There is a growing demand for a decent all-in-one digital imaging pack that covers everything from organising your photographs to editing your videos and eventually burning them onto DVD. Ulead has attempted to provide it by bundling four of its core programs into a single package and there are few more comprehensive digital imaging suites than StudioQuartet. While the price tag is out of the range of many home users, the enthusiast will save up for it and provide themselves with everything they need to create multimedia projects.
However, having said that, StudioQuartet falls short of being the perfect solution.
It consists of four core programs -- MediaStudio Pro 7, Cool 3D Production Studio, DVD Workshop AC-3 and PhotoImpact 8 -- but three of the four have multiple applications.
MediaStudio Pro 7 is a comprehensive video and audio editing suite in a similar class to Adobe Premier and Pinnacle's Edition 5, however, while it produces similar results it takes longer to do so because it is not as intuitive and can be overly complex, as there is a lack of integration into many of the applications.
For example the audio and video editors are separate and if you want to create and add an animated 3D object to your video you have to open Cool 3D Production Studio separately, do your work, close it down and import your object. The basic 3D tools are easy to get the hang of once you have worked out the menu system, and there is a good supply of templates to get you going initially.
PhotoImpact 8 is an interesting image editing suite that at times appears designed more for webpage creation than photo editing; however, it does both well and has the added bonus of coming with a good collection of banners, buttons, icons and special effects, as well as an image organiser that will arrange your photo collection into albums.
The DVD Workshop provides a simple but effective method of creating your DVD, complete with menus, chapters and background audio, but again is split into two applications when it could all have been done in one.
The idea behind StudioQuartet is excellent but sports experts have long known that a team of stars does not always equate to a star team, and that is that case here.