- Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 14 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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6 out of 9 people found this review helpful
1.0 stars
"Holding My Breath"
Pros: Installed, Didn't lock up my machine, actually created a small movie
Cons: Zero documentation (but that was expected - read!)
Summary: As many of you had the misfortune to discover first-hand, Studio 9 and 10 were all but non-functional. I applied every last patch, update, fix, work around, reinstall, etc. that Pinnacle Tech Support threw at me and I never did get them to work properly - lockups, dropped sound, poor quality, PAINFULLY slow - need I go on (no). You can understand my being skeptical when Studio 11 was released, "Yeah, sure, THIS one is going to work!"
I called Pinnacle and after much to-do managed to convince them that I had already spent enough money on previous versions and they worked out a deal with me for Studio 11 Ultimate. The DVD's arrived yesterday and I installed the basic software last night. I did not install the "bonus" DVD - figured it would be that much less to have to uninstall later.
Having had WAY too much contact with Pinnacle Tech Support, I knew it best to completely uninstall Studio 10 before I started. I uninstalled everything including drivers and rebooted while I wrestled the Studio 11 DVD case open. (It was taped closed with some sort of aviation quality structural tape).
Much to my great surprise, the software loaded clean! Wow! I was really impressed! (You can tell my expectations were low)
I captured about a half hour's worth of video from the tape that happened to be in my Sony. Wow! It captured CLEAN! No lock up, no audio drop-outs, even the "memory leak" in Studio 9/10 appears to be corrected.
Moment of truth, after much prayer, I clicked "Edit" and expected a lengthy wait while Studio "churned". But NO! It switched right to "Edit"! (Okay, it's late, I must be dreaming).
Made a few edits, held my breath, and clicked "Create"...It switched modes! Can this be?!?! I then selected a format (MPEG4 that installed from the 'net FREE) and created an actual movie! And it played! All the way through! And, wait...the quality looks better than before!
Okay, it still took quite a while to create the movie (DELL XPS 410, 2GB, Core Duo 3.0 GHz)
Hey, as my "2" rating indicates, I am FAR from ready to give this product the thumbs-up. But in my very limited "testing" I have gotten MUCH farther than I EVER did with Studio 10. Lot's of luck everyone...Updated
Same ole, same ole. Have a bit more experience with Studio 11 now - same old story as 10. Locks up, sound drop-outs...
I would reset my rating to "0" or atleast down to "1" but CNET does not provide a method of doing that.
STAY AWAY!!! STAY AWAY!!! STAY AWAY!!! STAY AWAY!!!
(Get the message)
- 4 replies to this review
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I wrote a shorter version of the same thing about Studio Plus tonight. I had the same problems with version 8 from time to time, but Version 11 may be worse in the area of locking up and generally operating slow. I don't know what software to get that has a similar set of features (although you are rarely ever able to actually see them in a finished product.) STAY AWAY!
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Its on the installation discs as a PDF file.
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Skeptism not withstanding, I have been using Studio for a while at my business and I haven't had any of the extreme failures you have. We used to use Cyberlink mostly but Pinnacle had features that we found more useful. Apart from being slow at times, Studio works just fine. It is a resource hog though so make sure you have a kick-ass rig, or you close everything but Studio itself.
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Just to let you know I have been using Pinnacle Studio since version 8, and have found no problems what so ever.
I now have Version 11 Ultimate and it is just as stable as 8, and version 11 works great in Windows Vista.
Documentation is in the help files and online, with option to buy a complete user guide with step by step procedures.
If it is so aweful how come they continue to churn out version after version.
FYI...
Where to buy
Pinnacle Studio Ultimate - ( v. 11 ) - complete package:
$39.99 - $118.49
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$118.49 | Yes |
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$39.99 | Yes |
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