VideoStudio Ultimate X6 and AVS4you

[Bob C]

Hello everyone, newbie to this forum.
I've spent several hours over a couple of days trying to read, know about and compare VideoStudio Ultimate X6 and the AVS4you software packages. I've had AVS on my Windows XP machine and loved my Corel Draw suite from CD 3 to CD 11 also on my Windows XP machine. The support Corel has provided over the years has won my respect for the company. I now run Windows 8 Home Edition on a Dell and have neither programs loaded on it and my XP machine is old and slow. I'm leaning heavily toward purchasing VideoStudio Ultimate X6 and is why I joined this forum.

My Question:
Has anyone done any kind of comparison between VideoStudio Ultimate X6 and the AVS4you software packages or does anyone have any words of wisdom or an opinion about how the two packages compare? Any insight in the comparisons would be helpful.

My "new" computer is a Del Inspiron 660 i5 64-bit operating system with 8.00 GB RAM

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bob C.

[BrianCee]

hello Bob

to be honest I had never heard of AVS4you until I read your post despite 15 years of editing videos on a computer - but a quick Google provided quite a lot of information - it looks quite different from VideoStudio.

Can't provide any info on a comparison between the two but I would suggest that you download the FREE 30 day trial of VS and try it all out for yourself - you will be able to get all the support you want on using VideoStudio and how to carry out various tasks from these forums - although Corel themselves do not provide any technical assistance for trials.


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[Bob C]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for your quick reply. I would be interested in the differences you seemed to have spotted after a quick Google search on AVS4you especially given your experience in video editing and having never heard of AVS before. ( I was surprised to read that) Fresh eyes and 1st impressions are rare and can offer wonderful insights. Thanks again.

[BrianCee]

I have not looked into the details at all - but it struck me that VideoStudio seemed to be more organised and professional looking - I have not downloaded anything but just grabbed a screen shot from their webpage - I chose this one :-

click on the image to enlarge it

I am not sure from the image whether that is for capture/input or editing - it appears to be both - VideoStudio splits those functions completely so that the capture screen looks like this :-

click on the image to enlarge it

and the editing screen will look something like this depending on what editing you are doing :-

click on the image to enlarge it

that last editing screen actually produced this demo video :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqDJkGQm6Z4 - which I made just to demonstrate to a user who had seen a similar technique done in a more expensive software programme and wanted to know if VideoStudio could do the same.


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[Bob C]

WOW!
Brian that is a wonderful example. I was wondering if it was possible to do a split screen with VideoStudio Ultimate X6 and you showed a 3 panel split, excellent. Your reply has also directed me to some of your videos on Youtube as well! Thank you.

I wanted the ability to be able to paint and add animation over video and AVS can't do that (at least the version I had) and I just discovered VideoStudio Ultimate X6 can.... I'm very excited about finding this software and this forum.

[BrianCee]

you can of course also do the more normal simple split screen as below ;-

click on the image to enlarge it

[tommy12]

From the little experience I have with AVS Video Editor, there are many differences between it and Videostudio. One notible difference is that with AVS it is very much easier to work with Video Effects applied to the main video track. Like Cyberlink PowerDirector, AVS has its own Video Effect track in the timeline. This allows you to edit the length of the effect easily and allows it to be applied to just part of a video clip. Changes can be made effortlessly. With Videostudio you have to apply the effect to the entire clip. You would have to do more editing to achieve the same thing in Videostudio, if you didn't want the effect applied to the whole clip.

But, and I could be wrong, because of the seperate effects track in AVS, it looks like you might not be able to apply an effect to an overlay track. This is easy to do in Videostudio, and it is done the same way as for the main video track.

AVS looks good for making videos quickly and easily. It's very intuitive and straightforward. But Videostudio has more features and capabilities than AVS.

Also, if you're looking to work with video from a DSLR in H264.mov format you might be disappointed with Videostudio. But I never tried video from my Nikon DSLR with AVS.

