Ulead VS7 Review

[paulb]

I've had great luck with VS6 editing home movies and just upgraded to VS7. The product is great for capturing/editing/transitions/effects and burning. I still use TMPGENC to encode though.

After spending the weekend looking at the new features, here is my review:

On the plus side;

Several of the new features like Fast/Slow motion work very well and are easy to configure.

Film Effects have the ability to add a key frame anywhere in the clip to start/stop the effect. This allows you to add an effect only on one small part of the clip if you wish.

The DVD/Export menu has been totally reworked. There are now options to burn multiple MPEG's on 1 DVD, Build working Disc's with all of the menu/submenu options to re-edit, and build layered menus.

The interface is the same, but less cluttered. More options are on the main menus.

There are several options to output to "greeting cards", share over the web etc., that I have not tried yet.

On the down side;

Starting the program requires a resolution of 1024x768 minimum. If you are running 800x600, you have to switch to start the app.

The interface seems a bit slower than VS6.

The encoder is still not very good. In a side by side test, I encoded home video of high motion footage in an hour with VS7 on the highest quality settings and a VBR 8000. Compared to the same movie encoded with TMPGENC, there were still very noticeable macro blocks on all the motion using VS7.

[Greg12]

Starting the program requires a resolution of 1024x768 minimum. If you are running 800x600, you have to switch to start the app.

I hate progs that do that, I have to keep my screen at 800x600. I get stomach aches and nausia if i keep it at 1024x724 for too long.

[bpjenn]

VS7 crashes when trying to capture with ATI All-in-Wonder Cards. No acknowledgement on their site about this problem; however, the problem is discussed and fix is prescribed on the forum. Also, no frame drop counter. I hate the 1024x768 requirement too.