Pinnacle Studio 9 Vs. Ulead Studio 8 Encoding Benchmark

[oldfart]

My main use for video editing/encoding software is for converting home movies shot with a DV camcorder into DVD format for playback on a set top DVD player. I've been using Pinnacle Studio since version 7. I've read that Ulead is faster than Pinnacle in encoding so I downloaded the trial version to check it out.

Before I get to the encoding benches, a little about the editing features. So far, I MUCH prefer Pinnacle to Ulead. Marking clips and moving or deleting them is a lot nicer in Pinnacle. I like the story board and timeline layout better as well. This may be just a familiarity issue. Maybe I'll get used to it, but the Pinnacle seems more professional, and easier to use. Ulead seems a bit cheesy.

OK, benches.

I wanted to keep it as straight a comparison as possible. I used the same video clips and encoded to DVD files (did not burn to disk). Both were set to 8000K, CBR, NTSC, PCM audio. No titles, chapters, transitions were added. Just straight encode.

Video length = 13:52 avi capture from DV cam.

Pinnacle Studio 9.1:
23 min (~ 1.6 x real time)

Ulead Studio 8:
10 min. (.7 x real time)

I was pretty shocked at the difference. Ulead is over twice as fast as Pinnacle and encodes in less than real time.

I still prefer Pinnacles editing and interface , but again, I'll have to work with the Ulead program some more to see if I can get used to it.

So it boils down to (so far)
Pinnacle > Ulead for editing
Ulead > Pinnacle for encoding performance

 

[rbV5]

Thanks for this oldfart. Thats very interesting results, and Pinnacle indeed seems to be a slow encoder.

Did they end up with the same file size?
Is the image quality ~ same?

 

[MScrip]

I like Pinnacle Studio too. I tried all of the consumer video editing software a year ago, and I found Pinnacle Studio to be my favorite, against Roxio, ULead and others.

I too am annoyed at the encoding time that Pinnacle Studio takes.... but I guess I'll have to live with it.

I use Pinnacle Studio to capture, edit and encode... but I use Nero 6 to burn DVDs. I found that some DVDs burned with Pinnacle didn't play in some DVD players... But if I burn them with Nero, they all work perfectly!

 

[oldfart]

Just an update if anyone is looking at these products. I just got done making a DVD out of some DV cam footage. I gave the Ulead Studio 8 a workout before my demo version expires. The verdict is it is very fast rendering, but the editing absolutely stinks compared to Pinnacle Studio 9. If you are capturing and rendering without doing any edit work, it is a nice fast piece of software. If you will be doing some editing of your work, i wouldn't recommend it. Even though the Pinnacle is slow to render, I'll stick with it. The better editing capabilities makes up for it.