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Video & Music |
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Pinnacle Studio Ultimate V14
Studio : Pinnacle Systems
by Pinnacle Systems
Brand : Pinnacle Systems
Model : 82101006331
Platform : Windows Vista, Windows XP
Release Date : 2009-10-15
Publisher : Pinnacle Systems
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 0613570225669
UPC : 613570225669
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 23 reviews)
List Price : $99.99
Our Price : $60.00
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Transform your videos and photos into amazing movies
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Capture, edit and burn: The complete native HD solution
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NEW theme-based editing gives you created power
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Share and archive your creation on DVD, YouTube, and more
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Product Description |
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Make a name for yourself when you empower your imagination with Pinnacle Studio Ultimate software. Create your best movies ever in clear high-definition video with stunning effects, tranisitions and animation all backed with incredible Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and technology from Avid (behind the world's most-watched movies). Then, share your screen sensations on YouTube, Blu-ray,AVCHD, I-Pod, Nintendo v v ll, and everything in between. |
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poor video quality if you make avchd disk |
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I tried to make avchd disk. The video quality is so poor. Pinnacle tech support does not have any solution for it. Bad quality of the software. |
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Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate |
This is a fun video editing studio that is pretty easy to use. I was able to jump into it and do green-screen effects, montage DVD movies of photo albums, etc.
PROs
Strengths include easy green-screen editing, motion title effects, surround-sound editing for music and sound effects (Dolby 5.1), and the auto-generated background music which is a very nice feature. It is pretty easy to do some elaborate things and I've done some elaborate green screen effects that have turned out nicely when written as a DVD movie. Very intuitive and user friendly.
CONs
Despite the fact that some of the special effects packages are called "plugins", Avid/Pinnacle tech support insists that these cannot be installed for a version you didn't buy. For instance, although Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate COLLECTIONS ships with the "Particular" particle effects plugin, that "plugin" can't be run on just the Ultimate edition - compare the 3 versions carefully to know what you are NOT getting with each!
Playback of hi-res video can be very slow and choppy - even though I have a great video card and am running Windows7 (64-bit), a full screen 1080p video at 30 fps doesn't play back very well in Pinnacle Studio, but plays fine in any other video player. Even when rendering has finished! Reminds me of how videos ran under Windows XP which played large videos poorly.
I wish there were more tracks for sound editing - you get a music track and a sound effects track, but that's it! Can't have two sound effects at once if you have background music.
Overall: I'd recommend it (but get the "Collections" version if you want to do more advanced things). Definitely check out other video editing studios from Adobe and others to make sure Pinnacle Studio does what you want.
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Pinnacle studio 14 |
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Studio 14 works great,the software can ontime and i didn't have any problems with the install |
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Success Varies with Equipment: Know Your Goals then buy |
My experience with Pinnacle has been rocky since I started using the product in version 6. (On Windows 98). Version 7 was the first Windows NT and Windows 2000 product. That old product got stable at higher revs of Version 9. (Which I still have on one system, for my kids to edit with). In version 10, Pinnacle added HD, and the product was changed to a different video processing engine (one in common with their higher-end Avid product). Version 10 was totally unuseable. Version 10.5 made it almost useable. Version 11 made it almost stable. Version 12 actually works OK with standard def cameras and HDV Cameras (HD cameras using HDV or DV tape). But Version 12 is still horribly termpermental in AVCHD editing (most newer high def camera's, and all of the solid state "flash" HD cameras.). I find Studio works well in HD in non-AVCHD cameras, but it is then a pig on disk space. The current versoin, Studio Ultimate Collection Version 14 seems to crash less often with AVCHD, but still has many issues, way to many really. It works better on Windows 7 than on Windows Vista.
One often heard complaint about Studio is the fraud-like racket of add-on's in the product. Many of the add-in I've purchased in Studio 10.5, Studio 11 could not be carried forward to Studio 12 or Studio 14. Pinnacle once really made sure that worked, but when Avid bought them, that really changed, and they really no longer promise anything, and add ons basically do not carry forward. Even the one's I have managed to carry forward have required time with Pinnacle Sys support, which has gotten worse and worse and worse over the years. The only useful place for support there is the user forum's. (What has happened there is that video has become far more mainstream, and the users have more basic issues, and the product is still too flaky). Occasionally, on a common problem, if you search long enough, you can find an answer in their knowledge base. Now that they have moved to a pay model of support, I have to cut the rating. The product simply needs too much support, if you are new to video editing, and anything goes wrong, you will probably be frustrated. (Unfortunately, that is true with basically all of the products in this segment).
