Avid Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 - Video editors

User Rating: 1/10

Pinnacle Studio 10 is utter FLOP waste Productby rock4277 - September 10, 2008

Pros: Studio plus 10 is waste product, I am using studio frm ver8, but this ver 10 is waste of prouct, its a bunch of errors

Cons: sucks Studio plus 10 is waste product, I am using studio frm ver8, but this ver 10 is waste of prouct, its a bunch of errors

Review: sucks Studio plus 10 is waste product, I am using studio frm ver8, but this ver 10 is waste of prouct, its a bunch of errors

User Rating: 2/10

Poor support of Studio softwareby RobertS.Gable - August 8, 2008

Pros: Comparatively inexpensive

Cons: Virturally unusable

Review: Failure to respond to email or chat questions. Even the patch to fix Studio 10 problems did not work. Couldn't even get the all the software installed. Finally, after no technical support, I was told by a sale rep that I could upgrade Studio 10 for for $69.99. I threw the product into the trash, and will not deal with this company again.

User Rating: 1/10

Pinnacle 12 sucks! Don't waste your money!by timtak7 - July 27, 2008

Pros: absolutely NONE!!!!

Cons: Product doesn't load captures, requires other Intel driver downloads and it still doesn't work

Review: Support is very difficult to reach. But bottom line, the product doesn't work! Don't go through the agony. If you want to donate your money, it's worth giving it to a worthwhile charity instead. At least you figure your money is going for a good cause. Not like this!

User Rating: 5/10

Edit Navigation is poorby RussPet - February 13, 2008

Pros: Fairly Intuitive speaking as a beginner in video editting

Cons: Lacks shortcuts

Review: Feedback on one feature, Edit Mode: When in the Edit video mode, if your captured video has many scenes, it will occupy many pages of a "book" that you must page through. Unfortunately there is no "jump to the end" feature. (ie, control-end or "go to last Page".) You must press "next page" over and over. To go back to the beginning, page, page, page again. Very tedious for a 48 page book.

User Rating: 1/10

Worst experience with software I have ever hadby haugens - November 18, 2007

Pros: Lots of features

Cons: Almost none of it works

Review: I purchased the titanium edition of Studio hoping to have some fun making videos for my friends and family. I purchased this product because the previous versions were rated tops in this category. The computer on which it is installed, I specifically built with the power to edit video. The installation was not as complicated as some make it out to be. I DO like the free updates online. Too bad they released Studio 11 to ensure that anyone using Studio 10 would never have a usable product.
After a few days of frustration in trying to make this mess work, I repeatedly emailed tech support and have yet to receive any response. This has been months.
Studio locks up with the simplest of tasks. Things like playing a video seems beyond the realm of possibility. Typically, the thumbnails for the video clips don't work so you have to poke around blind trying to find the clip you wish to insert. Before you find the one you want, it freezes again and you have to Ctrl+Alt+Del and end task to get out. In eight months, I have only been able produce two videos. One was only about 20 seconds long, the other was 30 minutes. I have tried dozens of ways to try to make it work, but it just doesn't.

User Rating: 3/10

Pinnacle Studio Plus 10: System resources hog, slow and unstable.by jojesa - October 24, 2007

Pros: Easy to use interface but capturing video might be the only usable feature.

Cons: System resources hog, painfully slow and erratic performance.

Review: Straightforward forward easy to use interface.
Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 excel when it comes to capturing video, that is as far as this software title gets.
Any other feature you might want to use (make a movie, convert video from one format to another, burn a DVD, etc) will bring your system to its knees.
It takes more than 4 hours to convert a 1.5GB MPEG2 file to WMV while using from 85% to 97% of system resourses.
It takes Ulead Video Studio 11, 33 minutes to perform the same task.

I have included system specs below to give you an idea.

-Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13GHz Conroe)
-Corsair 2GB DDR2 800(Dual Channel)
-Intel Q965 Mainboard
-ATI Radeon X1800XT (512MB DDR3)
-Pinnacle PCTV Pro PCI capture card.
-Samsung 18X SATA DVD-RW drive.

