Customer Reviews

Pinnacle Studio HD V14 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

What I think sets this software apart from others, is how easy it is to use. Just spending a few minutes watching their FREE online tutorials and you are up and running in no time at all. Really, the video tutorials are quite nicely done, and sure beat having to read pages of a help manual.

I'll also point out that their "stabilize" effect to remove camera share is AMAZING (on paper). However, when it comes to delivering a final product, it really falls short. The video ends up highly degraded, and is not tolerable for mastering to a DVD. And if there is motion in addition to camera shake, then just forget about it! Maybe this effect is ok for a youTube video, but most definitely not a 480i DVD.

The menu functionality is a bit gimped in this version. Meaning, you cannot have a title page, which leads into different sub menus (only one menu page is supported in the Studio HD version).

I will also say that I've had a few issues with the thing crashing when trying to apply some of the audio effects, but not sure if that is the software's fault or not. Other than that, the editing experience has been pretty good.

Lastly, I will say that the burning process is PAINFUL. I mean like really really bad. Get ready to make a bunch of DVD coasters while you hunt for solutions to your problem. The best advice I got was to use the software to create an .ISO file (image), and then use a different program (like the one that came with your computer) to burn that .ISO image to DVD.

I recently made a 40 minute wedding video for my cousin with Studio HD. I bought the software in desperation after having miserable experiences with Cyberlink PowerDirector and Corel VideoStudio Pro X2. Both PowerDirector and VideoStudio crashed repeatedly and created other quality problems with sound and audio. It was quite frustrating, because I was working on a newly bought computer that should have had more than enough horsepower.

Studio HD was much more stable. The interface was somewhat quirky, but I figured it out without too much trouble. The quality of the final DVD was very good.

I did run into major stability issues towards the end, when my project had gotten large. I think I know the solution now: break a longer project into pieces; work on each piece as a separate project and output it as a video file; then assemble the video files into a final project for burning to DVD.

Sorry about the formatting, Amazon is removing all my spaces when I publish even though it looks fine in the editor.

Computer Specs:
Intel Core2 Duo @ 1.86 GHz
2 GB RAM
256 MB Video
32 bit
Windows Vista

My test:
Added 2 videos.
Added image stabilization to one
3D transition between them.
Rendered the project.
AVCHD in and MPG2 out (both in full HD, 1920*1440, Dolby 5.1 if available)
Video length 4 minutes and 20 seconds.


Overall Review:
***** Corel Video Studio Pro X3
***** Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
*** Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
**1/2 Adobe Premiere Elements 8
** Magix Edit Pro 15
* Roxio Creator 2010
* Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14

Package Options:
My reviews are against the top versions of each product line. You will find that most of the differences between the top versions and the base are Blu-ray export options, and some add some extra sound options. See for yourself the option that suits you at the manufacturer's website in their respective product comparison guides.

Windows 7:
All seemed to work for me in windows 7, 64 bit with 4 GB RAM. I didn't do any tests with it b/c I wanted to use an older machine that would come closer to representing the average computer. This includes Roxio 2009, but not 2010 for reasons stated below.

Final Opinion:
If you want something super easy to use, then I would go with Cyberlink PowerDirector 8. If you want something with a bit more power that you can grow into, I would go with Corel Video Studio Pro X3. Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro plus 9 may very well be good, but I see no reason to purchase it with the power of the Corel package.
If you are a masochist, go with Adobe, Magix, Roxio, or Pinnacle.


DETAILS:
Adobe Premiere Elements 8
65 min render time
Pros:
You can search effects
Layout was good but not great
Interface was pretty straightforward
Cons:
Virtually locked my system
Slow and temporarily froze frequently
Output menu was cumbersome


Corel Video Studio Pro X3
19 min render time
Pros:
Great Output menu
Very fast
Easy to use user interface
Proxy editing*
Autofit for timeline
Cons:
No search function for effects

Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
30 min render time
Pros:
Output menu was nice
Very nice and easy to use layout
Cons:
No Blu-ray output


Magix Edit Pro 15
41 min Render time
Pros:
Simple
Cons:
Poor user interface
Oversimplified (Too simple I think for most people)
Very Cumbersome to use and add effects
Output options were confusing and cumbersome
Extremely limited options for PC output (which is what many will be doing)
A couple of lock ups


Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 14
Pros:
Nice little finished project to see what can be done
Nice interface for editing
Cons:
ONLY SOFTWARE that I was not able to import a video
Locked up my system many times and left errant process running at 80% CPU
Took 50 seconds just to load the import video TAB
When I selected videos to import and hit start import, absolutely nothing happened
Tried one of their movies and went to help to find stabilization and it crashed on me b/c I didn't have enough memory
No Blu-ray output
Cons on install on windows 7 computer:
Failure on export of file on all formats
I actually tried Pinnacle about 10 years ago and had absolutely nothing but problems. Spent many days downloading patches just to get it to work. Then, like a moron, I did an entire project and when I went to burn it, the burn failed every time. I see a decade later, I still can't export a file.


