Rating: 
Summary: Great Product
Review: After considerable research I purchased this product for use by two novices. We both found it very easy to use. It has that great balance of enough simplicity for the new user as well as special features for someone who wants to be bit more creative. But the good news is you don't have to understand the advanced features to get started.We especially like the way the program automatically evaluates our video to break it into logical scenes when inporting from the camera(you can also do it by time) and the feature that allows for fades and other special effects when moving form one scene to the next. Thanks
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy until you've verified it works.
Review: Bottom line is: DO NOT buy this buggy software until you've installed it and verified that it will work on your system. Be sure to take the time to use all of the features that you will need as there are many reports of various kinds of bugs at various points in the process. I didn't know I could try it before I bought it and now am stuck with a product that does not work at all for me. I have an analog video camera and Studio 7 will not capture from it nor will it properly use the .avi files that I was able to create through my video capture card's software. I get a strong impression that this product's focus was on Digital and that is fine except for the 10 years worth of analog tape I have. Be very careful. Its outstanding interface is worth nothing to me. My copy is for sale.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this program!
Review: Don't buy Pinnacle Studio 7 if you don't want endless frustration. It is a pretty program, and it is easy to use. But, if you want to actually transfer your finished video to your camcorder, forget about it! After following all of Pinnacle's troubleshooting solutions, after getting a faster hard drive and a better video card, after downloading a Windows 98 SE update and after downloading innumerable updates (I am on 7.13.6), I still haven't been able to transfer my finished video to tape. The problem is the computer's output and the camcorder's input rates don't match; the computer runs at a slower rate than the camcorder. And if you want to talk to a live technican, forget about again! You'll never get on.
Rating: 
Summary: Great features, buggy, poor support
Review: Easy to use and great feature set, but basic bugs (MPEG quality poor, large file size problems, hangs on certain transitions). Lousy tech support clearly over-worked and tired of dealing with customers...
Rating: 
Summary: Ditto on Download Problems
Review: Even though I read the warnings about this product, I didn't have any idea what they were referring to until I bought Studio 7 (thanks to a glowing review by C/Net) and used it myself. Yes it takes a while to master it, but once you do, you feel like an expert, only to have your technical self confidence forever shattered by the hours you spend trying to figure out how to output your finished product back to your video camera so you can actually show it to someone! I am still dialoging via email with tech support (to no avail yet) and they have been helpful, but I appreciate the advice on not waiting to try to reach someone on the phone. I quit at 10 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: Good basic editing software
Review: Having never used any type of editing software before, Studio 7 was very easy to use. I made an incredible video of my honeymoon (made my wife cry!) using basically all the features (transitions, CD music, short-audio clips, frame speed-ups and slow-motion, black and white and sepia) without even looking at the manual. Everything is very intuitive and simple. The software did everything my imagination could come up with. I did have one problem transferring back to tape (as many reviewers have complained about). My audio was not synched with my video on the tape. However, after shutting down all background programs (anti-virus, firewall, etc.), defragmenting my C-drive, and following the instructions in the manual to optimize computer performance, I was able to transfer perfectly back to my tape. I run a 1.0 Ghz AMD Athlon, with 128mb of memory and a 40GB hard-drive. I do not have any sort of fancy video driver other than what came standard with my Gateway computer.
