Rating: 
Summary: A great value, if you have enough RAM and a fast hard disk
Review: I had none of the problems described in some of the reviews, although the frame grabbing tool wouldn't work consistently. I am happy to say that Pinnacle fixed this issue and others with release 1.05, which you can download as a patch from their website. With this issue resolved, I can say that this product is quite a bargain and has helped me create simple, high-quality videos very easily. HOWEVER, firewire video editing only works well when you have plenty of RAM (128mb seems about right) and a fast hard disk (most newer UDMA's work just fine).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product, and yes Virginia, it works with Athlon!
Review: I have used this product now for almost a year and have been very happy with it. I tried other products - a really cruddy program from Dlink whose card locked up my old Pentium 233, Video Studio from Ulead(worked well but interface too jazzy and strange), and also Adobe's video editor (way too complicated for my needs). I was a little hesitant about installing it on my Athlon 900 system but after installing and getting my drivers up to snuff it worked great. As stated, you must have installed the latest drivers for your video and sound card and THEN installed DirectX latest version (8.0 for the moment). The software and card will work flawlessly. You should also have a large, fast hard drive for your video files in addition to the hard drive that your operating system is on (not just a partition on the same drive). This will keep your video flowing smoothly. I also recommend at least a Duron or Celeron 700 MHZ cpu, and be sure no other programs or Anti-Virus software is running at the same time. Video editing is extremely processor and drive intensive and anything else running will give you choppy video output. I liked Studio DV because it is logical yet flexible. I could add titles, background sound, transitions, and narration, as well as rearrange and crop the scenes with the click of a button. It will output movies into many formats, including MPG, AVI, Real Video format, or back to the Mini DV Camcorder. I also liked the program because it controlled the recording on my Mini DV camcorder, as mine lacks the record button (older Panasonic, but takes great video in good light and has terrific sound) The only feature that I would like to have seen added, which VideoStudio has, is the ability to open and edit MPG files. Overall, I highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to try video editing. It is simple to use but gives the flexibility to create some really cool videos. And because it is broadcast quality, a businessperson could easily make their own commercial and save themselves lots of $$$.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy to use, but beware the hardware requirements
Review: I just finished my first 5-minute video using Studio DV. I did not experience any of the unpredictable behavior other reviewers describe. At least, not after I spent a lot of money upgrading my PC. When I got stared, my PC (pre-upgrades) met all of the minimum requirements listed on the box. I had no problems working in preview mode, but my final video was slow and stuttering and then stalled out. Back to the manual... Deep in Appendix B, you will learn that the *recommended* hard drive is an A/V rated SCSI drive--most home PCs have slower IDE/ATA drives. They also advise that you should capture video to a drive other than the one where Windows 98 and Studio DV are installed. None of this information is on the box, and it's not easy to find in the manual. All in all, I spent about $750 to get this $75 firewire card working. I wish I knew what this would really cost before I got started! After the upgrades, I had no problems at all. The software was really easy to use--very intuitive! I'm really happy with the final product from my video editing efforts, and I think in the long run the cost won't bother me as much. If you're considering using this product and you don't have a second hard drive (and a very fast one at that), you should figure the cost of this upgrade in deciding if this product is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Slick, easy to use with professional results
Review: I just finished my first short video with StudioDV and it was a lot of fun. I did run into some of the problems others noted, such as your whole movie getting accidentally duplicated, but hey, just select it and delete. Problem gone! Very easy to construct your video by dropping scenes, titles, transitions and audio onto the timeline tracks. The smartsound sound track feature is awesome - automatically creates a soundtrack of music that matches and syncs to the start and end of your movie. Had no trouble outputting to MPEG and also recording back to the camera so we could then watch on the big screen TV! Very easy to fine tune sound effects with video events and add titles. The hard part is knowing when to stop adding and tweaking and declare your movie "done"!
Rating: 
Summary: It doesn't support Windows NT
Review: I just want to remind potential buyers that this program CANNOT run on NT, only on Windows 98. I just received my order from here. But I have to return it. What a hassle!
Rating:
Summary: Reported problems are true, but you can avoid them!
