Drop, charge, and lose the cordsStudio Version 9
Manufacturer: Pinnacle Systems Inc. Part number: 210100341
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Despite some stability problems, Pinnacle Studio 9.0 is a remarkably powerful video editor and authoring app for both home and professional use.
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Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eBay |  | In stock | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 12/03/2009 |
CNET editors' review
Studio Version 9 price range: $25.00
- Reviewed by: Don Labriola
- Reviewed on: 02/23/2004
- Released on: 01/07/2004
The good: Audio- and video-restoration features; 16:9 wide-screen support; automated music-video producer; VST plug-in support.
The bad: No support for DivX, MPEG-4, DVR-MS, or Dolby Digital; current version crashes when background rendering is enabled.
The bottom line: Despite some stability problems, Pinnacle Studio 9.0 is a remarkably powerful video editor and authoring app for both home and professional use.
User reviews
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Very, very unfortunate
by Bill Zucker on July 20, 2005
Pros: Wonderful potential
Cons: Simply unusable
Summary: Just updated my Version 8, which finally kind of worked. I figured after almost a year and a half being out, Version 9 would be ready for prime time.
WRONG. ...Summary: Just updated my Version 8, which finally kind of worked. I figured after almost a year and a half being out, Version 9 would be ready for prime time.
WRONG.
If you have anything but a trivial amount of footage, when you go to scrub through the frames, it takes F..O..R..E..V..E..R. No hard disk access, just the code jerking around inside for no apparent reason.
Wait until v9.5 (at least) is out. The current patch (v9.4.3) is tragically flawed. And wait to read reviews saying the patches have finally fixed this and many other problems before trusting Pinnacle.
And forget support. Non-existent.
Pity... Back to v8.Updated
My guess is that Pinnacle farmed out the software development to a third-world country some time ago, and all the in-house smarts evaporated. That, and the software is such undocumented spaghetti-code that the newbies don't know where to start to fix things. Pinnacle CAN'T be stupid enough to think we're going to want to buy any more of their offerings the way they're running things now, can they?
Speaking from my Windows software development experience, I'd say the Studio development team needs to run a "profiler" on their code to see where it is wasting massive amounts of time, even with the simplest of operations like a scrub. It truly is maddening.
Here's what I've learned about some of the filters:
* Image Stabilizer: Enlarges the center of the image a mindless 20% regardless of the amount of jitter. Doesn't know what in the image to lock on to. About as juvenile an approach as conceivable. Worthless. Try the free DeShaker (but prepare for some brain damage).
* Ken Burns Effect: Only in the Plus version ($40 extra). No control over velocities but does zoom and pan reasonably gracefully.
* Video Reverse: $20 extra. Doesn't understand the issues with interlaced video, so the result is unwatchable with any motion in it (which is why you'd want the reverse effect to begin with!). Also doesn't understand how to work with other filters such as slow/fast speed. Save separately to AVIs to get around this.
* Noise Reduction: Try the graphic equalizer instead. The parametric equalizer is extra $.
Meanwhile, I keep on hoping for the next fix, but am working with other software to actually get things done.21 out of 21 users found this user opinion helpful.
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OK Software, but it will cost you $$$ to use its potential
by TR12121212 on May 20, 2005
Pros: Easy to use and intuitive
Cons: Rendering takes forever
Summary: Compared to previous versions (7, and 8) this version is stable. I have experienced only the occasional lockup. I do like this software, but in this version they have added ...
Summary: Compared to previous versions (7, and 8) this version is stable. I have experienced only the occasional lockup. I do like this software, but in this version they have added hundreds of effects, both visual and audio, that are locked and you have to pay out cash each time you want to unlock a feature.
This is a very sneaky and unfair marketing ploy of Pinnacle. This will be the last version of Studio I purchase.
A long time Pinnacle Studio owner.9 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Powerful software...if it worked!
by jefflaura on June 21, 2005
Pros: easy to use
Cons: Audio drops out
Summary: This software came with our DVD burner, so we didn't do any research on it...just figured we'd try it. Well, it seemed to work great though the ...