Roxio Creator 2010
Pros:
-----
Cons:
They don't allow a trial download. I contacted them asking them if I could download a trial and even noted that I was a current customer. I personally like the 2009 Roxio. It was a nice "all-purpose" program. They told me that I had to buy it. I was offered a money back guarantee, but to do so, I had to send in a letter of destruction. This is way too much effort on my end to see if your software works for me.
I find it ridiculous in this day and age that you can't have a trial version of something, especially when EVERY ONE of your competitors does. In addition, this is how they were treating an existing customer!
You throw in all the compatibility issues that can occur in software in general and video software in particular, and that leaves me to think they have nothing to hide.
As icing on the cake, the following sentence was in their reply.
"Creator 2010 does support AVCHD software and hasn't been know to have any issues thus far!"
I replied to them about this OUTRIGHT LIE! First, you can read the compatibility issues on Amazon. Second, as a person that writes programs, there is no such thing as bug free software, especially video editing software.


Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro Plus 9
14 minute render time (NO ANTI-SHAKE IN RENDER, see below)
Pros:
Computer stayed pretty responsive during render
Savable packages of effects
How to guide is nice
Cons:
Couldn't search effects
Very, very cumbersome to use
Couldn't find stabilization
The render time approximation stayed at around 1 minute or 2 left the entire time
Here is my issue with Sony Vegas. I have compared its features with many of the other programs and they are all very similar. Now, when compared with Corel Video Studio Pro X3 and Cyberlink PowerDirector, they are virtually identical. I personally think Sony leaves their software cumbersome so that it "looks/seems" more powerful.
I was definitely most disappointed in this product because it was the one that I was looking the most forward to using. When I say that it is cumbersome to use, it doesn't mean that it can't be used. Let me give an example. I am a programmer, and in something like excel, I like the ability to write my own code to create functions and tools that it doesn't offer or to tweak ones that it does. HOWEVER, when I want to enter numbers in boxes, I just want to enter numbers in boxes. I don't want to click in a box, go to a menu or right click, select some gadget and then enter a number. It is ok for complicated things to be complicated, but simple things should not only be simple, but also INTUITIVE.
The main thing that I saw that you could do in Sony Vegas that you couldn't do in the others is change your transitions (both audio and video) ramp as far as how quickly they come in and go out. I am not talking about changing the time, but how your out video accelerates out and how you in video accelerates in during that time. It is a cool feature, but something that 99% of people will only not use, but won't care about either.
Another thing, the image stabilizer should be easy to do, and it may be. However, I did a search in help for stabilize, stabilizer, sta, shake, anti, etc. and could not find out how to do this very simple thing. This worries me greatly that if this isn't readily available in the help docs, then much of the other stuff probably isn't either.


*A note on proxy editing.
Proxy editing is basically you working on a very low def version of your file, but when it comes time to actually render your output, the original file is used. Some view this as a crutch because they say you should be able to optimize the software to work with the high def video. My opinion is that if I can work faster, then I will work faster. Who cares what my resolution is while I am editing. If you have the fastest software out there for HD, and you can do your edits in very low def and it is even faster still, then why would you not want that?

I have had this editing software for several months now and was cautious about buying it because of some unhappy users who were concerned about bugs and crashes and lockups but I must say none of these problems are evident to me. I am using a new HP Laptop called the Pavilion dv8t running on an Intel i7-720QM1 1.6 GHz quad chip carrying 6 GB of memory with a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT-230M graphics card. I see the studio 14's package spread out over the entire 18 inch screen which is 1920X1080. As a result studio 14 seems to hum and purr as it does it's duty! I am slowly coming up to speed with the complexities of how to use it. The pinnacle users forum is definitely valuable by offering hints and tips that otherwise were implied but not explicitly spelled out enough for me. Us old codgers find software intimidating and difficult to learn - Studio 14 is no exception in this regard but once I have begun to get the hang of it the results are very exciting. Old 8 and 16 mm movies (digitized frame-by-frame with exceptional care by Dedenham Media group) are brought to live with edge to edge sharpness. I sense that all possible detail and resolution are on display (I can see the grain in the film). Next step for me is adding a sound track. I plan to come back in several months to add further experiences but so far I am quite happy with what this amazing package can do. Incidentally users are complaining about the cost of add-ons and upgrades but when I think what this package does it all seems rather cheap to me, I am accustomed to something like this costing at least $500 and we are a long way from that kind of money so far! The hardware and digitizing lab services are where the big bucks are expended!