Rating:
Summary: Good Product for Home Editing
Review: I did a lot of research before purchasing Pinnacle Studio 7 DV scouring PC magazines, newspapers and opinion sites. While most reviewers gave it top marks, a lot of home users gave it mixed reviews. Upon purchase I have been extremely happy with this product. When deciding to get into computer editing, however, you need to exercise some caution. The fact is, video editing really puts your computer to the test. These commercials that show people plugging their camera's into the computer and making a masterpiece video in 10 minutes is fairly commical. Think about it, television newsrooms spend thousands of dollars on editing rooms that are just very basic. To think you can buy a $50.00 program to do the same quality of work is just laughable. That being said, however, you can turn out very nice projects with Pinnacle. You will need to upgrade your computer. The more memory the better. Secondly, you absolutely need a second dedicated hard drive for your video. Third, you need a firewire cable. Fourth, a stable Operating System. With all this in place, I've now edited two 20 minute projects (sons's birth, family fishing trip) with tons of video, nice transitions, titles that scroll, music, etc. I showed off my first video to a room full of 20 people and everyone was amazed. Studio 7 has a learning curve. You need to keep the instruction manual handy! I've had to play with things several times to get them just right, but with close attention you learn the quirks of the program. To be fair to people's problems, yes the program has a few bugs and I've had my share of reboots...but I attribute this as much to Windows ME as anything. You are dealing with video files that are huge in size and projects that require massive processing power all while trying to please every single computer and camera configuration out there...so you can't expect perfection. Pinnacle's support pretty much stinks which is too bad. But, their online forums via their website are powered by real users and the help is top notch. I edited for about 8 years in a newsroom, and I can honestly say that using Pinnacle was easier than most of the equipment I worked with. Sure some aspects aren't as professional, but then again I'm not spending thousands of dollars either. My biggest problem is keeping my project below 20 minutes!! Ha. Simply put, this product works well and the support provided by their online forum is top notch! Using Pinnacle takes some patience, but is worth the plunge. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Good Product for Home Editing
Review: I did a lot of research before purchasing Pinnacle Studio 7 DV scouring PC magazines, newspapers and opinion sites. While most reviewers gave it top marks, a lot of home users gave it mixed reviews. Upon purchase I have been extremely happy with this product. When deciding to get into computer editing, however, you need to exercise some caution. The fact is, video editing really puts your computer to the test. These commercials that show people plugging their camera's into the computer and making a masterpiece video in 10 minutes is fairly commical. Think about it, television newsrooms spend thousands of dollars on editing rooms that are just very basic. To think you can buy a $50.00 program to do the same quality of work is just laughable. That being said, however, you can turn out very nice projects with Pinnacle. You will need to upgrade your computer. The more memory the better. Secondly, you absolutely need a second dedicated hard drive for your video. Third, you need a firewire cable. Fourth, a stable Operating System. With all this in place, I've now edited two 20 minute projects (sons's birth, family fishing trip) with tons of video, nice transitions, titles that scroll, music, etc. I showed off my first video to a room full of 20 people and everyone was amazed. Studio 7 has a learning curve. You need to keep the instruction manual handy! I've had to play with things several times to get them just right, but with close attention you learn the quirks of the program. To be fair to people's problems, yes the program has a few bugs and I've had my share of reboots...but I attribute this as much to Windows ME as anything. You are dealing with video files that are huge in size and projects that require massive processing power all while trying to please every single computer and camera configuration out there...so you can't expect perfection. Pinnacle's support pretty much stinks which is too bad. But, their online forums via their website are powered by real users and the help is top notch. I edited for about 8 years in a newsroom, and I can honestly say that using Pinnacle was easier than most of the equipment I worked with. Sure some aspects aren't as professional, but then again I'm not spending thousands of dollars either. My biggest problem is keeping my project below 20 minutes!! Ha. Simply put, this product works well and the support provided by their online forum is top notch! Using Pinnacle takes some patience, but is worth the plunge. Thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: It's only an editing software, nothing else
Review: I don't know why people keep insisting that they can't export the movie they've made. What they need to understand is that this is JUST editing software, nothing else. If you want to put it on DVD, you need the DVD writing software, also made by Pinnacle. You can't put it back into your camcorder because you added to it, editing, music, sound effects, and transitions. digital camcorders don't have support to play that. I was quite satisfied with this product. I understood it was only editing software right off and purchased the DVD writing stuff along with it, which I was also satisfied with.
Rating:
Summary: Good after they fixed a bug
Review: I got Studio 7 when it first came out. I liked the product very much but it could not write back to my miniDV camera without numerous drop outs. Pinnacle tech support suggested changing IRQs, move cards around, update drivers, and more. All this was very time consuming and did not work so I gave up on the product. I recently tried it again and update to 7.07.1 which is free and was not available when I had all my problems. I'm now able to write back to my camera. I looked at the bugs that were fixed with this patch and one of them is "Video Data rate for Make Tape is fixed". I'm happy they fixed the problem but upset that I wasted all my time before they fixed it.
In general, I found the user interface very friendly and easy to use. I like the advance sound library that comes with it. You can select background music from a list and make the time any length and sounds like the music was composed at that length. You can also add your own music form CDs, MP3, and wave files.
The additional advance features are also somewhat easy once you understand the basics. If you get this product, I would recommend you check for updates using the update feature in the help menu. I would also recommend downloading the free 30 trial version from their web site to verify it works on your system before purchasing it.
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