Rating: 
Summary: save your money
Review: I have struggled with this system for a couple of months now. I have reprogramed my hard drive and contacted the support for Pinnacle many times. I cannot believe how much money I have wasted on DVDs that have to be thrown away. You get one issue partially resolved only to have another pop up. If you really want to make DVDs, then buy a DVD recorder and hook it to your TV. This is a waste of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Can't stand the fun anymore
Review: Pinnacle was highly rated and my first experience was great. However, that is where it stops. I bought an upgrade and have gone through hell ever since even after reverting to the earlier version. My experience, after the upgrade, produced a workable video of footage edited from three cameras and soundtracks in about 4 hours. During the rendering process I destroyed, one DVD burner purchased another and question what is now happening to it. It took nearly 2 months to produce the first workable DVD from this video (a wedding for a friend). The final DVD's do not play on any DVD player except a computer; in fact, the DVD's have created some sort of problem with my DVD player because while attempting to play the DVD, the player continuously shuts off.
This is by far the WORST software package and tech support I have ever experienced over the 15 years of purchasing software. My experience is a near exact copy of that experienced by others as outlined in their reviews. To add insult to injury Pinnacle refuses to carry out direct dialogues with their customers and instead hides behind a curtain of web search routines. I have no interest in their (if ever) next upgrade. I cannot afford the time to experiment. In the meantime I have completely (I think?) removed Pinnacle from my computer (for the 3rd time, but this time permanently) and will purchase something else.
Rating:
Summary: studio 9 coming in Jan/Feb
Review: Do NOT bother with Studio 8. Even if you have the most advanced system you will und up with totally unusable final projects.Pinnacle has refused to even deal with the fact that 90% of users - including people who from their questions show they are highly advanced with advanced hardware as well -- can not get audio and video synchronized. This is a fatal falw and makes studio 8 worthless! Studio 9 is coming in Jan/Feb. My advice....wait and check amazon reviews for thosw who know what they are talking about.
Rating:
Summary: Pinnacle Studio 8 is a Disaster!
Review: If you bought this for someone as a Christmas gift, return it! I'd rather be given a lump of coal! They will hate it and you associate this unusable garbage with you every time they try to use it. It's been almost 6 months since I first encountered the audio out-of-sync problem when I bought it, and the problem is still not resolved. It has affected roughly 90% of its customers. Yet Pinnacle has no problem continuing to sell its Studio 8 line. It is rather disgusting that this company has no conscience in marketing their defective software just to make Wall Street's profit estimates and enrich themselves with stock options. Go to their forums at pinnaclesys.com and read what others say about this product before wasting your money AND LOTS OF TIME struggling with this defective product.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY PINNACLE STUDIO 8!
Review: I purchased Pinnacle Studio 8 and the Linx USB cable to capture a relative's wedding as a gift, based on the excellent reviews I read in a PC magazine article. Although I was able to create a video CD of the wedding after about one month of hell, it was the most painstaking experience I've ever had with any software. The bugs are endless, and the technical support is non-existent. Pinnacle expects their customers to offer each other support based on their own trial and error. I experienced intermittent software crashes (so I saved often), aborted rendering after 99% of the video was completed (this was apparently my fault for using too many dissolves, 3 total!), and glitches with audio/video being out of sync. With every software problem I overcame, I became more determined to complete the project. In the end I was extremely disappointed with the quality of the VCD that Studio 8 finally produced after all the time I had invested, as it was much poorer than the original filmed footage. Pinnacle explained that the Linx USB cable allows a maximum resolution that is about equal in quality to a VHS tape, which I accepted when I bought it, but it turned out much worse than this. Their new Moviebox USB, which replaces Linx USB in capability, supposedly offers twice the resolution, but I don't trust that it will work any better from the negative reviews I've read. Listen to the overwhelming number of unhappy customers and stay away from Pinnacle products. I paid about $150.00 for Studio 8 and the Linx USB cable, which I only used for the one project. I will look for an alternative and never use this software again. If I could give this product zero stars, I would. It has no redeeming features.
Rating: 
Summary: Beats all other video editing application!
Review: I will NOT say that this is the excellent application! But for sure this will beat all other consumer video editing application. I still remember I used to use Ulead's software. After that I got chance to use Pinnacle's software, and I liked it very much! It is slim,slick, elegant software. Looks like this company is totally in video editing. They provide the feature which are like professional video editing. So I checked out Pinnacle web site (www.pinnaclesys.com), I found that they have lots of video editing products from consumer to professional to broadcast! Check out their their Edition, liquid, Blue products which are high end products.
Rating: 
Summary: Try something else first
Review: While this product is functional and relatively easy to use, it seems to struggle to keep even the smallest projects together. My latest project, a 20 minute production with mostly still images and MP3 music, continued to crash until I removed all of the music and readded it. The product has a self update feature that prompts you when there are fixes available. While this is a very nice feature, I have patched it at least three times and the product still seems to have many bugs. If you have endless patience and enjoy battling frustrating software this is the product for you. Two stars is probably generous.
Rating:
Summary: This software doesnt work
Review: It is overrated at 1 star. Seems (looking at reviews) it is hit and miss depending on your hardware and Pinnacle give absolutly no help. Stay away from it. Dont take a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute trash!
Review: This software is not worthy of the single star minimum offered by Amazon reviews. Having been a computer professional for 35 years, I'm thoroughly disgusted with myself for buying this piece of trash! I wish I had paid attention to these reviews beforehand. I've installed Pinnacle MovieBOX USB and Studio Version 8 on a Dell 3.2 GHz HT system with 2GB memory, 2 120GB disk drives. Nothing is good enough for this piece of trash. I have NEVER completed burning a DVD! The menus don't work right, are hard to understand, and options appear/disappear. The Help functions are often cryptic and don't match what the menus do. The software has never run to completion - always abruptly stops with a System Error before finishing. I have not yet produced a finished product after spending countless hours working at it. What a total waste of my time and money. This product offers a lot and delivers nothing. RUN! Run as far away from this piece of trash as you can! It is not worthy of one cent of your money! There is NO redeeming value in this product. Having been in this business so long, I figured the reviews were from inexperienced naysayers who didn't know what they're doing. I apologize to all of your for my arrogance! You were right!
Rating:
Summary: Not for long projects
Review: The most unstable program I use. Works nicely when it doesn't crash. Seems to work fairly well with short projects (say, less than 1/2 hour) then starts falling apart with longer ones.
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