Summary: This software came with our DVD burner, so we didn't do any research on it...just figured we'd try it. Well, it seemed to work great though the menus took some time to figure out. However, for no apparent reason, I have a 10 minute segment (at the end of the 50 or so minutes of video that I'm trying to edit) where the audio just drops out. No sound from the actual recording, and I can't put any background music in it's place. I was able to get sound effects and background music in the rest of the video. Frustrating and looking for a better program! I certainly wouldn't have bought it after doing research on the pinnacle studio 9 users forum either. This is a problem many other have had with the software.
10 out of 12 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good luck making a DVD
by dkadc on August 17, 2005
Pros: None, this program has no redeeming value
Cons: After hours of rendering, count on it crashing 100% of the time.
Summary: First of all, this program feels more like Adware than a commercial program for which you paid money. It is loaded with fancy wipes, fades, dissolves and video effects of ...
Summary: First of all, this program feels more like Adware than a commercial program for which you paid money. It is loaded with fancy wipes, fades, dissolves and video effects of every kind, but 90% of them are locked and you have to pay extra...if you spent over $500 more you would still not have all the features and effects they dangle before your eyes.
If the program did what it's supposed to do, it would be forgivable, but this program is a complete abomination. Simply said, for a huge number of users, this program does not work. Period. Attempting to render a DVD results in program lockups and forced reboots. I have wasted hundreds of hours trying to render with this program. It's insane.
I have pretty high end hardware and none of it is overclocked: a 3.6ghz CPU, 2 gigs RAM, 300gb Serial ATA raid 0, ATI 9600XT, Sound Blaster Audigy. Plenty of cooling with 6 case fans, a ThermalTake 480W power supply and Arctic Silver on my ASUS Rocket 3d Pro CPU cooler. All my other programs work great, but not Studio.
Pinnacle's so-called "tech support" will ask you to uninstall and reinstall their software multiple times, a slow and irritating task in part because of their crazy copy protection schemes that ask for a serial number without telling you WHICH program it should be coming from...the upgrade disk or the original disk. Installing the "bonus DVD" stuffs your Studio with teasers for effects you don't have and have to pay $150 more to get, taking up multiple gigabytes of your hardrive with what ammounts to advertising for extra features.
Pinnacle tech support will ask you to end every other program on your machine...even your virus scanner and firewall...and do a clean re-install windows XP. I'm not sure if they think it will will work or if it's just to get you off their backs for a while, but I suspect the latter. I purchased a new laptop (Gateway 8510GZ) and loaded Studio, Studio hangs during render on that machine too.
Just one look at pinnacle's support pages at www.pinnaclesys.com will convince you of the utter worthlessness of this program. I beg you to look for yourself before you even think of buying this program. What you are seeing is not everything, complain too much and Pinnacle will delete your posts and lock you out from the webboards. If you buy it anyway, don't say you were not warned. If it works for you, great. I am sure it works for somebody. Just not for me...on any of my four computers...nor for thousands of others that are all SCREAMING at Pinnacle for a fix.
Like I said, check it out for yourself at www.pinnaclesys.com and click Support, User Discussion Forums, Consumer webboard, Studio 9, Studio 9 technical support: Make Movie/Disc. Look for render hangs, crashes, etc. If you STILL want this program, make sure the place you buy from will give you a refund. Pinnacle has offered me a full refund. I would rather they fix the program, but at this point, I think I'll take it.4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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If it can't capture video, what good is it??
by newmangw on April 26, 2005
Pros: lots of features
Cons: Capturing DV on the 1394 firewire doesn't work
Summary: I purchased the Pinnacle AV/DV package that came with the PCI board. Thought it was going to be easy. Now, 6 days later, still nothing - can't capture ...
Summary: I purchased the Pinnacle AV/DV package that came with the PCI board. Thought it was going to be easy. Now, 6 days later, still nothing - can't capture video from my DV camcorder. Tech support is no help. On the discussion boards, they tell you to bypass the capture in Pinnacle and use WinDV and then import it into Studio 9. Now why would someone want to do that after paying for an all-in-one system. It also cannot import .WMV files to burn to CDs - need to translate to .AVI (1) then to AVI (2) using other programs and then maybe you can import - I couldn't and ended up using Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5. That worked!!
