Corel eyes consumers in newly released video editing products

Corel is focusing increasingly more on its consumer line of products in the video editing space, with its just-released Ulead DVD Movie Factory 6 and Ulead Video Studio 11 getting a more professional feel.

"Many features and functionality of MediaStudio Pro and DVD Workshop are being rolled into the consumer products [DVD MovieFactory and VideoStudio], making them more powerful, but still easy to use," said Tobie Openshaw, a product manager at Corel.

According to Openshaw, MediaStudio Pro and DVD Workshop would be discontinued in the near future, but did not give a date.

Last week Corel hosted a series of roadshows promoting its newly released editing suites.

Video Studio Plus, which sells for $199, features multiple overlay movie wizard templates; an MPEG optimizer encoding tool which suggests encoding settings for the best quality and speed; and a DeBlock and DeSnow filter which tidies up video with digital noise or blocky compression artifacts.

Another new feature is the ability, in a slideshow, to pan across any part of a photo to show more detail. A case in point is a group photo. In the past if users selected to perform a slideshow the photos would transition from one to the next. Now in between transitions they can set the software to zoom in and slowly track or pan from one part of the image to the next.

Users can also repair common video problems such as poor white balance settings with one-click corrective filters. On the audio side they can also generate Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.

DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus now allows users to create HD discs as well as personalised menus. Many of the features of DVD MovieFactory 6 are also contained in Video Studio Plus.

Corel has also released Corel Painter X. In this version it has made the layer system work similar to Adobe's, making it easy for users to move files between the applications. The application, which is targeted at fine artists, commercial artists and commercial designers, now features 650 paint brushes --- all of which look different depending on the paper selected