Ulead MediaStudio 6.5 Review

by Robin Liss
Published on Aug 26, 2001 12:00 AM



Ulead has come out with an even greater version of their popular video editing tool MediaStudio. Although the interface remains the same, the new version of the software has added MPEG and DV support, true instant rendering to save you tons of time, and a great DVD authoring tool. The added features make this product well worth the upgrade for many.

New Editor Features

There are not any huge interface changes in the new version of MediaStudio. However there are a added tools and program changes which are very nice, which will increase your productivity and output options.

Storyboard Editing

Ulead says that they have added a story board. It wasn’t what I expected, and it was a little disappointing. What it really is an added folder in the production library named story board, whoopee! You basically can sort you’re clips here and do a lot of the easy part of editing. You can trim your clips, cut your clips and even cut them based on cue’s. You can overlap clips or make them sequential. You can only select how long you want them to overlap in seconds, not frames, but it’s good for rough editing. Once you like what you’ve done you can select add to A/B roll and the editor will place your "pre-edit" into the timeline, putting the proper clips in the A track, the proper clips in the B track and overlap them like you determined earlier for transitions. A true story board interface option would be really cool for those not used to timeline editing, this is only a "semi-story board" interface. It would be nice if Ulead included one that shows transitions and effects, but I don’t think you can expect that any time. However, the timline editor still works great.

Instant Play

The addition of the Instant Play feature to MediaStudio 6.5 makes the upgrade worth it alone. You can now really have real time transitions and real time preview. I was so happy to be able to drag in two clips, add a cross fade and preview it with virtually no render. Version 6.0 had quick play, which would play stuff for you, but the transitions and effects were just cuts or not present during quick play preview. Instant Play automatically renders all your transitions with virtually no render time. You will save lots of time with not having to truly Render your transitions, it really improves editing time. I had fun just playing with the feature and all the instant effects and transitions I can do. It really showcases the power of computing today. The instant play basically plays the video for you depending on your computing power. It will also drop frames to keep up with the play back, so it’s not completely real time. It seems instant play works smoothly for normal transitions, 2D Motion, 3D motion, and transitions, plus anything audio. It doesn’t work very fast (skips a ton of frames, maybe puts one out a second) for most filters. The "instant" 3D rendering really impresses me. The more RAM and faster chips you have, the smoother it will go, but it will play any video without rendering, the only variable is how smooth it is, depending on your system. I say virtually no rendering, because there has to be some rendering no matter what to show your video, it's just really fast. You'll notice the rendering for instant preview because it seems to take the editor a couple seconds for instant play to start after you press play the first time, however it’s a lot quicker than render preview. The quality of the preview is good enough to work with.

Voice Over Record

A pretty clever addition to the new software is a voice over recording feature. This new feature in the software allows you to record an audio track, using your external microphone while previewing your video. It’s really neat because you can narrate a video while watching it with out exporting it to tape. It seems somewhat of a novelty, but I can see some serious uses for this feature for long length projects that need naration where there is a lot of jumping around. The feature however does not appear to allow for any control of audio quality or format. I’m pretty sure that the voiceover audio records at the audio setting for your project but it doesn’t let you record a better or worse setting unless you change the entire project audio settings.

DVD Export

The dvd creation tool is similar, if not the same as the DVD plug-in which Ulead came out with a few months ago for 6.0. We have been informed that the DVD plug-in includes a much more updated version of the Ligos MPEG rendering engine resulting in higher quality video. You select video files which are encoded as MPEG 2 for DVD to start out with. Then you can create an opening movie for the DVD and you can create custom navigation with any backgrounds, images and buttons. They also include 25 templates for the navigation. However, the software is somewhat limiting because it only allows for one level of navigation. You can’t have an opening level and then another level with more options. The software will work fine for basic DVD, VCD and SVCD export but if you’re doing anything slightly complicated you might want to look for a dedicated product.

Video Capture

The video capture is the same program with a few cool adjustments. There is wider support for device control with version 6.5. Ulead has also included scene detection with the new software. This means that you now can have the software automatically split up your captures into different clips, very cool. You can also capture based on file size, for example you can have the software capture a video into one file of say 1 GB and have it automatically create a new one after that 1 GB file is full and so on. For the real pro, Ulead has added a hole host of video calibration tools to the capture software. They’ve included both a vectroscope and a waveform tool to adjust your capture settings.

