Pinnacle Studio 11 Promotions

[Athena]

The latest version of Pinnacle Studio is now on the shelves and retailers are offering promotions.

• Amazon is selling Pinnacle Studio Ultimate for $79.99 after rebate (Plus Edition is $20 less)
  Best BuyBest Buy has $30 instant savings on both versions

Studio 10 was an absolute disaster; I hope Avid is back on track.

 

[CaryH]

Decent deals.

The $80 price from Amazon is $120 - ($30 upgrade rebate + $10 Amazon Rebate). The upgrade coupon is good at Best Buy too, so the BB price of $100 - $30 upgrade rebate is better if you already own a previous version and don't count tax / shipping. Pinnacle and Fry's tend to have ridiculously low priced specials every once in a while, so I'd wait if you could. I have Pinnacle studio 10.7 Plus that I got 6 months ago from Fry's for $10 after rebate (There might have been a competitor rebate w/that one too).

 

[Flessan]

Hmm. I have the Studio DV version that I got with my old JVC DV camcorder. Now I have a Sony camcorder that records to HDD. Studio DV won't even look at the USB port. I wonder if I could use Studio and cash in on the upgrade deal even though mine is the DV version???

 

[Lpenguin]

Before you buy Pinnacle Studio READ THE REVIEWS! I did not and was sorry. I had Studio 8 which worked ok but locked up alot. But it was easy to use and worked well when it worked so I lived with it. Then Studio 9 came out and I thought the new version should be an improvement. WRONG, what a piece of junk. Too many problems to list, it just does not work. And 9.5 was not really any better.

I had good luck with Premier Elements 2 and Sony DVD. Maybe not quite as easy and good interface as Pinnacle, but they work.

Don't just take my word, read some reviews.

 

[Gibson486]

Pinnacle makes really good software.....when it is not crashing. I remember i had my DC10plus card years ago (7 years???) and the crad was fabulous, but the software kept crashing after about 10 minutes of video.

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: Lpenguin
Before you buy Pinnacle Studio READ THE REVIEWS! I did not and was sorry. I had Studio 8 which worked ok but locked up alot. But it was easy to use and worked well when it worked so I lived with it. Then Studio 9 came out and I thought the new version should be an improvement. WRONG, what a piece of junk. Too many problems to list, it just does not work. And 9.5 was not really any better.

I had good luck with Premier Elements 2 and Sony DVD. Maybe not quite as easy and good interface as Pinnacle, but they work.

Don't just take my word, read some reviews.

What he said. Beware.

Pinnacle 9.x was getting better with each patch, then they released a fatal patch that broke rendering. Pinnacle acknowledged the problem and promised -- in writing -- to release a new patch to fix it. Then, after stringing their customers along for ~eight months, Pinnacle announced there would be no patch and everyone had to pay to upgrade to Pinnacle 10. Unfortunately, even if one didn't mind being extorted, Pinnacle 10 was more buggy than 9.

Sorry to thread-crap, but I encourage people to consider products of more ethical companies. You may save yourslef a lot of heartburn.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Bowfinger do you have a recommendation? I just bought our first miniDV camera (panasonic) and I have tapes stacking up to get data off of. I was looking at this since I remember the raves people had for it years before.No trying to hicjak , but if there is something other than this Id love to hear about it

 

[Bobsled]

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: Lpenguin
Before you buy Pinnacle Studio READ THE REVIEWS! I did not and was sorry. I had Studio 8 which worked ok but locked up alot. But it was easy to use and worked well when it worked so I lived with it. Then Studio 9 came out and I thought the new version should be an improvement. WRONG, what a piece of junk. Too many problems to list, it just does not work. And 9.5 was not really any better.

I had good luck with Premier Elements 2 and Sony DVD. Maybe not quite as easy and good interface as Pinnacle, but they work.

Don't just take my word, read some reviews.

What he said. Beware.

Pinnacle 9.x was getting better with each patch, then they released a fatal patch that broke rendering. Pinnacle acknowledged the problem and promised -- in writing -- to release a new patch to fix it. Then, after stringing their customers along for ~eight months, Pinnacle announced there would be no patch and everyone had to pay to upgrade to Pinnacle 10. Unfortunately, even if one didn't mind being extorted, Pinnacle 10 was more buggy than 9.

Sorry to thread-crap, but I encourage people to consider products of more ethical companies. You may save yourslef a lot of heartburn.

I wouldn't say this is a thread-crap. I too saw BB's ad yesterday and being how I'm in the market for some s/w to transfer my High-8 videos to DVD, I considered Pinnacle 11 until I saw the reviews for 10. Then I changed my mind real quick. So, if your reply saves someone some heart-ache then that's a good thing.