The single biggest complaint has to be the fact that items you pay for on Studio, you get to pay for again and again an again. For many items of this nature (NOT all of them), the answer is simple. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS simply BUY the fanciest version of Studio Possible in a NON-UPGRADE (full new) product form. For Studio 14, its Ultimate Collection. (Mid is Studio 14 Ultimate), Low Studio 14... The highest package comes with almost all the bells and whistles. But it does NOT always have everything you already bought as an upgrade to prior packages. Studio once alluded to that working, but doesn't pretend so now, they are just silent on it, so that you will fall into the trap hearing what you want. It is a trap. They make all their money on upgrades, or on reselling the same features again and again. So- I say, just buy the high-end package when you find it at a low price on sale. The other problem with Studio is that they haven't been keeping up on features own their own. To compensate, the have bolted in other companies 3rd party add-on as part of bundled produt. Heroglyph and Adorage are two such add-ons, handling fancier titling and fancier past-up collages and video overlay projects. Both were very nice add-ons. They were not Pinnacle Sys native software, they did license deals for including these add-ons into some Studio products. When Pinnacle got tired of paying the fee to the 3rd party, or they added in their own "finally caught up" technology, the first thing they do is drop the 3rd party add-ins. The problem being, now you have invested time in learning the 3rd party add-in interface, and now they change it again.... Be warned. One of the biggest investments in time you will make is in how to actually use the product, you tend to get hooked on an interface once you find one you like, which is individually subjective. Also, if you have "bought these add-on before", and you want to upgrade, just buy them again in the higher end bundle. The older units often don't carry forward, end of story. I am a tried and true cheap-skate- but I buy the full non-upgrade version of Studio's fanciest package. It is just easier and better on time investment, trust me- version 6 to version 14....
I too- simply LOVE the Pinnacle Sys Studio user interface. I've used Pinnacle Sys Studio, the Corel (once ULEAD) Video Studio, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, and the Magix Movie Edit Pro packages,and the Adobe Premeire Elements package (these are all around street price of $100 or less). The Pinancle Sys interface is the nicest, most intuitive, easiest, fastest. The Corel product has come a long way over time and now has some features that I find nicer than the Pinnacle Sys product (titling, still photo capabilities). The Magix Movie Edit Pro gives you the most editor for the money. At a very cheap price, it does stuff none of the other packages except the full blown Sony Vegas $$$$ (not Vegas Movie Studio) or Adobe Premier $$$$ (not Premier Elements) can do, but I find its interface harder to use. When I want a clip with something that only Magix can do, that's when I use it to render out a clip with the transitions, and not otherwise. If you have video with dirty sound, I recommend the Magix product, it has the best sound-cleaner ever. Another very nice product, that is stable on 32-bit systems is the Sony Vegas Movie Studio Product, Sony's entry editing product. (I have not tried it in 64-bit Windows, so I can't comment there). Again, buy the fanciest version you can find, at a cheap price. It is always much cheaper in both money AND time to get the higher-end bundle package of the low-end (sub $100 dollar product) than to try and add-on. Just spending time on the add-in process for an hour is worth the extra $30 the extra bundle usually costs. This is not the place to save the few pennies in terms of time. That is also true for "upgraders". Don't do it. If you have an older version of Studio, buy a new full version, its easier.
So now- having learned the hard way, and understanding the environment of low-end video products (those selling at or below $100) I say this. I still love the Pinnacle Studio interface, I always buy the highest end package possible, and I do it every two years or so (I have two setups, and alternate the buys), and I no longer invest in the online upgrade packages, unless I really, really, really want to use something I do not have that they are selling (which is seldom to never). Most of the new transistions are over-produced silly stuff anyway. Editing usually looks better with simple fades, cuts, and cross-dissolves. Only the DVD Menues are occasionally a draw, and even there you can use the titler to edit your own quite effectively for a better look (but more time spent). To actually improve this product, it would be userful in putting in a cross dissolve with a finer granularity of controls (acceration in/out), or even some sort of matt dissolve transition, or some sort of "area" dissolve. They could improve the AVCHD editing so that it is more rock solid- as it is NOT solid enough, still, on the 3rd revision of the AVDHD capable product (version 14). [All the product have issuew with AVCHD editing, but Sony Vegas MS is probably best I think, Studio 14 probably next best on monster system.] Avid could allow for fancier in-timeline DVD and Blue-Ray menu and nagivation creation. Their in-timeline DVD authoring stuff is great (you will find it the easiest to use), and most other products lack a comparible on-the-timeline feature. But to get individual chapters and full movie, I have to use tricks and put the movie on the disk twice, which is both a hassle, and (more compelling) takes twice as long to render and allows for only half as much stuff on the disk. Studio's title features are still lesser to Corel's package, and their still photo pan and zoom is still not as good, and it would be easy for them to improve in that area, and I wish they would do it. Finally, Studio REALLY, REALLY, REALLY needs to figure out how to smart render a LOT smarter than it currently does. It re-renders way to much video, which means that when you are finally making your DVD or BlueRay and processing your edits, dissolves, cut, fades, transitions, etc, you have to wait, wait, wait. The re-rendering DOES cut down on the video quality in noticeable ways as well. (Its not terrible, but after you've done a few projects, you notice the small drop in quality. Sometimes your source video does not have extra quality to really give up (sports, most often I find)). Corel's package does very well with smarter non-rendering and in HD it has proxy editing (you edit a low-res copy), then on output, you process full full res output. In Corel that video is not re-rendered unecessarily and thus it is both faster and gives a higher quality result in some cases, when it too doesn't crash.
