Rating: 
Summary: Buggy junk.
Review: Installed on a Via 133 chipset, Win2K + NVIDIA GeForce4 (very common I would think) machine. Things started poorly with the installer not getting the language correct (even though I certainly tried to pick English). Somehow I got through that and got an analog capture to work. During both edit and movie create the machine would consistently reboot; even after upgrading to the latest drivers. Inexplicably my CD-ROM drive will now no longer work (registry corrupted it says) even after removing the card and its software. I can see how this product might be interesting to someone who gets lucky and the installation works cleanly and/or who has the perfect machine (i.e. the handful it seems Pinnacle must have been limited to testing). However this makes the second overly buggy Pinnacle product I've attempted to use. DC10Plus was the other and I've still not forgiven Pinnacle not writing Win2K drivers for that. Probably a great piece of hardware... but I'll never know because it appears the software is buggy junk.
Rating: 
Summary: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs
Review: Log onto their technical support website and you'll see the array of problems people are experiencing with this product. Great features and great idea. Doesn't appear that they tested this product thoroughly enough. I'm running Win XP, 2.4 G, 160GB HD, 512 DDR RAM and after each capture the program freezes. Program won't recognize my DVD burner as many others have experienced as well. Beta version is available for download on Pinnacle's site, but I don't want Beta. I want a workable product if I am going to shell out $$$.
Rating:
Summary: Incompatible junk
Review: My Sony DVD writer is a popular piece of hardware. Studio 8 does not work with it. For any price, it is a total waste of money. Even trying to edit video from other sources does not work. It will capture from my Panasonic Camcorder, but what good is that if it won't write to DVD. It is VERY picky software. I do NOT recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Are you technically capable and very patient?
Review: My wife received this as a gift. Not being particularly technical I installed the software (I'm a software engineer). The product generated an error that was not documented anywhere (online or within the guide) and technical help was as bad as it possibly could be. Pinnacle Systems responded to my emails with answers to their most common problems, none of which related to our problem. They had obviously never even read the email. Phone support is non existent (I'm currently on hold and have been for over 30 minutes). I would strongly recommend not buying this product unless you are very technical AND very patient.
Rating: 
Summary: Patience and diligence required
Review: Robust equipment is needed for this product. I have a fast new Dell with lots of memory and a big harddisk. Once you get Pinnacle working, the results are terrific. But it did take me several weeks to get the performance I was looking for. Tech support is slow, but in my case proved helpful. Don't count on Pinnacle working out of the box. You have to download the latest patches. The software is powerful and complex (not to mention quirky), and needs much better documentation. It turned out that all of my problems could have been solved with better documentation. The main problem I had was getting a project to fully render (a process that can take several hours, depending on the project size). The solution required a system tweak and a product tweak. Initially I was doing things over and over, and failing everytime, simply because the correct information was lacking in the User Guide, which has been simplified to the point of near-uselessness. Bottom line: no other product for the money can do what Pinnacle does; unfortunately, it's not always smooth sailing.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea; poor execution - and even worse tech support!
Review: Studio 8 has much to recommend it conceptually. It is one of the most comprehensive video capture, editing, and burning programs, and it offers a user-friendly approach to all of these jobs. That is, it would be user-friendly if it worked reliably, but it is the "buggiest" program I have ever owned. One has only to read the "forum" on Pinnacle's Web pages to discover some of the many flaws in the program. The version 8.0 that I purchased about a month ago has a new Beta revision that is numbered 8.5.20. I am still using 8.5.18, which I would not consider ready for Beta testing. The audio capabilities of this program were one of my reasons for purchasing it; however, the version I am using was presented with a disclaimer acknowledging that audio was disabled in the new version, and this most recent Beta version does not purport to correct the problem.
In the process of creating a one hour DVD, I experience - on average - 6 crashes. There are few internal error messages, however, that might suggest corrections.
And worst of all, there is no voice support. There is, ostensibly, an e-mail support system. I received one response from them. That response was not useful, arrived too late in any case. The first response from their support pages, as well as the e-mail I received, is a string of suggestions about problems with other programs, the system, or the user. For a program in this price range and with this many bugs to offer no options - not even paid - for voice support is inexcusable.
I strongly advise that no one purchase this program until these problems have been addressed.
Rating: 
Summary: AMAZING BUT... NOT ADOBE
Review: THIS IS AN AMAZING PRODUCT FOR THIS PRICE. STUDIO 8 HAS A NICE LOOK, IT'S EASY TO USE AND IT HAS A LOT OF COOL EFFECTS AND TRANSITIONS. IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY AND THE EXPERIENCE, BUY THE ADOBE PREMIERE 6.0 BUT AS FOR THIS PRODUCT 5 OUT OF 5 STARS! EXCELLENT!!
Rating:
Summary: Look elsewhere for moving your videotape to DVD
Review: This product and the bundled Pinnacle 8 Studio software delivered spotty performance. It generally ptured the video from tape OK, but the interface (and especially the capture format options) was very non-intuitive. The DVD renedering was slow, and results were hit and miss: some were OK, some failed outright and some were rendered with annoying frequent color shifts (about every 3 seconds throughout the entire DVD). This all took place on a new, fast machine with plenty of RAM and disk space. I'm pretty comfortable with new apps, but the Studio 8 is very hard to figure out. Consider the PYRO A/V link from ADS instead.
Rating:
Summary: I love this program!
Review: when i first got this, i looked up other customer reviews on it and was shocked that people hated it! it sounds like they only have technical difficulties though. so if you have the right hardware it works realllly well. i love all the features like the transitions, sound effects etc etc i'm still experimenting but i serously have no complaints!!!
Rating:
Summary: so so
Review: When I was in highschool I used imovie on a G3 and I loved it. It had lots of options without sacrificing user-friendliness, it did effects and transitions in realtime and with less the 2 gigabytes I had enough space to make a four minute music video. When I captured video it was effecient and used minimal space. The first thing I cut on it turned out okay but by the second project I had made something really great. I say all this because pinnacle is nothing like this at all. But because I have a PC instead of a Mac iMovie and Final Cut Pro are not available to me. I don't think pinnacle 8 is the devil I just think it takes a lot of hits in a lot of places it could've avoided if it was simply made better. And by that I mean if the user was taken care of in the interface department rather than slapping a lot of features that aren't done well at all. The video capture often drops frames and for about 4 min. of captured footage it takes nearly a Gigabyte of HD space. The effects/transitions can be previewed in realtime but you take a performence hit and specific control of transitions are few. In iMovie it had tons of very specific controls in the effects allowing for way more freedom in the creation of the specific project in mind. I believe that movies, good movies, can be made on video and edited on computers(see 28 days later) and when I using a hardware software combo and all I really use consistantly are dissolves and fades something is wrong. The output to a video tape(on iMovie its in realtime) it has to render a huge video file over a very long time. Don't bother with the Hollywood FX installation disk because it's filled to the brim with completely cheesy and useless if you want your movie or short film to look like a cheap slapped together birthday party video. Take my advice and don't install it in the first place. Like I said I don't HATE pinnacle but I spent 200 bucks on it because I want to make movies, it was an investment and if your reading this because you own it you made an investment to. People don't make investments of 200 dollars to make birthday videos, they make movies. If you haven't bought it yet don't. Save your money and buy a used G3 and get iMovie any version will be superior to this ... pinnacle pulled. That's all, keep your stick on the ice we're all pullin' for ya.
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