 

[bhaney]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
Bowfinger do you have a recommendation? I just bought our first miniDV camera (panasonic) and I have tapes stacking up to get data off of. I was looking at this since I remember the raves people had for it years before.No trying to hicjak , but if there is something other than this Id love to hear about it

I've had good luck with Ulead Video Studio 10 (patched for Vista) and following the procedure outlined here.

Please note, however, that for now I've just been doing a straight DV->DVD process, not making any fancy menus or anything. I've done one or two "fancy" discs and it's worked OK, but the bulk of my work has just been getting DV footage onto DVD for ease of viewing.

-Brett.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: Bobsled
I wouldn't say this is a thread-crap. I too saw BB's ad yesterday and being how I'm in the market for some s/w to transfer my High-8 videos to DVD, I considered Pinnacle 11 until I saw the reviews for 10. Then I changed my mind real quick. So, if your reply saves someone some heart-ache then that's a good thing.

I agree. That's why I included the warning that Studio 10 was a disaster. I encourage anyone who is interested to review the messages in the Pinnacle support forums. Personally, I think there are still too many "reinstall and see if that fixes things" messages there.

I bought Sony Vegas 7 Movie Studio + DVD Platinum Edition for about $35 after two rebate in January (vs the current $70 from Amazon). Pinnacle Studio is definitely easier to learn; you can do some fairly advanced editing very quickly. Sony Movie Studio has the advantage though of being more stable (and the Sony rebates were paid promptly vs the 4 months it took to get the last ones from Pinnacle). Now that Studio 11 has been released, I expect we'll see more promotions on competitive products in the weeks to come.

 

[Bobsled]

Ulead Video Studio is up to v. 11 now. This is the s/w I'm looking at buying. They do offer a free trail for 30days.

 

[Bobsled]

Originally posted by: Athena

Originally posted by: Bobsled
I wouldn't say this is a thread-crap. I too saw BB's ad yesterday and being how I'm in the market for some s/w to transfer my High-8 videos to DVD, I considered Pinnacle 11 until I saw the reviews for 10. Then I changed my mind real quick. So, if your reply saves someone some heart-ache then that's a good thing.

I agree. That's why I included the warning that Studio 10 was a disaster. I encourage anyone who is interested to review the messages in the Pinnacle support forums. Personally, I think there are still too many "reinstall and see if that fixes things" messages there.

I bought Sony Vegas 7 Movie Studio + DVD Platinum Edition for about $35 after two rebate in January. Pinnacle Studio is definitely easier to learn; you can do some fairly advanced editing wery quickly. Sony Movie Studio has the advantage though of being more stable (and the Sony rebates were paid promptly vs the 4 months it took to get the last ones from Pinnacle). Now that Studio 11 has been released, I expect we'll see more promotions on competitive products in the weeks to come.

Yes, I did see that and that was very helpful as well.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: bhaney
I've had good luck with Ulead Video Studio 10..

Corel bought Ulead a few months ago and has been busy trying to increase market share. You can get VideoStudio Plus for $76 (+tax/AR) from Buy.com or Amazon today.

There is a fair amout of stock of the older version 10 out there so I expect we'll be seeing some very good deals on that version in the weeks to come. Right now though, version 10 seems to be more expensive than the newer 11.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: BobsledThey do offer a free trail for 30 days.

All the major video editing publishers do that so you can try them out and see which one suits your needs best. My advice though, would be to work with one at time -- do a complete project or two in one then either try the same projects in another or try a new project. Switching between products while working on the same projects tends to be inefficient and you end up wasting your 30 days.

 

[John P]

The rendering problems with previous versions of Pinnacle Studio can be solved by simply capturing the video to your computer with WinDV instead of Studio.

I've used Studio for a long time and I don't want to take time to learn another program so I put up with it's annoyances. However, I would not pay more than $20 after rebate for it

 

[Bobsled]

Originally posted by: John P.
The rendering problems with previous versions of Pinnacle Studio can be solved by simply capturing the video to your computer with WinDV instead of Studio.

I've used Studio for a long time and I don't want to take time to learn another program so I put up with it's annoyances. However, I would not pay more than $20 after rebate for it

What version of Pinnacle Studio are you using? WinDV is very easy to use and it's priced right. Knowing this, that $40+tax out the door at BB for the basic version is very tempting.

 

[Bobsled]

Originally posted by: Athena

Originally posted by: BobsledThey do offer a free trail for 30 days.

All the major video editing publishers do that so you can try them out and see which one suits your needs best. My advice though, would be to work with one at time -- do a complete project or two in one then either try the same projects in another or try a new project. Switching between products while working on the same projects tends to be inefficient and you end up wasting your 30 days.

That's true for most. I think Pinnacle is the only one that doesn't allow a 30 day trial. Are they hiding something?

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: Bobsled
I think Pinnacle is the only one that doesn't allow a 30 day trial. Are they hiding something?