[Bob C]

Thanks for the input Tommy12. Making adjustments to the "Over Lay" track is something I believe I want to do, that's helpful to know.

I do not yet have a DSLR camera but I must say I'm surprised to read VideoStudio can't or doesn't handle H264.mov format well, if that's what you mean?

I have HD video from two sources ATM, A Flip "minoHD" and a key fob like 808 camera and also a couple of cameras that shoot VGA video as well. I found an odd but effective open source editor for the Flip video called Avidemux.

[BrianCee]

While it is true that one or two people have had problems with the H264 codec used in some cameras - thousands of us - including me - have no trouble at all with the H264 codec, my .mts videos from my Panasonic camcorder use it and work perfectly - I can also load and edit .mov files (Ambarella codec) from my Toshiba cam.

It is quite simple any rate to use one of the many free video converters available around the internet to convert any videos VideoStudio may have problems with into a format that it does not have problems with and edit those.

and while applying an effect to a video does apply it to the whole video it takes seconds to use the scissor tool and make a cut in the video where you want the effect to start and another where you want it to end.

[Bob C]

Wonderful to read that Brian, great advice and insight thank you!

[Bob C]

I'm pleased to say I just purchased VideoStudio Ultimate X6 Brian, thanks for your help and assistance. Thank you as well for your input Tommy12.

[tommy12]

I certainly agree with Brian that many users find no problems with H264.mov files from their camcorder. He's been doing video editing for a long time, and I am a newbie who's just hoping to learn from him and the other knowledgeable moderaters and members.

My statement was referring to DSLR video from Canon and Nikon in particular, that do not play nice with Videostudio. IMHO, converting video is an option that I don't think should have to be done with modern editing programs when video comes from very popular DSLRs like Canon and Nikon. I feel Corel is really behind the ball on this issue, especially since other popular video editors I've tried my Nikon DSLR HD videos with have had no problems, with no conversion necessary, and produce smooth output with no hiccups and having quality as good as the orignal's. Conversion, imho, is not generally a good option when many other programs work ok without it, and converting files takes up twice the hard drive space and costs time to do it. Plus the additional conversion step arguably might cause a quality loss.

Videostudio also has some basic problems producing output from my MJPG.AVI SD videos from my Canon SX110 point & shoot, but I have found a way to overcome it and will post my solution later, in case anyone in the future comes across similar problems.

Videostudio also has problems with video from my small camcorder that makes video in .mov format that, like Brian's camcorder, uses the Ambarella codec. I am not able to produce .mov output that has good quality. In fact, the .mov output is terrible.

So using Videostudio with video from three sources, I have problems. It doesn't matter if most people have a good editing experience if you don't!

I temporarily stopped working on trying to finding an acceptable solution for my DSLR video to concentrate first on my Canon videos. But now that my Canon problem is solved I am going to try again to see if I can also find a reasonable solution for the Nikon videos.

If you already know exactly what part of a clip you want to apply an effect to, then a simple scissor cut would certainly suffice. In fact Brian was nice enough to answer my question concerning this same matter when I asked it on this forum.

But if you want to experiment with what part of a clip you want to apply an effect to, it is indeed more complicated because when you change the length of the split part that you applied the effect to, the other split part is no longer continuous with it in time. You'll have split the clip, then adjust the split part that you didn't apply the effect to, so that there's no discontinuity between the two split parts when you play the whole video, if you know what I mean. In AVS you can simply adjust the length and position of the effect to see what looks best, without touching the video clip itself.

Videostudio has good features and capabilities, for sure, and is the reason that I have stuck with it and will try to get my Nikon videos to work with it, but I'm hoping that in the next version 7, Corel will update it so that a workaround is not necessary.

Brian, can you tell me what output template properties you use for your Ambarella.mov videos from your Panasonic when you create an output file, or do you create only DVDs from them? Thanks.