Other New Features

For those of you loosing your training wheels and upgrading from Video Studio 5 to Ulead Media Studio you will now be able to open up Video Studio projects and edit them. For those of you who use Ulead Cool 3D, their 3d titling program, you can now insert cool 3D files with out rendering them as video, and MediaStudio will render them in the timeline. It will even detect the alpha channel and automatically superimpose the title if it is placed into an overlay track. They’ve added a fade to black transition, where you fade from A to black to B. It’s nice I guess, though I personally will still use just a black clip so I can control the fade times on both ends and the duration of pure black. Also, you can now cut on cue in the timline. I mentioned this with the storyboard but you can also do it in the timeline. If you have set cues in a clip you can automatically have the editor cut the clip based on those cues.

Missing Upgrades

Moving Path Control Options

It’s to bad that Ulead has not increased the size of the moving path window. I personally use 2D and sometimes 3D moving path effects a lot. You can get a lot accomplished with the tools. However, I feel that they are not giving enough screen space and weight to the importance of these tools. Because Ulead has no After Effects with MediaStudio, you have to do your motion in the editor. I would like the window for the moving effects to be bigger. If the window was bigger, the timeline could be longer so you could add more keypoints. I would also like an option for smooth or curved motion. It’s not a horrible loss that these features aren't in 6.5 but they would add a lot to the program. I must note that you can accomplish a lot of these talsk for titles but not for video in CG Infiinty but I think it would be much nicer if the motion options in the editor itself were upgraded so you could do more live video motion and animation.

Audio Editing

The biggest and possibly only advantage that Adobe has had over Ulead is the Audio features within the video editing environment. There still is no good numerical system for setting audio levels, and no Equalizing ability.

Same Good Old Editor Features

Most of the other features in the software are the same. It’s the same interface and the biggest change you will notice is the instant preview. The features are identical except for the things described above. It’s the same good editor. If you are not familiar with Media Studio or you want to learn more, check out the version 6.0 review. It’s basically the same product with the added features that I talked about above. I think Ulead Video Editor is a great tool and a really comfortable video editor. I think anyone can edit a piece professionally and fast with it. The tools provided to you in Ulead Media Studio 6.5 are equal to those of any video editor.

Titling and Paint

Ulead includes a nice titling program CG Infinity. It allows you to animate titles, images and shapes but not live video. It has many great features and is a good add on to the video editor. The program can help you make quality, professional titles fast.

Is it Worth Upgrading?

Well, there is more than one answer to this question. If you have a fast computer, and if you edit long projects or ones which require a lot of previewing, I think the upgrade is essential. You will save a lot of time just with the Instant Play Back and it will make your purchase worthwhile. Also, if you have a CD burner, and want to make video CD’s which can play on your computer, or if your lucky and have a DVD burner you really should upgrade. The DVD authoring tool works nicely with the editor, and you will appreciate the benefits of using a authoring tool that is similar to your video editor. I think that the added features to MediaStudio 6.5 might really move it ahead as the top editor for many features. MediaStudio 6.0 was a great product, and the new features of 6.5 make it even better.

One last note, if you are a current Ulead MediaStudio user or are considering purchasing Ulead MediaStudio you should check out our Ulead MediaStudio users group. We have many articles on using Ulead MediaStudio and many helpful tutorials. We also have a message board where you can ask questions about MediaStudio to the camcorderinfo.com professionals or other MediaStudio users and you can talk with and learn from other MediaStudio users. Plus we have a mailing list all dedicated to Ulead MediaStudio. Check out our Ulead MediaStudio Users Group.

MediaStudio 6.5
$495 full version
$99 upgrade from 6.0
$199 ($189 online download) Directors Cut (just audio and video editing and capture programs)
$129 upgrade to Directors Cut from Video Studio
$299 upgrade to full version from Video Studio
Ulead Systems, Inc.
970 West 190th Street,
Suite 520 Torrance, California 90502, USA
1-310-523-9393
info@ulead.com