Customer Reviews

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 11 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

I have been a studio user since version 9. I have upgraded each time and have continually been searching for one of the programs that will convert my video for use with Flash. Magix I tried (see my review there). When Studio 11 touted it would convert to Flash, I was happy. I promptly ordered.
Initially, I could not even make a video. It would lock up on the rendering process. They recently released an upgrade (if you purchase, ensure you download all the upgrades before trying to use) which finally allowed me to complete a video.
When I went to save my movie as a Flash file, I found, once again, that you have to upload it to a website. Pinnacle offers such a site "free of charge." However, READ THE FINE PRINT before you join.
If you upload videos to their website you are granting them free, unrestricted use of your video without compensation to you. If you don't mind that they may use a family reunion video in something they do, etc, then knock yourself out. However, by law anyone who creates something owns it. If I shoot a video of my pets and then edit it with titles, etc, it is my intellectual property. Nobody is allowed to take my work and claim it as their own or use it for their purposes without my permission. To get that permission, you may need to pay a fee. Pinnacle is offering you a place to post your videos online as compensation I guess. If you sign up for an account, you are granting them use of your property and work with no further contact from you. You don't even get to state if you accept the manner in which they intend to use it.
I opted to decline that even though I am still searching for a way to convert to flash files. Guess I will have to learn how to use flash.
As far as other aspects of editing, it works fantastically. Unfortunately, if you are upgrading from Studio 10 and earlier and have purchased SmartSounds tracks, they won't work in Studio 11. You will lose access to all of those audio enhancements with the upgrade. This was not mentioned in the upgrading either. They do mention an audio track component but DO NOT state that SmartSound no longer is usable.
The three star rating would be higher except they don't state up front that the only way to convert to Flash is by uploading to a website and don't say that SmartSound is no longer used and not compatible. I have purchased over 20 discs from SmartSound and now they are useless and ended up being a waste of money with the upgrade. Scorefitter is the new audio track software integrated with Studio and the selection is pathetically small with no upgrades available.
Also, if you are not familiar with Studio, bear in mind a limited menu and such are available with the program you purchase. Additional menus, etc are available for extra money and can cost several hundred dollars more the get them all if you wish for a variety.

I bought Pinnacle Studio 11 because I needed a way to edit video from my new AVCHD camcorder. I've used Pinncale 10 in the past, but I far prefer Adobe Premiere. (Pinnacle's support for Vista with Studio 10 consists of releasing betas every couple months which time out, requiring you to download the next beta.)
After installing Studio 11, I got error messages about the Adorage plug-in. I called Pinnacle "support" and waited on hold for 52 minutes before a barely-understandable person told me to uninstall and reinstall. I said I just wanted to disable the plugin, but they told me there was no way to do so. I pointed out that their own discussion forum had postings on how to do so -- which I found while waiting on hold -- but they didn't know how and said I might corrupt my installation. I pointed out that this would only require me to uninstall and reinstall, which was what they wanted me to do anyway.
The product works, more or less, but I'm not a fan of the interface. Premiere is much more intuitive. (No, I'm not an Adobe shill.) Also, most of the transitions have a little treasure chest icon meaning you have to pay more for them. I wish I could turn them off and just focus on what I've already paid for.
Bottom line: if you want to edit AVCHD, Pinnacle is pretty much your only option for now. But don't expect support; you won't get any.

I've only had Studio 11 for a few weeks, but my initial take is that it's far, far more stable than versions 9 and 10 were. I've been able to import high-definition AVCHD footage and render it to MP4 and DivX files without a crash. (I know simply failing to crash is a low standard, but the previous version crashed incessantly, especially with HDV content.) Be warned (and don't blame Pinnacle): editing AVCHD requires a very fast computer.