Tommy12

[BrianCee]

I am not quite sure what tommy means by discontinuity when you split a clip - if you use the scissor tool it is just a straight cut through the video and when you play through the cut you should not even notice it is there - if you are saying you can see where the effect ends - then have you ended it in the correct place ? - if there is just a small noticeable change why not try putting a simple crossfade across the split so that the change is more gradual.

Regarding the .mov files from the Toshiba camera - I do not use it much for serious video work because the very reason I purchased it is also it's major downfall - it is very small and folds completely flat such that it slips into a shirt pocket almost unnoticed - but that makes it (for me anyrate) very difficult to hold still when doing hand held shots - so the videos from it I convert to mp4 using the standard Youtube mp4 HD settings set in VideoStudio - I use those videos on different websites (not actually Youtube) - but I have just uploaded a short test clip to Youtube which you can find here :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVvSG6LDPto

my view of it is that it is quite good quality wise but you can see when panning I find it difficult to do so smoothly


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[Bob C]

I now have my wife's 10 MP Kodak "EasyShare" Z915 camera that shoots 640x480 video in the .MOV file format that I'm pleased to say can be edited very well in VideoStudio Ultimate X6, nice to know that works for me. In fact I'm having a ball playing around with this editor and Impressed and pleasantly surprised with how much it can do. The video tutorials are keeping me busy as the adventure continues!

[tommy12]

Hi Brian and All,

The video from you Toshiba does look excellent. I tried the same Youtube setting for 1080p clips from my Nikon camera and also got similar results. My problem has been editing these Nikon DSLR, H264.Mov, videos in Videostudio, mainly because they are almost frozen when I try to play them in the preview window. I get just a series of still images at various time during the playback. I attribute this, rightly or wrongly, to VS using the Quicktime player software to play the files, instead of having its own decoder. I do have trouble playing the videos directly in Quicktime player too, though it's nowhere as bad as when played in VS. The videos play fine in UMPlayer and VLC, two players that use other codecs and don't depend on the Quicktime player for playback. In VS the playback is worse when previewing a clip on the Timeline as opposed to just viewing it in the library. But even when viewing a clip from the library the playback is not smooth. And yes, I do have proxy files created.

The best solution I have come up with so far is to create custom proxy files that are easier to play than the default ones. I wrote a explanation in another post to someone who is also having problems editing their Nikon videos in VS:
http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 67#p273035.

I'd like to find a solution that will allow me to play clips in my library and on the timeline smoothly (just individual clips, without the other tracks that also get played when playing the Project). So far, VS chokes when I try. Granted, I don't have a very powerful computer, but other popular editing programs (even without creating proxy files) and stand-alone media players can play these 1080p video clips with ease . So VS should dump its reliance on Quicktime and supply other codecs or allow you to use other codecs. If anyone has any suggestions on how to play Nikon DSLR videos smoothly, I'd appreciate hearing your experience.

Brian, I'm sorry I didn't explain myself better about the split clip. Let me try to give you a better explanation.

Suppose you have a 10sec clip and you want to apply an effect to the first part of the clip but you don't know exactly for how long. Let's say you think you might want to apply it for the first 5 seconds. So you split the clip at 5sec and apply the effect. You preview the whole project and then you see the effect for the first 5sec and no effect for the last 5sec. But then let's say you want to see how it looks if the effect lasts one second longer. So you choose the first clip and drag the right end to 6sec. But the second part of the video, the part without the effect, still starts where it did before, at the 5sec mark (in relation to the original video clip), even though it has been pushed to the right on the timeline. You need to drag the left end of the second part to the one second to the right so that it starts where the first part (the part with the effect) now ends, so that there is no discontinuity in the video. You see what I mean?

It's not too bad if you just want to adjust by whole seconds but if you want to adjust the effect at arbitrary times and by arbitrary lengths (either more or less), you have to keep track of how many frames you increased of decreased the part of the clip you are applying the effect to, and then you have to adjust the other part by the same number of frames in the same direction, so that the second part (without the effect) starts where the first parts leaves off, so that the whole video will be continuous. I hope this makes sense.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any help.

Tommy12