Review: I love this product and recommend it highly. Full disclosure: I have had Studio DV for a month. The first days were very frustrating. I experienced many of the problems reported here & at the Pinnaclesys.com Discussion Forum. However, Pinnacle has released three updates since & as of 8/21 has fixed the major bugs. If others come up, I'm confident that they'll hold my hand as they fix those, too. Studio DV is amazingly intuitive to use. It detects all of the scenes on your footage and makes it extremely simple to manipulate them. Trimming scenes: easy. Adding transitions: easy. Adding titles: easy. Adding sound effects, CD music, or voiceovers: easy. Outputting back to tape, AVIs, MPEGs: easy! It's everything a home user could need to help tell a story on video. You'll be amazed at how easy it is for you, and your friends and family will be amazed by the results. What it can't do (fancy animation, digital effects, split screens) are things that have no business in your home movies anyway. Shortfalls: The software can't split the audio and video tracks (to make easy cutaway shots), and the hardware can't capture old analog formats. The hardware requirements are very serious. Windows 98SE is highly recommended. You really do need a lot of RAM (128 will work, more is better) and a large, fast hard drive. SCSI is NOT necessary. An Ultra DMA 7200 RPM EIDE drive is fine (make sure DMA is enabled). A separate hard drive just for video is best, but I have one large drive with 29Gb partitioned just for video and it works very well. Video takes up over 200mb per minute, so unless you're only shooting 3-minute movies, you should have 10, 20, or more gigabits set aside for working on video projects. If you are buying a new PC, call Pinnacle tech support and they will tell you how to optimize your dollars (they'll also tell you which chipsets to avoid). ...Studio DV is one of the greatest values in consumer electronics. Even if you have to spend hundreds to upgrade your PC, Studio DV alone will justify that investment. If you haven't bought your camera yet and are on a limited budget, then get Studio DV and the cheapest camera, but splurge on the PC for editing. Many users on the Studio DV Discussion Forum rave about the results they get with Digital 8 footage.
Rating:
Summary: Good for Making Quality Home movies
Review: I Purchased this mainly to make home movies and cut a CD. The software that comes with this is very good. Compared to any movie making software this helps to make movie using time line, story board. The good piece was editing. The Editing of movie by dividing it into multiple pieces was good. the software also come with a provision to make the movie in VCD, SVCD and DVD formats. I recommend this for naive users like me to make quality movies/
Rating: 
Summary: Underwhelmed and frustrated
Review: I wish I had the success using this product that the previous reviewer had but I did not. In fact I have never, and I mean never, had a more frustrating time using a product. Installation was easy but that is where the fun stopped. I can't get this program to do anything but capture my digital video, after that nothing else works. (Or at least works consistently.) I have managed once or twice by re-booting my computer and other tinkering to create a very short movie but I have never managed to make it load back into my DV camera, nor can I make it bypass the camera and load onto a super-VHS recorder. Usually when I get to this stage my "movie" will play exactly one time on the computer screen without recording onto the camera, and when I try to get the movie to play again it won't. If I save it and re-boot the computer and load the file back onto the screen it still refuses to do anything. I've had it. I'm going to ask Amazon or Pinnacle to take it back, I'm tossing in the towel and will try to find one that works as advertised.
Rating:
Summary: Pinnacle is a nightmare with support
Review: I work for a major university as a digital video expert. I decided to go with Studio DV and Premiere in order to have both an introductory (iMovie) level solution and a prosumer (FCP) level solution on my home PC. I figured I could use Premiere and my wife could use Studio DV. In a year, I have never successfully used the software. For awhile, I gave up and only used Premiere under Windows 98. Now I have moved on to Windows 2000 and I can't even get the firewire card to work with Premiere. So, in the end, even the card they sold me is worthless and now I find myself having to go purchase a new firewire card. I have decided to buy a new solution that includes Videostudio 6. It gets good ratings and I know people who use it with no problem. Also, I have been to their site and they do a good job of support. Do not buy this product and do not buy the idea that "Studio DV is the iMovie of the PC."
Rating:
Summary: Great product for beginning editors
Review: I've been very pleased with this product after I got it installed successfully. My computer was installed with Win 98 (first edition) and it just would not work even after installing all of the patches and updates from Pinnacle. I upgraded my machine to Win 2000 and it has been very stable since. Also, my machine is an AMD-K6 400 MHZ, 128MB RAM with a 10GB drive and I would say that this is the bare minimum that you can successfully capture and playback videos using this product. Anything less than this would take forever to render your videos and your storage would dissappear within minutes. I've used Adobe Premier at my employer and it is just overkill for just editing family/vacation videos and the learning curve is large. I've found that this product provides a more than enough editing features for the home user without being too basic to make it useless. I give it 4 stars only because of the hefty hardware and OS requirements.
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