CyberLink PowerDirector 2.5

CyberLink pitches PowerDirector 2.5 as a 'total video-editing solution' for beginners.

That's to say that it covers all the aspects of the editing process, from transferring footage to your computer, right up to outputting the finished product to a number of different formats, such as tape, DVD or VideoCD.

But PowerDirector isn't alone: Pinnacle, Roxio and Ulead all produce straightforward, similarly priced video editors. So how does PowerDirector distinguish itself?

Well, as Cyberlink claims, the program is easy to use. The DVD authoring tools, for example, are so simple that a chimpanzee could probably produce a disc of his sister's wedding footage.

The capture process is also straightforward, as long as you've successfully installed the hardware (TV tuner card for analogue video or FireWire for digital camcorders) necessary to transfer video from your camera to your PC.

The program's main workspace is logical, too. A library window displays either your clips or the effects and transitions that you can use to spice them up with. Just set the mode switch on the right of the screen.

The range and quality of the special effects and transitions on offer is not as healthy as some of the other products that we've seen.

PowerDirector limits you to a storyline-based editing approach which is fine for beginners, since clips can be dragged and dropped into a sequence of thumbnail images in the order required.

However, as editors get more proficient, they might want more control over their projects. The choice of switching to a timeline interface would have provided it.

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