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Maddening...
by All4Italy on July 27, 2005
Pros: Excellent features, particularly for sound
Cons: Crashes more than Windows 98...
Summary: This program has marvelous features, if only the program worked. It hangs constantly in Edit and Make Movie modes. It drops frames on capture. The AV drops out or falls ...
Summary: This program has marvelous features, if only the program worked. It hangs constantly in Edit and Make Movie modes. It drops frames on capture. The AV drops out or falls out of sync. There are more title choices in Windows Movie Maker.
There aren't as many transitions and effects as I expected. Most are sold as plug-ins.
I bought the Media Center version, which was foolish as all the extra programs that came with it aren't of much value without a DVD burner.
On the positive side, it's super easy to use. The manual is excellent. If it actually makes a movie, it looks fabulous.
The effects are pretty flexible. It calculates the length for music well, if slowly. It has a nice video preview feature so you don't have to load all your capture on to disk to work with it.
I could even stand it if I had to capture in another program, but it won't accept any of the other captures I've done with other software.
If you're doing something simple and don't need to show people talking and are patient, Studio could be a lot of fun, but if you're serious about making even a good vacation movie, pick another program.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Doesn't do much
by ionian on June 17, 2005
Pros: Has an easy to use interface, effects look good when everything works
Cons: Very slow, hangs up constantly and crashes all the time. I can't get a single project to finish.
Summary: This is the biggest waste I spent my $$$ On. I have the upgraded version but it still runs like garbage. When I try to import video, it takes forever for ...
Summary: This is the biggest waste I spent my $$$ On. I have the upgraded version but it still runs like garbage. When I try to import video, it takes forever for it to import the video and make thumbnails. Then when I try to drag the thumbnails to the timeline, it just hangs up and I hear a lot of disk activity.
I have a P3.2e with 4 Gigs of RAM, a 300mb Maxtor SATA RAID 0 and an nVidia GE Force 256mb video card. There is no reason why this program should operate the way it does. If you have a slower system and it is giving you the same problems, rest assured that it is not your system because I am getting the same results on my system that people who have a PIII 1.6 w/ 512 MB of Ram are getting. It's no different for me. It's just shoddy programming, really. It's sad because the concept is fantastic and if it would work, it would be a lot of fun but it's pointless. I'm not sure where even to start looking right now for another program. Don't want to drop the $$$ for Final Cut Pro or anything similar...2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good for small projects that aren't complicated
by mjs3790225 on June 11, 2005
Pros: Simple Interface, scene auto-detect, music generating program, some DVD authoring ability, output to web friendly formats
Cons: Limited a/v tracks, hangs up easily, if you want the full experience you are forced to buy a ton of plugins, audio and video tracks are locked together and can't be seperated, no wireframe ability
Summary: I have been using this software for over a year so I have a pretty good understanding of this program.
Well, I first bought this program so I could do ...Summary: I have been using this software for over a year so I have a pretty good understanding of this program.
Well, I first bought this program so I could do video editing for an organization I belong to and create video that could be downloaded from our website. For that it is pretty good. As long as the project you are doning isn't to long and complicated . . .
I eventually started doing some more complicated projects that ran around 30 min. and had a ton of editing work. This is where I began having problems. The more switching around to different video clips I did in the program, the slower and more unstable it got (and I have a pretty nice computer setup so I know that that is not the problem).
What makes it even worse (and what eventually lead me to buy new software) is that there is only one video track! ONE! Oh wait, there is two if you buy the upgaded version. But I wouldn't bother trying to use the second video track. That causes the program to run very unstable and you are almost garenteed a hang and lockup. And if you don't get that, it just might not play the video content that is there in the second track (the video will freeze but the thing keeps on playing and may or may not catch back up with itself) although if you render and export it will look just as it should so I guess that that is reasuring.
The plugins that it does come with do a pretty good job with what you want them to do. Just watch out when adding them. Not to quickly or you will get a very unstable program. What is annoying though is all the plugins that it shows you that must be purchased in order to use without a water mark or beeping in the final product.
The update suports chromakeying (green screen) but I never got around to using it because the program didn't run stable enough for me to want to try it.