User Rating: 2/10

Absolute crap shoot for stabilityby sophiesdad - October 11, 2007

Pros: Easy to use interface

Cons: Unstable, poor tech support

Review: I have used the Pinnacle Studio line for the past 3 years beginning with Studio 8. I recently purchased Studio 10 Titanium Edition and installed it on my home-built PC (AMD Dual Core processor, 4GB RAM, WD 10,000 RPM Raptor Drives in spanned mode), NVIDIA Quadra graphics card). It worked flawlessly after installing the newest patch version 8.
HOWEVER, I produce many projects for school (I'm a Media Specialist) and decided to buy a second copy to use at school to reduce the amount of projects done at home. The PC at school is a $4,000+ Dell Precision Workstation with a very close configuration as my home PC except the processor is an Intel vs. AMD.
The experience at school has been nothing less than a nightmare. The program consistently crashes, refuses to import .avi files, hangs at the opening splash screen, etc. Basically it is unusable. I am also a certified IT professional, so both PCs are free of spyware, are armed with Sophos A/V, and maintained with all of the latest service packs of XP Professional and harware updates.
In addition to the problems at work, their tech support department has no toll-free number to call (which is a problem since only the principal's phone is enabled to dial long-distance). I called from home once and waited on hold for 1 hour and 15 minutes only to have a live person take my name and phone number and a promise of a return call from a technical support professional. Two weeks later, I was still waiting for a phone call.
I finally had the principal's secretary call tech support and transfer the call to me. As of this date (10/11/07) my case has been escalated to a top-tier support. However, the trouble-shooting steps that have been taken are nothing more than I have already done on my own (i.e., reinstalled product with "repair" option, uninstalling product and reinstalling, changing MSconfig to eliminate all startup programs that may interfere, download alternate NVIDIA video drivers, etc.
The experience has left me tainted with Pinnacle's product.
I had considered Adobe Premiere, but the interface requires a severe learning curve for which I don't have the luxury of time, and I haven't seen anything better on the market in the same price range as Studio.
I would caution would-be users of this product to be aware that, depending on your computer's setup with hardware and software, you can either have a stellar performance from Studio 10 or your can end up stuck in a nightmare of crashes, freezes, and basically unusable software.

User Rating: 1/10

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCTby secretvid - September 22, 2007

Pros: none what so ever

Cons: everything about this product

Review: I spent 3 days on and off trying to install this product on a newly built, fully patched windows computer. It is 8 hours of my life that I will never get back.

sigh.....

User Rating: 1/10

Wasted my $$$by gibbospam - August 26, 2007

Pros: The box promises many features. User interface is good

Cons: Simply doesnt work reliably and Pinnacle dont rush to fix major defects

Review: Stay away.

User Rating: 7/10

poor rendering on video effects en transitionsby 101080 - August 23, 2007

Pros: very user friendly, easy to manage and quality DVD ouput

Cons: poor rendering

Review: Generally it's a good product. It's a easy to use software that's very user friendly. However the most functions I use are the transitions and video effects. Therefore I need to rely on the video quality that Pinnacle can assure me. My problem is that I just can't use all nice and cool transitions, video effects for my film, because of its poor render quality.

User Rating: 7/10

It has work OK for meby dljim - August 15, 2007

Pros: very easy to install and use great for picture videos

Cons: Can Lock up and does, only 2 video tracks

Review: I have been using studio 9 and moved up to studio 9 plus and it work fairly good.
I moved up to studio 10 and
I have spent some time with tec support but they have always solved the problem. I have made some major videos with it. I find making one or 2 chapters at a time works best Then I use Nero to burn the dvd.
Studio makes taking pictures of someone or some thing and then adding music a breeze. The fade in and over on one picture is nice. I have Sony Vega 7 and Sony movie studio but I always go back to studio because it is so much easier to use. I really don't want to Hollywood out of business.

User Rating: 3/10

Disappointing...by WcLax3 - August 8, 2007

Pros: Very User friendly, easy to figure out

Cons: Can be complicated, crashes, freezes (even on my brand new PC) and can be very annoying when editing clips

Review: I'm a long time user of Pinnacle systems, and when I first started out, I enjoyed using it. I recently got a new PC, and decided to get into more professional movie making. Pinnacle has not been up to the task. When trying to create special FX on clips, it will warp my clip into a completely different clip. If you are a semi-serious or serious movie maker, do not buy this product.

User Rating: 1/10

Horrible Qualityby FastEddieChu - August 6, 2007

Pros: Easy of Use

Cons: Horribly Unstable, crashes on INSTALL!!!

