Product Review: Page (1) of 4 - 05/10/05

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Ulead has upgraded its VideoStudio video editing application to version 9. When an application reaches version 9, you know it has been around for quite some time. VideoStudio already has a pretty robust feature set, including features that were found on professional level video editing tools of just a few years ago. With version 9, the company has added more features to a feature laden application, including the capability to create chroma keys, 16:9 widescreen output, a DV to DVD feature that enables you to copy your DV tapes straight to a DVD, bypassing the editor altogether, and the ability to work with Flash Animation overlays on the Timeline. Within the scope of this first look, we'll take a look at a few of the new features to this entry level, yet still powerful video editing tool.

Titling Tool Enhancements
The titling tool has been enhanced with the addition of grid lines. Grid lines, which are just like those found in Ulead's DVD Workshop that enable you to keep your buttons straight, act as a ruler in VideoStudio 9, enabling you to line up your titles in straight lines in your projects, if you so choose.

Gridlines have been added

VideoStudio 9 also features 15 preset titles that you can drag onto your timeline. Once on the timeline, you can specify the duration that you want the title to remain on screen by simply dragging the yellow bar to the right of the title to the end point that you want the title to disappear. the same goes for when you want the title to appear in your project. The titles are fully customizable in this regard, though it would be nice to see an option for the title to fade out, rather than abruptly leave the screen once the end point is reached.

Timeline Zoom control
The zoom control in the Timeline enables you to get a different view of your timeline. In addition to having your project fit your project into the Timeline window, you can also zoom it out to your actual project's time. Zooming in will show all the assets that you have in your project, not detailed views, but views of what is on the Timeline. For a more detailed look of the assets on the Timeline, zoom out completely and you'll have a view of each asset and the duration in which the asset appears in the project.

Reverse Playback
Think the backward episode of Seinfeld when the entire show was played from the ending to the beginning. That is the Reverse Playback feature in VideoStudio 9. To reverse the video playing on the Timeline, you simply check the reverse video box. Your video will play backward, and the audio in the video will be reduced in unintelligible gibberish. Any audio on the music track will remain unmolested by this feature. It might be a cool feature in instances when you want to see things play backward, or you can have a bunch of cuts showing backward and forward motion. This feature was shown on a beer commercial several years ago with somewhat lame results, because it looked just too hokey. To reverse the Reverse Playback feature, simply click the undo arrow.

Time Stretch
Time Stretch is supposed to let you adjust the duration of an audio or video file to match other material such as special effects or titles that are on the Timeline. This is also supposed to keep the pitch of your audio unchanged. Time Stretch is accessed via the Playback speed icon. you can then use the slider or fill in numeric values for the Time Stretch. Working with Time Stretch, I was able to slow down and speed up a clip, subsequently skewing the audio making it unintelligible. I need to do more experimentation with this feature.  

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