Customer Reviews

Pinnacle Studio Moviebox Ultimate V12 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Just plug your VHS machine into the moviebox, and the moviebox into a USB-port on your computer. Then play the tape and push "record" on your screen. The resulting recording format is MPG or AVI, but you can convert this into many popular formats, including MP4 and DVD. You can edit the recorded files according to your wish. The only drawback is that it takes some time to convert the recorded files into other formats, and that it also takes a little time to learn the software. Conversion into other formats can be done overnight, and the software even can shut down your computer down after having finished the job.

The resulting quality is very good indeed. If you use the best quality, a MP4-file takes about one GB per 30 minutes. But it may be overkilling to use the highest quality for old VHS-tapes. I have not tried out the optimal quality level yet.

This combination of hardware and software really works! Previously, I have tried a simpler video capturing device. With that, the picure and the sound got unsynchronized, and the lines in the upper part of the picture got unstable. Not so here. Previous versions of Pinnacle Studio may have had a tendency to crash, but I havn't experienced this (yet!). After having installed the software, you can also upgrade to an updated version (v. 12.1) from Pinnacle's website.

It works with Windows Vista 64 as promised, but there were a few problems:

1. During video capture, the video froze while the audio continued to be captured. This happens randomly after approximately 20 - 30 minutes. I had to repeat the video capture 4 times before the whole 2 hours of camcorder Hi8 tape was successfully captured.

2. The menu maker for the DVD did not work well. It created the first menu page correctly, but the second and third menu page was just a green background. I can still navigate to my selected scenes, but there were no images for the scenes, just green boxes and green background.

The version of Pinnacle Studio (version 12) is easy to use and intuitive enough for a video neophyte like me to make a decent DVD.

And here's a tip for the first time user. If you are capturing video from a camcorder and the video looks jumbled in the preview box, go to the settings page and check the "VCR input" checkbox. This is not checked for you by default. That should clear up your video.

Overall, it does the job adequately, but it's far from a polished product. If you're willing to live with the problems mentioned above, then it is good investment for making copies of your videos before the magnetic tapes deteriorate and you lose all the cherished memories of kids and family. Good luck.

If your goal is to edit home videos, this piece of gear will do the trick. I have not yet used the hardware, since I was able to directly transfer recordings from the firewire camera onto the computer, but I am assuming that the resulting quality when digitizing analog video will not suffer much. My review will then focus on the bundled software.

The video editing software is OK for most purposes. It will allow users to create pretty decent videos in no time, and deliver them in a variety of formats that range from DVDs to website-ready videos. It is not professional software by any means, and lacks the precision and workflows found in more expensive video editing programs, but the market targeted by this solution will not miss any of that.

The software is very complete, since it even includes some additional media users might find useful when creating their videos, such as images, backgrounds, and sounds.

The manual is very thorough and well written, clearly aiming to a non-professional crowd, so things are pretty clear there. They even bothered including a small "how-to-shot-decent-videos" section that has nothing to do with the software itself, but that those with little video production experience can find interesting and useful, if they want their loved ones to watch their amazing blockbusters more than once without falling asleep...

In all, it's a pretty good product, and for the price, I doubt there's anything like it out there. There are a few flaws, of course... some workflows with the software (DVD chapter creations and navigation, in particular) are very quirky and fight against the user. The bundled green screen... well, take it as a gift, since you can't really expect anything else at this price point. And the production process at creating web-ready videos is pretty general and a bit restricted. Those who aim at producing lots of videos targeting the web (particularly for a few well-known video websites) should probably get a software specially designed for that (such as Techsmith's Camtasia) to compliment this package.

I definitely recommend this product for those aiming at producing home videos with the intention of sharing them with others.

This is a very powerful, totally complete movie editing system, but you must have a computer capable of handling it. I have a dual core AMD processor, Vista Home Premium, 3 gigs of RAM, and store my mini DV video files on a seperate external hard drive. The program has worked as promised, is very fast, and has all the tools you need to do a professional job. Only once did it drop frames during video capture, but after restarting my computer the problem disapeared. The ability to generate custom music tracks for slideshows or video is great, and the selections seem endless. The program is easy to use for beginners, but capable enough for the serious video hobbiest. I highly recommend it!

I just started using this after reading many other postings. It has some great features I haven't figured out yet. So far I have imported a video from my JVC camera using the supplied DV cable, and cut the 1.5 hrs helo flight down into 25 min of cool flicks. Next step is perfecting the audio and adding transitions. Haven't had any problems with the software on Vista 32bit but the update hasn't installed yet... so we'll see if that becomes necessary later. Easy and cool

We have had this for one month and it is the very best i have seen.
I have coverted hundreds hours of 8mm race tapes to dvd.
If you purchase this product, be aware you must have a fairly up to date computer. All and all this is ultimate

I bought the Pinnacle Studio Moviebox about 6 months ago to transfer my video from an older Sony videocamera that still used 8mm tapes.

The set up and cables were easy to use. I did encounter the green screen as many others have complained about. However, after restarting the my computer and/or removing and re-attaching the cables, the green screen was gone and my video was being captured.

My main gripe with this product was that during the capturing of the video from my Sony videocamera was that several frames are dropped during the process. I would say over a thousand frames were dropped which made my overall video jumpy as several frames were skipped. Maybe I am being too kind, but I attribute this to my video camera and the transfer of 8mm tapes.

I believe using a better videocamera with direct transfer through the Pinnacle Studio Moviebox would result in less dropped frames.

I love all the options and transitions that one can make while making the video. There are several features that I still have not tried.

Overall, I am satisfied with the Moviebox, but you do have to be patient. You cannot expect to make a home movie very quickly, at least not if you want it to look great and transition smoothly from scene to scene.

I researched a lot of video transfer products before I purchased this one and this Pinnacle Studio Ultimate V12 was the best on the market. If someone knows of a better product on the market, please let me know.

Pinnacle studio moviebox is a great product to the price offered.
The video quality is good enough for home users. The only concerns is that I will need to upgrade my computer memory because some videos are freezing on playing.

Pinnacle has went way downhill since Studio 8. They took a user friendly, reliable program and turned it into a nightmare. I have been in contact with their support team for 2 weeks, have burned over 65 discs and haven't had one turn out the way it was supposed to. The bright green menu screens, the bad quality thumbnails, the complicated steps that have been added to do simple tasks, the dvd burner that is cumbersome and unreliable are only part of the problems. And the menus are a joke.

This is certainly an improvement over the last two versions of Pinnacle Studio. I wished I was able to stay stuck with 9.4 Plus, but unfortunately I was FORCED to upgrade when my hard drive crashed and I tried reinstalling the software. The bonus software is a definite plus, so even if you still hate Studio 12, you're getting some extras for a bargain. This is no longer my favorite editing NLE, but it does have its usefulness in my collection of must have arsenals.