Avid/Pinnacle Studio 11 and update 11.1 - good software, not great, released too soon before bugs worked out. Only certain features work flawlessly, and others create stress migraines. Mysteries, too, as I found after installing the first two discs (did not bother with the pay as you go "bonus" 3rd disc) - found that none of my USB plugs worked. They just ceased to recognize anything plugged. My DVD ceased to autoplay rented movie dvd's and music cd's. The dvd drive and usb ports had worked perfectly before. A few other issues discovered, minor nuisances. Crashes frequently. I began my several days of web search and gathered solutions to issues (as I will need them), such as with usb (reinstall the drivers) and dvd drive (uninstall a major Pinnacle feature, tho unimportant to me), and many others. Note, Pinnacle not alone with these problems - don't look at Adobe's complaint forum. I have so many notes from reading about the problems of others that I have a book. Even so, glad I did buy the software, as it has a lovely interface, works most of the time, allows a number of pleasant choices of special effects, soothing transitions, memorable titling, and serves to make satisfactory dvd movies (mpeg-2) and web clips (mp4). Even as it hogs the resources of my expensive up to date computer, defeating most of its selling points of true multitasking dual core technolgy, etc. I used free online softwares till I advanced to Studio 11, only to find the Amazon box sold here outdated and poorly functional and requiring a tedious web upgrade to 11.1, with rumors of so many problems remaining that another version updater coming. I almost went with Adobe's popular consumer video editor until I got tired scanning its dozens of pages of issues aggravating its users - should have looked at Pinnacle's forum before dismantling my freeware programs that worked famously flawlessly. Look for an ebook soon.

I've purchased Pinnacle studio software several times in the past, so I recently bought the newest version of Pinnacle Studio to do import movies from my mini-DVD camcorder and then burn them back to a full-size DVD. Nothing too fancy. The software imported as expected, but it froze 1/10 of the way through burning the simple movie to a regular DVD. I did no editing to the movie, and it was only 3 minutes of video. I reinstalled the software twice on two different machines, all to no avail. I invested 4 hours of my time trying to get the buggy software to work on my machine (a new Dell w/XP Pro), and finally decided to just return the software. Because I made the mistake of buying this directly from Pinnacle instead of my normal habit of buying from Amazon, I had to go through Pinnacle customer support to process the return. Several calls (with long hold times, of course) with technical support later, I was promised several times that a more senior technical support technician would contact me to determine whether or not a return was merited, despite the fact that the Level 1 support technicians could not solve the problem. I never received a call. Finally, 2 months after I purchased the software, I got fed up and insisted on speaking to a manager in the customer support division. They gave me a long story about how I had to wait for technical support to get back to me.

At this point, Pinnacle sold me software that did not work as advertised and has essentially made it unreasonably difficult to return the faulty product. I'm terribly disappointed in the horrible product that Pinnacle delivered and the horrific lack of respect they've shown me as a customer. I will not buy Pinnacle software again, and I highly recommend Amazon customers stay away from this software as well.

Pinnacle does not stand by its products or customers and this software is a nightmare. I got a new Dell Windows Vista laptop 3 months ago and loaded Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate. The installation kept crashing, something was wrong and my laptop stopped accepting Windows updates the same day that this happened. I spoke to Pinnacle support (if you want to call it that) for 12 days in a row, was transferred around so many times; representatives promised to call back and they did not-I even had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau to get them to call me. When they did call me they still could not fix the problem and refused to provide any kind of satisfactory resolution.

Finally I returned the item for a refund but I still had to reformat my laptop to fix the problems caused by the damaged software. And you can imagine the time it took me to reformat...Never again.

History: I purchased pinnacle studio 10.5 and managed to throw together a 20-minute video for my video gaming network. It was a frustrating experience, but after spending 2 months sifting through the crashes and the re-installs, I managed to do it.

Current purchase: I'm using windows XP with a duo core processor and 4 GB of ram. I use an NVIDIA graphics card with latest drivers. When studio ultimate 11 was released and Pinnacle advertised multiple engine updates, I hopped on it. I started working with the program to throw together another gaming video almost immediately. Each time you add a clip, the program takes a minimum of 2 minutes while it loads the clip. Each time you add an effect to a clip, it takes around 5 minutes per 30 seconds of clip to finish loading. If your video is over 10 minutes long with multiple clips, you won't be able to edit anything else until all effects has finished loading. I was particularly upset because I spent over $400, after purchase, activating the many different Pinnacle-brand effect and transition packages.

Once I started adding more clips to my video, my program started crashing, locking up, and giving me several windows XP errors. I wrote to pinnacle customer support on 5 occasions and still have not received a response (it has been 4 months). I've had to stop using the program entirely, and in fact I have had to move to Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8.0.

In other words, Pinnacle now has $1000 of my cash, based entirely on believing their advertising. All I have to show for it is the discs on my shelf which are now gathering dust. They offer no technical support, their program is rife with bugs, and does not perform as advertised.