Unfortunately, Pinnacle is far more likely to invest in some tricky new star-spangled package of transitions, or some bozzo feature, to respin the add-in license facility, in order to keep the revenue coming in on these mark-up items that they make their money on. And it appears that now they have turned their terrible support into a profit center. Upgrade users tend to have more issues with Pinnacle Systems Studio featuresa and licenses and bang (!) sign feature enablement issues- that's why I always just buy a full version now. User interfaces are subjective on products but here is my take on USER INTERFACE (not overall product):
Best: 1 Pinnacle Studio
Next: 2 Vegas Movie Studio Pro (Tie)
Next: 2 Corel Video Studio (Tie for second)
Next: 3 Magix Movie Edit Pro (but takes some getting used to).
Worst: 4 Adobe Premeire Elements
Less: 5 Roxio, Ahead S/W Nero bundles are less capable.
WHAT TO BUY: OVERALL PRODUCT. IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU NEED/WANT:
If you are a high-end guy, gung-ho, and a perfectionist, the Magix Movie Edit Pro is the best product of these. Best sound cleaner, best transition control for fades, cross-dissolves, etc. But the user interface is not intuitive at all, and I find it difficult to use in a speedy fashion. The support is from Germany as well, so updates take longer. It also does pretty well with AVCHD, but it not a quick rendering program (it is not fast, but it has never crashed on me in current versions).
If you are going to use an AVCHD HD camera, then the Sony Vegas Movie Studio is the most solid product for editing on a 32-bit Windows OS, has decent documentation, and a nice enough user interface. This is especially true if you are using a Sony Camera, other brand cameras less so.
If you are all about doing still photo slide-shows, I'd buy the Corel Video Studio product. It has the best transitions, and you can do still photo zoom and panning the easiest, and it is pretty inexpensive. This product also has AVCHD editing issues as well, but I think they are being resolved at a faster rate than on PinSys Studio. Its smart rendering is better as well.
If you have a standard def (non-HD) camera, Pinnacle Studio is still the product I recommend, in version 14. If you have a non-AVCHD HD camera (one of the older HD to HDV-tape cameras) then this is still the product I recommend (but ONLY if you have a high performance very well appointed computer system, LOTS of RAM 3Gbytes at least, and horrendous disk space 1 Terrabyte is good, 2 is better, and a very well positioned CPU, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 at least, 3.0 better, i7 or i5 fine, and similar in AMD CPU for performance). If you have an older computer, you can't edit HD and especially HD in AVCHD. That is it straight. Do not do it. Don't even try. Go buy a new computer. Your system will take so long- you will grow old in frustration, and these packages will all crash too much. For standard def, any Pentium 4 2.6 or better is fine, but with AVCHD, do not try it without an i7 or i5 at 3.0Ghz . And if you like a very clear interface, that is fast to edit in, then even in AVCHD, if you are willing to live with too many package crashes, then I even recommend this as my #2 for AVCHD people. Know what you are getting, and realize that the alternative also all have issues as well once you get past simple cuts, or the application of an anti-shaker filter.
For AVCHD, Vegas Movie Studio still comes in at #1. Vegas wins on stability, not elegance. When it comes to "speed" of editing, nothing means more than not starting over, cleaning up, or fixing the after effects of some program crash, or simply having the rendering to the final cut and DVD output fail time and time again because of some bug. The Vegas MS program crashes the least in AVCHD, especially if using Sony cameras. To make a DVD, you need the Vegas DVD authoring tool, which is also pretty decent as a mid-range DVD or BlueRay tool. It does a lot. My only complaint is that it is a second program, and it takes more time to do DVD menues and transition in a seperate program than it does in-timeline in the main editing program (such as in Pinnacle Studio). My last Vegas Studio was version 8 (9 is now current), and in 8, their anti-shaker filter was poor. I pre-processed video needing anti-shake with VirtualDub or AVISynth (free S/W) to pull out the shake, and then used it in clips. That worked well for me, but some folks really want a one package does it all. Though the products manual covers data, the program is less intuitive- so you actually have to read that manual cover to cover.
I have nothing kind to say about Adobe Premiere Elements. Slow, icky, bugging, did I say Slow.
Finally, on any $100 video package, you are not going to get product support that is really helpful or useful. Real support does not exist in that price-range. Overall, for most people, I still recommend the Pinnacle Package and/or the Corel Video Studio package. AVCHD is still a land of buggy products for now, so pick your poison there. That's my take. Good luck video editing. |
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HOW CAN THEY SELL THIS WITH A STRAIGHT FACE |
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The product crashes, freezes and then freezes and crashes. We are running on new system - see all the other reviews and dont bother. |
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