Review by Matt Morgan

Before working with Cyberlink PowerDirector I had not used any Cyberlink software beyond PowerDVD, an old version of which came with a computer I bought years ago. My first exposure to PowerDirector itself was version 10 and I was pleasantly surprised with the program. Version 11 makes some improvements over version 10. My review will focus mainly on version 11 independently.

Video editing and production software from most vendors works the same as music editing and production software packages. A timeline view allows the user to drag and drop content onto it and there is a plethora of special effects and transitions that can be applied to each element to make transitions easier and smoother. Users comfortable with the likes of Sony Acid or Cakewalk will feel right at home with this method of working.

PowerDirector provides a nice media manager that gives an excellent thumbnail view of all of the available content, and what comes with the package is a very good library of different types of content. The Media Room contains the actual media available immediately (though more can be imported without too much effort). The Effects Room contains a number of motion and blur effects that can be easily applied to visual elements on the timeline. The PiP (Picture in Picture) Room contains several animation elements, mostly drawing effects. The Particle Room contains a couple of motion-type effects that involve multiple embedded objects. The Title Room is for all things text and text effects. The Transition Room contains transition effects that apply to visual elements and made the change between two elements a lot smoother and/or more interesting. The Audio Mixing Room is a simple equalizer and sound balancer for audio elements. The Voice-Over Recording Room allows for direct recording into the production either through a microphone or from the sound card.

PowerDirector provides the ability to capture input from connected devices such as a webcam or a video recorder. The interface to these devices is very straightforward and simple - there’s a record button that turns recording on and off, and there is the ability to change the location of captured content and resolution/bitrate settings.

PowerDirector is able to create media in a number of formats, both audio and video. Supported formats include AVI, MPEG-2, AVC, WMV, MPEG-4, MOV, and MKV files. I was unable to find MP3 file output which is a mild disappointment.

My son likes to make stop-motion videos with Legos, and for this task PowerDirector is well-suited. We have been able to import all of his photos at once (usually over 500 individual pictures) put them all on the timeline, change the display duration and create an initial cut at a video in less than 10 minutes. Cyberlink claims to have fast rendering speeds, and PowerDirector 11 seems to live up to those claims in our workings.

Comparing versions 10 and 11, while there is a speed difference and there is some minor tweaks in the interface to make it a little more aesthetically pleasing, I am not sure that there’s a compelling reason to upgrade to version 11 if you already have version 10. The main considerations are the speed improvements and the content, and the content does not seem to have changed too much so it comes down to speed. If the optimizations that make version 11 faster than version 10 are crucial, then it’s worth pondering the upgrade. Try the trial version first before committing to see if this is worthwhile.

I like PowerDirector. It’s a powerful and easy-to-use video production application that does a nice job of allowing a user to assemble a video quickly. The interface is mostly intuitive and the inner workings are efficient. This is a good package at a very reasonable asking price.