Corel Digital Studio 2010

Until now, when it came to affordable programs for editing, organising and sharing your files, Roxio Creator and Nero have been the two main choices. Now Corel has thrown its hat into the ring with Digital Media Studio 2010.

The suite comprises four separate applications: Paintshop Photo, Videostudio, DVD Factory and WinDVD. From the outset, it's clear that Corel hasn't just cobbled together a group of existing applications: each one has the same simple and intuitive design. Throughout the editing applications, Corel makes it easy to share your music, video and pictures, either over email or by directly uploading them to Facebook, Flickr or Youtube.

Paintshop Photo is the image editor, and as with the other programs in the collection, when it is loaded for the first time it scours the computer’s hard disk for suitable media and adds it to the library. Tags can be applied to help organise photos, and the thumbnail view can be smoothly resized using a slider bar. Double-click a photo and you're taken to the Express Edit screen in which a variety of effects can be applied, including a Makeover tool that lets the user airbrush those faces that aren’t quite perfect. Collages and impressive-looking photo books can also be put together.

As for moving images, the Videostudio application is the thing to use. Videos can be quickly split or trimmed, while a selection of effects can also be applied. Alternatively, provide it with a set of clips and it's able to automatically cobble them together to create a video complete with menus and a soundtrack.

DVD Factory looks after video conversion and the burning of files to CD or DVD. Advanced options include the ability to burn discs in high definition using the AVCHD format, as well as converting video for iPods and mobile phones. However, it can't burn files to Blu-ray discs.

WinDVD is the final part, providing video playback. It offers several enhancements, including the rather interesting Time Stretch to speed up video without the audio getting high-pitched – the idea being that you can watch to the end of a film even if you're running out of time.

The suite also features support for Windows 7's new touch capabilities, allowing users to browse and manipulate media using finger gestures. However, you will need a touch-screen computer to take advantage of this.

Corel Digital Studio 2010 doesn't offer anything particularly advanced, nor does it bring many new features. And given the similarity of each part it's a surprise that Corel didn’t bundle everything into a single application. Where it excels is in providing basic image, video and disc burning tools that are very easy to use.

Rival products might be cheaper and have more features, but Corel Digital Suite is intuitive and better suited to beginners.

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