Customer Reviews

SOFTWARE, STUDIO PLUS VERSION 12

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I used this software back when it was at Versions 7 and 8, and switched to Ulead's VideoStudio because I found it to be less crash-prone. Now that I'd purcahsed an AVCHD videocamera and wanted to author BluRay discs in AVC format (which VideoStudio 11.5 cannot do), I thought I'd give Studio another try. First, understand that AVCHD editing requires a very powerful computer with this software. My Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ with 4GB RAM was barely up to the task, and even then Studio would frequently hang if I tried to move too quickly from one task to another. However, despite numerous tries, I could not get this software to successfully burn a BluRay of my finished project. I could get as far as encoding the final movie, which is the hard part, but the software seemed to have some kind of bug that resulted in an unuseable BluRay image every time I tried.

Normally, I would not go to the trouble of posting a review concerning an issue that I thought might be isolated or due to my particular hardware setup. But in this case, after spending hours on the Pinnacle Support forums, I think these problems aren't isolated and that there is a significant number of Studio 12 users who are having problems with BluRay burning and AVCHD editing. Moreover, I downloaded the trial version of Sony's Vegas Pro 8 and had no problems with it whatsoever - It ran slowly to be sure, but it was reliable and produced a perfect BluRay disc.

My advice is to check Pinnacle's support forums before purchasing and see if others are still having issues. I'm sure Pinnacle is working on it and will try to address problems with a future patch, but right now I found this software to be completely useless for my intended purpose.

A few months ago I purchased my first HD digital camcorder (Sanyo Xacti HD1000). I soon set about trying to figure out which editing software application to use with all the AVCHD footage I created. I tried the software bundled w/ my camera (uLead 11) as well as trial versions of any of the other products I could get my hands on (Sony Vegas 8, Adobe Premiere Elements 7).

Adobe Premiere still doesn't handle AVC/H264 footage natively and I found the interfaces of uLead and Sony Vegas in particular hard to use. I also found Vegas more prone to hanging/crashing even on my relatively powerful machine (see below). So I decided to buy Pinnacle Studio 12 sight unseen (no downloadable trial) and have been very pleased ever since. Pinnacle is the consumer arm of Avid, the gold standard for digital editing in Hollywood, and it seems technology trickle down really works.

Pinnacle Studio handles AVCHD footage natively and lets you create and edit projects in any format ranging from low resolutions to 1920x1080 60i frame rate. You can output to files or discs including standard DVD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and AVCHD disc (burned on DVD media, playable in most Blu-Ray players). The burning software is integrated in the package and not separate as w/ uLead and other apps.

Overall I find the Pinnacle Studio interface to be the easiest to use as well, this side of Apple iMovie. I'd never owned a camcorder before this and hadn't really edited video or created DVDs before and I was able to create a 30min DVD from 2hrs of footage that I shot that I'm very pleased with.

The only caveats I would include are 1) editing HD footage natively in Pinnacle Studio (or any app) requires powerful hardware. I ended up getting a new desktop to do video editing among other things and am running a quad-core 2.6Ghz Intel 9300 processor w/ 8GB of memory. There are settings you can vary within Studio 12 to suit your hardware, i.e. not doing full-screen previewing, memory cache sizes, etc. The second caveat is that unfortunately Avid/Pinnacle don't offer a trial version of the software for consumers to really see how good it is. So you have to take the word of reviewers like me.

Overall highly recommended. Best Windows app for HD video editing out there in my opinion, having tried all the rest.

I had version 9. It's cheaper to upgrade so I upgraded to Version 12 Plus several months ago - nightmare started as soon as I upgraded:

1. This thing freezes itself in an average of every 15 minutes of usage. Pinnacle had a patch came out recently. I was hoping the patch would fix this problem but I was wrong. It still freezes. If you do decide to buy, be prepared to waste A LOT OF time on using this thing.

2. Another problem is making video in AVCHD format. AVCHD video made with this thing cannot be played in the AVCHD software came with my Sony SR11 camcorder.
Tech support was horrible. You get one free phone tech support. If you don't want to pay for support, you can use email. The guy I dealt with did not know anything. After a few questions, he kept asking questions he had asked and I had provided answers again and again. I was dragged into circles and circles. What a waste of time! My advice is run away from this thing. Get something else.

I started using Pinnacle Studio around the time it first came out (version 5 or 6). I upgraded a couple of times and just quit using Pinnacle out of protest for bad products that never worked quite right. System crashes, sound syncronization problems, hours and hours of painstaking editing followed by hours of rendering which then produced an unusable "coaster". It was maddening!

Each successive Pinnacle Studio version had such a great interface while always holding the lure of such promise that I kept upgrading and buying add-ons in the hope that Pinnacle would correct their troubled software. As I noted above, however, out of frustration and quiet protest, I just quit using Pinnacle Studio around version 8. I was not going to keep rewarding Pinnacle with my money.

