Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 44
 Great program for consumers--not for pros! August 21, 2008
Jefferson Graham (Los Angeles, CA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Let's put our expectations in check. This is not a professional video editing program. Pinnacle Studio 12 is an amazingly easy to master, simple to use program aimed for consumer video editors. As I noted in my USA TODAY video review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yYZYjRLpvk&feature=user) it's a program to learn with; eventually you will want to step up to a more advanced program like Sony Vegas or Final Cut. Thanks to a cool new feature, called "Montage," you can create a "video wall," of multiple images--a great way to open your show. I demonstrate on the USA TODAY Talking Tech web video show.
 User since Version 6 July 22, 2008
C. Viray
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
There's a lot of people that complain about Pinnacle Studio, but I like it. I've like it since I bought version 6, with the exception of version 10. I'll assume you tried a version of Pinnacle Studio for my review, and know what you like and don't like. Here's my take on it.
Pro's: My favorite thing about Pinnacle studio has always been the transitions and ease of adding transitions to videos. On earlier versions I would notice that when I would add to many transitions, the video would sometimes freeze during the transition or not show the transition at all. With version 12 One of my favorite things about this version of Pinnacle Studio is that the ruler turns green on the part you edited and renders after you make a change. This way you know Pinnacle Studio is doing something, and not just hanging. Because of that rendering, previewing the videos with transitions has dramatically improved. Adding transitions/montages with multiple screens is a lot easier with the drag and drop ability for setting the video/picture to the specific frames.
Cons: Nothing new. Price, not necessarily the price of the software, but the price to unlock the modules you like. And there are a lot of modules to unlock. If you like transitions like I do, you'll have to spend a lot more than the retail price to unlock everything. Either that or you'll need a keygen to generate the activation keys.
My advise to Pinnacle would be to add a trial version to there website, so you wouldn't have so many people bitching and complaining about how it runs on there PC. Maybe put Pinnacle Studio in the middle of the screen for whatever they render in the trial.
Hope my review was helpful.
My PC:
Windows Vista Ultimate
2.8GHz Pentium D
2GB DDR2 667 Ram
320GB + 500GB SATA Hard Drives
ATI Radeon X1550 512MB Video Card
 Works reasonably well with AVCHD. August 6, 2008
parrothead (Atlanta, GA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I set about evaluating video editing software after getting a Canon HF100 HD camcorder (excellent, by the way). I spent a lot of time with CyberLink's PowerDirector 7 as a free 30 day download. I found it excellent in every way except its proclivity for making coasters out of expensive, dual-layer DVDs, and it did a lot of that. Everything was great until I tried to actually burn a DVD. Since that just wasn't working out, I turned to my second choice: Studio 12.
First of all, they don't offer an evaluation download, and by that fact alone I would not have even considered it if PowerDirector 7 had worked. After reading the reviews, I decided to take a chance and actually buy it without evaluating it first. Definitely a risk, and Pinnacle ought to be slapped for making people do that with software this expensive.
Anyway, I was able to bring in to my project the HiDef (.dts) clips I'd downloaded from the memory card in the camera. I didn't even try to see if Studio 12 would recognize the camera connected via USB. I found editing reasonably easy, although I missed the multi-trim feature in PowerDirectory. Once I took the time to actually read the manual (PDF file), things went pretty well, although I liked the simplicity of PowerDirector better, and more intuitive. So when it finally came time to render and produce a DVD, I was anxious to see if this actually would work under Vista. PowerDirector would crash almost every time during the burning process. An important feature in Studio 12 that PowerDirector lacks (apparently) is the ability to create a true image file that can later be used directly in the tool to burn a DVD. PowerDirector will save a series of files in a directory of your choice, but it can't burn a DVD directly from them, at least not on my computer. Studio 12 was able to create both a standard DVD of the HD content (not in HD, of course), as well as a AVCHD disc of true HD content (menus don't work in this format, but you get real HD quality). Both products support burning to true Blu-Ray, but the discs are too expensive to waste if anything goes wrong.
Without going to a lot of detail about how to do things in either of these products, here's what I would advise:
Download CyberLink's PowerDirector 7 and give it a try. I liked every thing about it better EXCEPT when it came time to burn a DVD. I thought the interface was more intuitive, easier to use, and at least as powerful as Studio 12. If you're able to burn DVDs successfully with it every time, then go with it.
If, however, you have trouble creating DVDs due to program crashes (and they were frequent), take a chance and buy Studio 12. I have issues with being nickel and dimed to death to unlock stuff, and installation took forever, but in the end, I got functional DVDs with regular and HiDef content that work on my Blu-Ray player, and I could burn new copies from the image files created without re-rendering. I should mention that I did not attempt all the things mentioned in other reviews, so I can't vouch for whether they work or not. If you don't like it, well, good luck getting your money back. There are lots of cheaper packages out there if you don't need HD capability.
All-around prosumer/consumer video package August 28, 2008
midnight821 (Kentucky)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
First, like several other reviews I am a prosumer photographer but I only dabble with video. I've been recording HD video with my Canon TX1 for close to a year now and thought Pinnacle Studio Ultimate would be a good compliment for me.
Installation was a snap with several customization options. It was the typical install without much fuss. I have used the software on both my Windows Vista machine and a Windows XP virtual machine. After a good bit of use, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate v12 has performed well on both setups.
I have been impressed by the number of templates and themes that are available in the software for menus, text, graphics, etc. Several of the features and plug-ins (such as Magic Bullet and Graffiti) are very neat but seem to be limited in overall capabilities. Coming from an amateur video guy that may not mean much, but I felt limited in some of the options. It was either take the default or deal with it. I say that with caution, as I also felt that the software package allowed me to create very nice videos with just a few clicks. Perfect for the consumer or amateur, but likely limiting for the professional.
The software ran well on my machine (but I do have a PC stocked with plenty of hard drive space, RAM, and CPU power). The export options were varied with everything to web publishing to mobile devices. Luckily I do not have any experience with Pinnacle's customer service as it appears that many customers have had complaints.
At the end of the day I consider this to be a good purchase. Are there better packages out there? Absolutely. However, for a consumer that dabbles in video I find this to be an excellent choice for the price. I may not be able to create superior videos, but Pinnacle Studio Ultimate does offer me the ability to kick things up a notch.
 Horrible Customer Service August 2, 2008
J. Garibay
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
I was planning on purchasing this product, since i read about it's features in its web site. I have to say I was rather disappointed when i called in regards to many of the questions i had since i read many reviews here on Amazon. Poor customer service were the results, not only was the call a non 800 number, meaning you have to pay in order to receive information about the product, but the representative was incompetent and could not answer any of my questions. I was glad i didn't place the order and avoided the future headaches of calling pinnacle for support.
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