Avid Liquid v7 Video Editing Software -Academic Version Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been editing video for nearly 10 years, starting with Pinnacle StudioDV, progressing up through the Pinnacle DV500 (with Adobe Premiere) and finally to the Liquid family of products, I feel that my abilities (as an editor) have grown as I advanced my technological infrastructure and and upgrading from Pinnacle Liquid Edition to Avid Liquid was no exception.
I have to admit that the initial release of Liquid 7.0 by Avid was a misstep, they were extremely quick to remedy the situation with a Service Pack 1 which was soon followed by the (very stable) release of Liquid 7.1.
What sold me on Liquid was it's INSTANT SAVE feature. Thirty times every second your project is saved. In the likelihood your PC crashes (and they all do), as soon as you reboot your system and launch Liquid, you'll be amazed to see your project, perfectly intact - just the way it was when your PC crashed. That single feature alone is worth the price of admission! Add to that a simply brilliant multicam function that allows you to seamlessly edit between 16 different video sources, background rendering, professional color correction, dynamic time-warping (slo-mo/fast-mo) plus a ton of REAL TIME special effects, Avid Liquid is (by far) the most product you can get, for the money.
Avid Liquid was made for the Wedding and Event videographer. It's interface, while not initially intuitive, is easily understood and navigable within a weekend. And with a plethora of independent video-based tutorials and instructional books on the market, anyone can become a master of this superior NLE within a month.
Perhaps the biggest assets of using this product is its intensely loyal and growing user community. While telephone technical support could stand some improvement (and what software company can't), online forum's dedicated to Liquid is the fastest and most direct way of getting answers to your questions.
Regardless of whether you are new to editing or a seasoned professional, Avid Liquid 7.1 (and beyond) is designed to make your editing tasks efficient, accurate and a whole lot of fun.

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Digital Video And Audio Production Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)First off this product is BOTH a 163 page spiral bound booklet WITH companion DVD. The DVD contains images and files used in the lessons in the booklet. It has an easy to follow format, is well written, and uses images when necessary. Even a first timer should find this booklet easy to use.
Cheers,
Greg

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Sony Pictures Sound Effects Series: Volumes One through Ten Review

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(More customer reviews)"...As none of us have the time or the money to foley all of our own sound effects, this is a set that any filmmaker should take a look at, even if you don't think you're doing very effects-heavy films. Sound effects are not just for action films and slapstick comedies, but can also touch up a great love scene in a romantic drama or add the necessary impact to the flying fonts in a trailer. Plus, the sound design effects included in the later discs give you additional elements that you can weave into the story to give your audience the visceral feeling you want them to have..." -Jeremy Hanke, Microfilmmaker Magazine, Issue 17 (Feb/Mar '07), Final Score: 9.7/10

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Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)This video editor is able to read .VOB file from DVD's created from VCR tapes, making it great for editing the old family videos. The display is quite customizable and easy to spread over two monitors. There is a small learning curve, but the "Show Me How" help a lot. The only things that detract from this is (1) the lack of a comprehensive noise reduction facility (Sony has this as a pricey plug-in, but then, none of the other video editors in this price range has this feature), and (2) the DVD creation software is not integrated in with the editor (although it is included in the package). But don't buy this software just on our say-so, download the 30 day free trial from the Sony web site and make sure it works for you before you buy.
[...]

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Vegas Movie Studio software is the easiest way to create captivating movies and slideshows to share with friends and family or online. Integrated DVD authoring.

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Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Review

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(More customer reviews)I have owned this software for about two weeks. My only prior experience with video editing is Movie Maker and InterVideo WinDVD. I was originally going to purchase Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 but then I noticed this version was just released and it has some new features.
After some initial frustration I am happy with the purchase. The learning curve is what is so frustrating especially for a novice like me. I made two coasters (though I admit that was really my fault) and at one point I was considering trying to return it for a refund because I was getting so stressed. I still get frustrated with the fact that you have to use two separate programs: Vegas Movie Studio 9 to make the movie and DVD Architect 4.5 (included) to make the menus and author the disc.
Now that I've been playing with it every day for two weeks, things are better now. It just takes hours and hours of working with the software which in turn makes the user more familiar with how to navigate through it and achieve a desirable result. No more stress. Now that I have made a couple of DVDs successfully I have a whole new appreciation of Sony Vegas. They turned out great! My movies have a beautiful 16:9 widescreen representation, great audio, decent menus, good video FX, and I've had a blast customizing them. The "Show Me How" tutorial is a lifesaver, but it has its limits.
I have experienced no crashes or anything even close to a crash. I'm using a 3-year-old HP Media Center desktop PC, running Windows XP, with Pentium 4 processor, and 2GB of RAM. I give it 4 stars because of the huge amount of information that is presented at first and the trouble it can cause a newbie and I think the average user is not going to use a lot of the advanced features.

