It does not matter how fast it goes, if the result is unusable

PowerDirector 13 is poorly designed and renders video recordings so flawed that they are unusable. Version 12 and 13 are almost identical in terms of features, so there is little reason for an update. Although CyberLink should manage to fix the rendering issues, the functions of PowerDirector currently exceeded by almost every other video editing program the same price range.

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Rendering issues

When I rendered a short, edited video with PowerDirector 13, I was shocked to see that the resulting video file was completely flawed - with vibrant colors and large compression artifacts. This occurred regardless of the use of my rendering settings. I tried it with many different codecs, file formats and bit rates, but the problems persisted. When I tried to export the file in Quicktime MOV format, I had an additional problem with the sound, which was every second or so and then back out. The results were completely useless, no matter what settings I've used. I even tried to delete all temporary files that were associated with this project, so that I could re-create it, but nothing helped.

I had installed the last update at the time of writing the review, but even if Cyberlink these problems resolve with a future software patch, I find PowerDirector's features but not particularly attractive.

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They say it should be quick

CyberLink's marketing claims that PowerDirector possessed the fastest video rendering engine in the world. I do not know to what measure this is due or whether the company has the number of errors that are produced by the rendering engine into account, but a rendering engine, the accuracy for speed sacrifices, uses no anything.

Suppose CyberLink thinks so that you can render flawless videos faster than the competition. But even this is not a very important feature that you are looking at video editing software. Rendering is the part that you do at the very end, when you can do other things and go away. It does not matter if rendering then an hour or six hours long if you let it run overnight. Speed ​​during the machining process even more importantly, to enable a liquid play, so you can check the timing of the edits correctly. Playback is in PowerDirector 13 liquid, as long as the clips are not superimposed and no effects were used. Or if you have the image quality of the preview is set extremely low. I usually do not get smooth playback, and activating 'shadow files' has made no difference. I also use Adobe Premiere Elements 12 and a few other video editing programs on the same computer (Windows 8.1 64-bit, Intel Core i7 processor, AMD Radeon HD 8870M graphics card) and had with these programs never these problems.

Another problem with speed affects the workflow of the most common processing tasks. If something is wrong, the entire manufacturing process takes much longer equal. Unfortunately, it makes PowerDirector wrong. As in earlier versions allows a well PowerDirector 13 not to select prior to insertion into a clip to start and end in an area of ​​a video clip, which you want to use in a movie. This means that you put yourself when you insert a short part of a one-hour clip the entire clip in the timeline of her movie and then have to shut this cut to the desired size. This might not sound like a big thing, but it takes a few extra steps for each clip that are used, in and again to zoom out and to move the clip to the correct position. And these extra steps are tiring when you have to carry it hundreds of times.

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NEW IN VERSION 13

I really had to differences between versions 12 and 13 looking for, but there are a few:

1. There is now a function for automatic alignment of clips that have been recorded at the same time. This is good when recording with multiple cameras or a camera and a separate audio recorder.
2. Version 13 has finally an indication of Db level in the audio mixer, with the mixer is still pretty bad implemented.
3. Version 13 also supports the H.265 codec, the successor to H.264, which is currently used to encode the most online video content. H.265 can output the same video quality at about half the file size.
4. With the new version you can also get space in the CyberLink Cloud. This is free for one year. I suppose that it then cost something.

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FEATURES THAT POWER DIRECTOR HAS STILL NOT

Besides a tool for noise reduction PowerDirector has no sound effects. And although the program a long list of video effects has (with things like swirling hearts and exploding stars for your uncle, so he can ruin your wedding video so) there are few core effects that a dominated agent might like to have, such as tools for high-quality color correction.

It also lacks support for editing video files to Apple ProRes format, although this should not necessarily be a problem for most users.

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SUMMARY

It is quite possible that the rendering problems that I have, have specifically to do with my setup. But this means that the product is currently in a sense useless to me, and therefore I can give only one star. Once the problems have been solved with the rendering, I'll adjust my review course, do.

I have tested in the past, the 11 and 12 versions of PowerDirector, but any large video project that I started with one of the two, I have closed because of the various problems that I have described above with another editing program. If these problems also apply to version 13, so I would be more than 2 or 3 stars, although the rendering problems are eliminated.