After Pinnacle Studio 8 I tried a variety of different video programs: Microsoft, Ulead, and a couple different versions of Adobe Premiere. In my opinion, none of those had the simplicity combined with the power of Pinnacle. Hence, my pile of HI-8 tapes languished in a big box as I kept adding more and more video tapes while growing increasingly concerned that if my Sony HI-8 video camera ever gave out I'd be hard pressed to get all our family tapes edited and on disk. (No HI-8 camcorder means no way of transferring to digital.)

After hearing good things about Pinnacle 12, and in part out of growing desperation, I bought Pinnacle Studio 12 Plus. I'm pleased to say that this version of the software has thus far worked very well for my purposes. I am on a roll now and am getting all my HI-8 tapes edited and transfered with none of the problems I experienced in previous versions.

I do not have an HD video camera so I cannot speak to the efficacy of that, but I am just so pleased that this version seems to live up to all the promise that previous versions held but failed to produce. Pinnacle Studio 12 works.

I tried this software out to compare it to the other video editors I was reviewing including Corel VideoStudio X2, Cyberlink Power Director, Adobe Premiere Elements and Sony Vegas Movie Studio. The layout and interface of Pinnacle Studio 12 is probably one of the best. It is very easy and pretty intuitive. The video quality seems good, as well. However, sporadically (and frequently) when I add transitions, menus and other editing features I get a large blue exclamation point where the edit should be. A quick search on the web shows this is a common problem and a pain to fix. I tried to have support help me fix the problem to which the somewhat rude tech repeatedly indicated:

IMPORTANT: NO SUPPORT FOR TRIAL VERSIONS

I asked why would I buy it if the trial doesn't even work well. He even referred me to the Pinnacle Systems page that indicated: IMPORTANT: NO SUPPORT FOR TRIAL VERSIONS

Clearly this is a poor policy and one in which the marketing department likely would be against. Below is a subset of our chat session (names hidden to protect privacy):

Me: i have tried the knowledge base first but did not see a reasonable fix for this
Pinnacle Tech: IMPORTANT: NO SUPPORT FOR TRIAL VERSIONS
Pinnacle Tech: That's what it says on the link.

Pinnacle Tech: Please check the Pinnacle Support Policy for North America before contacting support

IMPORTANT: NO SUPPORT FOR TRIAL VERSIONS
Pinnacle Tech: I hope that is clear.


I asked to speak to a manager and his response was: "For What"

While the software is pretty cool, although maybe limited in more advanced features and has a problem with large blue exclamation points, I would avoid this software due to the POOR customer support policy and rude techs.

Maybe I'm strange, but I like to create title sequences, credit rolls, and custom menues for my DVDs. For years, Studio has been the only affordable software that offered me these capabilities. Studio 12, in addition to all its other shortcomings, is now unable to render text in full resolution -- so any text that appears on the screen -- titles, subtitles, credits, whatever -- is blocky and jaggy. Moving text is even worse.

After three weeks of describing this problem to various tech functionaries I finally reached the breaking point and DEMANDED that my problem be escalated to a supervisor. That person (to whom I had to describe the problem again -- Tech Support doesn't seem to create a "file" for you when you contact them) immediately informed me that this was a "known issue" and that the "engineers were aware of it" but that there was "no current information available" as to whether or not they intended to do anything about it! At that point I was offered a refund of the purchase price.

Think twice before purchasing this application.

After downloading trial versions of Cyberlink, Corel and Sony Vegas I decided to go with Pinnacle, in spite of the years of bad press they've recieved on previous versions. You can't download a trial version of Pinnacle Studio 12, but you can see video's on YouTube. I could tell from the videos, that even though this may not be as powerful as the other products, it would be very, very easy to use, and allow me to finally EDIT my family videos from 1984 to the present.

With so much history to catch up on, I really didn't care that I could only have two video tracks instead of 6 or more. I mainly wanted to drag & drop, edit out all the boring stuff, make a nice front end menu with a music soundtrack in addition to the actual video soundtrack, and do it pretty darn fast.

This absolutely met all of my expectations without one glitch.

I got the 'Plus' rather than the 'Ultimate' version. After watching the videos for the three additional features you get with Ultimate, I decided I wouldn't use them for just my family stuff. This has plenty of 'title' animations and video enhancement extras to add quick pizazz.

You can get lost in all the Web reviews and recommendations, especially since for every 'video editor software package' that is 'highly' recommended, you can easily find customers who hate it and had a bad experience. There's no way around that in this day of internet info overload, but don't let it immobilize you. This worked for me, but know that video editing, by nature, simply takes alot of computing power, and that alone, will hang up a good many folks who will then blame the software. (I have a intel quad core with 8GB of ram and 1.5TB of space, running Vista Home Premium 64) I'm sure that helps, but aside from the hardware, I really, really appreciated the simple and straightforward Pinnacle 12 interface. I read no instructions, but did occaisionally check the video tutorial here and there to move forward. Good luck

I purchased this as an upgrade to version 10 (which I have enjoyed for several years).

