of the fluffy side of its feature set (like "quick fixes," or "photo creations").
I think for people like me, Photo X2 is a better choice because it gives most of the advanced features that Adobe guts out of Elements at the same price point. These would be features like a curves dialog, batch processing, creating/saving masks (and many more).
Photo X2 has a lot of good sides. It can do a lot. It produces high quality results. It is much more feature rich than Elements. It has very good help files. It even has some nifty unexpected features built-in like HDR image mapping and RAW file support for many digital SLR cameras (including mine).
The down side is that in some places the interface isn't quite as good as Adobe's. It's still pretty usable, but there are minor annoyances. In Photoshop you can zoom/shrink the view and pan an image around while a dialog box is open so you can see the results easily and in a large preview. In Photo X2, you can't zoom in/out and move things around except in the before/after view in the dialogs themselves (not a deal-breaker, but a little bothersome). The startup time and image processing time seem to be slightly slower than in Photoshop, also. Many issues are minor, but they make the product feel a little less polished than Photoshop or Elements.
At least one reviewer has complained about long install and startup times. I noticed the long install time. And my initial startup after installing was 30 seconds or more. After the first time (and a computer reboot), my startup time for Photo X2 was about 8 seconds, which isn't bad. After, loading and closing it and then reopening it in the same Windows session, the loading time was on the order of 2-3 seconds. I don't find these times to be a problem at all, but if you're worried about the performance on your system you might want to download the 30-day fully functional trial from Corel's web site (though it is a 300 MB download or something). It might also be useful to download it to take a look at the features and get a feel for the program if you've never used it before.
In the end, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is good software that is feature rich and a good choice for medium to advanced-level users who have outgrown Photoshop Elements and can't justify spending 6 to 10 times the price to buy Adobe Photoshop.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is the ideal choice for any aspiring photographer's digital darkroom. Fix brightness, color, and photo flaws in a few clicks and use precision editing tools to create the picture you want. Give photos a unique, exciting look using hundreds of special effects, and much more! Plus, the new one-of-a-kind Express Lab helps you quickly view and fix dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit a few. Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 even includes a built-in Learning Center to help you get started, it's the easiest way to get professional-looking photos - fast!

Get 56% OFF

Click here for more information about Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Read More...

WinZip 15 Standard Plus Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am old enough to remember using PKZIP on DOS machines and several early WinZip versions for Windows. Starting with the previous version (14) WinZip would work with Windows 7, so what does this newer version bring to the table? Basically you get a cleaner interface, a desktop "gadget" which allows you to drag and drop files on your desktop, faster speed for video encoding (extremely useful in this YouTube age!) and more email integration, including GMail and others. You can also define multiple e-mail addresses and accounts. The price is quite reasonable, but you can try it out first for a trial period before deciding to register and unlock the program. WinRar, a competing program lets you use the free version without a time limit, but adds annoying "nagware" reminders which get in the way of smooth operations. The Pro version, for $20 more, adds more file manipulation inside the zip folder, especially for photos and graphics files, but I doubt most people will need that extra functionality.


Click Here to see more reviews about: WinZip 15 Standard Plus


Why WinZip Handy back-up tab. View larger.

Get 40% OFF

Click here for more information about WinZip 15 Standard Plus

Read More...

