Video Editing - Complete Product - Standard - 1 User - PC - MPN: 210100182
Strengths: Lots of features great interface
Weakness: Full of bugs
I new the program had bugs when I bought it. Newsgroups and even Pinnacle's own web site has a support newsgroup full of problem that I did not even see. I have a new custom built windows XP 2.4ghz pentium 4 with 128mb of video memory 1gb of memory and 80gb raid harddrive way far beyond the reccommended specs. I was able to burn 3 DVD's movies after a long render time. But the the program just fell apart with all kind of different bug and annoying messages. Bottom line you may think your super computer can handle this software it CAN NOT! I was lucky and able to return it to amazon.com.
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TopStrengths: When you finally get it to work (after literally days of frustration to do 1 DVD) it has cool feaures
Weakness: Crashes, lockups, Worse software quality I have ever seen.
I have been writing software for 25 years now. If my Engineers wrote crap like this they would all be fired. Requirements team involve with this product did a great job. Too bad your Engineering team sucks (you should be embarrassed).
At home I run a P4 2.6gig w/1 gig memory and separation of hard drives as suggested. At work it’s on a duel Xeon 2.0gig processors w/RAID0 drives for speed. If you can get by all the crashes you can get something accomplished.
I have other DVD publishing software. They may lack features but bottom line they get things done in hours, not days (and cost little in comparison).
You must have paid those magazine publishers that recommended this product with good advertising dollars (yes I know the game that you will never admit to, like I said I’ve been in this game awhile, been there done that).
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TopStrengths: A full functioned video capture, editing and authoring solution.
Weakness: Very slow rendering/conversion, unstable, freezes up.
Rendering / Format Conversion
This is where Pinnacle dropped the ball. When you choose the output format (DVD, VCD, AVI, MPEG, Tape, Streaming) the software starts the rendering process. This means converting the captured and edited digital video into the appropriate format. It took my computer over 12 hours to convert a 60 minute video into DVD format. ***TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE*** I have tried to run it on 4 different systems that get rebooted every night. The rendering was extremely slow on every system. That, to me is not a hardware related issue! And then it crashed when it tried to burn to the DVD. My hardware far exceeds minimum system requirements. Why then, does it take so long to render? Well, Pinnacle customer support didn't think this question important enough to reply. I do like the various functions and features of the program, but feel that Pinnacle Systems drops the ball where it comes to customer service and response to customer queries. Some time back, they were just as unresponsive to queries about updated drivers for another Pinnacle product.
The Bottom Line:
Home Video software and technology still have a long way to go, to become user friendly to the average user. Until then most people will be happy to plug their camcorders directly into the TV or have a professional convert it to DVD/VCD.
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TopStrengths: It is very easy to use, capture, and Burn.
Weakness: Dose not have basic fetures and very slow at points
I edit often. I got so fed up with this program I almost punched my computer. It has a limited amount of effets and the tittle editor is barely better then Paint. If a big video file is being working on it will slow up and freeze. It also loses the audio when framerate is cut. It does have a very basic, easly to use timeline system. SOmeone who is just looking to get there home videos onto a dvd and add some music. This is the program. For anyone else, forget it!
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TopStrengths: None
Weakness: ease of use, informative help mannual, customer support
I spend hours with several tries just dubbing a CD. I have not yet been able to burn a successful DVD. I edited music, saved it but have been unable to recover it. I think I am probably doing it wrong but all my studying of the so called help mannual has not helped and my queries to Pinnacle customer support have went unanswered.
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TopStrengths: User friendly, good interface with digital camcorders
Weakness: Unstable, Very sensitive to other programs or plugins, very slow rendering, DVD creation part is complex and limited
The first few months was spent trying to get the software to work properly. Seemed like each time I installed something else on my new computer, I would need to re-install Studio 8. I couldn't have fixed all of the bugs without the help of my friend, who is a computer pro.
It has settled down now so that it usually works without any problems. However, when editting, it is very important to save changes very often because you never know when the program will freeze or suddenly close. I deal with the slow rendering by doing that task overnight. Another recommendation: for digital captures, choose DV capture. The quality is just too poor when capturing it as an MPEG file.
One question I have: The video captured by Studio 8 is very bad with many lines in the video if the original camera was panning. Anyone else have this problem?
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TopStrengths: Great editing features if you could get them to work
Weakness: Slow, slow, slow, hangs-up, terrible support
This product is garbage. The editing concepts are great but the engineering is terrible. It's like buying a car that looks great but has no engine. Unfortunatly I wasted a 100 bucks. I am a software designer and there is no excuse for this.