I find though that if you do little parts of a big project in seperate pieces in different files and then copy/pasting them in to a "master" file at the end, it will run a little more stable. It just doesn't seem to like big complicated projects.
Oh and load time is another big issue. It takes a long time to load your bigger, complicated projects. Not so much as them not appearing on the screen quikcly enough (the workspace and stuff loads up at a good speed) its just you can't do anything for a while unless you want a lock/hangup (wait for you hard drive light to stop blinking before you even try to touch the scroll bar).
Rendering preview footage is often a mystory because it is governed by this progress bar that changes from yellow to green as it goes. The problem though is that you can't be sure if is actually doing something or has hanged because there is no numerical indication of progress happening.
I am tired of typing now so I will just leave you with this:
Small not complicated projects = a good task for this program.
Larger complicated ones = a possible hang fest and discouragment.
This program has helped me out alot in my early video editing experiences and I kind'a feel bad for giving it such a knock. But the bottom line is that it has some severe limitations and quirks that take an otherwise good video editing experience and ruin it.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very BUGGY
by pmike on June 5, 2005
Pros: Might be a nice low price s/w if it had no bugs
Cons: Very buggy, customer support isn't brilliant - so not compensating for the bad experience.
Summary: Just a few examples of the problems I had:
1. Unlocked trial version (which is a trial version you download and then buy a license) could not be upgraded to ...Summary: Just a few examples of the problems I had:
1. Unlocked trial version (which is a trial version you download and then buy a license) could not be upgraded to later patches. Took 2 weeks of customer support interaction to get a new code.
2. After upgrade all screen resolutions more than 1024x768 do not work. Pinnacle confirmed the issue - no ETA on a patch. So if not this, what do you test, guys?
3. Setting chapters and creating your own menu is a challenge. The thing often does surprising tricks like reordering the chapters by itself or deleting some without your consent.
4. Writing to DVD the second time without doing any edit started asking to redo the rendering - and complains for the disc space.
Should I go on?2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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This product will not render full DVDs on my system
by cnetfan2 on May 27, 2005
Pros: It does capture video, but....
Cons: Will not render - seizes up for anything greater then a few minutes.
Summary: I have a P4 2.53 chip. 1 gig of great Corsair RAM, 80 gig drive. Easily should be enough. I have not been able to get the program to ...
Summary: I have a P4 2.53 chip. 1 gig of great Corsair RAM, 80 gig drive. Easily should be enough. I have not been able to get the program to render and burn more than a few minutes of video without completely siezing up my computer. Unable to get through to Call-in help in three ling tries - and only one call is free. The other complaints mirrow my experience. I didn't get my $100 back from the store, even though the product clearly does not work as advertised! Buyer BEWARE!
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Pinnacle Systems Inc.
- Part number: 210100341
- Description: Pinnacle Studio version 9 easily allows home editors the convenience of creating spectacular movies. Pinnacle Studio contains image stabilization, automated editing, automatic color correction, noise reduction, image and audio filtration and surround sound for a complete state of the art editing package. Its unique fully integrated CD/DVD authoring program provides customizable menus, navigation and one touch burning functionality making CD/DVD creation easier than ever. Show it on a set top DVD player or PC, save it on tapes, send it by email or post it to the web - memories have never been more accessible. Pinnacle Studio allows editors to effortlessly produce Hollywood quality movies from start to finish.
General
- Category Creativity application
- Subcategory Creativity - multimedia authoring, Creativity - video editing & production
- Version 9
- License pricing Standard
Software
- License Type Complete package
- License Qty 1 user
- License Pricing Standard
- Platform Windows
- Package Type Retail
System Requirements
- OS Required Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
- Min Processor Type 800 MHz, 800 MHz
- Peripheral / Interface Devices CD-ROM, Sound card, Graphics card
- System Requirements Details Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP - RAM 256 MB - HD 500 MB, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition / Windows ME - RAM 256 MB - HD 500 MB
Manufacturer info
- Pinnacle Systems Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Pinnacle Systems Inc. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/
- Address:
280 N. Bernardo Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043 - Phone: 650-526-1600
- Email: sales@pinnaclesys.com
- Fax: 650-526-1601
