Pinnacle Systems Studio DV

by Pinnacle

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001OPIZ
• Item model number: 135STDDVN
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #70 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > I/O Port Cards > FireWire Port Cards
  • #78 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Video Capture Cards
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 29, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Pinnacle Systems' Studio DV allows you to produce movies from your DV or Digital8 videotapes by transferring them onto your PC. With easy plug-and-play installation, Studio DV captures an entire DV tape in only 150 MB of disk space. You can arrange your scenes in any order with drag-and-drop efficiency and choose from over 300 professional-style titles and hundreds of scene transitions for a polished look. Pinnacle Systems' Studio DV also enables you to compose custom soundtracks and voice-over narration in sync with the action. After you are done editing your video, Studio DV helps you prepare your masterpieces for sharing on the Web or using e-mail.

Product Description

With Studio DV adapter you can transfer digital video directly from your camcorder to your PC hard drive. And the Studio software is so easy to learn, you'll be able to create a professional-style movie from your DV or Digital8 camcorder tapes faster than ever before. Studio DV installs with true plug-and-play ease and upgrades your computer with three high-speed FireWire/1394 ports. (These ports provide easy plug-and-play connectivity and increased throughput for your camcorder and any FireWire/1394 compatible peripherals!) Studio DV captures your video, automatically detecting scene changes to place them in the Video Album. Drag and drop the scenes you want to keep onto the Storyboard. Add titles to your video. Create a movie masterpiece complete with voice-over narration, custom soundtracks, transitions between scenes and more. And with the Studio software, you'll never have to wait for a preview to render - you can see your changes in real-time - anytime. Then when you're read.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reported problems are true, but you can avoid them!, August 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pinnacle Systems Studio DV (Personal Computers)

I love this product and recommend it highly.

Full disclosure: I have had Studio DV for a month. The first days were very frustrating. I experienced many of the problems reported here & at the Pinnaclesys.com Discussion Forum. However, Pinnacle has released three updates since & as of 8/21 has fixed the major bugs. If others come up, I'm confident that they'll hold my hand as they fix those, too.

Studio DV is amazingly intuitive to use. It detects all of the scenes on your footage and makes it extremely simple to manipulate them. Trimming scenes: easy. Adding transitions: easy. Adding titles: easy. Adding sound effects, CD music, or voiceovers: easy. Outputting back to tape, AVIs, MPEGs: easy! It's everything a home user could need to help tell a story on video. You'll be amazed at how easy it is for you, and your friends and family will be amazed by the results. What it can't do (fancy animation, digital effects, split screens) are things that have no business in your home movies anyway.

Shortfalls: The software can't split the audio and video tracks (to make easy cutaway shots), and the hardware can't capture old analog formats.

The hardware requirements are very serious. Windows 98SE is highly recommended. You really do need a lot of RAM (128 will work, more is better) and a large, fast hard drive. SCSI is NOT necessary. An Ultra DMA 7200 RPM EIDE drive is fine (make sure DMA is enabled). A separate hard drive just for video is best, but I have one large drive with 29Gb partitioned just for video and it works very well. Video takes up over 200mb per minute, so unless you're only shooting 3-minute movies, you should have 10, 20, or more gigabits set aside for working on video projects. If you are buying a new PC, call Pinnacle tech support and they will tell you how to optimize your dollars (they'll also tell you which chipsets to avoid).

...Studio DV is one of the greatest values in consumer electronics. Even if you have to spend hundreds to upgrade your PC, Studio DV alone will justify that investment.

If you haven't bought your camera yet and are on a limited budget, then get Studio DV and the cheapest camera, but splurge on the PC for editing. Many users on the Studio DV Discussion Forum rave about the results they get with Digital 8 footage.

108 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use, but beware the hardware requirements, July 25, 2000

By 

MathWizMom "WordyKat" (Lake Buena Vista, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pinnacle Systems Studio DV (Personal Computers)

I just finished my first 5-minute video using Studio DV. I did not experience any of the unpredictable behavior other reviewers describe. At least, not after I spent a lot of money upgrading my PC. When I got stared, my PC (pre-upgrades) met all of the minimum requirements listed on the box. I had no problems working in preview mode, but my final video was slow and stuttering and then stalled out. Back to the manual... Deep in Appendix B, you will learn that the *recommended* hard drive is an A/V rated SCSI drive--most home PCs have slower IDE/ATA drives. They also advise that you should capture video to a drive other than the one where Windows 98 and Studio DV are installed. None of this information is on the box, and it's not easy to find in the manual. All in all, I spent about $750 to get this $75 firewire card working. I wish I knew what this would really cost before I got started! After the upgrades, I had no problems at all. The software was really easy to use--very intuitive! I'm really happy with the final product from my video editing efforts, and I think in the long run the cost won't bother me as much. If you're considering using this product and you don't have a second hard drive (and a very fast one at that), you should figure the cost of this upgrade in deciding if this product is for you.

182 of 188 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the one to get!, February 25, 2000

By 

"sookyas" (Mission Viejo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pinnacle Systems Studio DV (Personal Computers)

You have probably read all the product specifications by the manufacturer and other publications regarding the performance and features of the Studio DV. Based on my experience, I can assure you that Studio DV performs as well if not better that all the claims in the product reviews.

Installation was a snap with no problems. However, you may need to stop all other programs running in the background (Norton anitivirus, monitor power-saver, etc.) to provide maximum system resources to Studio DV. Before doing this, some of the icons on the screen appeared jumbled. This is explained in the troubleshooting portion of the manual.

The video capture in "preview" quality works great - it simply shows what you need to know while you are editing. After capture of your scenes, you can select any scene and scroll through it by moving the scroll bar. Ditto for the transition effects and titles.

You can add your own narration by using your computer's microphone as the preview window plays the scenes. You can then come back and adjust the fade and volume levels of the narration track and the other two audio tracks. This is very powerful (but simple) editing features that I was very amazed to discover in Studio DV

Sound editing capabilities are amazing for a product at this price level! You can see the "wave-form" representation of the audio so its much easier to sync a particular part of the audio to the video (such as an audio "bang" sound effect to the video "explosion").

The titling software that is included is A+. Why would you need anything else? I have used $1000 titling software and although I had some additional "whiz/bang" effects, who needs that all the time. The point is to make a great title, put it where you want it quickly and easily and be able to customize it to some reasonable level. Studio DV lets you do all of that.

In summary, if you need to edit you Digital 8 or DV videos quickly, simply and with minimal learning curve and hassles go with Studio DV. I can see even pros using this on thier home movies! You have everything you need to make great looking movies.

Good Luck