Review: **Don't Buy Unless You Love Frustration and Cursing**

Having been a Studio user for since several versions ago, I finally have had enough with the Version 10!!! I tried to upgrade from version 10.5 to 10.7 and it says Studion 10 NOT FOUND!!! I followed its software upgrade link from 10.5!!!

It's ease of use remains unequal, but its crappy quality wastes 10x the time I save from learning another package! No more! Pinncale Studio be *GONE*.

User Rating: 6/10

ATTENTION - Very poor objectivity by C/Netby Dragon Forge - August 2, 2007

Pros: Some good some bad reviews

Cons: pls see below

Review: Review of C/Net as an IT "reviewer"

Curiously no version release date info has been compiled for one of the compared products at cnet (supposedly by an 'authoritative' IT site/trade e-journal). Within the table one of the 'review' columns suggests an alternative to adobe might be AVID and/or Apple Final Cut Studio 2. Avid has 118 person reviews and is rated as 1.8/10!!! and the Apple product has not even been reviewed by them (C/Net). On the next page, the "Top rated" products in the same category the lack of C/net's integrity is significantly widened with continued disparities by having no real relevent info for Camtasia (not even a version #) and also placing Avid in their top 5 at 8.5 and not including the user reviews from the previous page - http://reviews.cnet.com/video-editors/camtasia-studio-license/4540-3670_7-30673440-3.html?tag=coco.

Going to the specific product of Avid the rating is different at 7.1 by the "editor" a 3rd source of differences in information conveyed. Not much of a tech site if all they are doing is pumping incongruencies into the mix.

To C/Net's poor referential record, out of 116 review posts most seem to be from single post "reviewers" and there is no cross-reference to user account e-mails, nor user informations suggesting the potential for abuse particularly in relatioin to toher products. This is not discounting the reviews nor crediting them but more a comment on C/Net inability to present timely objective information.

User Rating: 1/10

Worst Software I ever ran on a PCby Diodeman - July 29, 2007

Pros: Smelled a rat early and avoided a disaster

Cons: Unstable Resource Hog

Review: They say Pinnacle eleven is better than this
program, Pinnacle 10 (10.5). It had better
be! You would think I had 512 meg of ram
instead of 4 gigs, and a gig in the CPU
instead of Dual core. Incredibly slow startup, recording and processing. It sets up five programs totaling 700Megabytes!!! Then it regularly breaks down in the middle of operations. Coaster after coaster, Thank you.

I could tell from the fourth hour that this would be a resource hog and a computer freezer so I decided to uninstall. Whoa, Nellie! No you don't! When you go to control panel=>Add remove and click on the programs, nothing happens!!!

What to do? I restarted in Safe Mode (This is Windows XP SVC PK 2) and manually uninstalled from Windows Explorer. Then I restarted and since I had recently installed Registry Mechanic I ran it. It removed three thousand three hundred and twenty-two Pinacle registry entries!!!!

Even after that, one of the programs, SoundSmart, kept trying to install itself. I went into registry and used edit=>find=> "Pinnacle" and spent 45 minutes manually deleting MORE entries. Then I searched for "Studio 10" and "SoundSmart" and "SilentSounds." Some entries STILL WOULD NOT UNINSTALL!!! So I went back in by way of SAFE MODE and tried to uninstall the last group, related to manufacturer data but I could not!

You cannot remove some entries from the registry even when you are trying to do so as administrator! I tried renaming them but it wouldn't allow modification.

I have never been so annoyed by software in 20 years, and that is saying something.

Don't allow this Octopus program on your PC!! The "Abysmal" earned here is much too high a rating!

User Rating: 2/10

Waste of Money......get an Apple if you want to edit moviesby Ramez66 - July 25, 2007

Pros: I cannot think of any

Cons: support, editing, speed, etc.

Review: This is the biggest waste of money. I have lost two projects that I was working on for weeks and I could not get any decent help form anyone. I cannot believe these companies can getaway with such a mediocre products. If this was a car the passengers would be dead by now.

