Rating: 
Summary: Does anybody ever finish a project in Pinnacle Studio?
Review: I upgraded from Studio 7. Having used a few different video editing software programs, Pinnacle is my favorite for editing video. It has a relatively clean and intuitive interface. It offers quite a few options that give you all of the flexibility to create a relatively decent video. You will need to use other programs to help with the audio if you are going to get fancy, but that really goes for most of the other products in its price range too.The problem has always been wrapping it up. It always takes some kind of extraordinary process to bring the project to completion. Your work should be done once you cut each scene to the size you want, add transitions between scenes and complete the titles. Sometimes Pinnacle will be able to complete the project from start to finish. This is in my experience the happy exception. Something always goes wrong, and it is never a smooth as it should be. As an example, my latest project is 40 minute video, I spent one weekend editing and titling the project, and the next two weekends trying to make a useful file from it. After rendering the project for an hour or so I get a message that the program was unable to render the video. When I finally got it to finish the MPEG-2 file, I couldn't get it to burn to the DVD. I finally bought Ulead VideoStudio 7. This program worked to complete the project. I had to take the MPEG-2 file from Pinnacle and re-render it using the menus from Ulead and created a mostly successful DVD. Previously I have used Dazzle DVD Complete to finish the project when Pinnacle wasn't up to it, but couldn't use it this time for reasons too long to go into here. Of course Pinnacle recently bought Dazzle. Maybe there is some hope for Pinnacle Studio 9 If you are going to get into this you are going to need a lot of patience. If you think that you are a patient sort of person, you do not truly know until you have successfully authored your own DVD in Pinnacle.
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Summary: Thanks for all the help!!!
Review: Hello all, and thanks for saving me the money and frustration. I am in the process of waiting for my new Gateway computer to arrive. The salesperson at the store said Studio 8 was the best and easiest to use. He recommended it to me as a "package" for $99. So, I said to add it. Now, after reading this review, I am calling the store and canceling this item. I can't believe most reviews are so horrendous. Why is this product even for sale? If it crashes "once", it is once too many. We don't drive cars that have brakes fail "once in a while". We don't fly in planes more than once that fail.Isn't there a "merchantability" law that says an item must perform properly or it is subject to fines? So, thanks for the help, and Pinnacle, if you are listening, which is pretty doubtful, you lost another customer because of these reviews.. Jeff
Rating:
Summary: Believe the reviews... run away.
Review: I purchased this software on the advice of a friend. I managed (after about 2 days of suffering through crashes) to put a 5 minute project together. I figured it was just my old P3 1.0GHz computer that was causing the problems so I just saved my video for another day. Then the day came when I got my new P4 2.8GHz HT computer. I dusted off the software and tried again. I could have saved myself hours of frustration by just not doing it, but I couldn't help myself. I did manage to burn on really nice 15 minute project with only a little trouble, but it's been all downhill from there. The technical support just sucks. Now, I'm looking for a new editing program that's going to cause less grief. Do yourself a favor: look somewhere else. Maybe someday, Pinnacle will come up with something worthy of the hype, but it's not today.
Rating:
Summary: Wishful Thinking
Review: If this software actually performed as designed, it would be a wonderful value. It's very easy to edit video, the tools are intuitive, and the interface is well designed. There's only one problem. It doesn't work. I have struggled with this software for almost a year, and I've tried all of the on-line updates (beta and general release), but each one fails to reliably generate a DVD, VCD, or even a complete MPEG-2 file. And I'm talking about 5-10 minute videos! (I have a Dell 8200 with a 1.7GHz P4/768MB/160GB, running Win2K, so I'm not platform constrained. Adobe Premiere and AfterEffects run flawlessly.) Don't buy this software. I have wasted more time struggling with this software than editing video, and that's a lousy way to pursue a hobby!
