Newbie Should I buy VS9?

[nutsur]

HI , IAM LOOKING TO BUY A VIDEO SOFTWARE TO RECORD LIVE VIDEO IN MY CHURCH. MY GOAL IS TO MAKE BOTH CD AND DVD;S THAT WILL PLAY AT HOME.
IS VIDEOSTUDIO 9 STABLE,AND IS IT ALMOST BUG FREE?
( I FIND A LOT OF NEGITIVE REVIEWS ON ALMOST ALL HOME VIDEO SOFTWARE.WHAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT)?

IF I BUY VS9 WILL THE COOL 3D 3.5 PLUGIN WORK IN VS9?

DOES COOL 3D PRODUCTION STUDIO HAVE THE SAME THINGS AS VS9?

SHOULD I BUY BOTH VS9 AND COOL PRODUCTION STUDIO OR DO I BUY VS9 AND JUST THE COOL 3D PLUG IN?

IAM THINKING OF BUYING A DELL XPS 400 WITH A 256Ge 6800
VIDEO CARD WITH 1GB RAM AND (2) 160GB RAID(0) HARDDRIVES AND DVD BURNER AND A PENTIUM D DUAL CORE PROCESSOR AND 2 VIDEO SCREENS.

[joosuna]

In my opinion, after using VS9 for several projects..it is stable. I would recommend it for its price range and for consumers. Cool 3d Studio is not the same as VS9; Cool 3d augments titles and other scenes with special effects. I use Cool 3D studio for inserting special effects into my VS9 projects. If you want to go into the professional editing scene, there are many other professional editing software programs. It just depends on how much you want to invest in your time to learn and how much money you want to spend.
This is an active forum on questions and tips on using Video Studio. Some times there are negative items because the editing program does not do every thing desired or the person does not know how to use the program or their are hardware conflicts. Don't shy away from VS9 due to the activity of this forum..it is a healthy forum in learning and discussing our editing systems

[Ken Berry]

Video editing is a highly demanding process -- demanding on the human doing it, but particularly demanding on computer resources. The specifications of the computer you are thinking of buying sound fine, though, and should have no trouble with VS9.

As you have already seen, most (probably all) video editing software does not seem to work the same way for everyone. VS9 is no exception. It works just fine for a whole lot of people (me included). There may be an element of luck involved, but apart from computer specifications, following recommended procedures -- or rather procedures that people have developed which get around perceived shortcomings in the software -- is a very important factor. You will, for instance, see at the very top of this Board, a sticky post titled 'Recommended Procedure' which you should read and follow if you actually purchase VS9.

The fact remains, though, that quite a few people also have problems with the program, some minor, but some major ones as well. Some might be best described as human error, but it would appear that not a few may also result from some incompatibility between the architecture of a particular computer's set-up and the software it uses. Once you have your new computer, download a trial version of VS9 and see how it goes on the computer.

Just remember, also, that a Board like this is for people who are actually having problems. Those users who are not having trouble do not come to the Board, of course, so a casual observer cannot help but get a warped view of the program.

I have been on this Board for 3 years or so now, and have used Video Studio from version 7 onwards. I initially came to iron out some of my own human errors, and then stayed to get handy hints. Now, I stay and try and help others. Other people on the Board have been using it back to version 4 or 5, or even older versions, and they too stay around to help. I had tried a number of other programs before VS7, and still think Video Studio represents extremely good value for money. It is relatively simple to use (though remember I said that video editing is by no means a simple task), and VS9 is capable of producing a very professional-looking end product. I have also used (and have) equivalent products in the form of Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0 (now in version 2, which I haven't tried), which is excellent and has more flexibility than VS9 (larger number of video and audio tracks, for instance), but the learning curve is extremely steep. I also have Pinnacle Studio 10, though like a lot of people, have trouble with it, particularly in rendering, which is the central part of video editing. I have also just acquired Cyberlink's Power Director 5, and though I am just starting to play around with it, have to say that I am impressed so far by its (relative) ease of use. Of the programs I have tried so far, I would have to say that it is the closest to the work flow of VS9 and the results seem very similar. But VS9 remains, in my view, an excellent product -- while taking into account the various caveats I have mentioned above.

Now you mention Cool 3D. Just to clarify one thing: the version that comes bundled with VS9, despite the advertising, is version 3.0 and not 3.5. Ulead have never explained that one. But no matter. Version 3.0 is still a good program. And it is a program, not a plug-in. It operates quite independently of Video Studio, and its product can be used in a variety of other programs too. What it does essentially is to produce very fancy looking 3D animated and still titles for your masterpieces produced in VS9!! Cool 3D Production Studio (which I have) is just a fancier version of 3.0 and has quite a few more options, though the end product looks exactly the same. If I had a criticism of Production Studio it is that it takes an inordinate amount of time to render a 10 second title. But patience is another virtue you may have to learn when you take up video editing.