I am a clinical psychologist, I don't work for any A/V company. After scouting around on the net, I found Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8.0. This program immediately renders clips, immediately applies effects, and offers a much more stable program. Sony Vegas 8.0 does not have as many built-in effects as Pinnacle, although if you purchase a third-party effect plug-in package like Boris FX, you end up spending $500 less than if you had 'activated' all of Pinnacle effects.

My advice is to stay away from Pinnacle products. You will regret your decision to buy this product, and you will left feeling swindled. Do not buy the hype, do not get seduced into the 'discounts' or the "free training DVD" (btw this doesn't work in any DVD player, you can only play it on your computer, but not while you are using Pinnacle studio).

I have given feedback on Roxio 9, Roxio Company gave me full refund, since I was not satisfied. Good customer service.

Now, this time I bought Pinnacle 11. This product has great features but rendering is terrible. And it is not stable, crashes at least 2 times in 2 hour video production. My machine : Quad processor HP, 3GB RAM, 2 hard drive etc m8120n model

I tried creating 2 mins video to create a lowest quality windows file and it took 3 mins 35 secs and it has created 2 MB file size.
I created the exact same file and exact same output format (Lowest quality windows file) on Roxio software came with the machine, and file was created in 32 secs and only 0.6 MB size. Also, I created the same exact same file and exact same output format (Lowest quality windows file) on Windows Media player software came with the OSe, and file was created in 35 secs and only 1.5 MB size.

Quality of the files are exactly the same. Pinnacle support suggested to disable all the background processes. Pinnacle is now suggesting I should un-install Roxio driver came with the machine and try.

I'll try and update my response.

Updated : Wasted 2 hours doing uninstalling and installing back, nothing worked. Finally filed the dispute with the credit card company, will update my response.

jg

We bought Studio 8 several years ago and were very pleased with it, but had a project come up that required more features, so we upgraded to Pinnacle Liquid Edition. Then we didn't do much video for a couple of years, but now we're getting back into it. Our computer was dying, so I decided it was time for a new machine and new software. I read through the reviews and it looked like the main complaints were hardware conflicts and service. So, I sent the specs for the computer I was going to buy to pinnacle through their web-site and received a very honest answer within a day or two. So, I bought both the new computer and the Studio Ultimate 11 software. I could not be happier. It's so fast and smooth even compared with the older liquid edition. The addition of the second video layer and the smooth functioning speed controls gives this package all the features I'll ever need. If you make sure your hardware meets the specs and recs of the software I highly recommend this product.

The good:
Excellent User Interface, Lots of easy to use but useful features.

The bad:
Needs a newer computer for the computing power.

The Review:
I have been a user of Pinnacle Studio for several years. Version 10 had several issues when it first came out. I have had no problems with version 11. The first thing I did was to install the 11.1 patch from Pinnacle after I installed the CD.

I have used several other videos software (Adobe, Ulead, Movie Maker for example). I like Studio the most. The user interface is very intuitive, easy, and still powerful. I was easily able to make movies with fancy effects and transitions without any video editing experience. I learn the more advance features as I went on. Studio has an automatic music video/slide show generator based on different themes. I often use it to generate slide shows.

One of the things I really like is the HiFi Music Generation. It will add music based on your choice of styles. The duration can be any length but sounds like it was made for the length you specified. Versions previous to 11 had a different third party music generator, but had the same user interface. I found on Pinnacle Knowledge Base that I can also install the older music generation from the Studio 10 CD. This gives me double the music styles I can use. I'm sure you can buy more music styles if you want.

Studio also comes with several DVD menus but also comes with a good menu/title editor so you can make your own. I usually start with one of the standard menus, and then edit it to my liking.

Studio 11 has a one click upload to Yahoo video. I mostly use studio to make DVDs but I plan to make travel videos for youtube.com. They will be at [...] if you are interested.

A word of warning, you need a newer computer. I'm using a cheap but new Acer laptop 5100-5674. It has an AMD dual TK-53 1.7 mhz processor. It came with 1 gig of memory but I upgraded it to 2 gig. Studio 11 runs a lot faster with 2 gigs of memory. I also increase the memory page size.

Most laptop's graphic processors use shared memory with the CPU. You will be unable to do AVCHD videos with Studio 11 unless you have a graphic processor which has its own memory. The better the graphic processor, the faster Studio will run.

I also run Studio without other software running at the same time. For example, I disable Vista's Gadgets and reboot the computer before I start Studio.