Video Capture/Playback:  

Capturing video in PowerDirector 7 is easy whether you are importing from a new high end camcorder, or that old SD camcorder that has been sitting in the basemet for a few years. When importing your video directly from your camcorder PowerDirector uses a 1:1 capture ratio. That means our 14 minute video was captured by PowerDirector in 14 minutes. A 1:1 capture ratio is typical when importing straight from the video camera.

If you are using a Flash Drive, Hard Drive or DVD camcorder your import speeds will probably be faster than 1:1.

CyberLink maintains a convenient table of compatible HDV/DV Camcorders and Video Capture Cards.

After everything was imported PowerDirector's playback worked quite smoothly. Video editing software can sometimes be computer system intensive, but PowerDirector didn't slow us down more than your typical video editing software.

Editing Tools:  

Paring down a video can be time consuming and tedious, especially for longer clips. PowerDirector 7 Deluxe gives you two options: manually trim and split your video, or use the Magic Cut tool.

The best video editing software includes dozens of features including the ability to split and trim clips, change the playback speed, stabilize shaky video, correct lighting and colors, zoom in and out, change the aspect ratio, and add text and audio tracks to your clips. The differentiating factor is how well the software performs these tasks and how easy it makes it for you.

Manually trimming (shortening your video) in PowerDirector 7 is easy: select a clip and click the Trim button. Select the ‘Mark In’ point and the ‘Mark Out’ point on your clip’s timeline, and press OK. Anything outside of these two points will be trimmed from your clip. It’s a simple and effective way of removing parts from the beginning or end of your video.

You can also use the Multi Trim function to remove multiple sections from a video. So instead of simply slicing off the beginning or ending of your video you set multiple points for PowerDirector to remove. PowerDirector’s Multi Trim function also includes Scene Detection, which automatically detects the beginning and end of scenes (usually by detecting changes in lighting) within your video and divides them accordingly. Nothing is cut from the video, but everything is divvied up into nice neat increments, or chapters, so you can add your own effects and scene transitions later.

Or you can let PowerDirector’s Magic Cut do all the work. We liked Magic Cut because it will automatically condense a video to your specified time duration and will even automatically apply transitions between scenes.

It’s easy:

• Select your clip
• Click the Magic Cut button
• Choose how long you want the clip to be (e.g., the original clip is 15 minutes long, and you tell Magic Cut to make it 12)
• Whether or not you want transitions automatically inserted, and which ones to use.

We found Magic Cut did a good job of condensing our 14-minute clip into a solid 12 minute time frame. So it’s great for quick editing, but if you want more precise control you'll need to get familiar with trimming and adjusting the timeline manually.

Once your video segment is divvied up into nice little clips, you can use the timeline or storyboard to order and reorder the clips. Just click a clip and drag it to the desired spot.

That takes care of basic cutting and reordering, but what if you want to enhance your video clips? Sometimes, parts of the environment are too dark or the colors don’t translate well. Thankfully, PowerDirector 7 has Magic Clean. You can adjust brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, sharpness, and white balance with simple sliders, and you see the results in realtime. We liked this feature, as it cleaned up our wakeboarding and tubing footage nicely.

Magic Fix is PowerDirector’s tool for fixing shaky video. Our wakeboarding and tubing clips were shakier than a 8.1 earthquake, but Magic Fix did a decent job of steadying some of the less drastic movement.