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Vegas Movie Studio HD Version 9 Review

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(More customer reviews)Yes, I still have an almost 10 year old computer that I'm using for video editing. 1.5 gig processor with 1.0 gig memory. I am using XP sp3 and Vegas 10 just choked up my computer. Vegas 9 works just fine and I can do video editing just fine with this program.


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Sony Vegas 7 + DVD Production Suite Review

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(More customer reviews)I own an HDV camcorder. I want to edit in HDV and I've used Premiere Pro 1.5 to do it, however the two-step import process (including a potentially lossy conversion) frustrated me.
Happy with the workflow and features of Premiere Pro, I tried the trial download of 2.0 first. For one thing, it refused under any circumstances to recognize my HDR-FX1 camcorder (which is on its compatibility list) in HDV mode (despite appropriate iLink conversion and HDV VCR settings). Freeware applications like CapDVHS worked fine, so I finally gave up after trying Premiere Pro 2.0 on two machines. (Nevermind the trouble I had with the trial expiring on the same day I installed it.)
Avid Liquid, aside from taking over my desktop theme and demanding all-or-nothing of my screen real estate did successfully capture HDV video without extra configuration. Unfortunately, that video was ultimately uneditable since Liquid would not let me render anything but the center quarter of the video frame. I imagine there was a setting or view of the process I was missing, but my choices for output were so limited I gave up on Avid as well.
Finally, Vegas captured the HDV video witout complaint (or a single dropped frame), allowed me to edit it together with a soundtrack generated in Sony Acid and a variety of imagery, and rendered in a wide selection of formats which are broadly compatible (even at HD resolutions). I spent less time installing Vegas, capturing video, and finishing my edit than I spent just getting the other two selections set up.
Adobe has received my last dollar. Sony (or whoever they purchased the technology from) seems to have gotten editing software right, at last.

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Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent product for the home video producer. I have successfully used it to produce a 40 minute high definition video. My video camera is the Sony HDR-HC9 high definition camcorder. This camcorder records in 1440 x 1080, 16:9 aspect ratio. The software detected my camera automatically and captures and writes back to the camera without any problems.
I produced two outputs. One was a high definition video output back to the HDR-HC9 tape camcorder. When played through the HDMI cable connected to my Samsung HDTV, the results were outstanding. I could not see any difference in the quality of the video between the original recorded tape, and the rendered completed production.
My second output for the same video was to a Standard Definition DVD. When I played this DVD on an up-converting 1080p OPPO DVD player, the results were very good on the Samsung HDTV. It would take a sharp eye to tell the difference from the tape version.
I did not produce a blue-ray DVD as I do not have a blue ray DVD player.
The software does not require a supercomputer to run. My computer is a six year old Dell Dimension 8200, 2.0 GHz, 1 Gig memory, with a 120 Gig Hard Drive with 80 gig free memory. The software never crashes. When I produced my DVD movie, it automatically launched the included DVD Architect module without any problems. When capturing and rendering a movie, I made the follwoing adjustments: disable all network connections; shut down anti-virus and anti-spyware programs; disabled my sreen saver. I did this to maximize available memory and to prevent any interuptions to the capturing and rendering process. I did not experience any dropped frames.
The rendering time for producing the tape output movie was about 5 to one. It took 200 minutes to render a 40 minute movie, and another 40 minutes to write it to tape in the videocam. The rendering time for producing the standard definition DVD was quite a bit longer, about 8 hours for the 40 minute movie, plus another 10 minutes to write it out to the DVD. Since this is usually the last step in the movie production process, it is not a problem. I just do the final DVD rendering overnight.
I assume rendering times are reduced if you have a more powerful computer. All editing functions performed without problems and very quickly.
The software can also be opened in two instances which allows you to produce sub-projects and then copy and paste them into a final production.
The learning curve is modest, but if you have used other video editing software, you should be able to get going in a few days. I had previously tried another product offered by Amazon (Corel ULead) but it kept crashing and did not interface correctly with my Sony HD video camera. Fortunately, Amazon gave me a full refund and I switched to Vegas Movie Studio. I would highly recommend it.
My final advice to high definition movie makers: use a tripod.


