You can also display two mini-audio meters as you preview your video on the timeline. You can now edit 4K video and activate a dual preview, which gives you a high-resolution preview as well as a second window showing the contents of your library. The new Ultimate version introduces audio scrubbing, which means you can hear as well as see your preview on the timeline. This version also adds under-the-hood improvements, like its performance on 8+ core processors and multithreading, which facilitate the new 4K-preview quality.

The Ultimate edition also supports additional professional formats and cameras - like HDR video and MXF (8-bit 420 AVC), Apple ProRes (10-bit 422), and Sony XAVC (8-bit) video files - and comes with 18 new transition effects.

If you go for the more expensive Ultimate version, you also get a new Shape Designer that you can use to add vector shapes, complete with autofit text and key-frame controls, to your footage. While the previous version debuted nested projects, Version 18 now lets you combine clips and edits to reuse in different projects via the PIP (picture-in-picture) designer. A major interface update lets you arrange tracks in whichever order you want, as opposed to just the top-down order of previous versions.

Cyberlink powerdirector 17