CyberLink PowerDirector 18 Ultimate | PC | PC Activation Code by email

When you're looking for video editing software you're not going to find it that difficult as there are plenty out there, In fact, there are so many that it makes your choice much harder, especially if this is your first go at video editing. As I have been doing this for a while I know what I'm looking for and what features I need, I would say I'm an intermediate user.There is a thin line between professional and beginner when it comes to software as you find it's either one way or the other in most cases. On one hand, professional software has it all, often more than you need, but makes simple operations complicated and cost you a fortune. Then there is beginner software that leaves you asking for more, often missing out on some essential features. CyberLink PowerDirector 18 Ultimate sits right where you want it, right in the middle where it's intuitive, easy to learn, yet also offers some advanced features along with some flaws in how they function, more on that later.For the beginner there is enough training to get you through your first basic video edits, then as you go along over time you can dig a bit deeper. For the seasoned pro or intermediate user, there will be some features your looking for such as Crop, Pan, Zoom, Luts, colour enhancement, and fixes. you're also be looking for a good waveform editor with effects and fixes for audio which are all present to some degree, but there are some flaws or oversights with the way some features are implemented.Many features are located in their own screens such as the Fix/Enhance for colour and video adjustments, and Crop. Pan, and Zoom.Crop, Pan, and Zooms are key frameable as are most features, but these keys do not lock to the clip to its absolute position, thus if you shorten or adjust the clip length the keys will get moved and you may not want that as your timings will be messed up. You can't reset the zoom back to full screen with a button press, this must be done manually, and you cant copy these keys for Crop, Pan, and zooms or individually to apply to other clips. If you apply anything regarding the Crop, Pan or Zoom, then slice the video all key edits will be copied and applied as they where for the clip it was sliced from. For instance, if you zoomed from full screen to close up on a subject, then you slice the clip, the next clip will also zoom the same way on that footage in which it wasn't intended for. Rather than this happening it would make sense for the last keyframe to be applied to the beginning of the next sliced clip for a consistent position of a crop.Other oversites are with the audio editing. While you have filters and EQ, even noise reduction you cant save a preset as to apply to another clip other than noise reduction from the keyframe editor, neither can you copy these values to another clip other than noise reduction. All edits within the Audio Editor are final, once you apply them they change the waveform for good. I find the audio level line edit on the timeline is not set up for the average range of movement available so you're find yourself making micro-movements to fine-tune the levels at the lower end.you're apply a fade in and out for your audio clip then decide to bring down the overall volume from the timeline but you find you can't, the fades have locked it. The tangent line for audio on the timeline will not move self-adjusting the curve of the fades when you try to raise or decrease the volume. You can apply all your Fix/ Enhance to all clips but can't copy/paste to individual chosen clips unless you go into the keyframe editor, again you cant save presets from Fix/Enhance yet can from the Keyframe Editor. There is also no option to link edits that you have applied to multiple clips so you're need to apply to all clips again once an adjustment has been made. It would be nice if you could make such adjustments on a track so all edits affect everything on that track but that's not possible, everything is done to clips. You can copy and paste keyframe attributes for some Fix/Enhance features within the Keyframe editor or paste all keyframe attributes from one clip to another, this includes some edits that are specific for a clip. It would make sense to have copy/paste and save/load presets from Fix/Enhance screen directly as would from the Crop, Pan, and Zoom screen.Ripple editing is limited, in fact, there is very little there but popup options when you chose to remove a clip for instance as to fill the gap and shift all clips after it. Unfortunately moving clips manually offers no ripple editing at all so you will need to make adjustments as you go such as moving clips over the last to generate a crossfade, no ripple editing is available here.One of the most asked things about this software is how to get the GPU to assist the rendering. This is because it's not made all to clear on how it works and what to expect. Once you follow the online guides to enable your GPU you're find that the GPU utilization is at times as low as 4%, yet other times 50% or higher. This is down to the CPU based process being set at the highest priority. These CPU processes will be from certain edits and effects you have added. The more CPU intense they are, the less your GPU will chip in and help out at render time. This can mean your render times can vary from hours to minutes as to what effects or adjustments you added such as found in the Fix/Enhance features.Trim editing is one of the faster ways to extract multiple clips from one long piece of footage but unfortunately, there is no audio scrub for this feature which I find odd as nobody can really base their cuts without knowing where certain dialogs start and stop, or where audio is best sliced at. Due to this, it makes what should be a fast process actually slower so you end up avoiding the trim completely.With that being said once you get your workflows in the order you will get some very good results. The previews are very fast, even with 4k footage in the timeline. The rendering is faster than most editing software out there. The number of filters, effects, and content you get are decent, more so with the Ultimate version. For the price, it's very good value and will be fine for most users but it's not as intuitive and complete for the professional work, and where it does delve into the pro-like features its workflows and interaction with other areas of the program feel disjointed and not well thought out regarding workflows. There is room for improvement but after trying out other software, some even more expensive this still comes out top and is hard to beat when summing all things up.I wouldn't give it a full 5/5 as older software like Movieplus X6 still beats it when it comes to its workflows and keyframe editing. With the way it deals with audio, lack of 3rd party plugin support, delayed narration audio meters, and other things mentioned it still gets a decent 4/5 stars.

This product is a waste of £100. It is rubbish, the programme won't load as it says the "product code has been already used and the customer service line just wants to sell you an upgrade to the software, A complete rip off. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. Now trying to get my money back

Cyberlink won't recognise the product key for the digital download.Amazon did rectify the problem. but I wouldn't buy this product again. Infact I bought a boxed, physical 'DISC' power director 16 from amazon to install myself.All Cyberlink seem to be interested in is trying to sell you there 365 subscription service.

Had a lot of trouble getting the download to work and when I did managed to it took 2 hours to get it from cyberlink onto my laptop plus no help from cyberlink over the weekend very disappointing

Took a while to understand the download procedure. But very pleased with this program. Would suggest to other video editors.

I use this product to improve my video editing capability's.