For the last several months Cyberlink has been putting the focus on Power Director, with all sorts of sales on both old & new versions. Generally speaking, if you know what you're doing when it comes to video, it's junk. If you're a casual user you might like it, which is cool. If you want to get into video editing & are looking for software to get you started, save yourself the time & effort by skipping Cyberlink's offerings. If you just want to play with something as a maybe alternative to Windows Movie Maker, by all means check it out if you want. In few words, the problem with Cyberlink's video apps is a lack of control, no special features, and mediocre output -- the exceptions are PowerDVD & maybe Expresso.
I've downloaded and installed the Power Director trial, another version of Power Director 11 SE, & now today's GOTD, a different Power Director 11 SE. Of the 3 the GOTD is the only one that wouldn't run on this rig. I had to set an Environment Variable for Windows -- the software crashes & a DOS box [i.e. a Command Prompt window] pops up telling you that another version of some Intel software is installed, so you have to set this variable, giving you the name you type in. In win7 you go to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced. Note that this is separate from today's crash, which was silent -- the only new log in the temp folder was related to Java starting.
When you run the setup file you downloaded [both the GOTD & the link you get in your registration e-mail are for a downloader], it unpacks the setup files which are stored in a self-extracting RAR file -- if you think you might install this again maybe save that RarSFX0 that's in your temp folder [before you start the setup proper], since running the setup in that folder might save you a few minutes. I recorded installation in my XP Mode VM, where Power Director 11 SE would run, but with more limited features because it was a VM -- that's why I attempted installation in regular win7 64. Power Director is fairly well behaved in that it only adds its Rich Video service to Windows -- with PowerDVD I've had no problems setting that service to Manual so it's not always running as soon as I start Windows.
The installation performed the following activity:
10557 files added
2 files deleted
16 files updated
3614 registry entries added
384 registry entries deleted
43 registry entries updated
Installed 9/13/2014 12:40:18 PM
Cyberlink originally made a name for themselves with their PowerDVD software -- it was I think the best of the few DVD player apps available at the time. Nowadays they have several versions of PowerDVD 14 -- you get full Blu-Ray playback in their top versions. They'll also handle 3D, though real 3D viewing can be a can of worms on a PC. PowerDVD is popular I think with those who send video from a PC to their HDTV, using anything from a laptop to a dedicated HTPC.
When graphics hardware assisted video transcoding 1st became possible, Cyberlink was there with Expresso -- I think it was the 1st app to offer GPU assisted encoding for AMD/ATI graphics hardware. Currently however there's better -- some alternatives are Much better. Sadly Cyberlink's notable software starts & ends with those two products. They've been trying to diversify for a decade without much in the way of acclaim or results.
I've had & tried Expresso since the 1st version beta -- I've got the current version but haven't decided yet if the time it takes to install it is worth it to me. Expresso is an encoder or transcoder focused on speed at the cost of quality & flexibility. Because of its focus on speed I give it a pass when it comes to quality -- I can't see a reason to do that with Cyberlink's other video encoding software, e.g. Power Director.
My interest in Power Director 11, & then 12 [in case it improved] was with their particle FX. Particle FX are in a nutshell responsible for realistic & natural movement of rendered smoke, fire, water, hair etc. What I found was not real particle FX -- in fact I didn't see any FX or transitions that were up to standards. Had the FX been worth it I'd have done editing & encoding elsewhere, rendering lossless avi files from Power Director I could use in other software.
Magazine reviews were mentioned in the comments... When [& if] you research software [and sometimes hardware], I think there are 3 levels of expertise or involvement. There are the pros, where discussion can be so specialized that it seems written in an alien tongue to the uninitiated. There's a surface layer for the range of users from: "I know how to turn on my PC" to "I've used a few apps but stick to their wizards". That's the level most PC oriented magazines are written for. Then there's a intermediate level where you find pros -- usually just not discussing stuff on the far edge of their expertise -- and pretty serious semi-pros mixed in with everyone else. If you want to check whatever out & aren't afraid to learn a bit, that's the level you should seek out for reliable information. By being willing to learn, I'm talking about stuff like using Google when you come across a term you don't know, then continuing your reading.
For free VirtualDub, especially together with AviSynth, is a very decent linear editor without a lot of encoder options. What it's really good at is filtering & resizing. You can cut, trim, & join video, but there is no timeline or story board where you can place & see multiple clips. When used with AviSynth VirtualDub will import pretty much any video you can play on your PC/laptop -- output is generally via VFW codecs you've installed, so likely no mpg2, though AVC/H.264 is available. There are a number of free lossless codecs that will work too, so providing you have the disk space, you can output intermediate files to be encoded to your desired final format using other software, e.g. converters.
Shot cut is another free editor you might want to take a look at. It's under regular development. Do note that it takes up quite a bit of disk space. Adobe's Premiere Elements is one of the few Adobe apps you can buy rather than subscribe to, & it's a popular video editor. Like Photoshop Elements, it's a cut-down, limited version of their pro app intended for casual home & biz users. Pricewize the best deals I've seen are both Premiere & Photoshop Elements together for $50-$75, usually during the November - December sales.
I use Vegas Pro 12 -- I've used Vegas since beta before it's initial release. Version 13 is current, but it encodes a little bit slower than 12, so I didn't upgrade this year -- any versions of Vegas you have installed will use the encoders that came with the latest version. Vegas was originally developed by a company called Sonic Foundry that specialized in audio software, so Vegas has excellent audio features [many pros use Vegas Pro as a multi-track DAW]. Sony bought Sonic Foundry's software arm or division, keeping the developers etc. They usually have several versions of Vegas besides Pro, though I've seen that number vary, & I've seen some versions only sold packaged retail, not on their site. Pricewise I've seen these limited capability versions go for as low as $0 after MIR, or $14 outright, though MSRP might be closer to $100.
Corel has 2 video lines under their roof now -- Ulead & Roxio -- so it might be interesting to see what they come out with in the future. I haven't seen any deals on Roxio for quite some time, though Corel's [Ulead] VideoStudio Pro can sometimes be found in the $20-$30 range [usually at Amazon]. VideoStudio Pro has some interesting features [I have last year's v. X6], but does not give you nearly enough control to be considered a serious video editing app. In that respect Roxio is much more Pro, though with the older NXT version I have the possibilities for AVC output are limited [more so than earlier versions].
Nero is a bit of an unknown... Version 2015 is on the horizon, but not here yet. During its lifespan I saw Nero & Nero Platinum 2014 frequently on sale for $0 after MIR, & received dozens & dozens of email offers for $25 for the std. version, $35 for the Ultimate. The bad part about Nero's video editor is that it can seem to take forever to open a very large video file [20-30GB]. Otherwise it's not as Pro as Vegas Pro [no one would expect it to be], but as part of a $35 bundle it's surprisingly close.