I had a lot of new video to edit and had familiarity with an earlier version of Pinnacle Studio, so I bought this and a brand new, very powerful computer. Loaded this software and nothing else on the machine and began a month-long tale of woe. Endless problems with trying to render video; endless attempts to fix, none of which were aided by the company's suggestions, mostly relying on the good folks on the software forum site. Very slow and unhelpful customer tech support. After flailing for a month, I gave up and got a refund. On a brand new, powerful machine, this simply should not happen. This software is far too touchy and unstable to be a commercial product.

I have since purchased Sony Vegas software (you can try the entire system free to see if you like it) and I am delighted to say that I have no idea how good Sony's tech support is because everything loaded perfectly (and fast) and everything is rendering perfectly.

Be warned. See what others have to say about this software.

Minimum requirements:
Intel® Pentium® or AMD Athlon(tm) 1.8 GHz (2.4 GHz or higher recommended) - Intel Core(tm) 2 or i7 2.4 GHz required for AVCHD* (2.66 GHz for AVCHD* 1920)
1 GB system memory recommended, 2 GB required for AVCHD*
DirectX® 9 or 10 compatible graphics card with 64 MB (128 MB or higher recommended) - 256 MB required for HD and AVCHD*
* - when you register the software they e-mail you the license codes to unlock 4 or 5 features.

They are not kidding.

The software that came with my HD camcorder has no ability to edit or export the video. I have had no problems with Studio 14. I have been using relatively high-end video systems for a few years. I learned "old school" editing on a $100,000 Avid system. I would prefer to do my work in Linux based systems, but they just do not have the support for AVCHD yet. Studio 14 HD does everything my amateur abilities need and want (edit video and export it to other formats).

I have not tried to use it to burn a DVD - I create a .iso file and burn it in Linux with K3B.

I've edited one video with this software and plan to edit more in the near future. So far, this video editing software has performed pretty well. Just make sure you have the minimum system requirements on your computer. This software will take up maybe 2 GB of your space, just so you know.

The software allows you to perform many fancy functions, such as adding music, narration, allowing sound effects, and visual effects such as wipes, transitions in 2D and 3D, darkening and lightening the video, fixing shaky camera footage, adding titles, closing credits, creating videos with surround sound, etc. You can import videos and photos from several different devices, such as DVD, Blu-Ray DVDs, a digital camera, a digital camcorder (DV or HDV), an analog camcorder, etc. You can output the video to DVD, videotape, and YouTube.

I haven't had any major issues with this software. Hopefully that will remain the case. I recommend it to all beginner and advanced video editors.

The title of this review says it all... Pinnacle Studio HD is an Aazing Piece of Software. Browsing the reviews and one would think twice before purchasing this item, but i guess its true that mostly those who are disappointed write reviews. This review is defenitely an exception. I find Pinnacle Studio HD to be a very intuitive, stable and easy to learn entry level video editing software. I suffer no problems with lag or operating system instability as noted in other reviews. I find the menus and avaiable options easy to navigate and experiment with. The only problem I have is the lack of motion titling, unless I haven't found out how to create them. All in all Pinnacle Studio HD is a wonderful piece of software and have just scratched the surface, I will recommend it again and again!!!!!!!!

We have used Pinnacle products since Release 1. There have been bumps in the road along the way, but with a little customer service, registry edits and patches we have been pleased with the product. Recently upgraded to Windows 7, 64 bit and Pinnacle 14. Everything works fine except for Pinnacle cannot find a DVD Writer. Every other application can, but Pinnacle cannot.

There is no telephone number to call for support, except for a fee. The Pinncale "Chat" window opens into a issue support ticket, that receives a reply in two days, with information that has nothing to do with the problem and full of spelling and grammar errors. Any guesses where support is coming from these days?

Bottom line, we have a beautifully edited video and no way to burn a DVD. Product is unusable, support is nonexistant. Evidently company focus has changed since becoming part of AVID. IF YOU INSIST ON BUYING THIS PRODUCT - BEWARE!

I concur with all the negative reviews. Wish I had read those reviews before buying. This software is GARBAGE across the board. I called phone support about several glitches and THEY knew less about the product than I did!!! Pinnacle should be sued for the false claims they make about v14. v14 is pure GARBAGE - - DON'T BUY IT!!!