Corel Painter 11 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Just an Update for the review:
As of January 6, 2010 - nearly a YEAR after release, Corel has released a major patch update that resolves most problems I've had with the product. I have left the review alone (besides adding updates) to show how long it takes for these things to be resolved. I still stand by the fact Painter needs to resolve GUI issues, by appearance and stability.
** A special note, is that I wish Painter would include a dynamic resizable navigational/preview window like other paint programs have. There have been suggested work-arounds but I think it's time for Corel to include a much wanted feature.
As of August 26,2009 - I included a bug that still hasn't been fixed and is disruptive for workflow
As of May 21, 2009 - Corel has released a hotfix for the intuos3 missing stroke, corrupted workspaces, and cut and paste issue. The rest of the bugs still seem to remains.
I actually have been familiar with Painter since the old school large serial tablets and it was called Fractal Design Painter.
I really really wanted to love Painter 11. It has some nice new features such as the hard/real media brushes, and re-sizable Mixer and Color wheel. There is now PNG support too, but until there is a patch, it's not worth the upgrade or purchase. It feels like this should have been partial (but not a good update to) Painter X. The last time it took it to patch was when Painter X encountered GUI glitches on release (in Feb of that year) but it wasn't until June were there fixes. It didn't receive any patches after that and we (as in other people interested in the program) were waiting for the new release to see if it would fix previous problems.
Here's a list of major problems:
** (August 26 2009) Updating a bug issue I didn't put up here. This affects about anyone with a tablet and most likely wacoms. When you chose a brush, you have it at a certain size, for example 2.0, now use the eraser side of your stylus, change the size of your eraser. Flip back your stylus. Your 2.0 size has now increased to 17. I'm told that it doesn't have to happen when changing the brush size, but it happens when you use your eraser side of your stylus.
1. It's slow. It loads fast for a few days but for whatever reason it becomes increasingly slower to load. I'm using a Core Duo with 2gb of ram and even with nothing on (as in other programs running) it's still slow. (I'm a PC user)
2. a: Intuos 3 users will be frustrated. Apparently, there is a bug in this version of Painter. It causes a missing stroke or a random brush dab (the dab issue was present in X). Yes, that's right a painting program that can't register whether or not you're placing a stroke on your tablet. Let's see if this improves with an Intuos4. I feel sorry for intuos3 users right now (and I am one!)
b: Intuos 4 users may find themselves frustrated. I've tested the software in Windows XP sp3 with an Intuos4. The touchring can be downright unresponsive when trying to change brush sizes.
3. Bugs from X are still in here. Watch out for crashes when using guides and rulers. I already mentioned the missing brush dab problem. If you change your brush selector bars to stroke view, it changes them to thumbnail view when you go back to it. Sometimes trying to fix it back to stroke view causes it to crash.
4. CPU bug. For whatever reason, Painter likes to eat about 45% of your CPU or more even when you're idle and not drawing. I don't know why it's consuming so much CPU on idle times (as in I'm not even painting!). I'm told because I'm using multiple cores it may actually be closer to 100% if I had a single core processor.
5. Color Management. It also appears that painter is assigning incorrect color management to documents from the one you specified. This means you're blacks may not look 100% black because of this issue. There's even a bug for Mac users with color management.
6. Copy and Paste bug. Some reason Painter 11 is having issues copying and pasting selections into a new layer. This is really a problem for example if I wanted instead of lifting inks to a Watercolor layer...to copy and paste it into a new layer and setting it to gel.
7. The new Transformation tool...yep that's buggy too. It crops out certain areas, and sometimes doesn't transform selections correctly. What's the point of this tool if it doesn't work properly?
8. Ugly GUI - General User Interface. While the softened colors are better, the rest of the interface is just back to windows 2000. Nothing intuitive about the placement of tools on the tools palette, too many confusing palettes that need to be stored in an intuitive manner for many users, and interface bugs.
9. This maybe should be the number one issue for Corel. Really poor customer service. If you pay for the full edition, people have been told over the phone to go to their PanterFactory forums instead of getting real customer support. That can be absolutely frustrating for someone who just called their center expecting some support with their software package. In addition, the support level on their forums is abysmal. I'm not expecting Corel to be Adobe, but I feel like I'm on a sinking ship with the level of support.
I'm told they're already working on a Painter 12 and really....they should be working on revamping their product. I feel like more of this program is dedicated to photopainting, and the illustrators are feeling more and more ignored unless they help push the product. I really love painter for the natural brush emulation but the support and bugs leaves me bittersweet.
** - Edit I'm also trying to figure out why another person directed a counterpoint to my review about saying the Tilt function was faulty in Painter when this was never once mentioned in my review? I said there was a missing stroke bug, which is a completely different issue with the intuos 3. Reading comprehension...? (I kind of believe that to be a must in a good review before arguing something I never something I never said).

Click Here to see more reviews about: Corel Painter 11

Expand your creativity with Painter 11, the most inventive digital painting software on the market. By adding Painter to your workflow, you gain a full art studio that gives you the tools to create unprecedented artwork. Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes, without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art. Support for the entire Wacom product line, including industry-leading Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos drawing tablets, gives you the most responsive digital painting experience so your hand and brush work fluidly as one. Customizable paper textures give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting or photo-painting tools can produce. Painter is changing what's possible in art. Now it's your turn.

