Is upgrading from VSX4 Pro to Ultimate worth it?

[stelch]

I have VideoStudio X4 Pro and I am wondering if it's worth upgrading to VS X4 Ultimate. What are experiences (good or bad)for those who did.

Stelios

[Ken Berry]

I am never sure what purpose a question such as yours will serve in a forum like this, Stelios. Those users who have problems -- and nearly everyone who comes here has problems -- will say they have problems, though some of those might still like the upgrade. Those like me who have no problems with X4 will say so, and they like this or that aspect of it... But then you personally could decide to buy the program and find you fall into the earlier category and feel cheated!

Ultimately, the only way of deciding if it is a good thing or not is to install the trial version -- which gives full functionality AFAIK -- and see for yourself at first hand...

[stelch]

Thanks Ken for your reply. So far (touch wood) I had no problems with any of my ULEAD (COREL) programs, OK Please let me know how to save my current projects when I do the upgrade because from what I gathered you have to unistall the X4 Pro before you install the Ultimate version.

stelios

[Ken Berry]

When you remove X4, you are asked if you want to remove all personal settings. I did not tick that box, so most things remained the same and I could still access existing projects. But it wiped my libraries - so a certain amount of relinking/rebuilding would be required. Mind you, someone will probably have suggestions about saving even these...

[Natal]

Ultimately, the only way of deciding if it is a good thing or not is to install the trial version -- which gives full functionality AFAIK -- and see for yourself at first hand...

He allready has X4. The Ultimate version is the same thing bundled with software from other producers. However, the trial version of Ultimate doesn't include the bundled software (according to the website), so it should be exactly the same as what he allready has.

[Ken Berry]

Yes, I misread his original post.

[bernard001]

I had a BIG problem with Ultimate, with the add-ons. As these are not included in the trial version, you cannot experience the problem with the trial.

Apparently the add-ons don't install correctly if you have other video programs installed (according Corel employee after my claim), which is my case.

So, if you want to use on the same computer another video program than VSX4, Ultimate is USELESS

In the mean time by installing VSX4 Ultimate, I lost a number of FX etc... wich I should have to reinstall

Rather don't use VSX4 Ultimate at all

Installing on another computer without Vegas worked well

[Roberto]

I have many 3rd party effects/transitions plug-ins + another NLE installed.
When I installed VSX4 Ultimate I did NOT experienced any problems with the plug-ins installed in the other NLE program.
But VSX4 is not able to detect if the plug-ins are installed in the PC, unless you uninstall them and re-install again, with one exception for Prodad: I have many volumes from Adorage, then after I intsalled VSX4 Ultimate, I also installed the Vitascene Starter Kit 1.0, and afterwards the Adorage is also brough up in VSX4!
Regarding the additional feature of X4 Ultimate, Mercalli stabilizer works very well and also Boris Graffiti is a powerful and professional title editor, so powerful that I doubt somebody can use all the options in there unless spending a bunch of time on docs and tutorials...

[teknisyan]

@stelch

If you're asking the difference between VS X4 and VS X4 Ultimate, there's no difference between the two... but if you're after the Ultimate Bonus Pack, the only way that you can try and use these add on is to purchase VS X4 Ultimate. Besides you still have the 30-day money back guarantee.

@Bernard,
Which add on are you referring? There was a post here about the proDAD Mercalli SE is missing on VS X4 Ultimate edition. But I think there was a work around on how to resolve this. Plus there's a KB providing a number of work around for this issue.

http://corel.force.com/index/articles/e ... 4-Ultimate

[Joe Linn]

I have VS X3 and X4 Pro installed as well as another NLE (Pinnacle). I uninstalled X4 before installing X4 Ultimate. Mercalli ended up installed in the X3 directory and I had to follow the procedure posted elsewhere to copy it to X4. Graffiti didn't show up in the FX list so I needed to follow a procedure from another post to delete a dataset which then caused the FX list to be rebuilt. Since I did those two work-arounds everything has been working fne.

If your question is whether the add-ons are worth the upgrade from X4 Pro, I can tell you that Mercalli has become my favorite tool. The results have surpassed my expectations. At first I thought I'd just use it on a few of the worst clips, but once they were fixed, other clips started looking bad to me so I added it to them as well. I kept adding it to more and more clips until I am using it on nearly all the clips from a recent trip. Now I am going back and adding it to old projects.

Some people have posted that they had problems with Mercalli on interlaced video. All of my video is 1080i and the only problems I have had are on a couple fast pans. In those cases, I rendered that clip at 1080p and it looked fine. Then I added the 1080p clip to my project and everything looked good when I rendered the project at 1080i. It is an extra step, but the results are worthwhile.

I haven't gotten as far with Graffiti. It is a very complex package and other than a couple tutorials, the documentation is very minimal. There'd is no "easy mode" and the are no wizards. Anything you do will have many pages of options, none of which are explained. I'd gladly buy a book or manual. If anyone knows of one, please let me know.

It looks like Corel has just come out with a successor to Cool 3D Production Studio that offers similar capabilities to Graffiti in a package that is easier to use. That might eliminate the need to study Graffiti.

Joe

[stelch]

OFCOURSE ITS WORTH IT!!!! I bought the Ultimate version and I saved myself $ 369.00 as I was ready to buy the Glidecam 2000 Pro. The proDAD Mercalli works FANTASTIC. I really couldn't believe the difference. All my handheld shots that I have applied Mercalli look amazingly smooth; and the installation went fine with no problems at all. Thank you Corel.

stelios

[dbz2000]

I have taken the dive and sent for VSX4 Pro Ultimate. I read here that you have to uninstall VSX4 Pro first before installing the Ultimate version. My question is in reference to the other versions of VSX3 or VSX2 etc. that I have installed. Do I need to remove ALL versions of VS before installing the Ultimate version or just remove VSX4 Pro? I didn't want to start a new thread just in case this has been answered somewhere else and I did get part of my answer in this thread. Any advice or wisdom will be greatly appreciated.

DBZ2000

[Ron P.]

Yes you should uninstall VS X4 Pro before installing VS X4 Ultimate. Now the problem I had with leaving VS X3 installed, was with the Prodad Mercalli filter. For some reason with X3 installed, it would not install to X4. Once VS X3 was removed, then it installed to VS X4.

[Ken Berry]

But in fact there is not need to uninstall X3 (or X2). I too had the problem with Mercalli, but simply copied the Mercalli filter from the vft_plug sub-directory in X3 over to the same sub-directory in X4 and it worked fine.

[dbz2000]

Thanks to both of your responses. I only have X3 & X4 Pro installed at present and will uninstall VS 4 once my software arrives. Be well.
DBZ2000