Video Studio 5.0

I received Video Studio 5 with my Firewire controller. I am extremely disappointed in this program. It is not user friendly in any way. There are tips and step by step instructions, but they are unclear and not precise. I spent almost an hour trying to insert a transition between 2 frames. The directions give 2 methods of performing this action. The first method- clicking the selected transition and dragging it doesn't work at all. You can drag it everywhere on the screen EXCEPT in between two frames. The second method is to click on a button that does not exist in the effects mode. If I leave the effects mode, the button is there, but then I can't very well add any effects. After fussing with this program for over an hour, I switched to Windows Media Movie Maker and had my short little clip completed and exported to the internet in less than 20 minutes. Don't waste your time or money on Ulead Video Studio 5!

After upgrading to Windows ME I realized I had wasted a hundred bucks on Video Studio software. Like many others, I was hesitant to upgrade to ME because of reports of computer lockups,crashes,etc. Rumors circulated that WinME had many bugs that had yet to be resolved. Total hogwash. I realize now that I made a mistake by not upgrading sooner. The Windows Movie Maker software included with WinME was a pleasant suprise. I prefer it to Video Studio and Studio DV(Pinnacle). It doesn't include everything that the two major titles do, but it has everything u would want, without options that u would never use. After all, these movies won't be released in the local theatres.If u haven't upgraded yet, remember that the cost of the upgrade to WinME will be the same or less than either of the two major movie making software titles!! Think about it. Rodger

I found this program easy to use yet highly versatile. Once installed, I had made my own 8 minute compilation of video scenes within several hours. Although this program comes with a manual, I didn't feel that it was needed. The software is fairly intuitive and forgiving of editing errors. The feature that I am most appreciative of is the IEEE-1394 ("Firewire") interface capability. I am using Windows 98 SE and a Sony DCR-PC110 Mini DV camcorder and the software instantly recognized my device and transferred video smoothly without any troubleshooting or loss of data. In addition, this software is compatible with some photo editing programs to give additional flexibility for transitions or title/credits (If you should want more than the literaly hundreds of pre-installed options) I highly recommend this program to any DV enthusiast who wants to get started immediately and without paying seven to nine times the cost of this software.

I have been using Ulead VS 3.0 & 4.0 for several years. I purchased 5.0 right away and have not been disappointed. The new features such as filters, and more titling options are great. In the past I have used it with my Iomega MJPEG card. My firewire is on the way and I can't wait to see how it performs with Digital8 camcorder. This program is great if you don't want to spend alot of money and want a low learning curve. Follwoing the tutorial and easy controls you will be making a movie with in the hour. Make sure you go to Ulead's web site and download the patch for it. Especially if you want to make Video CDs. I would also suggest buying Uleads DVD Plug-In software if you want to make Video CDs from Video Studio. I love it. Its alot better than Neros VCD creation process.

I've only had the program a few days but I believe I am qualified to give an "out of the box experience" report. Ulead decided to ignore 10 years of Windows interface standardization and created the least intuitive product I have used in 15 years of computing. For ex: The normal drop down menu bar at the top of the screen is missing. Preferences are changed by clicking on a button marked "G"(?). You open files by clicking a round button with a star on it. It's like getting into a car and finding the gas pedal is shaped like a door knob and is located on the dash board, and the steering wheel is on the roof. You can get used to all the differences but none of them make the program easier to use. It's just an arrogant disregard for convention. Despite the fact that the product is advertised as capable of capturing analog video, the documentation and menu choices make it clear that the primary market is DV. Tech support told me that I'd have to capture my analog video elswhere and then bring the file into the software to edit, however doing so makes it impossible to automatically cut the video into clips (apparently the only AVI I can create uses a compression format that is incompatible with this software, although it works just fine in Movie Maker). The tech rep turned out to be wrong. I can capture directly but still have to cut the clips manually. There's got to be better video edit software than this.