CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Review

For the movie maker, we can only recommend what is one of the most popular products of its type on the market today.

PowerDirector 10 Ultra is the latest version of the popular editing software from Cyberlink, and features many improvements that will save time and add to the effectiveness of the package.

The revamped rendering engine increase’s effects rendering speed by six-fold, and two of the major new features are aimed at helping in this area. Intelligent Smart Video Rendering Technology (Intelligent SVRT) is a function for analysing the best encoding methods for a given video, while TrueVelocity Faster Render allows for the rendering of only those portions of the video that have been amended, thus reducing the time involved quite considerably. The new package also features the ability to switch from 2D to 3D rendering, and it is available as an upgrade for those who already have Power Director 9 installed.

Ease of Use
Power Director has been around in different versions for many years now, and as such we should expect it to be easy to use. We can confirm it is, with the simple drag and drop function being as familiar as any you will find. The compartmentalised ‘Media Room’ is where your clips hide, and it is a seamless operation to move them to the timeline you are working on.

The package features ‘Magic Movie Wizard’ which is regarded as one of the simplest of all movie editing packages. A series of expected ‘fixes’ – camera shake, red eye and more – are all present and give you the opportunity to create quality presentations in no time at all. There are also pan, zoom and focus features, a whole library of enhancements, and an animation feature that is very useful indeed.

Navigation of the package is smooth and simple to handle, and even beginners will be able to grasp the package quickly.

Power Tools – Editing Feature
Power Tools is one of the most impressive features of Power Director. This suite of editing tools allows you to refine and improve your product in many ways, including speed variation, freeze frame functions, cropping and reverse play and much more. The Power Tools function is very simple to use and apply, and brings an entire new dimension to the Power Director 10 upgrade.

You have the ability to upgrade to HD from standard video, to remove grain, adjust colours – in fact, the list of functions available in the movie editing section of the package is absolutely comprehensive.

Production and Exporting
Power Director allows you to upload your video to all the popular social networking sites, to your portable device – iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and more – and all in a simple and easy to master fashion. With the emphasis on YouTube and Facebook you are well placed to get your work out there in no time at all.

Summary
To cover all of Power Director 10 Deluxe’s many features and improvements in this review is not possible, for there is much more to talk about. The impressive and well developed editing effects have been comprehensively developed across the many incarnations of the package and are now better than ever; the system is quicker than before and is very easy to use, and there is everything here for both beginners and those who are experienced in movie-making and video editing.

Perhaps the only downside of Power Director 10 Deluxe is, paradoxically, one of its major attractions – it is so detailed and comprehensive that it will take time to get to grips with everything on offer. However, for the movie maker, we can only recommend what is one of the most popular products of its type on the market today.

Get a price on PowerDirector 10 Ultra on Amazon (£47.18)