The World's Most Powerful Natural-Media Software
Enhance the Creative Process
Enhanced Artistic Media reproduce the texture of their real-life counterparts and intensify color with each stroke
Pen and drawing tablet (recommended), combined with Painter's RealBristle brushes, recreate the natural interaction between hand and canvas
New Hard Media Controls let you create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library

Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
Improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop, and individual color profiles per document, make your colors more precise
Photo-painting tools with SmartStroke technology let you creatively transform reality
Customizable surface texturing gives your art a level of fantasy and detail that other photo and painting software can't deliver

Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art
New Hard Media controls give you the flexibility to play around to find the exact look you desire
Smart composition tools, such as Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths, help you visually arrange your canvas to create perfect compositions

Features
What's Included
Content Libraries of unique textures, gradients, nozzles, patterns, stock photos and brushes, including the new RealBristle dry media brush category
Documentation
Getting Started Guide
HTML User Guide and Getting Started Guide
HTML Help files

Training
Online tutorials and testimonials

Enhance the Creative Process
New--Hard Media Controls Create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library, so you have more creative control over your media. Customizable profiles, dab sizes, transitions and stroke width previews let you play around to create the exact look you want.
New--RealBristle Dry Media Marker, pen, pencil and chalk media reproduce the look and feel of their real-life counterparts in a way that no other software can!
Marker--intensify color with each new marker stroke so you can color in one continuous shade or create a buildup of color
Pen--choose to create fine pen strokes, or thick strokes and ink deposits, by changing the velocity of your stroke. The faster you go, the thinner the line; the slower you go, the thicker the line
Pencil & Chalk--control shading by changing the angle of your stylus on the drawing tablet. Choose whether to draw with the tip or shade with the side of the nib-just like in real life

Enhanced--Selection Tools A new Polygonal mode for the Lasso tool, plus overall improvements to marquee tools and the Magic Wand, let you make more nimble selections the first time around.
Enhanced--Wacom Support Support for the entire Wacom product line, including Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos pen tablets, gives you most responsive digital painting software and the best digital art experience.
RealBristle Painting System Replicate the sensation and interaction between traditional paint and canvas with your pen and tablet. This represents a major milestone for digital painting by making brushes totally responsive to your hand and canvas, creating the most realistic painting experience.
Customizable Brushes Create your own brushes in the type, size or pattern of your choice, so you can make custom brush strokes and create artwork that is truly unique.
Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
New--Color Management Create better color matches with new individual color profiles for every document and improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop. This enhances your workflow because you save time by having fewer color corrections to make.
Enhanced--Adobe Photoshop Support Maintain colors and layers when transferring files between Photoshop and Painter. This saves time when importing and exporting artwork between the two programs, because corrections are less necessary.
Photo-painting Tools Transform photos into paintings by hand, or let SmartStroke brush technology in the Auto-Painting Palette paint a photo for you. It follows the lines and contours in the picture just like a real artist would. This lets you take the best of both worlds--photography and painting--to create new forms of art.
Customizable Surface Texturing Give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting software and photo-painting tools can produce. You can choose paper textures for your canvas, or create and customize your own textures to produce really unique artwork.
Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Enhanced--Mixer Palette & Swatches Extra mixer swatches appear when you enlarge the newly resizable Mixer Palette. Increase the size of the Palette to put more colors at your disposal and have a clearer view of your chosen color. Reduce the size when you no longer need to mix colors so the Palette takes up less space on screen.
Smart Composition Tools Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths help you visually arrange your canvas before sketching or painting to create perfect compositions.
Flexible Digital Art Tools Experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes to your heart's content, and produce exciting results-without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art.
Universal Mixer Palette For multicolor selection, this palette gives you better control over color blending between the Mixer palette and the canvas, so your colors are more precise.
Underpainting Palette This palette includes color schemes based on various artistic styles, such as Impressionist, Classical, Modern, Watercolor, Sketchbook and Chalk Drawing, so you can create art like your favorite muses. You can also match your Underpainting Palette to that of any open image for consistency.
Match Palette Effect Match the color and intensity between 2 images. Just open an image that features your desired color scheme and use the Match Palette effect to bring that color to the image you want to change.
Increase Speed & Stability
Enhanced--Performance Painter 11 is optimized to provide artists with the fastest version of Painter ever. Depending on system hardware, brushes perform up to 30% faster, creating a more true-to-life painting speed.
New--Transformation Capabilities Switch between different Transform modes from one centralized tool, and choose whether to transform the complete contents of a layer, or selected content, for greater speed, flexibility and precision.
New--Resizable Color Palette Adjust colors manually with sliders on the Color Palette. Enlarge the Color Palette up to 800 pixels for a clearer view of your selected color. You can now also fine-tune the color wheel with your arrow keys so it takes less time to find the perfect color.
New--Color Management Interface The fresh and simplified interface makes it easier to control color profiles when creating new files, or when opening Painter and other file types.
Windows Vista Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system from Microsoft.
Mac OS Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system 10.5 from Apple.
Multiple Platform Support Painter 11 includes both Mac OS and Windows versions on the same CD.

