PowerDVD 8 Ultra is (high definition) movie player with lots of extras like organizing the movie collection or creating movie remixes. The emphasize however lies on movie playback.

PowerDirector 7 Ultra is a advanced video editing software that is an all in one solution from capturing videos to producing them.

Cyberlink DVD Suite 6 on the other hand is a collection of various tools that included PowerDVD and PowerDirector plus many others that can be used for creating disk labels, backing up disks or copying disks.

PowerDVD 8 Ultra

The installation of PowerDVD 8 did not take longer than a minute and users of previous versions of the software will notice that there have not been drastic changes to the graphical user interface.

One of the main selling points of PowerDVD 8 is its support of high definition video formats including playback of Blu-Ray video content. The software is excellent for High-Definition and Home Theater enthusiasts who want to enjoy full high definition video and audio support. It should be noted that it is still possible to watch movie DVDs and other movie and video formats without problems.

PowerDVD 8 comes with a movie organizer that can be used to index and rate movies. This feature can connect you with PowerDVD’s Online Community to search for movies online and read the reviews of other users. There is also the option to create so called movie remixes and upload them to the community website.This feature makes it possible to add sounds, graphics or text to movies to personalize them.

PowerDirector 7 Ultra

PowerDirector 7 Ultra is a video editing tool. It can be used to turn videos on the computer’s hard drive (or digital camcorders) into movie disks that can be played on the computer or standalone movie players. Supported are the creation of Blu-Ray disks, DVD, VCD, SVCD and Double-Layer DVDs.

A second option is to convert videos into other formats so that they can be uploaded to the Internet or played on devices without optical drive including Apple’s iPod or iPhone and Sony’s PSP.

As video captures are concerned. PowerDirector 7 was able to identify virtually any device that was tested including DV, HDV, analogue and digital capture cards, webcams or soundcards.

PowerDirector 7 comes with a set of automated editing tools such as extreme backlight correction, noise reduction, red-eye removal or enhanced video stabilization.

Many users will probably be happy with a software that can capture a video that they have taken with their digital camcorder to turn it into a movie disk that can be played on any movie player.

Experienced users will love the advanced editing features of PowerDirector 7 Ultra which can add effects, subtitles and audio features to the movie before burning it to disk.

CyberLink DVD Suite 6 Ultra

CyberLink DVD Suite 6 Ultra is a multimedia software for working with high definition video and photos. It basically includes all the features of PowerDvd, PowerDirector, PowerProducer, Power2Go, PowerBackup, InstantBurn 5, PowerDVD Copy, LabelPrint 2 and PowerStarter 6 albeit in last years editions (the latest available version is CyberLink DVD Suite 7 Ultra).

Concentrating on the additional features: What does Cyberlink DVD Suite 6 Ultra put on the table? Many additional, smaller, software products have been added to the DVD Suite. They can be used for various tasks such as creating disk labels, making 1:1 copies of disks or backing up data on disks.

Up for grabs are two licenses for each product. All you need to do is to reply with a comment in this thread. Winners will be notified by email.

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There are two major differences between Jumpcut and local video editing programs. The first is that you have to upload the raw video file before you can edit it. This can take some time depending on your upload speed. The second difference is a file size limitation of 100 megabytes which means that you either have to cut your raw video file into 100 Megabyte pieces or forget about editing it online at Jumpcut.

Jumpcut supports most of the commonly used video files including avi, flv, mpg and mov and uploading multiple files at once. It is also possible to upload pictures and audio files or import them from Flickr or Facebook. I tried the service today and somehow was not able to upload videos at all. The videos would stop at about 50-60%. I did try different videos and formats which can only mean that they have some problems at the moment.

The functionality that Jumpcug offers is pretty basic and thus easy to learn. You can slice, cut and duplicate the videos that you have uploaded, add titles and sounds to them, apply all kinds of nice effects (butterflies, invert and rain for instance) and apply actions to the video.

One thing is however really bothering me. There is no obvious way to download the created movie. You can publish it (public or private) on the Jumpcut website but I was not able to find a download link for the movie. This means that you have to use a download manager like Orbit, a plugin or extension to download the newly created movie.

Publishing the movie on the web does have some advantages. Instead of burning x movies for everyone who wants a copy you simply send everyone a link that points to the movie on the Internet.

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Jahshaka looks like a complex tool at the beginning but it quickly becomes clear that the user interface is intuitive. I personally think that it would be a good idea to take a look at the beginners tutorial to understand the main features and interface. This has helped me a lot. Basic steps include loading one or more clips which do not have to be movie files but could be image files as well. You could use the image files for instance to blend in some logos before the clip starts.

I’m not a video editing professional and don’t use all the features that Jahshaka provides  – I’m happy that it does everything that I need a video editing software to do. I tried Jahshaka 2.0 RC4 although 3.0 RC1 was already out. Not sure though which new features have been introduced by this new version.

Please let me know what you think of this tool if you give it a try.

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