Rating: 
Summary: Studio DV...Better Than I Ever Imagined!
Review: Studio DV is incredible! First, let me tell you what system I use it on, as PC performance seems to be key to your results:
Pentium 3, 450MHz, 128M RAM, Widows 98 SE, 13G hard drive. I added a second hard drive of 80G/7200RPM (dedicated to captured video-1 hour uses almost 14G of space). My camcorder is a Sony Digital8 (DCR-TRV730 to be specific).
I purchased the 80G drive & Studio DV together and installed them simultaneously. Both were a piece of cake for me, someone who had never installed something like this before.
I captured video & dropped only a couple dozen frames. I took the advice of a review here & now close down everything I can through CTRL+ALT+DEL (end task) before running Studio DV, and now I never drop frames when capturing.
The editing was simple using the scenes Studio DV broke the video into. Each scene can be edited for length to the exact frame (1/29th of a second). Dragging & dropping the scene transitions is simple, and there are so many to use. You can even edit transitions for length! Titling is simple, and you can use the transitions on those to fade them in/out, etc. You can edit the sound volume of the captured video...to increase a child's quiet statement...to lower the loud yell in the background...just grab the volume line & move as necessary.
The SmartSound included is awesome. It lets you use instrumental tracks (classical, country, pop, jazz, etc.) and automatically fits them to whatever length you choose (to fit a scene). You can adjust this volume also. You can also pop in a CD & it will capture a track you want and drop it in the video; you can adjust length & volume here, too. I used an instrumental Christmas CD and it was SO easy.
In the timeline view, the video, scene sound, secondary (music) soundtrack, and titling are all on separate lines and can be adjusted individually. (The scene sound recorded with the original video cannot be broken from the scene.)
Anyway, I was able to work wonders on video to give to grandparents. Outputing to video is easy...set it going & it will render (you may want to leave to work around the house, for this will take a while.) Then come back and start it recording to your camcorder; this takes whatever time the video length is. You can output to DVD, but I don't have a DVD writer as of yet. Studio DV does so much.
I thought it was a bit of money to put out (I'm cheap), but for what you get, it is worth way more! As far as learning how to use the software, all I had to do was watch the demo that pops up when you first run the program after installation. It's all logical & easy to follow. I HIGHLY recommend Studio DV!
Rating:
Summary: Great for buy digital camcorder owners!!
Review: Studio DV is one of the best upgrades I've ever done for any PC I've owned. My wife and I have really enjoy using studio DV to make great home movies of the family. Our first movie took the longest to make, but since that time we have had no problems and can turn out a 15 minute movie in a about an hour. I also enjoy the fact that this software was very intuitive and simple enough for my not so technical wife to pick up and use with just a little coaching. After installing my software and hardware I did go to Pinccacle's web site to apply the latest patches and upgrades before every trying to make a movie. And every thing worked with no problems! After our first movie I did upgrade from 128 MB of RAM to 256 MB of RAM and I haven't had a single problem with Studio DV since. And yes it does run great on Windows 2000! For the record we have a P3 750, ASUS CUSL2 133 Mghz mother board, 64 MB agp video card, 256 MB ram and 40 GB of disk space. I would like to see some additional enhancements added to the product for more advanced moving making in future upgrades. Even in it's present encarnation, I highly recommend this product to any digital camcorder owner who want to really to expand the capabilities of their camcorder.
Rating:
Summary: Excelente tarjeta (Excelent Card)
Review: Tengo un Pentium III 733 con 30 Gigas en Disco Duro, la tarjeta junto con al software funciona perfectamente, me da 30 frames sin problemas y puedo devolver el video editado a la misma tasa. No olvides activar DMA del disco duro! (I have a Pentium III 733 with 30 Gigas Hard Disc. Card and Software work very good. 30 frames without problems. Don't forget switch on DMA option)
Rating: 
Summary: Hats Off To Pinnacle
Review: Thank you Pinnacle for bringing a product like this to the masses, cheaply at that! Anybody with a little common sense knows that the user must have plenty of PC horsepower to effectively operate in the digital world. Shame on some of the reviews written here on Amazon that blame you for their problem of having a handicapped PC right out of the gate. We should instead be commending companies like Pinnacle that develop a low-cost solution for the layman. Do some of you realize that professionals pay thousands of dollars for their fancy equipment to do the same thing?My recommendation, however, would be to indicate "system recommendations" or "optimum requirements" to embark on the digital video process. I'm like Art from Roseville and have a nearly identical PC (thanks, Art, for your on-target review!) and have no difficulty using the Studio DV firewire. Armed with a good PC, a good mini-DV camcorder & tape, a good deal of patience, and a good plan, you can't go wrong with Pinnacle's Studio DV firewire. Shop with confidence.
Rating: 
Summary: A good product, but a very poor product support
Review: The bundled drivers and software version that I've got with the card (ver 1.04) do not support win 2000. The upgrades at Pinnacle site's (that do support win 2000) cannot be installed if the old drivers are not installed - a littl bit catchy, isn't it? I am trying for weeks to get an answer from Pinnacle support, but nothing, not even a small answer.