Get 71% OFF

Click here for more information about Corel Painter 11

Read More...

WinZip 15 Professional Single User CD EN DVD Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Note: the Pro version is the same as the Standard and Plus versions, with these additions:
* Display, rotate, and resize images within Zip files using built-in image viewer
* Transfer and backup pictures from supported cameras by clicking a button
* Customize, schedule and automate backup tasks, burn to CD or DVD, upload via FTP
* Email log files on completion of backup tasks
* Set or disable encryption methods
* Zip your email attachments automatically with WinZip Courier (also included with Plus version, but not standard version)
The additional features of the Pro version will be useful to some power users and system administrators, but most people will do fine with the standard version.
PROS:
* an essential tool for most Windows users
* allows you to create a complete set of related files in one file, while retaining the original directory structure, if any
* makes it easy for sharing files by keeping them all together, and by compressing them so they can be transferred faster
* includes an encryption capability to set a password to retrieve files you want to keep confidential
* includes a very useful shell extension for extract, add, or create a new archive
* a Mac edition of WinZip allows you to exchange files with a Mac user who has this program
* extracts from most common archive formats besides zip, including RAR, 7z, TAR, ISO, CAB, and several others
* single-user license agreement allows you to install on a second machine (for non-simultaneous use only), handy for users who have a laptop and a desktop
* can open and view a file in a zip archive without extracting it, by right-clicking on the file and selecting Open.
* works correctly with files made from my older WinZip 9 (standard zip file format), as I expected it would
* the enhanced zip file format - which cannot be read by older versions of WinZip - has a new extension, zipx, to avoid confusion
CONS:
* a couple of very minor inconveniences, described below
UPDATE: I am biased by my habit of using pkzip and WinZip for decades. Some of my friends prefer to use WinRAR and 7zip, so I have added a section describing Alternatives near the end.
WINZIP IS NEARLY ESSENTIAL...
WinZip is one of those tools that I think most PC and Mac users would find essential. The Pros above sum up the reasons. Though disk space is relatively inexpensive these days, and though Windows allows you to compress parts of your file system, it is incredibly useful to be able to create an archive of any number of related or inter-dependent files, including complete directory structures of files, for backup purposes, etc. While compressed media files (jpg, mp3, etc) do not always become smaller in an archive, it is still great to be able to keep a set of files together.
If you want to exchange files, it is convenient to have one file that contains all of the ones you want to share, and compressing it makes the transfer time (via Internet, or a thumb drive) faster. The ability to password-protect an archive makes it safe and convenient to exchange confidential files - for example, getting reports from a financial adviser using a mutually-known password.
Although the zip archive format is essentially a standard on Windows, WinZip extracts files from several other archive standards, including some that are common on Linux. And for Mac users, there is a Mac edition, so you can exchange files with either Windows or Mac users.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a five-star utility.
...BUT IS IT WORTH UPGRADING TO THIS VERSION?
I have been using a licensed copy of WinZip 9.0 for several years. It does everything I need, and I consider WinZip an essential tool. So why would I need to upgrade? I decided to find out when I was offered a chance to review WinZip 15.
First and most important, the newest version still supports the original zip file format, which means that you can still provide archives to others who have an older version of WinZip. However, you need to make sure you select the option to do that, as the newest zip format is not backwards compatible.
Media files such as jpg and mp3 are already in a compressed form, and with my older WinZip 9 (and most other compression programs), it is not possible to compress them further. It is convenient to put several files into one archive, and doing that can make disk storage more efficient and use less space, even without compression. But the newest zip format claims to compress jpg files by 20-25%. I tested it with 714 pictures from India, totalling about 690 MB, and it saved 21% space, but took about twice as long (I did not time it). This only works with the zipx format. The original zip format does not compress jpgs, but it stores them more efficiently than separate files, so it saves 1% compared to separate.
