New VideoStudio user questions

[delaluz]

I'm going to buy either regular or Ultimate version of VideoStudio in a couple of days. I have a couple of questions.

First here's a brief into:

What do I need an editor for
Edit footage of the grandkids lacrosse (lax), football, baseball & tennis practice and games captured with Panasonic FZ-150 HD camera
Edit footage of my teams indoor lax games and outdoor lax games.
Edit multi-camera footage of events (plays, dance routines, etc.)
Edit DV footage that I took several years ago.
Produce either DVD’s, Blu ray DVD’s (future) or You tube videos from the above.

My purchase decision process
I was going to download VideoStudio, Vegas Movie Studio HD, and Cyberlink Power Director. Then I was going to try each one of them & pick the best. However, after downloading VideoStudio & playing around with it for a coupe of days I was so impressed I decided to skip the other 2 and just get VideoStudio.

My background
I ran a small event video business for 4-5 years based upon 3 DV cameras and a NewTek Flyer editing system (an incredible system at that time). After I sold my Flyer I used Vegas 4.0 and Sony Move Studio on a couple of small personal projects.

My Equipment
Asus PQ5- motherboard, 3 ghz Intel core 2 processor, 4 gig ram nvidia geForce GT, 1.5 TB free storage. Running Windows 7 32 bit professional.

Question 1. Would upgrading my Windows 7 Professional to 64 bit & going from 4 gig of ram to 8 gig make VideoStudio run much faster?

Question 2. Are the effects in the Ultimate version worth the additional $$? The image stabilization “effect” seems pretty valuable. Any comments on advantages of the Ultimate package?

Question 3. When playing a project in storyboard mode is there any way to tell which clip is playing? If I hit the pause key I don't believe that the clip being played is highlighted.

Question 4 Is there a "dip to black" transition? i.e. the "A" clip fades down to black and the "B" clip fades up from black. The Flyer editor had this & you could control the length of the effect.


Thanks!


Berto

[pvreditor]

Question 1. Would upgrading my Windows 7 Professional to 64 bit & going from 4 gig of ram to 8 gig make VideoStudio run much faster?

Answer 1: Others may say differently, but I don't think 64-bit Windows will make a difference. My understanding is that Corel VideoStudio (all versions) are 32-bit, so going to 64-bit Windows will probably not make a difference.

Question 2. Are the effects in the Ultimate version worth the additional $$? The image stabilization “effect” seems pretty valuable. Any comments on advantages of the Ultimate package?

Answer 2: I have fiddled with the image stabilization effect but not actually used it. I could not get it to do much good for me the one time I tried it, but I may have been using it wrong.

Question 3. When playing a project in storyboard mode is there any way to tell which clip is playing? If I hit the pause key I don't believe that the clip being played is highlighted.

Answer 3: I always use timeline mode, so I recommend that. It's easy to see which clip is playing when you're in timeline mode. I have no experience with storyboard mode.

Question 4 Is there a "dip to black" transition? i.e. the "A" clip fades down to black and the "B" clip fades up from black. The Flyer editor had this & you could control the length of the effect.

Answer4: Corel VideoStudio definitely has that transition... I use it all the time. You may have to dig for it, but add it to your transition "favorites" when you find it. That way, it's easy to find again. It's called the "fade to black" transition. If you click on the transition to highlight it, you can make it longer or shorter.

Bob Kovacs
http://www.bobkovacs.com

[Kingston]

In storyboard mode, there is a cursor that moves over the board that is being played. When you stop playback, the cursor is over the board that was being played. The cursor is a thin vertical line.

Mercalli Stabilizer is very well worth it. You can go on Youtube and search for Prodad Mercalli and view before and after videos. Of the 10 or so stabilizers I have used over the past 7 years, this is the best, but not the cheapest if you were to buy the multi-app general plug-in. I actually went with the Ultimate version because of the Graffiti plug-in and NewBlue Titler and effects. I already had the Mercalli Stabilizer. If you don't need to use them, then they are not worth anything. Otherwise, try and buy the extras on their own and see what it would cost you.

[lata]

Answer 4
First go to "F6" Preferences to set the default durations.
Hi Berto

using the Color clip library (small flower icon-graphics) drag a clip between your video clips, any colour but black is available --- use Crossfade transition from the transition library.
Modify the durations by adjusting the digital clock--below library, if empty press the options word lower right.
Answer3
Project playback position is indicated by the curser, can be seen in both Storyboard and Timeline playback. Go to Preferences F6 set Display Mode to Thumbnail only.
After pausing play, pressing the word Clip will highlight the clip. the active clip having yellow surround.

Answer 2
Image stabilization effect, impressed so far it seems to do a very good job.
Have yet to render the project to the final output so cannot comment on any quality issues, but for stabilization --excellent


Mini DV capture
You must use Firewire to transfer the footage, select DV as the capture format, choose DV-Type 1.
the captured video will be 13 Gb per hour.