Corel VideoStudio Ultimate X9 (Old Version)

I like this software. I have never done much video editing but this made it easy and fun. The tutorials are easy to understand and follow, and I was able to put together a video with minimal effort. If only the footage I was putting together wasn't so poorly filmed (my fault!).If you are looking for some simple video editing software, this might just be for you.If it wasn't xmas morning and I had more time, I would write up a full review. For now, just know, this is good software at a good price. Now I am going back to watching the ultimate xmas movie: Die Hard.

I was used to using the Windows Movie Maker. In that Program, I could burn a DVD. Easy to understand. Plain and simple. Microsoft forced Windows 10 on me. Windows 10 did away with the DVD burning portion of the Program. Corel is good for the expert user. But for Grandpa that is making Family movies of his Grandchildren playing Sports its too involved and time consuming. I don't need 95% of it. They have workshops that end up costing more money and just not necessary for my purposes. Windows Movie Maker with DVD burner was perfect for me. Wish they had left it alone. Don't fix it if its not broke.

I've been looking for a cheap alternative to video editing and at the time of my purchase this was priced at $30. I have a PC with pretty good specs (i7-4790k, GTX 970, and 16GB RAM). I don't know how this will run on other builds but I can assure you if you have a decent PC build it should have the processing power to do what you would like it to do.First off, this program is super easy to use. There's a bit of clutter, but eventually, you'll get used to finding where the stuff is that you need. the learning curve isn't that high for the really basic stuff. Most of what I do is cut, transitions, zoom, etc. I don't really mess around with too much of the more complicated stuff.As far as the program, it's not the best, but it's AMAZING for the price. I don't think you'll find another video editor for the price that this is with the same performance. There will be a bit of load times between pressing play for the preview. It's a second or two. It's a small thing that I hardly notice.The rendering is good and you can make a few different profiles on the settings you prefer to use. I also checked out Sony Movie Studio 13 which is at around the same price point and nowhere near as good. It also has free learning resources (videos) and a free 30 day subscription to learn some video editing. I didn't use all of it because I got busy but some of the videos were super helpful.

Do not purchase Corel products. I have made the mistake twice now, and in both instances had the EXACT same issue. Their products consistently DO NOT OPEN IN WINDOWS. I purchased X7 for my son which would not open, and it never got used. So, to not repeat this problem i downloaded the demo of X9. The demo worked just fine, but then I purchased a CD key. I was forced to reinstall, and then the program would not open again. I just contacted customer support who gave me zero feedback, leading me to believe that this is a known issue.There are a LOT of issues that people can handle with software glitches. Not opening isn't one of them. To have this known issue for years running and to continue to sell their software is borderline criminal. I gave Corel a second chance because of the low cost point of the software, but I could not be paid to use any of their products ever again.

This program is pretty second rate compared to the ancient Windows Movie Maker. Yes, it does do a lot of things Movie Maker didn't... but the tasks the 2 programs can both do, Corel is clearly the lesser of the two. However, the screen shot software that is included is pretty cool!

It's what I know I have been using this software for years and I don't need to go through a learning curve when I upgrade. You have to save frequently because it does crash like the other reviews say. However I crashes during rendering and a lot of this type of software does that. Rendering is very demanding on the hardware. It has the same features as the other software and does everything that I want.

I have many earlier versions of VS, all of which have been okay, but all have had problems of varying sorts. Crashes are common - this includes VS X9. When the program doesn't crash, it works quite well. Having just installed it on a new computer, I haven't had time to check out all the new features, but have managed to edit a couple of short videos successfully.

If you're looking for software to pair with your Elgato HD-60 video capture card for gaming videos, Corel Video Studio seems to be doing the job for me. I'm not a very sophisticated video maker and have never used editing software before, but I've tinkered with a few of Corel's bells and whistles and made numerous videos that are easily posted to Youtube. Sometimes I wish the interface were a bit more intuitive, but I'm pretty sure a few problems I've encountered have been "user error". For instance, all of my raw footage is dumped into a single folder, which I don't mind, but even after I render a completed video, if I erase the raw footage I can no longer play the video. That's fine because I've already uploaded the finished project, but it seems like the rendered video should be "stand alone" and not require the raw footage anymore. Again, I'm sure it can be fixed, but the solution isn't intuitive and the issue isn't pressing enough for me to research it.Here's a short clip I made of some video of the game "Bloodborne", complete with an intro/outro using text overlay, a frame, spliced video and music. The commentary in the body is live, but I've also done overlays. Transitions at the splicing. It was all very easy to make and I think the final product looks and sounds as good as I need it to.[...]