MP3 files are compressed about 1% with either zip or zipx compression. For mp3, zipx takes longer to archive than zip with no obvious benefit.
A folder with 145 MS Office (XLS, PPT) and PDF files totalling 383 MB was compressed by 17% in 73 seconds to the original zip file format. The same folder was compressed by 20% in 143 seconds (almost twice as long) to the new zipx file format.
Actual performance will vary depending on files, but these results represent typical files for me. I ran my tests on a laptop with duocore processor on WinXP. I don't have the previous version of WinZip, so I cannot comment on whether the new zip engine in this version "creates Zipx files 30% to 50% faster than the previous version". Since installing this version also uninstalls previous version, it is not convenient to compare performance with older versions, and I did not. Subjectively, WinZip 15 to zip (standard) format about as WinZip 9, and somewhat slower (with somewhat more compression) for the new zipx format.
The package claims that WinZip has a streamlined interface with more intuitive menus and icons. Except for newer icons, the interface is similar to what I was used to. I don't think it is easier to use, but it was good before, and is still good.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a three-star upgrade, considering benefits to price. WinZip 9 would still be good enough for me, but now that I have WinZip 15, I'll use it instead.
MINOR ISSUES
Windows allows you to select a custom directory to be used for "My Documents", for example when you want to have your home directory on a different drive from the system directory. Most programs correctly locate the new "My Documents" directory if you change it, but WinZip 15.0 does not. But this is never a problem for me, as I normally start WinZip by right-clicking on an archive or a file I want to compress, then selecting WinZip from the popup menu. It always finds the correct directory in this case.
WinZip 15 installed from the CD, and next time I used it, it offered an update for a better compression engine. When it downloaded, it also offered me an unwanted download: Kaspersky Security. Because this is enabled by default, you could get it downloaded and installed by mistake, potentially causing problems for an existing anti-virus program. If you are alert, you can easily decline. Personally, when I'm installing a program, I don't want to be offered a different program, especially when it is a trial version that will nag you to buy an upgrade later. If I wanted that program, I'd go to the Web and download it. This is effectively a paid ad, and I don't want it. But I won't encounter this often, so who cares.
WINZIP COURIER 3.0 INCLUDED
WinZip 15 Pro edition includes a program that works with a few email systems that is said to make it easy to use zip compression with email. This program supports Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and Gmail. But because it does not support my preferred mail client, Thunderbird, I have not tested it. It is easy enough for me to open zip files from Thunderbird with WinZip, so I can already do everything I need, and I don't know how this program could make things easier than they are already.
ALTERNATIVE ARCHIVE PROGRAMS
Zip has been a standard archive format for PC since the DOS days and PKZIP. It is a defacto standard that many people use. However, there are two others worth considering, and they also support the Zip format.
WINRAR is shareware available online. It is compatible with the Zip file format, and offers a few more features over WinZip that will be of use to some power users - advanced self-extracting archive features, additional security features, and support for more human languages. It costs about the same as WinZip Standard.
7zip is a free, open source archive program also available online. It can pack many archive formats (including its native 7z, Zip, and Linux formats) and unpack many others. It claims to offer better compression in Zip format than WinZip. It is localized into even more human languages, self-extracting archive capability, and has most of the other features of WinZip.
Both WinRAR and 7zip have at least some support on Mac and Linux, which is helpful if you need to move files between these platforms and/or Windows.
If I did not already have WinZip, I would be looking at 7zip, and you might want to as well.
BOTTOM LINE: I consider WinZip to be an essential tool for most users, and all power users. But if you are already happy with an older version of WinZip (such as version 9), it may not be an essential upgrade, unless you need to compress jpg files.


Click Here to see more reviews about: WinZip 15 Professional Single User CD EN DVD

Get 8% OFF

Click here for more information about WinZip 15 Professional Single User CD EN DVD

Read More...