A final comment on your intentions: you say you want to produce both video CDs and DVDs. Again, VS9 will have no trouble with that. But you need to be aware that home made video CDs (which are technically called VCDs, and a higher quality version called SVCD) may not play in all stand-alone DVD players. This is particularly true of more expensive brand-name players which seem to be very finicky about what they will play, and they are notoriously finicky about VCDs and SVCDs. Of course there are things you can do to make it more likely that your product will play, but at the end of the day, some players just won't play them, period. There are also some general compatibility problems with some home-made DVDs as well, with some particular brands of blank DVD, for instance, apparently being more compatible with particular computer burners, for instance. But by and large, you stand a lot more chance of getting your DVD to play in a wide variety of players than a VCD or SVCD.

And finally, really just as a little P.S., you probably don't realise, but in computer-speak, typing a message all in capitals (let alone in red!!!) is regarded as SHOUTING and considered a little rude. It is also a bit more difficult to read easily on a computer screen, which I suspect is at the bottom of the attitude.

Good luck.

[BrianCee]

.WHAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT ?

First I would second everything Ken has said and would just add - it is not OUR product - as far as we all know no-one from Ulead posts on these forums - we are all just users dotted all around the world trying to help one another out.

[maddrummer3301]

>> IAM THINKING OF BUYING A DELL XPS 400 WITH A 256Ge 6800
>>VIDEO CARD WITH 1GB RAM AND (2) 160GB RAID(0) HARDDRIVES
>>AND DVD BURNER AND A PENTIUM D DUAL CORE PROCESSOR AND 2
>>VIDEO SCREENS.

I think you need to state how you intend to record the video and whether your intentions are to real-time input into a computer or
using a DV camcorder or dvd-camcorder or direct into a computer.

Church recordings can be very lengthy.
Since your spending a good amount on the computer I would recommend to include a dvd recorder that records to harddisk.
With a harddisk you won't have a time problem.
After the video is on the harddisk you can transfer it to dvd in many formats (video-lengths/compression/video-bit-rate).
Then using the new computer and VS9 one can import the material and edit it creating custom dvd's or VCD's. Burn ISO files for multiple copies which is what you want to do.
Some of the newer dvd-recorders have an ethernet/network connection (nice feature).

I would also make sure to purchase the Retail version (boxed version with CD) of VS9. Available at the Ulead web site or many local vendors.

MD

[sjj1805]

nutsur

In addition to what everone else has said.
The cost of blank DVD's has come down so much now that I now regard
VCD and SVCD as redundant.

There are just a few pennies difference in price between blank CD's and blank DVD's. Similarly you can now buy a dual layer 12x DVD burner very cheaply.

Home produced DVDs can be played in almost any current DVD player
whereas VCD and SVCD are not so widely accepted.

You get far more content and far more quality on DVD plus you are able to produce a menu with much easier navigational controls.

It comes as a disapointment when you go to all the time and trouble to produce a good SVCD which you then hand to a friend/relastive to be later told that their player cannot play it. Never had this problem with a DVD.

Regards
Steve J

[2Dogs]

HI , IAM LOOKING TO BUY A VIDEO SOFTWARE TO RECORD LIVE VIDEO IN MY CHURCH......

Why are you shouting...in red?

[rguthrie]

nutsur,

You've gotten some great advice from some of the "sages" of this forum so I'll only add that Cool3D 3.5 is compatible with VS9 if you decide to buy it. I would just look at the differences to see if it would be worth it for you.

Ron G.

[gbeechey]

Can't imagine a better set of answers to your question. Wish I had known about this forum before I bought my first video editing software.

I discovered some reviews of the different softwares on another user forum & it lead me to the trial download of VS9. I tried the download on Dec 4th and had created 3 projects successfully before Christmas so I purchased the suite and have completed 2 more projects.

I have tried other products (3) and it was my frustration with them that lead me to further research. The review I read talked about the stability of VS9 which is why I tried it since the others I tried were very unstable. Imagine trying to burn a DVD and having it conk out on you at random points in the process 2 or 3 times and then suddenly it works. This wastes a lot of time.

VS9 has crashed a few times on me but always starts up to my last saved point & this is a rare occurrence rather than a consistent issue.

I have a Dell Dimension XPS with a gig of RAM and 250 Gig 7500 RPM drive. The more space you have the better and the more RAM you have the better.

You can't go wrong with the free trial. It does everything the full version does so you can give it a real test on your hardware.

Good luck.