VideoStudio Wish List for Future Versions

[Ken Veal]

Have just conformed what you said by using a couple of colour clips,
nver been able to do this before in VS9 in big projects, but great! now I know it can work, thanks Jeff, regards Ken

[Black Lab]

Maybe we should be using the Product Feedback Form for these suggestions.

Didn't know there was such an animal until mentioned by HT Chien in another post.

[htchien]

Jeff, the feedback form is been there for years.

It's still good to have this list, by the way.

H.T.

[Black Lab]

I'm sure it has, I just didn't know about it! I guess neither did a bunch of other people, or we wouldn't have been using the forum.

Thanks for the link.

[brodwidr]

Here are some suggestions after 3-4 weeks of work. I mostly do long format stuff, like instructional video or home movies, with a minimum of effects but a priority on making it fast and simple.

in the preview window, put a little more space between the forward / back buttons and start of project / end of project buttons. Or make them different colors. I often find I hit the "start of project" button by mistake when I only want to go back one frame. Or, have an undo button that lets you go back to where you where before a "jump".

being in "project mode" vs. "clip mode" should be more visually distinctive. For example, put a blue box around the preview window when in project mode. It wouldn't be obtrusive but it would make things more obvious for the user.

text editing in titles does not follow standard windows conventions. Double-clicking should select the word. triple clicking should highlight the entire text in that particular box.

make "copy" and "paste" work for transition effects. You should be able to "copy" and effect and then "paste" it in wherever you want it rather than having to go up to the effects menu each time.

When you cut a clip that has an effect next to it, it is annoying to have the effect be deleted from the timeline. Let the associated dialog box give the user the option to keep the effect or kill the effect, and/or make it a user-selectable preference to keep vs. kill the effect.

It should be possible to re-group separate clips into a single clip and/or perform a single action on multiple clips. Example: I have edited a silent move that has been duped to video tape. I didn't realize that there was some sonic garbage here and there. Now, I have to into each clip individually to split audio and video and delete the audio. Yes, I know I can render it out and then split the audio off, but I don't want to take an extra generation of rendering if I can avoid it. I ought to be able to "select all" and then split audio and delete without having to do it clip by clip. Similarly, if I want to color balance an entire scene consisting of multiple clips I want to apply a filter to a group of clips, not do it clip by clip.

You could to a "format wizard" that would help people make the right settings among the various choices. For example, ask what the source, as what the target is, ask some questions about whether this is going to be mostly played back on computer vs. stand alone DVD players, etc., or whether the user needs to do different versions for different target devices Then it could make a set of recommendations that would help the user get project properties and initial encoding choices correct at the start.


that's it for now.

- David

[burrwick]

Without reading every post to see if this has been listed, I would love to have the ability to stretch and shrink the Pan & Zoom box vertically and not just horizontally.

This would allow much more precise positioning for the Pan & Zoom on pictures with more length than width and would eliminate the problem of having to shrink the box to eliminate the side panels that do not contain an image resulting in cutting out much of the picture.

[brodwidr]

I am reposting this here, after accidently posting it in another part of the site.

1.) The behavior of the different video filters is not as well documented as it could be.

I'm referring mostly to things like exposure correction, color correction, noise removal etc. which take a long time to process. It would be good if you could right-click on a filter and learn more about how to apply it.

It would also be good if you would publish a short application note about how best to use the filters to salvage old film-based projects like home movies. These have a predictable range of problems such as colors fading, jitter, dirt in the camera or projector, scratches, poor splicing that ruins a frame or two adjacent to the splice.

Yes, I could experiment to figure this out, but it would take a lot of time. Why not document a solution?

2.) regarding rendering settings, it would be great if there were a warning (which advanced users could disable) which said something like: "Warning - the settings you have selected are unlikely to produce a DVD that can be played on many commercially available DVD players. Would you like VS to adjust the settings" and give choices (1) Have ulead adjust for maximum compatible (2) leave settings as they are (3) I wish to adjust the settings manually (4) cancel.

3.) In the overlay tracks() there ought to be a video rubber band which runs the video up and down, without having to cut the video out of the overlay track when you want the video track to appear. Let me explain my application: I video tape people make presentations which often involved powerpoint. I capture a direct video of the powerpoint itself, either with a second camera or using CamStudio or SnagIt to make a "movie" of the screen action including mouse moves. No lip synch is necessary here but it must be within a second or two of being insych with the audio. The camcorder stays focused on the presenter, not the slides. When editing, I want to, in effect, cross fade between the video of the presenter and the video of the presenters' slides, depending on what is being said at each moment. If I can leave the overlay track intact, then I can just choose my points where to fade it up or fade it down.