WinZip 15 Standard Single User CD EN DVD Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)NOTE: look at prices for various WinZip versions on Amazon. At the time of this writing, a Plus version of WinZip 15 was available at a lower price than this standard edition.
PROS:
* an essential tool for most Windows users
* allows you to create a complete set of related files in one file, while retaining the original directory structure, if any
* makes it easy for sharing files by keeping them all together, and by compressing them so they can be transferred faster
* includes an encryption capability to set a password to retrieve files you want to keep confidential
* includes a very useful shell extension for extract, add, or create a new archive
* a Mac edition of WinZip allows you to exchange files with a Mac user who has this program
* extracts from most common archive formats besides zip, including RAR, 7z, TAR, ISO, CAB, and several others
* single-user license agreement allows you to install on a second machine (for non-simultaneous use only), handy for users who have a laptop and a desktop
* can open and view a file in a zip archive without extracting it, by right-clicking on the file and selecting Open.
* works correctly with files made from my older WinZip 9 (standard zip file format), as I expected it would
* the enhanced zip file format - which cannot be read by older versions of WinZip - has a new extension, zipx, to avoid confusion
CONS:
* a couple of very minor inconveniences, described below
UPDATE: I am biased by my habit of using pkzip and WinZip for decades. Some of my friends prefer to use WinRAR and 7zip, so I have added a section describing Alternatives near the end.
WINZIP IS NEARLY ESSENTIAL...
WinZip is one of those tools that I think most PC and Mac users would find essential. The Pros above sum up the reasons. Though disk space is relatively inexpensive these days, and though Windows allows you to compress parts of your file system, it is incredibly useful to be able to create an archive of any number of related or inter-dependent files, including complete directory structures of files, for backup purposes, etc. While compressed media files (jpg, mp3, etc) do not always become smaller in an archive, it is still great to be able to keep a set of files together.
If you want to exchange files, it is convenient to have one file that contains all of the ones you want to share, and compressing it makes the transfer time (via Internet, or a thumb drive) faster. The ability to password-protect an archive makes it safe and convenient to exchange confidential files - for example, getting reports from a financial adviser using a mutually-known password.
Although the zip archive format is essentially a standard on Windows, WinZip extracts files from several other archive standards, including some that are common on Linux. And for Mac users, there is a Mac edition, so you can exchange files with either Windows or Mac users.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a five-star utility.
...BUT IS IT WORTH UPGRADING TO THIS VERSION?
I have been using a licensed copy of WinZip 9.0 for several years. It does everything I need, and I consider WinZip an essential tool. So why would I need to upgrade? I decided to find out when I was offered a chance to review WinZip 15.
First and most important, the newest version still supports the original zip file format, which means that you can still provide archives to others who have an older version of WinZip. However, you need to make sure you select the option to do that, as the newest zip format is not backwards compatible.
Media files such as jpg and mp3 are already in a compressed form, and with my older WinZip 9 (and most other compression programs), it is not possible to compress them further. It is convenient to put several files into one archive, and doing that can make disk storage more efficient and use less space, even without compression. But the newest zip format claims to compress jpg files by 20-25%. I tested it with 714 pictures from India, totalling about 690 MB, and it saved 21% space, but took about twice as long (I did not time it). This only works with the zipx format. The original zip format does not compress jpgs, but it stores them more efficiently than separate files, so it saves 1% compared to separate.
MP3 files are compressed about 1% with either zip or zipx compression. For mp3, zipx takes longer to archive than zip with no obvious benefit.
A folder with 145 MS Office (XLS, PPT) and PDF files totalling 383 MB was compressed by 17% in 73 seconds to the original zip file format. The same folder was compressed by 20% in 143 seconds (almost twice as long) to the new zipx file format.
Actual performance will vary depending on files, but these results represent typical files for me. I ran my tests on a laptop with duocore processor on WinXP. I don't have the previous version of WinZip, so I cannot comment on whether the new zip engine in this version "creates Zipx files 30% to 50% faster than the previous version". Since installing this version also uninstalls previous version, it is not convenient to compare performance with older versions, and I did not. Subjectively, WinZip 15 to zip (standard) format about as WinZip 9, and somewhat slower (with somewhat more compression) for the new zipx format.
The package claims that WinZip has a streamlined interface with more intuitive menus and icons. Except for newer icons, the interface is similar to what I was used to. I don't think it is easier to use, but it was good before, and is still good.
For people who need the features I have described, and don't have a program to do it at present, WinZip is a three-star upgrade, considering benefits to price. WinZip 9 would still be good enough for me, but now that I have WinZip 15, I'll use it instead.
MINOR ISSUES
Windows allows you to select a custom directory to be used for "My Documents", for example when you want to have your home directory on a different drive from the system directory. Most programs correctly locate the new "My Documents" directory if you change it, but WinZip 15.0 does not. But this is never a problem for me, as I normally start WinZip by right-clicking on an archive or a file I want to compress, then selecting WinZip from the popup menu. It always finds the correct directory in this case.
WinZip 15 installed from the CD, and next time I used it, it offered an update for a better compression engine. When it downloaded, it also offered me an unwanted download: Kaspersky Security. Because this is enabled by default, you could get it downloaded and installed by mistake, potentially causing problems for an existing anti-virus program. If you are alert, you can easily decline. Personally, when I'm installing a program, I don't want to be offered a different program, especially when it is a trial version that will nag you to buy an upgrade later. If I wanted that program, I'd go to the Web and download it. This is effectively a paid ad, and I don't want it. But I won't encounter this often, so who cares.
ALTERNATIVE ARCHIVE PROGRAMS
Zip has been a standard archive format for PC since the DOS days and PKZIP. It is a defacto standard that many people use. However, there are two others worth considering, and they also support the Zip format.
WINRAR is shareware available online. It is compatible with the Zip file format, and offers a few more features over WinZip that will be of use to some power users - advanced self-extracting archive features, additional security features, and support for more human languages. It costs about the same as WinZip Standard.
7zip is a free, open source archive program also available online. It can pack many archive formats (including its native 7z, Zip, and Linux formats) and unpack many others. It claims to offer better compression in Zip format than WinZip. It is localized into even more human languages, self-extracting archive capability, and has most of the other features of WinZip.
Both WinRAR and 7zip have at least some support on Mac and Linux, which is helpful if you need to move files between these platforms and/or Windows.
If I did not already have WinZip, I would be looking at 7zip, and you might want to as well.
BOTTOM LINE: I consider WinZip to be nearly essential for most users, and all power users. But if you are already happy with an older version of WinZip (such as version 9), it may not be an essential upgrade, unless you need to compress jpg files.


