Customer Reviews

Pinnacle Studio Plus 10.0 - Video Editing

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(110)

 

 

I thought all these problems were just me. Wrong! I just read all the reviews below and they are ALL having the same problems I am having. This software is truly a MAJOR step backward from version 9. Don't waste your money unless you are reading this in the Summer of 2006 when, presumably, they will have released version 10.9.9 that finally has fixed all the bugs in this thing.

The thing I wonder about is the Bonus DVD with 3+ Gigs of extra stuff - others are right that it won't load. A couple of the third party plug-ins have unreadable files. How do we get THAT fixed? Are they going to mail us a new disc? Doubtful. I am really disappointed and will be pulling out my old Studio 9 and reinstalling it until they get this thing fixed. I will be wary of future versions because of this debacle.

In three days of using this program on fairly basic files and edits, I've had 7 complete crashes. It's not my system-dual core with 2 GB of memory. I'd wait for a new version -- the 10.1 patch doesn't seem to help

Don't waste your money. I've been using Pinnacle Studio since version 6 and have loved using it to edit video's up until version 9.43 Plus. Version 10 was a pain to install, and when it was finally installed, it would report an error before I could do anything. Why they decided to rewrite the program based of their slow professional liquid edition is beyond me. This version is being uninstalled. I'm going to go back to using version 9.43 Plus.

If you intend on buying version 9 Plus, be aware that you have to dish out additional money before you can unlock some cool features.

Here are a list of locked features:
MPEG 2 Encoding/Decoding
MP3 Encoder/Decoder
Dolby 5.1 Professional Encoding
Dolby 2 Channel Encoding
MPEG-4 Encoder/Decoder
Dolby 5.1 Consumer Encoding
RTFx Basic Limited
HFX Editor (Plus)
HFX Plus
HFX Creator (PRO/MEGA)
HFX PRO
RTFx Plus
RTFx Mega effects

Version 9.43 Plus is awesome once you have everything unlocked. Version 10 is garbage.

My computer
2.4 GHz Celeron
768 MB RAM
60 GB for Windows
250 GB for Video Editing

Never have I had so much trouble with a software package before. While I may not have the swiftest PC on the block, I do have a pretty good Pentium PC with 512 RAM. Apparently not near enough for Studio Plus V10. The program takes five minutes to "load", continually crashes and is totally unusable. Be warned. Unless you have a super Craig and can take continual breakdowns, avoid this software. More bugs than a July swamp party in the Everglades!

This application is not stable even after applying the latest patch. Version 10? How on earth could any company write 10 versions of an application and end up with something like this? And how could they release this awful piece of software in the first place? The errors I encountered were not triggered by exotic commands but doing basic things. Either they did not test it or they tested it, found the bugs and then did nothing about them.

I always read reviews. For some reason I didn't on this purchase. DO NOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE! Version 9 was buggy and version 10 is absolutely useless. I have not been able to complete a single project. All of my time is spent crashing, waiting for it to create a bug report and worst of all waiting 2 minutes for the application to reload. DO NOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Everything said in the reviews is true - the good (what little of it), the bad, and the ugly. This thing is a waste of time and money.

But because of it, I discovered Sony's Vegas Movie Studio, and I was blown away by that product. It doesn't crash, gives way more creative control, and the mpeg2 codec is almost flawless. Pinnacle nickle and dimes you, while Vegas HAS all that stuff right out of the box FOR ONLY $89!!!!!! AND IT DOESN'T CRASH!!!!!

Oh, and as far as support from Pinnacle, don't even think of it...you're on your own. They'll take your money for a sale, but don't expect any useful (if any) help from them. Sony on the other hand was all over me to help get their program running. Never looking back. Pinnacle had a cool concept, but as another reviewer said -- how does a company get to release 10 and still have a crappy product?????? Vegas is at release 6.0 and it's ROCK SOLID - has not crashed ONCE since i've owned it.

I was a Pinnacle Studio user from version 8. Pretty good interface, but buggy if you try to do complex work. I upgraded to version 9, which was a little better than version 8, but still not completely solid. I foolishly thought they'd finally get it right in Version 10 (including the 10.1 upgrade!) - what a mistake. Don't get sucked in by their excellent marketing hype. This software has decended to the level of absolute bloatware garbage. First of all, it would install but crash on starting the application on one of my computers (same result with 10.1). I loaded it on another computer, and the software would load, though I'd have been better off if it didn't load at all because once you start to use the application you're in for an endless series of frustrations. It's the worst performing piece of software I've ever seen, from installation (45 min), starting the application (2 min), changing screens inside the application once it's running takes 10-20 seconds. This is on fairly fast 3 gigahertz computer with 512 megs of ram with no other applications running. In attempting to do a couple of simple copy a miniDV tape to DVD tasks the software has crashed 3 times. Only on the 4th attempt on a shorter movie did it successfully create the DVD. This software is so bad, there's absolutely no chance a future upgrade could make it right - unless they fire the current development team and hire a new team and start over, but I'm not going to wait that long. I've checked around to see I'm not the only one with this experience with software and I know not to waste my time trying to get my money back, so I'm deleting this 6 gigabytes of garbage from my harddrive, writing this review, and starting a search for some decent video editing software.

If you are looking for the most miserable experience of your life, try this software! Its great for: Raising your blood pressure, ruining your hopes and dreams, and destroying any chance of finishing your video project. Some interesting information for you: Pinnacle studios has recently hired and extra 200+ support staff who are being trained specifically on how to handle costumers screaming their heads off at them. No lie; One of the staff told me when i called for help.

As an amatuer director and editor, i am simply horrified that a product like this is still available on the shelves.

I BEG YOU. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. READ THE OTHER REVIEWS. THEY ARE ALL TRUE. APART FROM THE ONES THAT SAY THAT TEH PATCH CAN HELP BECAUSE IT DOESN'T HELP. I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING.

BY BUYING THIS PRODUCT, I HAVE NOT ONLY LET ALL OF MY FAN BASE DOWN BY NOT BEING ABLE TO RELEASE MY MOVIE EVEN CLOSE TO BEING ONTIME, BUT I HAVE ALSO FAILED SEVERAL CLASSES FROM LACK OF SLEEP.

PLEASE. DONT BUY IT IF YOU DONT LIKE PAIN, STRESS, SLEEP DEPRIVATION, AND DISAPOINTMENT.

Sadly, I bought this product without checking the reviews here first.
First of all, it doesn't work. It crashes frequently despite upgrades to the latest patch offered on the Pinnacle website.

Second, it takes forever to load. It's like loading a program on your old commodore 64 or Apple IIe, it's that slow.

Last, Pinnacle refuses to acknowledge the problem and won't refund your money.

Save your money and try Adobe Premiere elements 2.0

but, before you spend money on any video editing program, download the free trial of the software first and see if it works on your computer!