PowerDirector 6 - Powerful Video Editing Tools Are Only Part of the Story

“I just want a simple, easy-to-use program to capture and edit my home videos. I want it to have some good effects, but I don’t need to edit every last detail of my 40th birthday video. Video editing programs are just so complicated.” These are the things I hear from my friends and colleagues. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity is the mantra of the baby-boomer computer user. It seems that no one really wants to understand the different recordable formats of a DVD, how many frames per second that human eye interprets, or the compression rate for an AVI file. Generally, it seems that people want to put their video on the hard drive, make it cool enough to whistle at, put it on a DVD, and admire their work in a La-Z-Boy with a beer in their hand. Is that too much to ask?

 It seems to me that someone at CyberLink must have been in cell phone range, because they took the call and answered it well. CyberLink PowerDirector 6 is an easy-to-use program with more than just a “nice personality.” It has an easy-to-understand graphical user interface that is backed up by powerful video editing code.

PowerDirector 6 has everything that you need to produce quality home movies. From pre-production to finalizing your DVDs, PowerDirector 6 is loaded with powerful options allowing you to sit in the director's chair full-time. Let me introduce you to some of the features that you’ll find in this application.

Import/Capture

PowerDirector 6 gives you all the tools you need to import media that is already on your hard drive, capture media from a portable video camera, or even capture media from non-restricted DVDs. The CyberLink PowerDirector 6 environment is iconic. You don't have to choose from a bunch of drop-down menus; just click the icon from where you want to capture or import media. It's that easy. Once you have decided where you want to import from, just sit back and relax. CyberLink PowerDirector supports the import of the following file formats for import:

Image: JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG

Video: HD MPEG-2, DVR-MS, DV-AVI, DAT, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VOB, VRO, WMV, WMV-HD, MOV, MOD, DivX, MP4

Audio: MP3, WAV, WMA, ASF

Capture mode is just as easy [see screenshot below]. You have the ability to set options such as the time limit or size limit of the file that you want to capture. You can also decide where you want the capture files to be stored on your hard drive. CyberLink PowerDirector supports the import of the following file formats for capture:

• MPEG-1

• MPEG-2

• MPEG-4

• AVI

• DivX

If your capture card or video card supports it, you can even capture video from your cable TV or antenna. You can integrate some of your favorite TV moments into your video.

You can capture video scenes (including the audio portion) from a DVD for use in your video project. Some DVDs are protected by technology that does not allow you to capture the content they contain (aargh, matey! (you know, like a pirate)). But this is an extremely efficient way to bring captured video from home DVDs you have already made into your current project.

You can take a still snapshot of a video clip that is in your project. If you caught your son's sports prowess only on video and you want to have a digital image of it, you can do that through this still snapshot tool.

Editing

Once you have your video clips either imported or captured into this application, PowerDirector opens a whole library of video effects and transitions [see screenshots below] for you to personalize and to help you produce a quality video product. PowerDirector makes it easy for you to split or trim video and audio clips [see screenshot below] wherever you need to make your transitions and shots memorable. You can stretch out your clips if you want to slow down the motion and show the video clip at half speed. If you have unwanted noise in the background, you can mute an entire media clip or just take out the audio in one spot (see screenshot below). PowerDirector allows you to change the color of clips as well as edit the images that are in the clips. This program also allows you to output in either full-screen (4:3) or widescreen (16:9). Another feature that PowerDirector has is called PiP (picture-in-picture) [see screenshot below]. You can modify objects and their size, position, motion, and effects.

If you are a novice at video editing, let Magic Movie Wizard help you make editing decisions. You can make breathtaking slideshows, music videos, or easy home movies with this wizard. The power of CyberLink PowerDirector 6 is found in its wizards. Whether doing a voiceover recording, adding subtitles, creating a file for the Internet, or producing a disk, there is a wizard to walk you through every step along the way. These wizards tap into the powerful effects and transitions libraries that exist in this program. It is an absolute breeze to preview all the effects or transitions that you can put on to your video clips. If you hover over the transition or effect, the program previews it for you. This gives you control over the effect and allows you to make a decision before you put it in your video clip. This will save you a lot of time. Overall, PowerDirector 6 has a truckload of editing power for you to easily make creative video projects.

Production

The video has been captured and edited; now it's time to produce a movie that would get a thumbs-up from the harshest critics. Just click on Produce and PowerDirector takes you to another wizard that will help you save your work in the format of your choice. This wizard allows you to create a file, a video, or a streaming video, or allows you to write back to your DV/HDV camera. This program allows you to save in the following formats:

AVI

MPEG1

MPEG2

DivX

Portable MPEG4

AVC MPEG4

Windows Media

Real Player

QuickTime

DV tape

HDV tape

Streaming media files for the Internet

These are all available at the click of the mouse. The wizard guides you through the entire process. After you have produced one of these files, you may choose to create a DVD. There is a (big surprise) wizard to guide you through the disk-making process. You can choose from several different styles to make your DVD menu. This menu can include audio that you choose. You can then choose the menu buttons, and what will play from those buttons. You simply add the files that you have created into the right places and you can make a Hollywood-style DVD, playable in most DVD players.

From capturing to editing and production, CyberLink PowerDirector 6 sits you in the director's chair. You don't need a million-dollar budget to make incredible films. For just $89.95, CyberLink PowerDirector 6 does everything but tear off the ticket stub for your excellent home movies.