I didn't realize that they didn't have a trial available for Studio 11. I see the Studio Plus 10.5 Trial is still there. Given all the mesages that were posted from people who had paid for the full version and couldn't get rid of the Trial warning though, I don't think I'd recommend going that route.

If you are serious about experimenting, you might want to start with the others and check on Pinnacle in a few weeks.

 

[John P]

What version of Pinnacle Studio are you using? WinDV is very easy to use and it's priced right. Knowing this, that $40+tax out the door at BB for the basic version is very tempting.

I had to use the WinDV capture trick originally with version 9. I upgraded to Studio version 10.5 and it seemed to work fine at first, then had a few problems. So, now I just use WinDV to capture from the camcorder every time and haven't had a problem rendering with Studio at all.

Studio works fantastic for converting files to use on your Ipod too.

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: bhaney

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
Bowfinger do you have a recommendation? I just bought our first miniDV camera (panasonic) and I have tapes stacking up to get data off of. I was looking at this since I remember the raves people had for it years before.No trying to hicjak , but if there is something other than this Id love to hear about it

I've had good luck with Ulead Video Studio 10 (patched for Vista) and following the procedure outlined here.

Please note, however, that for now I've just been doing a straight DV->DVD process, not making any fancy menus or anything. I've done one or two "fancy" discs and it's worked OK, but the bulk of my work has just been getting DV footage onto DVD for ease of viewing.

-Brett.

One vote for Premiere Elements 2.0 or 3.0. Just edited 65 years of home video/film/minidv and the output is spectacular. I was able to adjust lighting/color to the where the 1939/1940 color film approached gorgeous.

Oh, and Pinnacle is truly awful. I tried it, but it caused a BSOD on my system where Premiere just kept chugging away.

Fancy menus are easy, and control is pretty darn close to the full premiere.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: Greg04
I was able to adjust lighting/color to the where the 1939/1940 color film approached gorgeous.

How did you convert the film to digital? I did try Primiere but it was so much more complicated than Studio that I gave up.

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: Athena

Originally posted by: Greg04
I was able to adjust lighting/color to the where the 1939/1940 color film approached gorgeous.

How did you convert the film to digital? I did try Primiere but it was so much more complicated than Studio that I gave up.

Converting the film to digital was easy -- I paid for it Here's a plug --

Outstanding service and the best quality product

I needed the control of premiere, but hated the full version (too complicated). I bought the Elements version and loved it. It isn't the easiest, but after a few clips, the learning curve was worth it. And, no other suite I tried matched it for power.

For slides I used a Nikon 4000 slide scanner with the autofeeder.

 

[SimMike2]

Premiere Elements is actually pretty darn powerful for the price, as it is based on the Premiere Pro engine. Another good choice is Sony Movie Studio Plus. The Sony software has pretty good tutorials built right in to make working with it easier to learn.

Just remember that all video editing software is going to be frustrating. And any kind of video encoding is going to be slow.

Just be cautious about which software you choose. Once you start editing a certain way, it is hard to change and go with another program. This is why the two I mention are good, because they both have professional versions of the same software. So when you want to make the jump, all your learning won't go to waste.

The good thing about Adobe Elements is that is pretty much has unlimited layers. This means you can do some really complicated stuff that other programs that primarily use only a few layers can't do.

 

[cheapherk]

I recently bought Sony Vegas Movie Studio 7 Platinum. I had previously used Pinnacle Studio 9. I had read good things about VMS, especially stability. I have a major DVD production I do once a year. I played around with VMS for a while (definitely not as easy to use as PMS). I worked on the production for over two weeks straight. I had saved my projects 10 different times with different file names. One day, I went to open a project, and it wouldn't open. Not only my most recent saves, but none of the previous 9 saves would open (not even the backups VMS self-creates). I was sick. I'm ready now to try a new version of PMS. Hopefully it'll be better than what I read about version 10.

 

[Bobsled]

Originally posted by: cheapherk
I recently bought Sony Vegas Movie Studio 7 Platinum. I had previously used Pinnacle Studio 9. I had read good things about VMS, especially stability. I have a major DVD production I do once a year. I played around with VMS for a while (definitely not as easy to use as PMS). I worked on the production for over two weeks straight. I had saved my projects 10 different times with different file names. One day, I went to open a project, and it wouldn't open. Not only my most recent saves, but none of the previous 9 saves would open (not even the backups VMS self-creates). I was sick. I'm ready now to try a new version of PMS. Hopefully it'll be better than what I read about version 10.

Sorry to hear about your heartache. I guess what SimMike says video editing s/w is frustrating is true. As far as PMS 11 goes, someone may have to take the bullet for the group and see if it's vastly improved over the previous version then report back.

For the record, I'm messing around with a couple of freewares to see if I can do what I need to w/ them (WinDV and DVDFlick). I've captured my DV already it's just a matter of converting now. I'll report back asap (if anyone cares).