Customer Reviews

Pinnacle Studio 10.0 - Video Editing

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I was experiencing repeated crashes, program errors, etc...and I thought it was me. However, when I discovered the Studio 10 support forum (Google: "Pinnacle Studio 10 Support Forum"), I learned I was not alone.

The final straw today was trying to transfer some pre-Christmas video I recently took to my computer (worked fine) and add a soundtrack (crashed the program). Figuring the 10.1 patch would solve my issues, I downloaded this behemoth. 2/3 of the way through applying the patch, like the software it was designed to fix, it hung. After rebooting and applying the patch again, it "took." When I attempted to re-do my editing chores, I discovered that all the voices and sounds associated with my video was now missing - plus the soundtrack I was trying to add when the system crashed wasn't there either.

After wasting > three hours on a project that left me with nothing to show for my efforts, I gave up. What a horrible P.O.S. (Piece Of Sofware). It *almost* makes me wish I had bought a MAC - at least it works.

Review Summary: Don't waste your money on this half-baked product. Try ANYTHING else first.

It is complete junk! Had version 8, it had it's troubles, but worked pretty well. Avoided 9 due to poor reviews. Bought 10 (a big mistake). Takes forever to load, and after it is loaded, does not work well at all! Hopefully some updates will come soon to make this software usable. DO NOT BUY IT!!!!!

MUCH better after lastest update (11/15/2005)

While this product advertises a rich list of features, it is so full of bugs that even a technically savvy general consumer wouldn't be able to use this product satisfactorily. The program launches very slowly, the program responds very slowly when it is finally running, the Bonus DVD does not load, video playback is choppy, and on my machine the video playback lacked sound.

Also, Pinnacle's support has to be the worst in the business. Their online help is difficult to navigate and provides little information that is helpful. When submitting a question by email their response times are very slow (24-48 hours to get a response) and when you do get a response it is cryptic at best. If you call their support desk, you only get one phone call. All calls after the initial call cost $25. Pretty sad considering their product doesn't even work when you load it on your machine. Finally, their technical support is only opened 12 hours a day Monday-Friday, so good luck reaching them.

I have asked for a refund, but because their technical support team still wants to try to resolve the issues they won't grant me one. They want to waste hours of my time trying to fix a piece of software that is obviously a piece of junk and wasn't properly tested before it was released.

Don't make my mistake and waste your money. The headache just isn't worth it.

Do not buy anything from Pinnacle. Their software deceptively leads you to believe that you need to purchase further programs to burn DVDs. I did so and got incorrect activation codes twice before requesting a refund which they have refused to give even though the product does not work and meets their advertised return policy. I have filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive trade policies and knowingly offering defective products.

Don't waste your money, especially if you have Studio 9. I wish I could give it zero stars. It's buggier than anything I've used from Pinnacle. Long audio dropouts capturing from digital tape 50% of the time and I never could transfer a finished project back to digital tape with Make Movie. It works fine with Studio 9. Pinnacle tech support by email is responsive but of no help. They just pull you through a knothole with useless downloads, updates, new drivers, etc.

The last few versions of Pinnacle have been disturbingly buggy. Perhaps you'll get lucky and won't have any problems, but save often! Pinnacle also requires you to pay extra for the extra media included with the product. If you want to use disc menus, etc, you have to go to the website and give them your credit card details. Ulead and Adobe give you loads more free content.

Followed company's instructions for set-up (separate hard drive, etc.) and meet or exceed hardware/memory requirements. Result? Program consistently freezes in the editing mode requiring task manager to kill the program. Cannot get through the editing of a 15 minute video clip! I certainly hope the manufacturer gets some of this feedback.

This program would be great, but you have to figure out how to do it all on your own. Tech support for pinnacle is terrible, and there are no instructions. There is a manual, but it is not very helpful. I kept running into little gliches in the program where I would be working on a project and all of the sudden something would quit working until I shut the program down and restarted it. If there were decent instructions with it and the program would work right every time I used it, I would love it.

My experience is general instability in the product to the point of being unusable. For example, a recent 6 minute video created from a single capture and using basic transitions and speed effect required restarting the software many times including three reboots. No single feature appeared to be the problem: lockups or the program "vanishing" could occur at any time.

[...]

As a long time Studio user I was excited to see a further improved version, but that didn't turn out to be the case. This is a definite DOWNGRADE! It is full of bugs, good luck getting any type of project done.

If you are a version 9 user don't "upgrade" you will be sorry. Just read the Pinnacle message boards.