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Edit Review — Ulead Media Studio Pro 7

May 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Frank McMahon

Complete software suite finally gets realtime power.

Media Studio Pro 7 now captures directly to MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 in realtime, with many compression options.

Ulead introduces a new version of its flagship desktop editing system suite, injecting lots of realtime features and DVD integration. The company's playing catch-up a bit, as competing programs such as Adobe Premiere have been featuring realtime effects in some form or another for a while now. Still, Media Studio Pro 7 has a few tricks up its sleeve that many of the other programs don't.

First of all, what is “realtime”? The definition I will adopt for this review — and one that holds meaning for Media Studio Pro 7 — is applying an effect or transition to a video project and being able to preview it instantly, with no rendering. That's now easier to achieve with DV editing programs, as companies have shifted from employing dedicated video boards to working entirely within software. If you have a fast machine, the software program can perform the realtime effect itself, essentially just “rendering” a software preview on the fly.

With Media Studio Pro you see the realtime video played back on the preview screen. There are a couple options that allow slower systems to provide delayed preview playback; essentially, there's a toggle to buffer the video to memory for a few seconds before playing.

Ulead claims you can roll three different DV streams, a 3D transition, a motion path, and two graphic overlays on a 2.0GHz Pentium 4. After testing, I found this to be accurate. The more horsepower you have (whether from a fast processor, dual processors, and/or a multithreaded machine), the more realtime fun you will have.

One thing that impresses me about the program is that it allows me to send video back out via FireWire to view video in realtime. So if you have a DV camera hooked up, Media Studio Pro 7 lets you play back the timeline and see it in the camcorder's viewfinder. I ended up taking the analog output of the Sony DV camcorder and hooking it up to my Sony Trinitron editing monitor. A little bit of a loop-the-loop, but what a nice bonus to get realtime video output via software. This feature also works with analog graphic cards. Very cool.

As for realtime software options, Ulead currently lists 50 realtime filters and 100 transition effects, some in 3D. Most play back fine. The program smartly scales down the preview screen frame rate if you pile the filters on too thick. There certainly is a lot to choose from, and each filter has many parameters and settings to tweak.

Another realtime feature is MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 capture. Media Studio Pro 7 offers direct capture to these VCD- and DVD-ready formats, so you don't have to spend time running the video through a separate encoding program. It works pretty well, but if your hard drive or your processor is too slow, the software pauses your DV device and renders from a buffer along the way. This may be slightly less than realtime, but it's still fast. You won't drop any frames and you'll have a pretty speedy way to capture DVD-ready video.

While the capture program works well, I found changing settings for the different capture modes such as DV and MPEG to be a bit clunky. It would be nice to simply click an output destination button rather than plow through sub-menus. But at least you have this choice; in fact, now you can capture directly to Windows Media 8. In addition, capture and editing support is now standard for DV type-1 and type-2, Sony's MicroMV, DVD-RAM camcorders, and the VR format.

One new capture feature that works especially well is the ability to scan a DV tape at 10X speed and capture a log of scene thumbnails within a few minutes. You then can go through the thumbnails and decide which scenes you want to batch-capture. The thumbnail log, with timecode and annotations, can be saved as a DV Album, so you can archive it if you wish.

I can't help but be tickled by how smoothly the new Auto Slideshows work. Basically you load an audio track into your timeline and play it, hitting a function key on the beats to set up marker cues. Then you load a group of image files and set a default duration and/or transition for the whole set. Finally the program synchs the images to the marker cues you created, so the slideshow advances to the beat.

Media Studio Pro 7 is a software suite, so there are many programs along for the ride besides the editor, including CG Infinity, Video Paint, and DVD MovieFactory2 LE. CG Infinity and Video Paint have been shipping with the software for years, and there are minimal improvements to both. The vector-based CG program has basically all you need for adding animated text and graphics to video. In addition to a base of fonts, objects, and motion paths, there are also basic drawing tools for creating your own graphics. Video Paint, pretty much what you would expect, includes many natural-media brushes as well as numerous options for rotoscoping and onion skinning. Unsurprisingly, the program lacks the power of a high-end 3D compositing program, so you probably still need one of those. But if you simply want to paint on video, look no further.

As for DVD MovieFactory2 LE, I am pleasantly surprised. Not because it's feature-rich — it's not. The program is template-driven and basically a slimmer version of Ulead's commercial DVD authoring product. No, actually I like it because the interface makes sense, and I'm able to move from capture to editing to DVD in a very short time. These days most editors have a software shelf crammed with separate programs that all work together. But I have to say that between the realtime MPEG capture and the easy-to-use DVD output options, the Media Studio Pro package lets me complete quick one-offs for clients quite gracefully.

Version 7 did not receive much of an update to its interface, which looks about as unsexy as any Microsoft Office program. The small icons can get a little cryptic — is that a microphone for adding narration or a magnifying glass for zooming? But no one ever said editing video had to be sexy. I guess we'll have to leave the romance to programs like Final Cut Pro, which offers a much zestier editing environment.

Media Studio Pro enjoys a large base of hard-core fans, and the suite of programs has developed nicely over the years. The only problem is the package might not be compelling enough to goad users of other desktop editors into switching over. The new realtime features for capture and effects are great, but it would have been nice to get them earlier.

So if you currently own a compositing program, a CG, and a desktop editor, this suite probably won't wow you. However, if you are developing a small studio and want a lot of bang for your buck, Media Studio Pro comes in at a fair price point and certainly contains in its multiple programs the features to cover all the necessary bases — especially if you want to do video rotoscoping and professional CG work.

I love the way the programs within Ulead Media Studio Pro 7 work as a team. The capture, editing, graphics, CG, and DVD features combine to make the workflow pretty serendipitous.

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Frank McMahon is a media artist specializing in directing, editing, animation, and graphic design. He can be reached via his media company at www.fmstudio.com or via Portland Media Artists at www.mediaartist.com.

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BOTTOM LINE

Company: Ulead
Torrance, Calif.; (310) 523-9393
www.ulead.com

Product: Media Studio Pro 7

Assets: Seamless workflow from capture to editing to DVD authoring; realtime video preview out to FireWire devices; simple and quick DVD authoring.

Caveats: To enjoy the program's realtime capabilities fully, speedy processing power is necessary.

Demographic: Video pros putting together new, small studios on the cheap.

Price: $495; $249 upgrade

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.