Click Here to see more reviews about: WinZip 15 Standard Single User CD EN DVD

Get 7% OFF

Click here for more information about WinZip 15 Standard Single User CD EN DVD

Read More...

Corel Ventura 10 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Bottom Line: There are newer programs available for the same price which are easier to use, offer better features, more support, and are more stable.
The screen refresh is buggy for complex graphic and table-intensive documents over 75 pages long. It has a tendency to add or delete space bands and returns into imported text randomly. Many features listed in Amazon's descriptions above are unreliable or poorly executed.
Text handling is adequate, but limited in comparison to page layout programs of the late 1990's; for instance, no horizontal or vertical scaling of letters is permitted, small caps and some other common typographic effects are missing- bold, italic and underline are thankfully available. Its management of fonts, colors and images is fairly awkward when compared to older versions of Quark and InDesign. There is no obvious way to crop an image within the program for instance - it needs to be edited in an image-editing program. Fades, fancy corners, and multiple line styles are also absent.
It can handle large documents with a minimum of illustrations, where cross-referencing is required, and it does not require a powerful new computer to run; having run it on an 800mhz and a 2.0 ghz machine, I can say there is no difference in performance, so there is no need to invest in new hardware once you have paid the princely sum for this program.
For old users, stick with this. For new users, be aware that Corel has no plans to update this 2002 vintage software. To my knowledge, there is no upgrade path or any way to export your work intact from Corel Ventura into modern page layout programs.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Corel Ventura 10

When it comes to business publishing, Corel Ventura 10 is as powerful as it gets. It's the only tool you need for transforming long, complex documents—including XML files—into highly formatted and visually rich publications. Enhanced stability and compatibility keep your workflow smooth, while powerful formatting tools help ensure polished documents. Update multiple tables quickly with new table tags. Enjoy more flexibility with support for XML import, and improved PDF and printing options. And work with documents from virtually any source, including WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW. For increased productivity and high-quality results, Corel Ventura 10 is your professional publishing solution.

Get 7% OFF

Click here for more information about Corel Ventura 10

Read More...