- David

[jparnold]

Utility to list all filenames (clips) within a project (VSP file).
This would make it easier selecting background music clips which have not already been included (preventing duplication) as well as making it easier to back up only those clips which are included in the project.

[Vicki]

....Or put a check in the album thumbnail.

I would like to be able to have a utility that sync's a section of a audio file to the video, whether this means being able to trim audio in the wizard stage, or by keyframes in the edit phase, so I don't have to painstakingly do it manually in the audio view.

And, when importing vs project(s), such as the sync-ed audio section above or any other project, into an edit timeline, it would be desirable to retain the edit capabilities in order to finetune the section in the new project.

I second Piet's idea about the audio being audible when scrolling.

I would like to be able to go back to the wizard after editing for some automated stylized finishing of project, similar to the Pinnacle Movie Maker.

So, just when is the new update coming out?! Hope they have incorporated some of the good ideas in this forum.

[Black Lab]

Hope they have incorporated some of the good ideas in this forum.

They have. It's called MediaStudio Pro.

[burrwick]

Hope they have incorporated some of the good ideas in this forum.

They have. It's called MediaStudio Pro.

I tried a trial version of MediaStudio and didn't like it nearly as much as Video Studio. Features were difficult to incorporate into the video. Pan and Zoom was horrible. Nothing was intuitive like VS. While VS allows the casual user to whip out a professional video, MediaStudio was a frustrating mess.

VS has a great balance between ease of use with lots of features while MS had none of the ease of use.

Maybe I just lacked the ability to work with the more "sophisticated" program but I don't think so.

[Black Lab]

Hope they have incorporated some of the good ideas in this forum.

They have. It's called MediaStudio Pro.

I tried a trial version of MediaStudio and didn't like it nearly as much as Video Studio. Features were difficult to incorporate into the video. Pan and Zoom was horrible. Nothing was intuitive like VS. While VS allows the casual user to whip out a professional video, MediaStudio was a frustrating mess.

VS has a great balance between ease of use with lots of features while MS had none of the ease of use.

Maybe I just lacked the ability to work with the more "sophisticated" program but I don't think so.

Exactly, Ulead has kept VideoStudio simple (and inexpensive) for the average consumer to use. MediaStudio already has all the bells and whistles and is, therefore, more difficult to use.

[Sherryluv4]

The ability to save libraries in a seperate folder that can be imported into future versions or reimported if something goes wrong. How many of us have had to do a clean reinstall because of some pesky bug only to lose our precious libraries and had to recreate them? And I'll say it again, More transitions. Frequent users get tired of the same old transitions. If you've used as many versions as I have, surely you know what I mean. Take some notes from Pinnacle's Hollywood FX.

[jparnold]

The ability to save libraries in a seperate folder that can be imported into future versions or reimported if something goes wrong.

I agree with this one.

[brodwidr]

These pertain to the "share>create disc" part of the program.

1.) A better ability to save settings in case you have to go back, or the program crashes along the way, as it sometimes does. For example, I don't like having to retype in the chapter names.

2.) More flexibility in choosing the thumbnail image that appears in the DVD menu, not just limited to the two seconds following the insert point. An alternative would be to let me call up a previously saved still image and use that as the thumbnail. For my purposes, I don't care whether the image is near the start of the video, I want the image that best conveys the essence of the video.

In the editing stage:
1.) I want to see the title bar when I"m in the audio view, so I can make titles come up at exactly the right time (aligned with the beat in the music.

2.) Sometimes I accidently hit something that takes the cursor from where I want it to be (for example, back to the beginning of the project.) How about a button that pops the cursor back to its previous position. (The "undo" doesn't do this.)

3.) The window that shows a series of individual frames (in the multi-trim session) is terrific!! How about enable this as an option so it is always up in the main editing session.

4.) The "normalize audio" option that is available during the "burn" dialog should also be available during the "create video file" part of the program. So, if you follow the work flow that many people recommend here, to create your mpeg file in one VSP project, and then close it and do your burning in another, you don't have to re-render in order to normalize audio levels.