Rating: 
Summary: It just doesn't work
Review: When you look at the list of features, install it and look at the interface, it seems extremely impressive. Then try to use it. It locks up all the time, it crashes to desktop. Occasionally it's locked my XP machine to the point I had to do a hard reboot. That's not supposed to be possible with XP. I've played with this software for months. I've installed patch after patch. It still locks up when trying to do simple things like save a project. I have yet to produce a single usable project that I could burn to a DVD. I tend to do a lot of research before laying out money on a product. As a result I'm usually satisfied. My other reviews show that. I read the reviews here, and knew the product had problems, but bought it anyway because there was a large rebate and it promised so much. I should have listened to the reviews. This product is simply not usable. Just don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: A very user friendly software
Review: My personal experience with this software is that it is very user friendly and versatile with regard to adding transitions, effects, and music tracks . The main recommendation, as you have probably heard before, is to make sure that you have adequate hard drive space (my 17 minute edited video took up 20 GB of hard drive space), so that you can capture your video in DV mode. If you do not have enough hard drive space available, you will have to capture video in another mode, and then, during the rendering process, have to reconnect your camcorder to the computer--the burning process takes hours. I personally have not experienced any of the bugs that the other reviewers mention with this software. I have edited and burned four home movies thus far without any problems.
Rating:
Summary: Too bad
Review: I actually would really like this program as it is powerful, easy to use, amd full of features. The big downside is that the program is so buggy that you cannot reliably use it. Have used the software from the first release up to the current patch. Sometimes the progream will just close without a warning, mostly you get the 'semd error report?' window. I have used the program on different PC's and always the same effect. Uleasd Video Studio 7 is much more stable, but also not perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Great product
Review: Very good product for the cost - intelligent and easy to use. Intuitive controls that work with most Microsoft office shortcuts.
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD Editing Software If You Can Stand The Problems
Review: I purchased the Cannon ZRMC70 DV Camera and purchased Pinnacle Studio 8.0 software with it. Overall this software is very good. You can import your video from your digital cam directly to .AVI, then grab those .AVI scenes and put them up on a timeline. You can drag/drop almost anything, dual scenes, modify sound, add menus, digital photos with text, add sound and background music. Overall, not bad at all. As you explore the program more and get into more detailed projects, you begin to find that there are problems between scenes, lockups, project crashes and more. With the latest patch from Pinnacle Software, the entire DVD burn system has been broken. After wasting nearly 10 DVD discs trying to figure out why my chapters stopped working, I finally found out on the webboards (from Pinnacle) that everyone was having the same issues. This software has the potential to become very good software it was not for problems that will have you pulling your hair out. Editing software can be addicting and time consuming. Having software that works consistantly every time is very critical. This software currently has problems that will cost you hours of time. You can find certain tricks to get around program glitches, but is it really worth your time? Currently I am looking for better authoring software.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid This Program Like The Plague!
Review: I bought this based on a positive experience with Pinnacle Studio DV. All I really wanted the software for was video capture and MPEG editing. It doesn't do either, although it is supposed to. Besides locking up, not displaying video, etc. when it DID supposedly edit an MPG file the sound no longer matched up with the video! Believe ALL the bad reviews of this product. It is a complete waste of time and money. I will never purchase from Pinnacle again. Sincerely, Ken Miller Tucson,AZ BTW, my system is a Dell P4 running Windows 2000 with 756 MB memory, 2 120G drives, 32MB Nvidia Geforce2 MX
Rating:
Summary: Crashes more than a blind truck driver
Review: I have to say, the program is great, IF it did not crash every 5 minutes. I am VERY disappointed by the manufacture for having so many bugs in one product. Their QA department is clearly missing something. For instance, I buy the software and do the first patch update. Then, update another one and it crashes and burns. Then, 2 days later the manufacturer releases ANOTHER patch for the patch 3 days prior that still does not solve the problem. Pass on this product, it will save you 5 years of your life in frustration alone.
Rating:
Summary: Possible fraud with major pc mag award and this program.
Review: I bought PS 8 primarely because it had received PC Magazine's "Editors Choice" award. The author of the article describing PS 8 is Jan Ozer, the same person who wrote the Visual Quick Start Guide for PS 8. Reviewers at amazon.com have rated Pinnacle Studio 8 to be 2 out of 5 stars, the web board at pinnaclesys is full of frustrated users who seems to have problems from anywhere not being able to launch the programm to crashes after hours of work, destroing their projects. This makes me wonder how impartial this author was when he wrote the review (and possible awarded it the "Editor's Choice" award.) Why? As a book author it's important that you sell as many books as possible. If the book flops, it's over for the author. So Jan Ozer had very well a reason to write a glowing review, knowing it may well increase sales of his book. This situation is especially concerning, because PC Magazine is the leading publication for computer users and many readers rely on the magazine's judgement when it comes to purchasing hardware or software. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Lot's of promise but not well executed
Review: When I brought home Studio 8 I thought that I had found exactly the program I have been looking for to turn my old home movies into DVD showpieces. It loaded nicely and even downloaded the most recent version automatically from their web site. Unfortunately, this upgrade didn't work with another piece of software that also was on the disc. After a full day of research I learned how to upgrade the other software also and I was off and running. I spent the next week editing in the evenings with an occasional crash but with what I hoped would be a nice prjoject of about 1 hour of video with some music and many transitions. As I was nearing completion I tried to add a title and it would not add it without hanging up. Then I tried to burn a DVD with no luck. The project had become so unstable that I couldn't do anything. I am not willing to put in the same amount of time to rebuild the project with the threat that I may not be able to burn it. Now I'm shopping for some other software.
Rating: 
Summary: Features Great, Quality Poor
Review: FEATURES & USER INTERFACE: 5 stars
IMPLEMENTATION: 1 star I like this software, but it took me a while to get to that point. Its graphic design and user interface is intuitive and well laid-out. The supplied documentation is excellent. The program is packed with features-it gives the user a great deal of control over the creative process of making a home video. I have used the trial versions of Ulead and Roxio's consumer offerings (in the same price range) and I believe Studio 8 offers more features and more control. As much as I love the design and the features, I was very disappointed with the quality. I bought this almost a year after it was released, and even with the latest patches I had problems with various bugs. I have basically had to wait for two additional patches to be released (mid-October 2003 being the latest) before getting to the point of actually being able to make a movie and burn it to disc. Studio 8 is one of the bugiest programs that I have ever used on a PC. What bothered me most about the bugs I encountered was that they affected simple tasks-not the computationally intensive, hardware-challenging processes. I captured video from my camera, compiled movies (with lots of sound & video clips, transitions, etc.) and rendered the finished video without problems. It was the simpler stuff that Studio 8 consistently crashed on. It would crash when I tried to edit text to overlay on the video. It would crash when I tried to add a still image. It crashed while trying to burn the finished video data to a CD. These are all things that are relatively simple for a PC to do, and are done flawlessly by many other software products. I now like Studio 8, but it caused me a lot of frustration and cost me a lot of time and money (I had to upgrade to Windows XP to fix some of the problems) to come to like it. Studio 8 has been steadily improving with the release of patches, but a lot of people out there are still having problems, as evidenced by the postings on their tech support website. My advice is: Do not even consider buying this product without first trying the downloadable demo. This isn't a guarantee, because some features are disabled in it, but it will go a long way in helping you to see if it will run on your system. If you decide to purchase it, you should accept the possibility of spending time in their tech support forum hunting for answers, or even having to wait weeks or months for another patch to fix your problems.
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