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PowerDirector 8 Deluxe Review

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(More customer reviews)I have edited a lot of photos, but had not tried to edit/burn videos before. I spent the last several days learning to do so, and, of the 4 programs I have tried, this is by far the best in my opinion. I have been converting from VHS to DVD, Hi8 to DVD, and Hi8 Digital to DVD, and now HD Mini-disc (the technology has changed at least 4 times in the last 20yrs. Hopefully DVD is around awhile, but if not, at least the quality does not degrade over time like tapes do).
I downloaded free trials for 4 programs. The cheaper "beginner" ones I won't even comment on. They were terrible. Then I tried Corel Video Studio X2 Pro. It worked but was very slow to compute, move screen to screen, and burn the disk. Burning to DVD took almost twice as long as the Powerdirector 8 Deluxe. But the worst part was it was not intuitive at all. You had what seemed to be two separate modules: The Wizards, and the Hard-Core Editing module. Heaven help you if you had to switch from one to the other. Totally confusing and non-intuitive. For instance, if you accidently added music by not UN-checking a box, and you saved your project, you couldn't go back. I'm sure there is a way to do it in the hard-core editing part, but I couldn't figure it out. The user guide was also pretty worthless.
Power Director 8, on the other hand, was very intuitive (at least as intuitive as video editing gets; there is still a steep learning curve for the first video or two). The manual was excellent, but I didn't even need to refer to it much. The program steps you from capture to burning the disk one step at a time, and you can skip around all you like without losing your work (unlike ny experience with Corel). It has some very nice templates for menus that are almost automatic, and make the finished product look great. The program is a great mix of "beginner" features, and professional editing capability. I was so impressed by it in comparison to other programs that I tried (I only tried 4), that I felt I should review it on here.
The best thing to do is to download these program's free trial and try them yourself. They are full-featured, and last for 30 days. Corel and Cyberlink both have this available. Then buy the one you like.
ALSO, make sure you have at LEAST 3GB of RAM, and a 100MB of hard drive, and 2GHz Dual Core CPU. That's what I had on my laptop, and it was marginal. I was running XP also. This program is Vista or Windows 7 compatible as well.

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Apple Soundtrack Pro (Mac) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been working as a sound designer for almost twenty years and finally a program arrived that delivers everything I ever wanted (excluding midi). The problem with most digital audio software is working within their idea of a workflow. SOUNDTRACK PRO allows me to manipulate and experiment with audio the way a graphic designer works with images. Better writers than I have elaborated on the details so I direct you to Len Sasso's article in the September 2005 Electronic Musician magazine. You can read it online.
Check this one out. It has been a long time since I looked forward to opening a program when it was time to work. No telling how many ideas I would explore that day!
Paul Rajeckas
rajeckas@aol.com

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CyberLink Media Suite 9 Ultra V.9 Review

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(More customer reviews)Other sites have mixed reviews. I purchased the CyberLink Media Suite 9 Ultra V.9 directly from the company site as I wanted to do a download. If you look at all the ads, you will see all these wonderful features with the suite version 9 being the newest. Well, yes and no. Cyberlink does not make any false claims that I have found, but unless you've bought the package you won't know you are NOT getting the newest and best even though the comparison tables show nothing newer because this is the newest version of the suite but the individual products the "newest menu" calls are anything but the newest. In many places this is referred to as the error of omission. I spent a couple of hours looking at reviews and site comparisons and never once saw anyone mention this shortcoming. The most critical pieces are not even close to the newest versions, you have to run a whole series of updates and that's when you may discover that you've gotten something different than you expected because that will be the first time you see considerably newer versions which you must purchase versus update. The software has performed better than the reviewers elsewhere who report frequent crashes, but that may be because I have a relatively high end system (W7, x64, 8gb ram, I5 750, 2.7 Ghz, quad) that converted a standard definition recording all the way to DVD with flexible disc space matching in about 20 minutes. The glitches seem to be that the interface and visual menus are poorly done and it's extremely difficult to back up to previous menus as well as screen objects overlaying other objects. Also, what was the last time you couldn't run a program in full screen mode when the product is all about video? From the best I can figure out so far, even though I bought the newest suite, I will still have to lay out about double again what I already paid just to get the most recent versions of what I just purchased. I may have opted for a high end product had I known that the company was going to charge you over and over to get what you really thought you were buying to start with. Does it work? Better than many of my not perfectly new Sony, Ulead, and Roxio video products. Was it a bargain? Hardly! Given that Amazon does a pretty good job of getting honest ads and helping customers with defective products, I'd certainly like to see Amazon mandate full disclosure on underlying versions in any suite type software. If money wasn't an issue, I'd buy this again. But since for most of us total price matters, I have serious doubts I would have made the purchase with full information.