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Summary: Truly this is a triumph of marketing over execution
Review: If you read Pinnacle's own marketing hype, or other "professional" reviewers glowing remarks about Pinnacle, you'd think your buying the best deal in software for under $99. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. First of all, the software is so buggy that you can expect it to crash every five minutes. To get to the point of DVD rendering, you feel like your limping your way there. Secondly, the software is not very intuitive to use. I tried to create a slideshow, however the very large and somewhat stupid manual only slightly indicates that digital photos can be imported via the titling option. Wow, what a smart place to put that function. On the editing side, if you pick a a special effects transition that you haven't paid the addition $49.95 for, the program has a fatal error. Oh yes, using the help function can also result in a fatal error. All told, having worked in the software industry, I'm sad to think that Pinnacle would have the guts to sell such a dog of a product. Also, I've recently experienced that the software they ship has incorrect liscence numbers. You have to contact Pinnacle to get the corrected liscence number for your product or else it doesn't install. And believe me, contacting Pinnacle Support is no treat. I ended up filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Pinnacle and requested, and received, my money back. It's too bad there isn't a class action suite against Pinnacle.
If anyone sold a refridgerator or a toaster as shoddy as this product, they'd certainly be expected to give every customer their money back or a satisfactory replacement (I suggest some other vendor's product as the replacement.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry - Just plain sorry!!
Review: Don't buy this piece of junk. This is the worst video/audio editing software I have ever used. Program freezes up and locks PC REGULARLY. No easy interface that makes any sense. One suggestion - DON'T BUY IT!!!
Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy Pinnacle! It's Garbage!!!
Review: I bought the Pinnacle MovieBox USB which came with Studio 8. The device has been making grinding noises after only 10 uses, and there are major bugs with Studio 8 software which render it useless. And most importantly, Pinnacle DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY SUPPORT! They only have user forums (which I suggest you read first). If you don't believe me, just try finding a technical support phone # or e-mail address! The most blatant problem which has been outstanding since I purchased it is the "OOS" (audio out of sync), which makes the sound of any DVD you create a few seconds ahead or behind of the actual video. There is NOTHING you can do to fix the problem except hope it doesn't happen to you (usually for vids over 1 hour). The second biggest problem is the PC freezing every 30 seconds (and hitting CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't work - only physically shutting off PC). And you lose all your edits! I don't know what else is out there (avoid Dazzle, but Canopus or Asus?), but this was a $200 bust for me. BTW, I have a top-of-the-line PC. Before you buy any capture devices/software, you should have a fast CPU, lost of RAM, at least firewire or USB 2, and a large and fast hard drive (pref. 2). Otherwise, you'll have choppy video.
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Summary: Absolutely LOUSY!!!
Review: We've had this software for about a year, and have had a problem with capturing A/V files. We get weird chromo-bursts every so often. That's easily dealt with by using VirtualDub to delete them. But, when we went to try to make a DVD, we had numerous problems. The software didn't want to write to the DVD. The sound didn't synch up with the video, so it sounded like an old Godzilla movie! This was absolutely worthless! I'm about ready to rip this out and run over it with my car. Avoid Pinnacle products like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: Buggy software
Review: This program worked well two times and then totally locked up and I can't burn any DVD on a powerful 120Gig machine.
Do not buy.
Rating: 
Summary: All that worrying for nothing
Review: Got a new Dell Dimension for video editing. Pentium 4 @ 2.6 mhz, 80 gig hard drive, 512 meg ram. Upgraded to Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator V6. It works pretty well until you burn a dvd, when the video quaility is bad. This is all well documented in the discussion area on the Roxio website. All the magazine reviews rate Pinnacle Studio 8 very highly. I was all set to hit the BUY button at Amazon, but checked these reviews first, and got cold feet. I downloaded Ulead Movie Factory 2 trial version, it isn't powerful enough for me. Next I downloaded the 108 meg trial of Pinnacle Studio 8. I liked it a lot, but it crashed a couple times, and would not let me burn a trial dvd anyway. Still, I liked the software so much I took a chance and bought it. All the worrying was for nothing. It works perfectly on my computer. I completed a 35 minute dvd of my class reunion. There was some tape shot as a couple dozen people at tables set up in a garage visited after eating. Because of the enclosed space, all the conversations reverberate and the audio sounds like 20 or so people talking at once. Studio 8 let me add a soothing guitar soundtrack, while reducing the level of the original sound. The added soundtrack (there are several with the program to choose from) was automatically fit to the length of the garage clip. I am glad the Roxio software had the quality glitch. Otherwise I would not have tried Pinnacle Studio 8.
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