CNET Editors' review
CyberLink PowerDirector 10 is a feature-packed video editor that boasts some serious improvements over its previous iteration. With its revamped TrueVelocity engine and OpenCL support, it makes editing and rendering a bit speedier than before. Plus, it's got built-in 3D support.
As for the basics, PowerDirector can import and handle most of the video file types you would normally come across. You can also use it to easily add text, effects, and transitions; edit audio; capture video; burn discs; and share content online. Plus, it has intuitive, icon-based navigation and ample thumbnails, making it quite easy to zip around its interface.
So what's new? Eye-popping titles, picture-in-picture, particle effects, and time-lapse editing are among the added features. There's also, of course, some incredibly powerful 3D editing, as it can import all types of 3D content, convert from 2D to 3D, and output to virtually any industry-standard 3D format. Plus, the program includes some very nifty 3D menus and effects.
Among the new features, one of our favorites has to be Audio Beat Marker, which can potentially shave hours off of your editing sessions. The Beat Marker analyzes your soundtrack and automatically places markers at what it feels are major beat points, making it much easier to precisely place music-driven transitions and other effects. So, as you can imagine, it makes editing, say, a music video a less tedious process. There's also a single-click audio normalizer for when you're compiling several clips from different audio sources with different audio properties.
Another new feature we enjoy is the Drawing tool. It can record your mouse-drawn gestures and create overlays for use with your footage. Imagine recording your signature, and having it play out to look like graffiti being sprayed on a wall. While it might not be something you'd use every day, it sure is a nifty trick to have in your back pocket.
Finally, one thing that sets PowerDirector apart from its competitors is its integrated user community, DirectorZone. Through DirectorZone, you can download creative new menus, effects, particles, and even tutorials to help enrich your CyberLink experience overall. So if you need to stylize some dream sequence footage, for instance, you can log in and get tips from others who have that kind of knowledge.
While we do love the improvements that PowerDirector 10 brings to the table, we still wish we could squeeze a bit more out of its revamped engines. We felt it was a bit sluggish when launching, and it even lagged a little when we tried to quickly click through and preview all of the video effects. Overall, it's certainly not a slow program, but we did expect it to be a bit zippier.
In spite of its performance blips, we still consider CyberLink PowerDirector 10 a feature-packed video editor that gives you tons of bang for your buck. Whether you're a novice video editor or a more advanced user, it should have the tools you're looking for. And if it doesn't, you can probably find what you're looking for in the built-in treasure trove that is DirectorZone.
Publisher's Description
From CyberLink:
With a revamped TrueVelocity rendering engine that's faster than ever, along with the richest end-to-end 3D editing suite available, PowerDirector 10 is redefining digital video editing. Join over 2,000,000 users and experience first-hand the award-winning performance and professional-quality features PowerDirector has to offer. Designed with new technologies, PowerDirector is packed with powerful editing tools to support End-to-end 3D editing, HD video editing, magic tools to enhance video quality, thousands of customizable effects, 100 media tracks and a user interface that is designed for getting videos done fast and easy.
What's new in this version:
- Revamped TrueVelocity 2 rendering engine
- Create 3D movies with end-to-end 3D video editing features
- Unleash your creativity with tons of pro-quality tools
- Create, share & learn with DirectorZone's 2,000,000+ members
- Find the perfect effect from over 200,000 free downloads
More Popular Video Editing Software downloads
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64,959 downloads
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26,600 downloads
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24,430 downloads
- CyberLink PowerDirector
16,594 downloads
- VideoPad Video Editor
14,325 downloads
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All versions:
3.1 starsout of 266 votes
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Current version:
2.5 starsout of 14 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Not worth it"
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
Features, flexibility
Cons
Slows down easy, cant handle rapid execution of small clips inless you got an expensive intel processor. Pinnacle Studio, and Corel X4 are much more efficient than this software.
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"Tech support is hopeless"
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
Easy and intuitive to use and would be great if it worked. From what I have read it is probably not much better or worse than any other non professional similar products.
Cons
I have the same problems as others have reported. Frames freezing, crashes after hours of work and support that is frustrating and designed to deter me from trying to pursue a problem resolution. There appear to be some ways around the problems. Replay the video in the edit phase without any changes multiple times until all clips play without freezing and split the video into smaller and smaller movies until you get one that it is able to manage error free. This means that you will end up with a lot more DVD's than you planned for.
Summary
I'd try something else.
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"Intuitive, feature rich and reliable."
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
All the features I need.
Cons
None so far.
Summary
I've struggled with the unreliability of Pinnacle Systems Studio for years, buying an upgrade every so often hoping that they will have fixed the bugs, but no, it never works for very long without crashing, and you never know when it's going to happen. So far, PowerDirector 10 does not seem to suffer from these problems and I think is more intuitive, faster and with more features than Studio.