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TopStrengths: Gets great magazine reviews for ease of use and features.
Weakness: Pinnacle support and documentation. DVD rendering incredibly slow compared to competive products. Tends to freeze for no apparent reason when editting.
Pinnacle gave me all kinds of excuses for some of my problems. But when you have a fast processor, 1 gig of memory, and 60 gig of striped raid hard drive space---then they say it is probably a resource problem....? As another reviewer mentioned, lots of problems trying to use material not captured by Studio and no help from Pinnacle. Also, I needed both PAL and NTSC, after upgrading to version 8 no more PAL. Pinnacle would not refund and said I would have to order another copy from a European distributor. So the folks in Europe get both and we get ------!
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TopWeakness: no compatability....no support systems
Unfortunatly you have to be fluent in computers in order to use...The pinnacle web site has been down since I purchased studio8...Their local support phone # is no longer local....and when you get thru a recorder tells you to call back when ever....You can only use a pinnacle video input cable....verified by a local tech...Also pinnacle dosen't have a video input cable on the market...they have cancelled all their orders with the computer chain stores, with no info on when one will be availiable..???
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TopStrengths: As a video editor it work great on AVI files, easy to use
Weakness: Has problems reading mpg , keep crashing on scene detection DVD creation software needs some work done on it Love the DVD menu generator
Overall a very nice video editing product, weak on DVD creation and Mpg. I have used studio DV, studio 7 and this works similar although very slow on my AMD 2400+. Must be optimized for P4
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TopStrengths: Seemless video editing and capture.
Weakness: Awful Title Editing. Awful Rendering. Awful Awful error handling, message handling, and throughput, especially on XP
You will get addicted to video capture, editing, the transitions, etc.
Title Deko, their title editor, is truly evil. You -think- you've created a new title, but just try to use it, he, he..
Don't use MP3 audio, don't even waste your time, convert any music you are using to WAV before you add it to your timeline.
If you think you've got a dvd just because it runs in edit mode, think again.. you will get hangs, bangs, crashes, complete disk wipeouts, etc. with absolutely no warning or logical explanation. You will find yourself selecting your whole project, deleting it and then re-pasting it in and saving for no particular reason.
You will curse, cry, plead, and then accept. Just use Studio to create dvd-compatible AVI file (I have never had luck creating an MPEG, it tells me that there is no video, funny I was just running it the second before and I'm looking at it..), then use Sonic MyDVD version 5 to create the menu (if you want multiple menus, sorry but you'll have to create multiple avi files) and burn the DVD. Oh yes and once again, DO NOT RUN SONIC and STUDIO at the same time!
You run the risk of having to go out and buy a new computer it will hang so bad..
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TopStrengths: Easy to use, very capable features and great DVD burns.
Weakness: Slow rendering, but worth the wait.
Ok folks, I’ve read the negative feedback on this product and lucky for me, I have not experienced the same.
On my system the program installed and then performed flawlessly. I did as the manual suggested: I used a 2nd hard drive for the “work files” and used “hardware acceleration” while performing different tasks.
This is the hardware configuration for my homemade system:
Pentium 4 2.53 Ghz processor,
1 gig of PC2700 RAM,
Motherboard with front side bus of 533 mhz,
2 UltraDMA 7200 rpm, 80 gig drives, one loaded with the program the other used for work files.
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro w/128 meg of video RAM
Viewsonic 17 in. LCD display
Sony DRU-510A, 4x DVD burner (burn speed is media dependent),
Windows XP Pro operating system.
That’s pretty much it.
The program itself is quite intuitive and easy to learn.
It comes with plenty of title and menu designs both of which are very customizable.
Rendering and burning is easy, but it does take a while. I timed a 15-minute fully edited movie with imported music tracks and it took about 40 minutes to render and burn to DVD. But it was worth it! Nice job on DVD.
One warning, I did burn a CD+RW in S-Video format and I thought it was pretty poor quality, like a copied VHS tape. Unsatisfactory.
Full quality DVD is the way to go with this program. It uses huge amounts of resources but you can’t beat DVD quality.
Good Luck!
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TopStrengths: none
Weakness: poor interface, crashes, or some functions dont work
I found the interface somewhat unintuitive. It also has some functions that dont work or cause the software to crash.
The software notified me that 8.10.1 was available, so I uploaded it only to find I could not burn a DVD. I was told by tech support to uninstall the release and reinstall the previous release.
I'm running a dell pc here with a sony DVD writer, how vanilla can it get??
Tech support is not good. The technicians dont use their real names, and if you have a complaint, they won't give you their supervisors name. If you call the company, they will tell you the person emailing you does not exist in the company.
