Pinnacle Systems Studio Deluxe Version 8 Video Editing

by Pinnacle

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006HYYH
• Item model number: 210100189
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 29, 2002

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From your camcorder to your PC
The first part of creating great movies on your PC is capturing your footage, and Pinnacle Studio version 8 makes that easier than ever! Simply hook up your camcorder to your PC and let Pinnacle SmartCapture do the work. You'll see thu MBnails of each recorded scene and can drag and drop them right onto the edit timeline to begin your work.

• Smart Start, Smart Stop - Pinnacle Studio saves time and effort by instantly detecting where each scene starts and stops.
• More Compatibility, More Flexibility - Pinnacle Studio allows you to capture your video as DVD quality MPEG-2 files and can capture from Sony's new Neo MicroMV camcorders - only Pinnacle Studio supports both these formats.
• More Video, More Fun - Pinnacle Studio can capture 1 hour DV video at preview quality in 400 MB of disk space while other editing programs take 14 GB.

From imagination to production
Pinnacle Studio version 8 delivers everything you need to turn your raw footage into fantastic feature films. 3-D Scene Transitions, Sound Effects, Titles, Background Music and Video Effects are just a few of the amazing ways that you can bring your home movies to life.

• More Power, More Creativity - Pinnacle Studio version 8 provides amazing video effects such as Slow and Fast Motion, Color Correction, E MBoss and Posterize allowing you to add a professional touch to your productions
• No Music? No Problem! - Only Pinnacle Studio includes SmartSound, a background music generator that instantly creates a soundtrack perfectly matched to the movie. Pinnacle Studio also includes a professional sound FX library and audio editing tools to make sure your movie sounds as good as it looks

From Your PC to Your TV and beyond
Once you completed your masterpiece, you can record it back out to tape, burn it to CDs or DVD s that play on your set top DVD player, play it back on your PC, email it to family or friends, or post it on the web.

• More Intelligence, More Efficiency--Pinnacle Studio version 8 builds the CD and DVD creations right into the timeline, so you can design your menus while you're editing your movie.
• More Effects, More Impact--Only Pinnacle Studio allows you to add moving videos and animations to menus backgrounds and buttons for incredible professional results.
• More Menus, More Possibilities--Pinnacle Studio allows you to add menus within menus for incredible interactive CDs and DVDs--just like Hollywood movies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice product, if you're willing to troubleshoot, June 22, 2003

By 

C. MacPhail (Solana Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pinnacle Systems Studio Deluxe Version 8 Video Editing (Personal Computers)

I saw over 100 consumer reviews ... praising this product and an equal number saying that it is hopelessly buggy or simply does not work.

I am a moderately experienced PC user who bought and installed Studio Deluxe version 8.25.21 in June, 2003. This product is beautifully designed and rich in features, for a consumer video product. I found a number of blatant and frustrating bugs, but in the end was able to create a beautiful 30 minute video.

Here is what I recommend:

1. Go to the Pinnaclesys.com site and spend at least 20 minutes going through their forum postings. Notice that the forum is nicely designed and very active. Notice that there are hundreds of very frustrated users who have spent weeks or even months getting Pinnacle to work the way it's supposed to. Notice that many of the threads have almost no helpful info from Pinnacle staff and are sprinkled with comments like "Hello, Pinnacle... anybody home?" or sad accounts of trying to get phone support. Users list the things they've tried, and eventually somebody comes up with a solution or work-around. Do not buy this product unless you are willing to troubleshoot your problems with other users on the Pinnacle forum and try 7 things before finding the thing that solves your problem.

2. If you make the plunge, buy it from a local retailer with a 14 day return policy (or better) and get right to work.

3. Install this on a late model computer running XP. Follow all their install recommendations (and those on the forum) to the letter, including adding a 2nd hard drive. My PC was a ... Dell 2350, but it was very up-to-date, and it was adequate.

4. If you are working to a deadline, leave lots of time for problem solving and refining your work. No matter what software you use, you will spend a crazy amount of time polishing your video.

5. Complete a small project before starting a large project. You may lose your work and have to start over, or find that you are unable to output your work to DVD.

6. There are bugs in this software, but keep your cool, and don't blame everything on Pinnacle. In my case, 1/3 of the problems were operator error, and 1/3 of the problems were due to a bad DVD burner.

7. If you can, wait 6-18 months. The whole video editing/ DVD burner situation may be ready for prime time by then.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use, but can't capture analog video, December 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Pinnacle Systems Studio Deluxe Version 8 Video Editing (Personal Computers)

I purchased this package to enable me to make copies of some older 8mm tapes. From looking at the product tour on the company's web site, it looked like just what I was looking for.

I got it home and installed easily. The software was easy to use and seemed pretty powerful for this price range. I was thrilled.

I got my camera hooked up and was ready to start the transfer. Everything looked good and I was ready to go. The capture process looked great. However, when I started to play back the captured segments, the video was very choppy and jerked around. I also noticed that the sound was not in sync with the video. On a 20 minute segment, the sound was about 2 second off. This is really bad considering that both the sound and the video were going into the same Pinnacle card. I have now spent the better part of four days trying all kinds of things to get this to work and nothing has helped.

The tech support is awful. You basically get to look through a set of questions and answers. Most of the answers seem to be "make sure you have the latest version of the software and drivers". The only way to ask for support is to post a question to their support forum and hope some answers. After waiting three days, I haven't heard anything.

I wish there was a simple easy to use product that would allow me to do a quality job of transferring my 8mm tape to DVD. I guess I'll try one of the tape-to-DVD places that will do this for $20/tape. I won't get to put all the cool menus and transitions and titles on for this price, but at least my tapes will be backed up and I won't have to worry about further degradation of the quality.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please do not buy, November 22, 2003

By 

JAMES W HINSON (Carthage, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pinnacle Systems Studio Deluxe Version 8 Video Editing (Personal Computers)

Direct and to the point. You MUST significantly have more horsepower than the product specifications state. I have attempted this product on a 2.6 GHZ, 1024 MB RAM, Pentium 4 processor, with over 120 GB of free disk space. These specifications vastly exceed Pinnacle's stated requirements.

My findings:
Expect to spend 6 hours for every 1 hour of DVD generated.
Expect to only be successful writing to DVD about 10% of the time.
Expect to lose your captured data, or for your data to become corrupt on a regular basis.
Expect to wait 30-60 minutes on hold for technical support.
Expect technical support (once you get someone) to be of very litte help.
Expect your frustration level to significantly increase.

I have thus far spent over 70 hours attempting to convert my home VHS tapes to DVD. Thus far I have been successful on one 24 minute DVD (even that one is inferior in appearance than the original VHS tape). I have researched over 1000 of the postings on the Pinnacle user forum web site to find any information that would assist me in my endeavor. While I have found a lot of useful information I have also found that that essentially the product is unreliable and should have never been released to the public (even if it were free).

I am technically qualified (on the PC/software level). This product has great promise but simply cannot deliver. Check out the user forums on the www.pinnaclesys.com site BEFORE you buy this product. Granted, someone will always complain about the best of products; however, in this case the sheer volume of complaints should tell you something.

Finally, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. I cannot offer any other suggestions for alternative products as I am still searching for one which will professionally and reliably perform as advertised.