Customer Reviews

Pinnacle Systems 210100247 LINX USB PLUS

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The hardware is simple and works as advertised. The feature-starved demo software, on the other hand, needs some quality control help.

My wife's machine: Biostar M7VKQ motherboard with 128 MB of Crucial-branded PC133 RAM. An AMD Athlon XP 2000+ fills the CPU socket. She uses Windows 98SE. The only on-board hardware she does not use is the Trident video; she employs a Diamond Viper 550 graphics card. This machine meets the minimum system requirements listed on the Pinnacle Linx USB box.

The software installer crashed near the end of its lengthly process; I reset the machine and started over. The install worked, but when I started Studio 8, I was told that there was a licensing problem and to reinstall the software. Following those instructions did not help. Using Pinnacle's help system I found that this behavior appears to be a known problem and I downloaded a new version of Studio 8. The new version worked.

My wife discovered that about 60-70% of the feaures of Studio 8 are disabled in this "LE" edition; many of the scene transitions and audio controls don't work.

At least twice during the assembly of her first project Studio crashed with an "illegal operation" dialog. Fortunately, she had saved her work often and didn't lose much. Other than those two crashes (which I think were related to having only the minimum system requirement for RAM, 128 MB), she had an absolute blast. Studio 8 is very easy to learn and use and provides many fun and exciting tools. (Too bad users have to shell out more money for most of them!)

After completing her movie, I installed the CD-video burning software. The install worked fine. I started it up and the first thing it asks is for permission to go and look for updates, which it found. The automatic update install didn't work. After manually updating the software, I found I needed to make the MPEG or AVI file in Studio. I quit the CD-V software and restarted Studio 8 which promptly crashed. I reset the machine and Studio worked normally. The generated MPEG file took about fifteen minutes to generate for an eight-minute piece. I noticed some minor MPEG artifacting in the produced clip. An AVI file was attempted, but was aborted after fifteen minutes had only reached the third scene of seventy.

Going back to the CD-V writer, I imported the MPEG file and started the CD creation process. It appears to take about forty-five minutes to create a CD-V filesystem for an eight-minute movie. On the first attempt, the writer software crashed at the very end of the filesystem creation. The second time around, it worked.

Conclusions:

1) RESET the machine before starting either Studio 8 or the CD-V authoring software.
2) 128 MB may be the "minimum system," but I bet 256 MB or more is really what is needed.
3) When it works, it's really, really fun. When it doesn't, it's really really frustrating.
4) Get ready to spend $200 or more for the "full versions" of Studio and Hollywood FX Pro if you want *all* the functionality!

I had great plans for this product and it was recommended highly by the Comp USA representative as the one to buy. All I can think is that he must have a sadistic streak.
A total of 5 hours was spent installing the drivers on my Compaq Notebook, installing the software, dealing with the buggy license feature, installing the software upgrade and trying to run capture. It quickly appeared that the driver failed installation. Off to the website for tech support, Pinnacle seems unaware that they even sell this exact product although they do acknowledge many variants.
Removed and reinstalled the driver, which required removing and reinstalling the application, used the driver removal tool form the website, started all over again. The basic problem would seem to be that the name they chose for their driver, "USB DEVICE" conflicts with another device, rendering installation of the hardware impossible.
Read through all the support messages, no help there. A long, careful, detail filled message on their online support board was completely ignored.
I'm taking the product back and will be careful to not purchase pinnacle products in the future.
If you like hardware that won't install, buggy software, a company that does not recognize their own products and apathetic tech support you should purchase this product!

I bought this USB adapter a month ago. It proved to be of no use to me.

I used it on a Dell 866 MHz with 384MB. Everything seemed to be okay. Installation went smooth. Studio 8 is excellent (though this comes with a Studio LE which is a trimmed-down version). But the video, that is captured using it, speeds up (or skips) once in a while (as if it is trying to catch up). To give an example, I had a video of a moving train. The train moves like a centepede in the video. From asking around, I heard that the USB must be the bottleneck. I think I have USB 1.0 and that must have been the problem. I hear that USB generally is not recommended for video capture. So, I went ahead and bought a PCI card for video capture. It works great.

My piece of advice - buy this only if you have a good reason not to buy a PCI capture card. Don't even think about it if you have an older computer (with USB 1.0).

Don't buy it..thats if they still sell it.A real pice of junk>The captured video isn't axceptable at all for dvd making.On the Pinnacle website they have no update drivers or support on this product...seems like they never sold it.......a real crap and I can't even get $10 on ebay for it......a shame....

I bought this because it was less expensive than the Movie Box USB and figured it would capture from my Analog Camcorder. Well after I installed it I got video but couldn't hear it. So I called customer service after and hour on hold to their long distance number. Was given a few tips then I could hear but not record. Called again and then I lost the sound again. I have a 2.6 Dell Pentium 4 Windows XP. Needless to say after installating and uninstalling at least 7 times and Pinnacle replacing my Linx Cable it still would not work. Pinnacle is offering a refund if I can cough up the receipt. Don't waste your time on this.

I just gave up trying to make this hardware/software work with my state-of-the-art Windows XP computer. I installed then unistalled then installed again. Upgraded to a newer version, then uninstalled and went back to an older version. Had to use Windows XP's Restore program (thank God) a couple of times to go back to a time before Pinnacle screwed things up.
The time or two that I did get it to work I had chronic problems with audio being out of sync - then when I finally got a movie ready to render the software told me that my project couldn't be encoded to MPEG or AVI because I had "a non-standard Video Frame Rate".
I'd estimate that I've spent at least 12 hours trying to make this product work - without success.

STAY AWAY!

I use Windows XP and purchased Pinnacle Linx Plus to digitalise films shot on my old analog Sony camcorder. To me the software provided with the Linx pack is of no use as on installation it indicates that a more recent version (Studio 8.8) is already installed on the PC. So, either I have to use an old version of Studio or cannot use Linx. In trying to find the drivers for Linx the system crashed several times and in the end Studio had to be re-installed via my original V7 and 2 V8 upgrades. A lot of time wasted and I still cannot use my Linx Plus, so money wasted as well. Needless to say that the helpline at Pinnacle is always busy.
Bart van Mourik

Beyond lousy. The instructions are incomplete and contradictory. I'll spend a couple C-notes to buy a video capture device that will work.

I've bought thousand's of dollars worth of hardware over the years. This piece of crap takes the cake. I will crawl a mile through broken glass on my stomach before I EVER buy a "pinnacle" product again. "Pinnacle" refers to the Pinnacle of crapdom. I installed/uninstalled this dog 3 or 4 times before I gave up, even after nearly KILLING my OS in the process... AVOID this GARBAGE! If they PAID you to use it it wouldn't be worth it...

I purchased this for the same reason everyone elese did.To capture vhs movies in my comp.Since the pinnacle web site had so much to say about it(at that time)I did buy it.It is completely unaxceptable video to convert into dvd format....and like the others say,pinnacle has no support on this product,seems like they never made it or sold it....no drivers no updates..etc...a real piece of junk that I can't even sell.On ebay at $10.....a real shame......