Rating: 
Summary: Studio 7 works well for me
Review: I had IntroDV from Digital Origin running on Win98 but when I upgraded to Windows 2000 I didn't find proper drivers anywhere. Also the card that came with IntroDV was not OHCI compatible. I purchased Studio 7 (PAL version) and installed it without problems. I have done few small projects (less than 20min final video) with Studio 7 and it works, however with 550Mhz Pentium and 128 MB RAM editing larger projects will get quite slow. Studio 7 has a lot of features and I have also created SVCD disks and even DivX compressed files with it.... For the price I think Studio 7 provides excellent value for money.
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Summary: Pinnacle Studio on Sony Vaio
Review: I have used this software on a Sony Vaio desktop (1.5 GHz Pentium 4, Windows XP) with good results. The only change I made to the default settings was to use disk D for temporary storage. It hung up once, but the trouble was probably in Windows (I got the "we're sorry" popup); when I restarted Studio, I was able to continue from where I left off with no problems, so there must have been some kind of automatic save. The only other trouble was when I tried to put a title at the beginning the timeline when there was a video clip already on it; I had to delete the clip, and when I put it back afterward, the audio was out of sync. I like the fast rendering when sending the edited video back to the camcorder; if you don't change the content of a clip (length change is ok), it doesn't need any rendering at all. My camcorder is a Canon ZR10.
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Summary: Very Easy to use
Review: I installed the included firewire card in no time. The software is incredibly easy to use. The output has been awesome. I bought it because it was PC Mag's Editor's Choice (9/01). I use the streaming function quite often to post the latest video up on my site for the family to view. I use it with Sony's DCR-PC9 Digital Video Camera and they work flawlessly. The only negative for me is that I wish it allowed burning DVD's or Video CD's - automatically anyway - It looks like I need to buy Pinnacle Express ... to do that.
Rating: 
Summary: If you can get it to run....
Review: I spent three days on this project. I had the Studio DV Version 7 and downloaded from Microsoft and downloaded from Pinnacle and talked to support parties after waiting for 15 minutes. They didn't have much to say. Windows 98 recognized the IEEE1394 card. The Canon recognized that the firewire was plugged in. Somewhere it was missing because the software kept telling me 'unable to fine DV device to initialize.'... and thats the end of the story. All Pinn had to say was that maybe it was all incompatitble with the motherboard. Took it back!!! No more Pinnacle for me.
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Summary: Good Video Editing Functions - low quality encoders
Review: I use this product to edit digital home videos. It has good functions to work with scenes, add sounds, music etc. and controls my Canon camera without problems.
What I do not like is the quality of the encoders. Rendering movies to mpeg2 (and burning it to SVCD later) shows artifacts and lower quality than you get with other freeware encoders. Here Pinnacle has to improve. Beside that it is a good product - installation and operation went well for me without crashes so far.
Be sure to get enough memory and diskspace though - I now run with 384 MB and 100 GB - and disable all other processes on your system not to lose frames when capturing or writing back to your camera.
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Summary: coming from an animation background
Review: I used Adobe Premier at college, and recieved Dazzle Digital Video Creator with my Dazzle setup, and I have to say that Pinnacle does a terrific job at making the interface very easy to interact and decipher. The fact that you don't have to render for a preview just makes it fun to work with. You do however have to render before you output to specific file formats. But overall I was very impressed with the quality, for the price.
Rating: 
Summary: No bugs for me, it does all it is supposed to do
Review: I was really surprised to see the fairly negative reviews above, as my experience has been quite good. This program does what it is supposed to do very well. The interface is very intuitive, and therefore user friendly. My computer is not specifically designed for video, and in fact the video processor is a chip on the motherboard. It is 900Mhz with 374 MB memory. Capture for me has been straight forward, and trouble free. The program also keeps very good records of what you are doing as you capture, edit, and process, so it you can easily reproduce your work from a print out of the timeline. This was necessary due to the one "glitch" I encountered: You can not paste new video into a project already under construction, into the middle of video already on the timeline. You can only add scenes to the end of the timeline already constructed. This is not a glitch; the program is simply not designed to do this, so be sure you build projects in a linear fashion, and do not plan to paste. One other negative: Pinnacle's Customer Support folks are not fast, or especially thorough. I once wrote them: "It's a good thing the program works so well, as your support leaves a lot to be desired". On top of working pretty darn reliably for me, the program includes features which I find amazing at this price point: 3D fades and titles, slow motion, adjustment of hue, color intensity, brightness and contrast, and a really neat program which will generate music in many different styles to exactly match the length of your video. And I'm picky about music (audiophile type) and yet the music is not cheasy, it is quite tollerable. And I haven't mentioned ability to output as MGEG 1, Real Video, output to tape, etc. Frankly, I think it is a great program for beginners, or even experienced users, and it would be especially good for use in schools. Since so many others have had problems, maybe a trial copy to try out on your computer/video equipment is the best way to go.
Rating: 
Summary: a whole world of pain...
Review: I'm a long-suffering user of Pinnacle's software, starting out with Studio DV a few years back, and now on Studio 7. With every new iteration of the software (mercilessly plugged via junk email I repeatedly asked not to be sent), there was the seductive promise of bugs finally fixed... Well, I've decided that I'm now tired of playing guinea pig for Pinnacle, and hope you won't feel the urge to do the same. My advice would be: pay a little more to buy a stable, well-supported product. Or use something free like Windows Movie Maker so you don't feel too bitter if it doesn't work as advertised. My current system (Win XP, P4 2.67 GHz, 256 RAM, 80Gb RAID HD) is fast and stable with everything I throw at it - except this. Please don't waste weeks of your life on the Pinnacle Support Forum. I've done that and believe me it's very overrated.
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Summary: Good basic functionality for my purposes
Review: I've been using this on a Windows XP system with the Pinnacle DV card (which came with the "deluxe" package I bought) and have had no problems. One thing I found cool is that it does not have the 4GB limit on XP that is has on Windows 98 - which was why I upgraded to XP. I only use it to capture from my MiniDV camera and create MPEG2 files for making DVD's. I use other software for editing and burning the DVD's. I haven't had a single problem with the basic features, but the editing is a bit complicated and there is no way to create transitions from clip to clip unless you make a single MPEG file.
Rating:
Summary: a whole world of pain...
Review: I've recorded my sister's weeding and as a surprise I wanted to edit her video with sound and effects. Never having done such thing, I went to a local software retailer to find a product to get me started. Pinnacle Studio was the solution. I got the video capture hardware and the editing software bundle for [ a reasonable price] bucks! It was so easy... I watched their video tutorial and 15 minutes later I was editing. When I gave my sister and her new husband the tape they thought I've spent HUNDREDS of dollars for a professional to edit the video. They were thrilled with the results and they said it was the best gift they had gotten... I never told them how much I really spent! :)
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