Rating 5 out of 5
Before I get into the meat’n'potatoes of this latest release of CyberLink PowerDirector 10, allow me to set the scene a little here.
In some of my other articles about choosing video editing software, one point I make is that you really should shy away from overly enthusiastic reviews and overly critical reviews.
The overly enthusiastic are often lacking in credibility and the overly crtical are often critical for the sake of it and lacking in any real value.
The reason I am mentioning this is that if you strictly followed that advice you would now have to leave my site and look elsewhere because this is most likely going to be a very enthusiastic review!
CyberLink PowerDirector 9 has been my top choice for video editing software for the past year and even though most of the big guns have since released new versions nothing has topped it so far. In fact nothing really has come close.
To be honest I think CyberLink have opened up such a lead at this point they will remain at the head of the pack for some time to come.
PowerDirector 10 is not a major reworking of PowerDirector 9 but on the other hand, it is in no way just a cosmetic repackaging to boost sales.
In PowerDirector 10 Cyberlink have taken the points that set them apart from the crowd in the first place and strengthened them significantly as well as adding new, and more useful features.
Installing CyberLink PowerDirector 10
Normally I don’t bother mentioning the installation of video editing software in my reviews. It is an action that you usually do once so if it takes time or is a little glitchy then my view is, “what’s the big deal?” The important questions are those related to functionality and performance, not installation.
I am making an exception here because when I installed PowerDirector 10 it gave a very clear indication of what was to come when actually using the software for editing.
When I clicked on the installation file I have to say I was pretty surprised! It took about 10 seconds to unpack all the files ready to install. From that point until the point of the software being installed, registered and opened, ready for editing took another two minutes flat.
The days of setting an install in motion and going off to make a coffee are well and truly over with this software!
As I said before this was a clear indication of what was to come when actually using the software. CyberLink PowerDirector 10 is fast and in some cases it is scary fast.
Various windows, workspaces and modules snap open and shut instantly and it is just a pleasure to work with.
So, speaking of actually working with it lets get into what else you can expect from CyberLink PowerDirector 10
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What’s New in CyberLink PowerDirector 10
First up lets’s get the whole performance, speed thing out of the way because really, CyberLink have left all the rest eating dust on this point alone.
At the heart of it all is what they call the TrueVelocity Rendering Engine. In simple terms this is the core piece of sofware that runs the overall product that you see on the screen. It does the work.
The original TrueVelocity Engine developed for PowerDirector 9 was what made that version so much faster than the competition. It was like all the rest were running around in little compact four cyclinder cars and PowerDirector 9 was the V8 muscle car on the block.
Over the past year Cyberlink have completely rewritten that core software and have come up with TrueVelocity 2 and it is faster… by a long way!
This speed applies to all aspects of editing whether you are scrubbing through the time line looking for something, applying effects and wanting to instantly check the results or rendering your project to a final video file or output.
In testing the worst case scenario was PowerDirector 10 being about twice as fast as the competition and in some tests it performed up to 44 times as fast depending on what the task being completed was.
In addition to this they have added a new H.264 codec to the software that runs about 35% faster than the previous version.
Finally, a new technology they call Intelligent SVRT™ (Smart Video Rendering Technology).
The concept of video editing software being able to “smart render” your projects is not in itself new. All the software does is identify those parts of the project where the original file has been earmarked for change and those parts that have not.
Then, when it comes to rendering the final file the software knows to re-render the changed parts and to simply copy the unchanged parts. The purpose of this is to preserve quality as much as possible and to cut down the time taken to render.
Most modern video editing software products have this feature or something similar. The difference once again with CyberLink PowerDirector 10 is that CyberLink have not just sat back and accepted that’s how it is.
They have taken this feature and turned it into something very, very useful. Not only does the software inspect all the items you have in your project, it analyses each one and compares the overall to the final output format you are intending.
It then calculates the optimum settings for your output format and the fastest way to achieve that result.
Of course all this speed would be rather pointless if it was attached to a bunch of uselss editing features so next up, a look at CyberLink PowerDirector 10′s editing tools.
Next Page: CyberLink PowerDirector Review part 2
Click Here to Take a Look at PowerDirector 10 for Yourself