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EffectsLab Pro 1.5 Review

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(More customer reviews)Both the laser gun and Jedi light saber effects are stunning when you see them at work and there are a fair amount of tutorials on the web to get you started. My biggest complaint is about the user interface. 3D graphic and video design programs are notorious for proprietary, hard-to-understand interfaces, and EffectsLab Pro is true to that form. The timeline ribbon at the bottom of the screen can have a half a dozen or more parameter slots for each effect you use in your movie. But the relationship between them is never really explained. With several of those being critical to how an effect appears, it's really easy to make a mistake that messes things up badly enough that you've got to start over. You'd expect tool buttons and menu items to be grouped by a common function they share, but this is not always the case. The preview image size control is an example of this, tucked far away in the upper right of the program's main window.
It supports a decent amount of movie formats but unfortunately MP4 isn't one of them. This introduces an extra step if you want to work with MPEG 4 files. I use QuickTime Pro to convert to .MOV and no problems importing those.
The software has been fairly stable though it does have the occasional annoyance of locking up completely after you've saved a project and tried to exit. I haven't lost any work because of this, but having to use Force > Quit from the OSX system menu just to shut down the program, isn't really the user experience I'd hoped for.
For the money, this is not a bad buy. It's capable of effects that rival anything I've seen in blockbuster sci fi movies. The user interface could really use a good rethinking though.

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Vegas Movie Studio 8 Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm starting a small business and took a gamble that Vegas would provide the tools I needed to create DVD based tutorials for the educational kits we're producing. The software has exceeded my expectations by any measurement and after what must be hundreds of hours now of video capture, editing, and DVD production I've yet to experience a single crash or disappointment with Vegas on my Gateway Windows Vista computer. I certainly can't say the same for any of the past video editing products I've used including software by Pinnacle, Nero, and Adobe. None have come within even a mile of the combined feature set, depth, speed, and stability of Sony Vegas. I'm still shaking my head about the near-perfection of this product - especially since I got the software for free after rebate! But even at its Amazon retail price here? Vegas offers an unbelievable video production bang for your buck.
That being said, this also isn't software for the faint of heart and were it not for the comparable pricing of competitive products I'd hesitate to even put it in the consumer-class level of other video editing and DVD production software - simply because of the rich feature set and options it offers. For the person who just wants to produce family or vacation videos? Vegas may be just too much to handle. Its options have options that even have more options. That's excellent for those of us who want to tweak this, that, and the other on our videos before we burn to DVD but it's my perception the average consumer might feel overwhelmed by both that flexibility and the myriad of options offered through the sleek Vegas editing interface. We're talking option button city here! On the other hand, if you are new to video editing? Get ready for an education - and Sony does another excellent job of providing just that through its built in "How Do I?" tutorials and comprehensive help files. So if you have the patience to step through the tutorials and not be afraid to elevate your video production vocabulary to new levels? I'm confident that you'll find your time spent learning Vegas well worth your while.
If you've had some past experience editing videos? Then I think you'll slide into the Vegas way of doing things quickly and become bowled over like I was by what the software has to offer.
It truly is the best software purchase I've made in the past twenty years .
Sony Vegas is in a class all its own.

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Vegas Movie Studio software is the easiest way to create captivating movies and slideshows to share with friends and family or online. Integrated DVD authoring.