I should say that I have not used any of the big competators. I have heard alot of nay-saying about Pinnacle, and I would not recommend it for the tech-less. Studio seems to be a strong product for those with strong computers and people who enjoy a challenge. If occasional software crashing and custom configuration are not your thing - go with Adobe Premeire Elements (or even worse - go with a mac - ha ha).

At first I was wildly disappointed with version 12 as it worked really slowly. My computer has great specs, so I figured it was something wrong with the configuration - or worse - the software itself. After trying all Pinnacle's recommendations (even reconfiguring my nVidia 8800 and turning off my second monitor), I found that by working from video files that have been stored on a different drive than the one Studio runs on, it ran great. Maybe the problem comes from my main drive being a RAID system (data striping) which is fast but a little unusual. I don't know. But by putting my video on a different (albeit slower) drive (external), 12 runs smoothly now. I can't say if the program is really that much better than 10 - maybe some of the HD features will be worth it. I am still in the process of buying an HD camera.

As for the critics of BluRay support - I can't spea. As for AVCHD - you should know going in that you are a crazy "early adopter" and should expect problems with hardware and software alike. The reports on AVCHD are pretty grim across the board. Most techies seem to think AVCHD is still a ways off. I will be going with HDV (I hope) when I make the switch to HD.

I should note that using an external drive for video has lots of advantages anyway - so I can't complain about my adjustment, however depending on how you format the external drive you might have trouble with big files (greater than 4 GB). I'll leave that challenge up to you (ha ha). There is an elegant solution.

I did not opt for the Ulitmate version which is exactly the same as "Plus" except for the three after market features (which can be purchased as an upgrade from the Pinnacle site for 30 bucks). I may eventually go for this upgrade, but other than the sparkly transition, I don't see how they are worth the extra $.

You should get the free cartoon fx from BlueFX which can be downloaded from thier site. I have also purchased additional FX from BlueFX and love them. You can get them through Studio. Buying them directly from BlueFX is expensive and usually you are restricted to purchasing big collections for 100s.

good luck.

UPDATE: blu-ray support works just fine. I've been making both AVCHD blu-rays and actually blu-ray formats blu-rays with play fine on my blu ray player. good product. I've also begun to use mac's at work for video editing. I fail to see what is so magical about macs. The few things that they can do they do very nicely, but this means you'll be very limited in your creative options. Still, they do require very little technical skill.

Pinnacle Studio is a very comprehensive and diverse video editing product. I've been using it since version 9 and each version seems to be a little more comprehensive than the last. However, the program is very RAM intensive. It is important to save projects frequently, as when you get up there the thing can crash.

DVD authoring gets better with each edition, but it still has some quirks that don't make it as efficient in more complex menu systems.

I've always loved the built in Smart-Sound compatibility. If you are serious about videos, being able to get royalty free music onto it is always a plus.

Nevertheless, I think Ulead and Pinnacle combined as video editing softwares will meet most folks needs. Ulead is great with smaller projects, but Pinnacle is about as good as it is if you want a lot of features and editing capabilities for a reasonable price.

Just why Pinnacle choose to build it's software to run on only one type of processor is beyond understanding. Buyer Beware!! Like many others I've purchased computers in the past few years with fast, AMD processors rather that Intel based processors. I never had a problem with them until now. I purchased A Sony CX 12 AVCH HD camcorder and was anxious to do so some editing. After checking various sites I leanred that Pinnacle's Studio Plus 12 offered the editing and output of AVCH discs - just what I wanted. Unfortunaelty I didn't notice that their qualiflier was that the computer had to have Intel processor. I ended up by upgrading my video card and beccause of the power requiremnt of the new card, I had to upgrade the power supply as well. Off I went to try the editor and disc burning. After numerous attemps that took literally hours to render 2 minutes of video - I finally learned that dispite having a Duo Core 2.66 processor, 3 gig of ram, and a fast video card with .5 meg of on board memory - I still couldn't manage the task in a reasonable amount of time. After 3 live chats and one very long phone call - it was determined that the AMD processor is the problem! So the bottom line is that if you have an AMD processor in your computer - forget about editing and outputting AVCH - it simply isn't practical. My 24 minutes of video would have taken over 12 hours to make a disc! And that number comes from Pinnacle based upon using the AMD processor. Now I'm back to using the software Sony packs with the camcorder. It doesn't include any editing accept some trimming of scenes, but I'll have to live with it as long as I run it on my present computer. It does render an AVCH dics in Hi-Def quickly.