Rating: 
Summary: Terrible
Review: I bought this program for use with my digital camcorder and with my TV capture card. It didn't work with my capture card so I e-mailed them to ask if they planned on supporting my card and if not which cards they did support. They respond by telling me that they aren't going to support my card but they didn't bother telling me which cards did work. I replied asking them to please tell me which cards it worked with and further complaints about it hanging when I tried to save a movie. After waiting several days I get the response, "We're glad to here that Studio 8 is working for you. We now consider this case closed." The program doesn't work well at all and the customer support is completly worthless and rude.
Rating: 
Summary: DVD authoring is NOT RELIABLE
Review: Do not think that you can reliably produce video DVD's with this software!! On those rare occasions when your project is successfully rendered, compiled and actually burned to disc, you still do not get what you set up. Studio 8's new DVD authoring software is deeply flawed.
Rating: 
Summary: Not much improve from Version 1.05a
Review: I have been using Studio DV Version 1.05a for 3 years. I made 5 beautiful home movies, including one for my friend first baby. Yes, I made some very outstanding movies for my daughter, but the program often has errors. Sometime when I record the movie back to the camcorder, it stops in the middle of the movie. (Version 1 came out 3 years ago, I don't know why, but the version after 1 is 7 and now 8. They don't have version 2,3,4,5 or 6)Now, I upgrade to version 8. First of all, it's very very slow to start the program. It has more features such as change the speed of the video, chagne the color and lighting....But the Title, Transition, and Sound not much different. I hope it does not have many errors like the version 1.05a. One thing I like the most in both version is IT'S VERY EASY TO USE. I am happy that bought the software because I have produced some very special movies for my only daughter to watch over and over again. UPDATE (After using STUDIO 8 over the week): In Windows XP the program captures the whole tape into one file so you don't have to wait by your computer (I like it). Older Windows (before XP) allow us to capture only 15 minutes of the video at a time. I just made a short movie using the SPEED FEATURE to speed up the video, it's fun. Everybody's laughing. So far the program (including Capture, Edit and Make Movie) runs very smooth.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of features and easy to use
Review: I had never used video editing software before, and read a lot of reviews, both user and "expert" before settling for Pinnacle Studio Version 8.
Curiously, the 10 digit serial number was printed backwards and it took a while to figure that out. Also it was on the CD sleeve, not on the back of the book where the on screen instructions told me to locate it.
After installing (a breeze) I watched the tutorial video and then made a couple of test movies. One on fresh video footage from my Samsung mini DV camcorder, the other was a compilation of AVI video clips my folks back in Old England have e-mailed to me and I have been saving them on my hard drive.
Both movies were easy to compile and fun to do. I easily added transition effects between scenes and titles, trimmed some scenes and then rendered the whole thing. I found rendering was slow, as many other reviewers have pointed out, but that was my only complaint.
I made one test movie on a CD using MPEG2 which played fine on my DVD player. The other was a compilation of 20 and 30 second AVI movie clips, which was also very easy to put together and played perfectly on my (older) DVD player. Movies can also be made in streaming fashion to display on a web site or in formats suitable for e-mailing. The many formats available is definitley one of its strong points.
This software was pretty easy to use, with nice features allowing a complete amateur like me to impress the hell out of my friends at first try!
I accomplished all of this without any prior experience with video editing software so I give my full approval.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment City
Review: I had high hopes for this program to do slide show, but I found it to buggy and too slow even with a new system, so its back to searching for an easy to use slide show program.
Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER program that doesn't work...
Review: Well, let's see... First of all, it doesn't have the white in/ white out transition, which I thought was standard. Second, putting in music and getting it to play with your clips almost never works. I tried making a simple 12 second movie, but after several long hours of frustration, I just gave up. You have to convert video files it doesn't accept with Video Wave (which comes with it, I think), and that takes a very long time. Also, when you actually make your project into a video file, it takes an eternity! And it left almost FOUR MINUTES of soundless blackness on the file before it actually had the movie I made. The only thing left for me to try is getting an Apple computer so I can use Imovie. And if that doesn't work... I seriously think I'll go insane. ALL I WANT IS SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY WORKS FOR A CHANGE!
Rating:
Summary: If Only...
Review: This product worked as advertised it would be a terrific program.
A few of the problems experienced when using this program are dropped audio when burning a DVD, unexpected pauses and freezing
up while editing, rendering a project for DVD burning takes hours not minutes. As a result, a [$]blank DVD does not turn out as expected after it is burned. It is unfortunate that you have to buy the program before you can get on to the tech support web-site to find all of the problems that users are experiencing. Thought maybe my computer was not up to snuff, but it meets all of the required horsepower to operate program and after visiting the FAQ many users are having the same problems. I would not buy this product until it operates as advertised. My Advice: continue searching for a program that
will do what it is supposed to do without hassle...
Rating:
Summary: The perfect dvd authoring software for high-end systems!
Review: I upgraded this software to 8.03.18 before working with it. Mpeg import and video capture work great, little or no frames dropped. Timeline creation is a snap, trimming video is virtual, your actual raw video is undisturbed. Menu creation not too diffucult. Documentation is lacking where linking menus is concerned, but user forums provide detailed instructions. Importing stills, secondary audio (including MP3) were no trouble. Burning a dvd requires patience with this software, granted. But the results are nothing less than spectacular. After spending just eight hours creating a project (mostly spent on menu creation), I left Studio 8 to re-render my video overnight. I would say it took 5-8 minutes to re-render each minute. But in the end I burned a full 2.25 hour disc with main menu, 3 sub-menus with 5 chapters each, mp3 background music for each menu. Everything was accessible when using my home player, video quality was superb, audio sync was never an issue. I know there seem to be some compatability issues on some systems, but if you think your computer can do it, this IS the one to buy! Previously I was using MovieFactory. Studio 8 is fifty times better, no joke. Hardware Specs: ABit KX7V333, Athlon 2000XP, ATI AiW 7500 Radeon, Catalyst 2.3 drivers, 40 Gb Capture drive, 100 Gb editing (7200 rpm each), 512 PC2700, XP Pro full version w/ SP1, Sony DRU-120A dvd burner.
Rating:
Summary: STUDIO 8 DOESN'T WORK!
Review: I'm a Studio 7 user and I like it even when it eventually crashes. I bought Studio 8 because of the new and nice features but I can't create a SVCD or a DVD because after many hours rendering it just stops working! After days of trying everything thinking I did something wrong, I called tech support, which is a long distance call and after a 40 minutes wait they just didn't know how to help me. I just can't use this product at all after so many hours of work creating my project!! I'm gonna have to uninstall this product and look somewhere else. This Studio 8 experience was a waste of time and money...
Rating:
Summary: Don't count on MP3 support
Review: I requested a trial version of Studio 8 from Pinnacle. While I like the ease of use of the product, I wanted one key feature which does not seem to be supported--ability to use MP3 files from my music library. I have been conversing with tech support at Pinnacle, and it appears that Pinnacle's claim that it can import MP3's is innacurate. I have been unable to import MP3 files created from either Real Networks RealOne player, or from the plug-in link provided by Windows Media Player (XP). Apparently, they record MP3's with 'non-standard' tags. The techs (2 seperate ones) would not provide me with the name of any programs which could record MP3's that Studio 8 would recognize.
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