Rating:
Summary: Works great after a little system tweaking
Review: This capture card works great on my PII 300MHz / 128 MB RAM / 13 GB HD / 30 GB UDMA Western Digital HD (I use this drive to capture on). Be sure to read the user support forums at ... My system required some tweaking to get the best performance..I found all the information I needed on their site.
Rating: 
Summary: Pinnacle is a nightmare with support
Review: This is a easy to use program for us non techies. The price reflects the simpilcity. I do how ever suggest a dedicated (2nd) hard drive for the video production. I installed a 60 gig 7200 rpm drive and this greatly helps recording to vhs for grandmas tape. The average drive spins at 4200 and can make for jerky playback.
Sound effects and transitions are easy to add as is titling. StudioDV does not like to be on the same drive as Windows. Hence,the second drive. The IEEE firewire connection is great for camera control and works well. The more RAM the better (I have 384 megs) Follow the suggestions for better/faster editing. IE: close all programs, stop all "background programs" except the essentials. This is all explained in the manual and is easy to do. I made my first 3 minute movie in about 20 minutes after installation. I made my first 1 hour movie for the family at Thanksgiving. Overall this is easy to and for price it is a great deal. I enjoy it and reccommend it. Just remember the more memory and faster the drive the better the finished product.
I hope this helps. Keith
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use with some exceptions
Review: This is a easy to use program for us non techies. The price reflects the simpilcity. I do how ever suggest a dedicated (2nd) hard drive for the video production. I installed a 60 gig 7200 rpm drive and this greatly helps recording to vhs for grandmas tape. The average drive spins at 4200 and can make for jerky playback.
Sound effects and transitions are easy to add as is titling. StudioDV does not like to be on the same drive as Windows. Hence,the second drive. The IEEE firewire connection is great for camera control and works well. The more RAM the better (I have 384 megs) Follow the suggestions for better/faster editing. IE: close all programs, stop all "background programs" except the essentials. This is all explained in the manual and is easy to do. I made my first 3 minute movie in about 20 minutes after installation. I made my first 1 hour movie for the family at Thanksgiving. Overall this is easy to and for price it is a great deal. I enjoy it and reccommend it. Just remember the more memory and faster the drive the better the finished product.
I hope this helps. Keith
Rating:
Summary: By far the easiest-to-use package out there
Review: This is by far the easiest-to-use, most intuitive, best bang-for-the-buck video editing package out there. Some people will tell you that other programs have more features, more flexibility, render faster and are even more stable. These people are all CORRECT. However, that doesn't make those other packages better for the amateur. They should tell you that 100% of the features needed for the typical video project ARE included in Pinnacle Studio. They should tell you that Pinnacle Studio is so easy to use that you don't even need a manual, while those other programs have such archaic commands and buried menus they'll take months to figure out. They should tell you that professional video editors who have the more expensive programs often use Pinnacle Studio for all of their basic editing and then switch to the expensive ones only to do complicated special effects and rendering. Why? Because Pinnacle Studio is that much easier to use. So why do some other packages cost hundreds more? Because they allow you to create your own complicated layered video and audio effects, edit on multiple monitors, and render finished video effects in real time, which can be 10 times faster than Studio. If you are a professional who always has 5 projects going and edits video all day every day, those things are worth the extra price. A couple of notes: The 18 minute limit that another reviewer refers to is an old WINDOWS file size limit, applicable to any video program. If you are running Windows XP, this limit no longer exists. Finally, forget what the Apple commercials tell you. Video editing and rendering is not so simple that a kindergartner can do it. It's the most resource-intensive thing you can ask your PC to do. If you aren't comfortable enough with a PC to be able to close competing applications and monitor how much hard drive space you have available, then you should not try video editing, even with a simple program like Pinnacle Studio. If those things don't intimidate you, then take the plunge with this product. You'll have a blast.
Rating: 
Summary: It Could Have Been Awesome ...
Review: This is one of the best designed products in the world for the price. But it's like buying a horse and plow, and then pulling the plow yourself. You'll get the field plowed, but it'll be a lot of work. Look at the Studio DV discussion thread on the Pinnacle Systems web site. It's all right there. I spent 2 full weekends getting a 3 minute video done. Studio DV doesn't readily accept capture from Studio DC10+ as I hoped. Studio DV crashes constantly. The bigger the video, the more the crashes. I love that you can drag and drop video clips onto the audio track ... except that it causes a crash. I love that you can import CD music ... except that it disappears in the final render. I love that rendering the final movie is so easy ... except that Studio DV spotaneously re-edits your movie while it's rendering, randomly changing how you've trimmed clips, deleting transitions, or changing the volume. My personal favorite is Studio DV deciding to replicate my entire movie and gluing it on the end of the movie ... two for the price of one, I guess. I love the preview feature. I would love it better if the final video actually looked like the preview. So, I sincerely hope Pinnacle Systems fixes the problems with Studio DV. This could have been an awesome product. For now, however, it's best for tiny projects and patient owners. And, for the record, my hardware is a 600Mhz PIII w/ 256MB RAM, 20GB C drive and 30GB Firewire drive.
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