Pinnacle Systems Studio Deluxe

If I could rate stars lower than 1 I would. This software makes beta Linux apps look very stable. When you go to burn a DVD it gets to the end of the project it just locks up. I mean a 10 minute recovery or pull the plug on your system lockup! I am desperate, so I am going to load Studio 8 (still awful, but not blow your brains out awful) change out my new Studio 9 transitions to Studio 8, then burn my project. I burned it fine with Studio 8 last year. Save yourself the trouble. Wad up a $100 bill and toss it in the trash and save yourself the desire to blow your brains out by using this hellacious piece of garbage. Are you feeling me?

The interface is designed well.

The most unstable software I have ever seen, corpse-like customer service response, and 6-12 second response time per command in the program. Unbelieveable piece of garbage.

Premier

Nonexistent

I initially tried Studio 7 about a year ago and it was a disaster! Constantly locking up and crashing my PC - I went to the pinnacle forums and found all the problems I experienced were widely discussed and generally put down to driver problems and 'other software' by Pinnacle. I experience the black thumbnails after capture and the crashing when I tried to edit a clip or drag it to the timeline etc etc and I decided this package was a joke. I have since tried Adobe Premier Pro (way too complicated with disappointing quality of the final product - probably because I had the wrong codec or one of the myriad of settings wrong), Cyberlink Video Director 3 (stable, slow, poor quality of final video and lacking direct DVD authoring) and Ulead Video Studio 7 (stable, easy to use, short on features and again lacked DVD authoring built in). Against my better judgement I recently decided to try Pinnacle Studio 9 and I found it to be (fairly) stable, easy to use once you got used to the way it works, and best of all the complete package. I found letting it choose the output quality resulted in a great result every time. The range of transistions is great and after adding on Hollywodd Fx its fantastic. Titleing is good, audio and sound effects is great and I love the ability to author the DVD directly on the timeline. I experienced a problem that many other users have - refusing to actually burn the DVD but I downloaded the latest (March 2004) beta (9.0.8.8) from the Pinnacle website and this is now fixed. It still sometimes fails to finish the 'Make Movie' (rendering) phase but I found that as long as I used 'Delete temporary files' before doing the final 'Make Movie' it works perfectly. Overall I have found this product has the perfect combination of ease of use, quality of output and the ability to do everything from capture the video through to burning a professional DVD complete with multiple chapter menus all in one box. I don't think there is a more usable product available at the present time. By the way, my PC runs an AMD XP 1800+ processor, 1G of 266Mhz Ram, 400G split across 3 hard drives so its not quite state of the art and I find I can render a 1 1/2 hour production with 20 small and 3 or 4 complicated transitions in about 6-8 hours.

Easy to use. Does everything from capture, through editing and DVD authoring to DVD burning in one package. Great transitions. Automatic settings are very good - very little need to tweak settings.

A bit unstable (but nowhere near as bad as previous Pinnacle products). Only has one video channel (minor issue for me) Can't preview on Camcorder screen. Movie preview is a bit flaky

Adobe Premier Pro Cyberlink VideoDirector 3 Ulead Video Studio 7

Bad. Forums are good but there are so many issues with Pinnacle products you get swamped in the forums. They seem to be trying hard with Studio 9 - the latest Beta is very good.

I just purchased V9 Pinnacle Studio and couldn't be more disappointed in the quality of your product. I can't believe Pinnacle released this piece of garbage into the marketplace. I only wish I had read the reviews on this site that detail the pain customers were experiencing with Pinnacle Studio before I bought it. I've tried every crazy tip they put on their website, downloading mysterious background killing software from rogue sites, adding memory, disk, updating drivers. What a joke. When is Pinnacle going to stop the charades and fix this useless piece of junk they are selling? I want my $100 back - what a joke.

None

Full of Bugs

ulead which was free w/my DVD+-RW, free imagemixer that came with my camera - 100 times better then this $100 piece of SW

It all started off badly, the sudgested drivers were wrong & the distributers help desk was pathetic.The young store clerk at the place I bought it from knew more than the distributers, and he sorted out the driver problem for me (use av/dv2).Since then this software has impressed the hell out of me.Rock steady & easy to use, my completed DVD's look very impressive.Bargain.( purchase price is in Australian dollars)

Spectacular moving menus Ease of use Stability Hollywood fx pro is a must have add on Analogue capture capability with no hasstles

No support from pinnacle and it's distributor

premier 6.5 (lifes too short to figure it out) Cyberlink power director & producer (good but basic) Ulead DVD movie factory Ulead video studio Video wave & a few others that were so uninspiring that i can't remember their names.

Once you buy it, your on your own. Thank god for smart ass shop assistants

Started with Dazzle. Editor interface crashed constantly. Bought Pinnacle V 8. Editor interface is really nice. But never succeeded in burning a DVD using Pinnacle. Tried the latest updates from Pinnacle site. My work-around is to edit in Pinnacle, then import the files using MyDVD to create the menus and render. The Sony DVD bundles MyDVD software, but the Pinnacle interface is much better. Succeeded in creating about 5 120 minute DVD's

Good User interface. Cheap, and I got a $50 rebate to boot.

DVD won't burn for me - Locks up EVERY time.

Dazzle (real junk)

Never tried, just used their web site, and user comments.