I think I will take my DV editing to another company. Bye Bye Pinnacle Studio 8!
What really irks me is how much this software is hyped. I think that most of the "good or excellent" customer reviews are coming from people who are "seeded" by Pinnacle to hype their product, which is basically junk.
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TopStrengths: great features!!! So many of them!!!
Weakness: Slow to render, loses titles, slow motion trails
Dude, I haven't had any troubles w/ it crashing yet and i've used it for about a year! The only thing I've had happen so far is that it loses the titles I created every once in a while. Everyone who has complained about it crashing and everything else should also keep in this in mind.... IT ONLY COST YOU $100!! Of course its not going to be the most amazing thing ever. Even the $600 programs have their own problems!! I myself think it is very good for the price!!
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TopFYI The title problem is a a bug wherein whenever the package does an automatic save, the subject problem occurs. The solution is quite simple. Under capture settings, just turn off the suto save and make sure you manually save as often as is approropriate. This was the only problem I ever encountered with the package, which doesn't amount to a problem at all.
Strengths: Ease of use, super fast rendering
Weakness: a bit sluggish at some times
First off, I have not bought the full version yet, but I have the free trial. Even with the restrictions of the trial, this software is incredible. You shouldn't listen to that guy from NJ, come on, who really makes an hour long movie with this stuff? If it is more than a few minutes, amature films get very boreing. Rendering goes super fast. I rendered a 36 second video (I made a comercial for my dad's company's contest) and it rendered in like 5 seconds to an Mpeg file. That guy from CA says that the software won't work with his PAL video format. The free trial even has the options to use PAL format. And that other guy from CA, a cable is a cable, unless it is a crap generic brand. Any fire wire or Ilink cable will do. This software is super fast. My dad had a video I had to edit for him on a deadline, I needed it in the UPS box by 5:30, he came home at about 4:00. I captured the video, Editted the five minutes down to 36 seconds. And this was the first time I have used this software. It excepted an MP3 I had to download in that time period, and worked flawless with my video. I rendered to mpeg, burned it and sent it on it's way just in time for the deadline. This is the easiest and fastest software I have ever used.
BUY IT!!
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TopStrengths: Loaded flawlessly, friendly menus, easy to understand, has all the features that most users would ever want and a lot they would never use. Just a perfect, high quality package.
Weakness: NONE
Running on Dell 8400 XP w/4 mghz, 1 GB RAM, Philips burner. I've worked with just about every other video editor and guarantee that none of them hold a candle to Studio. Have been using for over a year and made a truckload of 1 to 2 hour DVD's with nary a single "coaster". Had previously installed on a Dell P3 5oo mghz with same high performance. Of people I know that also have a Studio package, the only ones that have trouble are those who don't know what they're doing, have deficient hardware or don't know how to follow directions. Can't recommend the product high enough. Happy Motoring!!
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Reply by member: zoglog
Hmmm I have a feeling this guy works for Pinnacle. I find it hard to believe this review after reading all the other ones. Plus it's a new account.
We liked the $100 Studio 7 software from Pinnacle. The Studio 8 Deluxe version ($300) deserves another look, not just for adding a "1" to the version, but because of added hardware features like analog video/audio inputs and outputs, an extended breakout box and a FireWire port. This is a complete production package for anyone ready to upgrade their computer for video. Although it is...
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Pinnacle Studio v.8.0
Strengths: Interface seems user friendly
Weakness: Installation hang-up on Windows XP, lack of widescreen (16:9) format editing
Two major gripes on this software:
1) Installation on Windows XP Home Edition. I got an error message that the software couldn't access the "C:/documents and settings/all users/documents" folder. The folder was locked out for some unknown reason previous to the install attempt. I tried to go to the Knowledge Base at www.pinnaclesys.com and the readme.txt for a solution; no luck on any leads for a solution. I had to go to microsoft.com to find an article that told you how to unlock that folder (it worked). Installation was then possible. Why Pinnacle chose to use that particular folder to store captured video is unknown, especially if you want to choose your own folder on a different HD. Anyway, I don't know how the average layman would have figured out how to install that software without doing some technial-deep research.
Gripe 2: There is no 16:9 widescreen format support on this software at all. My Sony DV camcorder allows 16:9 recording so I could watch it on my 16:9 HDTV. If you are in the same situation, don't buy this software...it only captures, edits, and burns in 4:3 format. I wish I knew about this shortcoming before buying this software for $99. If you go to Pinnacle's website, it does mention this fact in their knowledge base, but for me it was too late.
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