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"Crashes When producing the movie"
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
If it actually worked: Easy to use and has some good tools.
Cons
The program crashes everytime you try to produce the movie and Im talking about a 55 second movie all I did was trim and crop the original, I tried to produce the movie under all different options still crashed and Im using a core i5 with 8GB of ram. It also adds a cyberlink watermark if you're using the trial.
Summary
Don't waste you're time and energy on installing it.
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"BAAAAAAAAAD"
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
The program is free
Cons
Tried to load a standard size video and every time I did, it froze and crashed. Guess it's worth the price I paid. $0.
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"DO NOT BUY!"
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
There is nothing good to say about this crap
Cons
How much time do you have?
Summary
I've already left a review about how bad this software is, but it infuriates me so much that I feel compelled to leave another one. I cannot stress this point enough, DO NOT BUY THIS. The software constantly crashes, freezes, and slows down my computer. I'm running a setup that well exceed their minimum requirements.
Perhaps the only thing worse than the product itself...customer service. More so, the lack of customer service. I have been emailing them for I don't know how many months now and they keep telling me to repeat the same steps, none of which work. Additionally, they only communicate via email and are very slow to respond, sometimes taking a week or more to answer back. They do offer phone support, if you want to pay an additional $30. I have no idea what any of these positive reviews are talking about. They either have never used a computer before or are completely delirious.
Bottom line: absolutely useless piece of software from a (somehow?) even more pathetic company. -
"Useless piece of software."
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
Nothing. I hate this software.
Cons
Full of serious bugs.
Summary
My video clips kept freezing while the audio played on. This happened when I was trying to produce my movie or burn a disk. The bug was random; I never knew when it would happen or to which video clip. I wasted many hours of effort trying to get it to work. I have an up to date Imac that should easily have enough memory and power to make this software work. I found this product to be full of serious bugs that technical support cannot fix or help me with. I found the product to be unuseable. I purchased PD5 some years ago and that was also useless. The sale of this product should be banned. I have asked for a refund.
I'll say this in favour of Cyberlink: They were good about giving me a refund. It makes you feel better to delete bad software and get a refund, rather than be stuck with it and out of pocket.
Updated on Dec 26, 2011 -
"ABSOLUTE GARBAGE..I would give it a ZERO but you cant."
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
none..everything about it is BAD
Cons
I am running 8GB of Ram with an I7 Processor..still crashes and gets locked up. The user interface is garbage. The support????? well there is none!!!!! You can go on their user forums and get attacked by some smarmy know it all geeks. Cyberlink is GARBAGE might as well use windows Movie Maker.
Summary
save your money ..ITS CHEAP and there is a reason why.
I think this guy works for Cyberlink. This product us CRAP!
ABSOLUTE GARBAGE!!!!!!
Updated on Dec 10, 2011 -
"Major flaws and absolutely zero tech support"
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
Some nice features, but ...
Cons
I tried the trial version. It had a major flaw in its Text function, which is vital for making videos. There is no phone # for tech support unless you pay $30 (beware anyone who charges their customers a huge fee for tech support). I emailed tech support about the problem and got a canned reply, telling me to upgrade my video card. The problem was NOT video related, and the reply was instead, just a way to avoid having to answer the problem. I emailed them again, and this time, got another canned reply about printing out a DirectX diagnostic. Again, the text problem has NOTHING to do with DirectX, and the reply is simply one of those things lazy people send when they can't be bothered actually addressing the issue. I emailed them a 3rd time and got no further response. I then emailed their U.S. sales office in CA, and was completely ignored also. Note that I had not even purchased the product yet, and already, there is NO useful sales or tech support, and no phone # to call.
Summary
From my perspective, the product may have some good features but some of them are buggy, and since the company took no effort to address the problem or work it out with me, I cannot use this product for any video projects I have. The company clearly has no interest in servicing customer problems.
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"Great features, but for me it crashes"
Version: CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Pros
Lots of useful features, not difficult to learn. Does a nice job rendering HD MTS files to DVD. Nice that you can download additional templates and other content (or create your own or use the few that are included).
Cons
This program is crashing way too often and in too many places. My system is Win7Pro, running on fairly high end hardware that's perfectly stable with the multitude of other programs I use--but this one (trial version) has crashed multiple times during editing, and has made several DVD coasters for me--have gotten ONE good DVD and it has a short section where the video action froze while audio continued. Cyberlink hasn't responded to my plea for help.
Summary
If it just wouldn't crash, I'd give it five stars. At this point, I've lost faith in it, and will almost certainly buy something else.
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