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Sony Creative Software Imagination Studio 3 V.3 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a consumer version of audio editing, audio creation, video editing, dvd creation, and photo organization software. It's rather awesome for the price. It's 1200 dollars for the equivalent Sony professional versions, plus a professional photo organizer from Adobe is 300 dollars. The professional versions are ridiculously more powerful, capable, and more expensive. This is the consumer version. It is the most complete consumer media creation package available. The mac version is iLife, and having a mac laptop and a pc laptop, I'll say without question this is more powerful and more capable than iLife.
You can use videos edited with free professional Lightworks video editor, and of course sound with Audacity. I bought the DivX pro for codecs and the Quicktime pro for codecs. I totally recommend it.
Update:
1. The SONY ICD-PX312 USB PC Interface Digital Voice Recorder includes software that works directly with the sound editing software within Sony Imagination Studio 3.

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Green Screen Pro Video Studio Review

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(More customer reviews)I don't think a new digital film enthusiast could ask for more this product has cut my production time in half and made vfx far easier than previous.

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Sony Creative Software Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 Review

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(More customer reviews)this blurb comes directly from the help database on vegas 11
"If you want to create a stereoscopic 3D project, you can burn a standard Blu-ray Disc or DVD in side-by-side format and play it on any Blu-ray Disc or DVD player. When the player is connected to a recent 3D TV, you can use the TV's menu to put it into side-by-side mode and enjoy 3D playback.
If your goal is the higher-end Blu-ray 3D(tm) format, Vegas Movie Studio can prepare content in full HD per-eye format by rendering two separate files (using Left only and Right only modes), which can be read by an MVC encoder such as the Dualstream 3D encoder and authored using a tool such as Blu-print.
For more information about working with stereoscopic 3D projects, please see Stereoscopic 3D Editing."
unless you are a pro or are commited to the process, don't even think about dualstream. here's the statement from sonycreativesoftware.com
"Please note that Dualstream 3D is a command line style encoder. Parameter settings for operation are entered manually using a spreadsheet document."i'm just purchased the Sony HDR-TD10 High Definition 3D Handycam Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom (Dark Gray)
the only full hd 3d mvc format recording camcorder on the consumer level market and i was looking for a way to burn 3d bluray. and the top statement sums up my dissapointment with this software. i just want to take the files off my camcorder, view them, edit them, and put the finished product on a 3d blu-ray disc in the full resolution 3d spec, i don't care about the menus or the other fancy stuff, just 3d blu ray at the full 1080/60i i recorded my stuff in. i got everything i wanted except a no go on the 3d blu ray spec. if i was stuck without the ablity to make a full hd res 3d disc, i might as well have purchased the inferior Panasonic HDC-SDT750K, High Definition 3D Camcorder and saved the $750. i dont want a 8x9 square 3d image, or a half res 1080x960 streched to 1080x1920. sony, i paid $1500 for your camcorder, why can't i burn a 3d bluray disc in full MVC?
the 3d ablity of this software is basicly the only things that they have upgraded from vegas 10. oh yeah, and you can also upload 3d video to you tube. whoo-hoo. it's still a powerful software bundle. (that's why i'm only taking off one star for my particular issue.) If you are ok with what it can do with 3d, than by all means, go for it, but if you dont need 3d, are dissatisfied with the inablity to burn 3d in full spec to BD, or are simply trying to upgrade from 10, pass for now and hope for an update.

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Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11
Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition software has everything needed to produce spectacular HD movies. You can edit video in nearly any format including HDV and AVCHD. Included are innovative stereoscopic 3D tools, powerful features for video compositing, color correction, and soundtrack creation for feature-film results in your home studio. Use the surround sound mixing tools to create 5.1 soundtracks. Choose from hundreds of professional 2D and 3D video effects, titles, and filters. Upload movies to YouTube, burn to Blu-ray Disc, or author DVDs using beautifully designed themes or create custom menus and graphics. Exclusive Sony Show Me How interactive tutorials help you get started fast.

New Highlights Intuitive user interface. View larger.

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Professional Training for Vegas Pro 8 Software Review

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(More customer reviews)I have purchased this product thinking that it was a comprehensive training for Vegas 8 (Due to the title saying "Professional Training For Vegas 8") this turned out to be only involving the "NEW" features of Vegas 8 (Like Multicam Tool, Pro Titler Tool, etc.) and nothing else. It's good and comprehensive for that matter, but not good for people like me who is looking for training in general. So this one is going back with regards to Sony Team.
PS:I have submitted an update request to the misleading description on the Amazon site. Hope it will appear quickly.

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