Rating: 
Summary: BEWARE - Cannot make or burn DVD
Review: When making or burning a DVD, Pinnacle first renders the video (one hour of video takes about five hours) - second compiles the video and - third (if you want a DVD) burns the video. Here is the problem -- after rendering for five hours -- you get an fatal error message a few seconds after compiling begins. Attempting to compile again requires - first - another five hours of rendering.
I tried to make a 2 minute DVD. Still had an error message during compiling.
HERE IS THE MAIN PROBLEM -- Go to Pinnacle's support web site. Support had not provided me any response in over two weeks. Next go to Pinncacle's discussion site. The compiling problem is extremly common, and still Pinnacle has no solutions.
I downloaded the latest (beta) version of Pinnacle 8, and that did not help.
It is one thing for a new product to have bugs. But it something else when the problem is very common and Pinnacle cannot or will not provide any solutions.
MY ADVICE -- DO NOT PURCHASE!
Rating:
Summary: Stay away from version 8...
Review: I've used Pinnacle Studio products for 5 years and have always upgraded when they send me the offers. This year I spent [money] to upgrade to ver 8. What a mistake. First off, it seems that the "Special offer" made to Pinnacle customers is a bunch of bull. You can buy the full version for what I spent for the upgrade. Secondly, this product is terrible. Read the Pinnacle message boards on their website. You will see hundreds of complaints from consumers on this product. All are having similar issues and Pinnacle offers little or no help. Pinnacle must have decided to beta test this on us...their once loyal customers. This software is so buggy that on some systems it won't even render. I upgraded my system to a new 2.6 Ghz Dell with a gig of ram before I wrote this review just to be sure that it wasn't the system. I have been a loyal Pinnacle user and have sent *many* people to Pinnacle to buy their products. Well, I'm done with them and will no longer be a voice for them. They have shown no concern for the problems and we're going on 6 months this product has been out. They have fixed exactly *non* of the recurring problems. Like I said...read the message boards on their website and then see if you feel confortable buying this.
Rating:
Summary: It is BAD, BAD and even Worse
Review: I thought I was the problem with this software until I read other reviews. I would rate it -star. It takes for ever to render a DVD and then if the DVD takes more than 2.5 hours it crashes. Tech support does not exist! My advise forget it.
Rating:
Summary: Bugs...
Review: I have tried many versions of Studio over the last three+ years. They all have serious bugs such as crashing and hanging which make them useless. I tried Studio 8, installed the upgrade to 8.3 and hand many problems. I am using a standard P4 system with XP SP1. Iy you do try Studio then make a project from start to finish with minimal editing so you don't wast a lot of time editing to only find out you cannot rednder, burn, save, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Studio 8.0 is GARBAGE!
Review: I owned Studio 7.0 and loved it. However, I mistakenly thought 8.0 would be a good choice to edit and burn video using my new DVD burner. I could not have been more wrong! As of January 2003, only a beta version 8.5.5 works according to their tech rep. I tried the beta version, and it repeatedly crashed on my computer. Stay away from Studio 8.0!
Rating:
Summary: Buggy and half-baked
Review: Forgive my poor English from Germany...
But listen, listen, listen.Studio 7 was buggy when released to the customers. After a long period of beta-testing by unpaid purchasers worldwide it became a fine video editing application. Same now with Studio 8.
It must have been very buggy when released, even containing "showstoppers". Now, after betas, update, beta and several releases and bundles (e.g. with TOSHIBA burners) it still isn't what it should be especially for newbies. In parts worse. New bugs added. Buying? - Yes. - One should visit the Pinnacle Studio 8 webboard and see what the users report. When they were able to download an update that works, one may wait until this update became the normal retail version. Then buy, buy, buy, and have fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow Slow Slow
Review: The program doesn't work well at all and the customer support is completly worthless and rude.
Rating:
Summary: DVD Authoring Limitations
Review: I researched several DVD authoring packages to find one that lived up the claim to create DVDs "like Hollywood" productions. I spent the money for Video 8, and if you need all the video capture and editing tools, this may work using the Hollywood FX features. However, I had already edited my video using Vegas Video (a 5 star video editing package), so Video 8 did not offer any value to me for video editing. What had caught my attention were the motion buttons and menu backgrounds. Those work but the customer support could not tell me how to create menus that skipped other menus or assign specific chapters to menu buttons. Above all, on WinXP, Video 8 crashed and sent error reports about 15 times in a two-week period. This forced me to research further and I found Ulead DVD Workshop (ASIN=B00006412S) to be superior. Of course, it is about $... more than Video 8 but it appears to be worth it to have the "Hollywood" navigation features available for DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Pinnacle 8 has bugs! Big Ones.
Review: I thought they would have the bugs killed by now. No way. It won't import MP3s converted with RealOne. Now I can't even get it to uninstall or install. It is a piece. Now I have to restore my computer. Basic design is good but why can't they make a product that actually works like it says. Stay away until the bugs are worked out...
Rating:
Summary: Buggy product
Review: The concept of this product is the same as past pinnacle product pctv. This older product works on my old PC and needs Hours to compile a 15 minutes movie but it works.
On my new PC, that is very powerful, i am still trying to use STUDIO 8 version 8.3.18.
My first problem: Capturing is in Black and white. I looked on the Internet to find out that lots of users have the same problem. I am now using another product to capture, but rendering and assembling a movie in Studio 8 works only for Mpeg's that are less than 2 minutes. For longer movies the Studio 8 hangs and you have to close it trough Task Manager. Up to now the product almost useless for me, although its concept is very good.
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