Rating: 
Summary: Product is VERY BUGGY!
Review: We purchased this product for Christmas and have STILL not be able to use it. After MANY MANY hours of trying everything the program is still not functioning. We get it to work then when we shut down our computer we have to start all over again. I would not recommed this product to any novice OR intemediate users. It's a shame because when we did get it to work it was really great. Has some terrific features on it... Kept having to go back and forth to technical support. Has to be something easier out there. We've given up!
Rating: 
Summary: By far the easiest-to-use package out there
Review: Why waste your time trying to make your Windows PC do what it was never meant to do. I looked at this board and then decided to get a Mac instead. Since then, I haven't looked back. The Mac comes with the necessary consumer software to start making awesome video out of the box. You can add sound, special effects, transitions, etc... There are even plug ins from third partys for additional effects. If you outgrow iMovie, you can always get Final Cut Pro. Get a Mac.
Rating:
Summary: Get a Mac Instead
Review: Why waste your time trying to make your Windows PC do what it was never meant to do. I looked at this board and then decided to get a Mac instead. Since then, I haven't looked back. The Mac comes with the necessary consumer software to start making awesome video out of the box. You can add sound, special effects, transitions, etc... There are even plug ins from third partys for additional effects. If you outgrow iMovie, you can always get Final Cut Pro. Get a Mac.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful potential
Review: Would have been 5 stars if not for the installation problems. 3 stars as a warning to those who are not very PC savy. I bought this card mostly for the software (no problems with the card) after receiving a digital camcorder for Christmas. I had heard that the software was designed to be easy to use and included titling. It is designed very nicely, very intuitive, without a lot of extras. I will start by saying I was eventually successful in editing a 10 minute video, and putting it back on digital tape. I'm currently working on others... Getting there: I started with Windows 98 installed on a dell machine. The installation was only partially successful off the CD. Titling didn't work, and a few other things were broken which I discovered later. All my problems seem to center around two issues, first, dos file names get created by the installer. I had to manually rename some files which I figured out by using the 'version checker' that comes with the software. This is by far the worst installation of any comercial software I have ever seen. Second, the updates from Pinnacle are as bad as the original installer. I had trouble with rescon800.dll getting deleted and the installer would stop because it couldn't find it. I had to manually restore the file with Norton Utilities. Creating Mpegs was also broken due to DOS file names. Tips: 1. I've heard of problems using the 'preview' and then re-capturing at full quality. I skipped that and bought a 40 Gig HD for editing fully captured video. 2. I upgraded to 256MB RAM. I was consistently running low with 128MB, and you don't want your system swapping to disk when you are processing a video stream. 3. I always manually close almost everything by using the task menu (ctrl-alt-delete) before any capturing or rendering. If you can play back a full screen video without any frames jerking, you can skip this step. 4. Don't expect your final output to be longer than 18 minutes. I don't know if more expensive software can break that barrier, but I've decided that I'm more likely to go back and watch a video if it's around 10 minutes or less anyway. So I'm living with it. 5. Resign yourself ahead of time to not be frustrated by the fact that this could be one of the greatest products ever if Pinnacle would use a decent installation package. 6. Realize that editing video takes a lot of time, the more you shoot, the more you will have to watch and re-watch to get the 'highlights' I find that the first edit needs to be performed by the camera operator. Despite the frustrations, I've had a lot of fun with this product.
Rating:
Summary: This is the one to get!
Review: You have probably read all the product specifications by the manufacturer and other publications regarding the performance and features of the Studio DV. Based on my experience, I can assure you that Studio DV performs as well if not better that all the claims in the product reviews. Installation was a snap with no problems. However, you may need to stop all other programs running in the background (Norton anitivirus, monitor power-saver, etc.) to provide maximum system resources to Studio DV. Before doing this, some of the icons on the screen appeared jumbled. This is explained in the troubleshooting portion of the manual. The video capture in "preview" quality works great - it simply shows what you need to know while you are editing. After capture of your scenes, you can select any scene and scroll through it by moving the scroll bar. Ditto for the transition effects and titles. You can add your own narration by using your computer's microphone as the preview window plays the scenes. You can then come back and adjust the fade and volume levels of the narration track and the other two audio tracks. This is very powerful (but simple) editing features that I was very amazed to discover in Studio DV Sound editing capabilities are amazing for a product at this price level! You can see the "wave-form" representation of the audio so its much easier to sync a particular part of the audio to the video (such as an audio "bang" sound effect to the video "explosion"). The titling software that is included is A+. Why would you need anything else? I have used $1000 titling software and although I had some additional "whiz/bang" effects, who needs that all the time. The point is to make a great title, put it where you want it quickly and easily and be able to customize it to some reasonable level. Studio DV lets you do all of that. In summary, if you need to edit you Digital 8 or DV videos quickly, simply and with minimal learning curve and hassles go with Studio DV. I can see even pros using this on thier home movies! You have everything you need to make great looking movies. Good Luck
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