Hello today we're going to take a look at PowerDirector 17 this is the new
version of the software I've been using for many years right back to
PowerDirector 12 I think it was, so when CyberLink asked me to review
this I was more than happy to upgrade so they've given me a copy of PowerDirector 17
which has replace my previous copy so a lot of videos on
YouTube start with a little introduction you can do something very basic in PowerDirector
and that might be where you kick in the music
If you're like me and you started out video editing and maybe you're using Windows Movie Maker
something free like that, something basic and simple, and you're now looking for
the next level that was exactly the journey I took when I selected PowerDirector
many years ago and I've never needed to move away. I found some of the
other products as are available to be quite expensive and PowerDirector
does everything that I need so if you want to do maybe a little thing across
the bottom to ask a question or give out your Twitter handle you can do that
PowerDirector new in version 17 is the ability to not only have the text there
but to have a lot of background behind the text that looks all those better now
it's something I've been waiting for them to do for a long time, absolutely
love the feature, and you may have seen it on some previous videos I've done.
So as well as all the basic features such as editing you've also got transitions
you've got particle effects you can have little things popping up at the side of
you you can pop text by the side of you you can do all sorts with it.
The basic layout is very similar to most editing packages, I've tried a few, I've
tried MAGIX Movie Maker, I've tried Vegas I've tried Premiere and the all operate
in roughly the same way so you have a little media tray this is where you load
in your videos, photos, music or sound effects, you've got an editing timeline
this is where you'll place your clips and effects and that's how you build up
your video and you have a little preview window. So I'm currently occupying the
preview window you can see a collection of media and all you have to do is drag
them down and you can very quickly start editing a video.
There's extra functionality in terms of being able to speed things up,
slow things down, reverse things, flip things over, you can change the colors,
you can choose a background if you want, so I'm stood in front of this white wall
known as green screening or chroma key, you pick the color and then
you can take that out and boom you can be have a completely different
background behind you while you're doing a video. For a lot of my videos I tend to
do a voiceover rather than stand around talking to a camera and that's not a
problem again if you've got a decent mic you can edit all your video together hit
the record button and do the voice over to your video. I've also been playing
with the collage creator in this version of PowerDirector this is something that
allows you to put into a really cool little transition effects while one
videos playing you can bring other videos on I think the results look
really great but they still work to do for me the editing within the collage
creator can be a bit of a faff, you can't easily take a trimmed clip and put
it straight in you have to mess around trying to edit it and that kind of
puts me off a little bit. For those of you who saw my recent Vimble 2 review
you'll know that I use picture in picture, that's completely possible,
simply put a little video up and that can play alongside
your main clip. PowerDirector has a lot of features that I don't use so if you're
into your action you can import action camera footage, 360 degree, and edit that
you can move that around and the only time I've used that was when I reviewed
the Google Pixel and made use of its 360 degree recording function and then I
could edit it within PowerDirector moving around that space to get the best
shot it's a really cool feature and if I had more 360 degree camera footage it's
definitely what I would make use of. When it comes to exporting video you've got a
range of options you can either select the exact variables you want yourself
whether it's an avi and mp4 etc or if you don't want to mess around with any
of that it does have a section allowing you to click and select
what's your going to be using the footage for so let's say you want to upload it to YouTube you
click YouTube, give it authorization, it will export the footage and upload it to
your account. If you want to export it it's for mobile use click mobile and or
set the correct settings do two then load it onto your mobile phone. If you
want to buy a one-off license you can do so worth noting however that CyberLink
are now popping the Adobe model and they do have a subscription service available
so rather than paying a one-off fee you can pay a subscription fee and gain
access to their entire suite of editing tools and that includes not only PowerDirector
but you've got various color grading software, audio editing, it's it's quite a
nice little package if you're getting started you don't want to pay out a lot
up front maybe the subscription fee is going to be worth it for you.
I still really like this product as I say I've tried quite a few different video
editors and none of them have managed to take me away from PowerDirector.
If you're new to my channel you may not see my Edelkrone SliderOne Pro video
definitely recommend going to click on that that's a great bit of hardware if
you want to get some really amazing footage just click the little box here
and I'll see you over there