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CyberLink PowerDirector Ultra ver.11




After writing this review I tried to uninstall this software.  It is a major pain in the butt to get off your system.  They even have troubleshooting advice as to how to get it off so they are aware they have issues.  Too bad the troubleshooting doesn't work.  It took me over an hour to get this off.  Amazing and not in a good way. Buyer beware!
 
First impressions often last, my first impression here was how in the world can it take over 35 minutes to install a software package.  When it finally finishes installing and reboots your computer you still can’t use it because it wants you to install the latest updates.   You download the latest updates and here is no flashing icon, nothing to tell you it is working in the background.  So you start the program and it is immediately interrupted by the update finally starting it’s process.  What it was doing in the interim is beyond me.  Now the update just asked me if I would like to start the program after 40 minutes for installation.  Really?   I had inputted 15 digits of the 30 digit security key prior to being interrupted by the “update now” message.  So after entering the security key I can finally see whether the software is worth all the trouble it took to install it.  The installation did suck up 40 minutes of the 60 minutes I planned on using for my initial look at the software.   Oh, now I have to register it or I can skip registration and be badgered every time I start the software to register now.  Software developers wonder why it is so hard to get people to try new software or to upgrade.   Disregarding the learning curve, it is a pain in the butt just to install an upgrade or new software.



The program looks interesting.  It is dogmeat slow so I checked the program requirements.   It recommends 6GB of RAM and I have four so that could be one of the issues for slowness. It requires a 128mb video card and I have a 256mb card so that shouldn’t be a problem.  My processor is an old AMD Athlon II X215 processor running at 2.7 GHz so that could be an issue.   I have to guess that this program would perform better on a system newer and more powerful than mine.



I started anew today to see if my initial impressions were false.  I imported 16 minutes of video.  I added a sound track and I told hit to produce the video.  This was under the Wizard feature.   It took approximately 1.5 hours to render 16 minutes of video.   Needless to say I have to stick with my impression that this software is tedious at best unless you have a very robust system.  I would suggest going to CyberLink’s web site and checking out their system requirements before investing in this software.  It appears to be powerful and even useful but with my system I can not verify that impression. 



If reviewing a product, it may have been received free of charge. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

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