User Rating: 1/10

Don't Waste Your Moneyby Russ Johnson - July 25, 2007

Pros: Great editing features

Cons: Needs its own dedicated computer

Review: Studio 10 has great editing features but unfortunately they're useless because the program crashes when I switch from "edit" to "make video" mode. I attempted to reinstall Studio 10 using a clean boot procedure suggested by the Norton Anti-Virus folks. Studio 10 appeared to install OK but I then discovered that my Norton Anti-Virus had been wiped out! I've deleted Studio 10 and re-installed the Anti-Virus software.
Studio 10 won't capture S-Video input from my Sony Hi-8 camcorder. I've used Ulead software to capture and Studio 10 to edit because of it's multitude of editing features. If I get desperate I may re-install Studio 10 and then try recording the edited files with Ulead or other software.

User Rating: 1/10

HORRIBLE, TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTSby GatNJ123 - June 19, 2007

Pros: I can't think of one thing

Cons: This stuff wouldn't install clean on a new XP build

Review: I can't even begin to describe the horrible experience I had trying to get this software to work on my well established and well running XP Gateway. I am astonished this software is even on the market. Adding insult to injury after a grueling 3 hour installation try was that their upgrader to 10.7 wouldn't install either. Avid, you should be very ashamed of even having this crap on the market. Really!

User Rating: 1/10

Never, ever, worked properlyby kirkwhee - June 13, 2007

Pros: On to Studio 11

Cons: Too numerous to list

Review: Garbage. I abandoned this product after many months and numerous tech support calls, applying updates, uninstall/reinstall...everyone here knows this story all to well...but...

I installed Studio 11 last night and it might actually work. See my review over ther.

User Rating: 2/10

Terrible introduction to Video Editing!by No Name For User - May 31, 2007

Pros: Easy to understand interface

Cons: Unstable and slow!

Review: I just began my own business and bought Pinnacle Studio 10 plus as an introductory Video editor. That was a big mistake and as soon as possible, it's being replaced by Adobe Premiere no matter how steep the learning curve is reputed to be for that program.

I couldn't even install Studio without having to get a patch which overode the problem with installing on a Dual Core processor computer running Windows XP.

Next patch was an upgrade from 10.6 to 10.7 in order to try and speed up the processing and stop the problem of freezing frames and out of sync audio. Add to that transitions that wouldn't function properly when inserted into the story board plus failed DVD burns when making the movie and you have one furious customer. I got the job done for my first ever client but it was no thanks to Studio.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

Bob Stephens.

User Rating: 1/10

Purchased 10.7.4 update that will not workby heresme4me - May 28, 2007

Pros: Some one made money

Cons: Won't burn disks

Review: I purchased the up-date to get to 10.7 from version 9 and now I cannot burn VCD nor SVCD. It gives me a codec error message. It seems to render okay.
Wwhen I burned DVD not one will play on any of three different DVD players nor on my computers DVD burn/player. I used 4 different brands of DVDs and 3 different brands of CDs. I changed burners to a more updated version and still nothing changed. I can use other software to burn slide shows on DVD and CDs and they will play. When I contacted Pinnacle for help, I was advised to delete all other software that burned anything to CD or DVDs.

What a laugh! Delete other software that works so maybe Studio Plus will work!! Soooooorrrrry!! I am now looking for something like Studio Plus..but not Studio Plus. Anyone want to gamble of Studio 11??

User Rating: 1/10

Will make you want to put your fist through the screen.by jeffreyjd1 - May 16, 2007

Pros: Makes you think you are editing a great movie.

Cons: Crashes before it ever burns.

Review: I am writing this in the sincere hope I can save someone from the months of frustration of using this product. It is the absolute bottom of the barrel as far as these programs go. Pinnacle really should be the recipient of a class action suit for putting this product on store shelves, it is not even beta quality. Render error after render error will have you pulling your hair out, go to the pinnacle site, pinnaclesys dot com, click on support, then user forums and read the countless frustrated customers who can't get it to work right, then run quickly to any other program besides this one. I so wish I would have not wasted so much time trying to get this to work, junkware at its best.

User Rating: 1/10

max mega kludge - really abuses the one time loyal owner/useby davidarts - May 14, 2007

Pros: looks really great easy load up and interface

Cons: crashes and then for a change crashes some more

Review: I started with Pinnacle Studio 8, Moved on to 9 with a good deal of anguish - I still have 8 loaded as the newer versions have crash problems with some of the earlier video formats. ( required lots of patches and reamained an unstable curmudgeon. The I purchased a new INTEL PD dual core and a another machimne with the AMD 64Athlon - lots of ram for both wth a terra of Raid on the D4 - both running windows XP Media. Disaster -
10 either froze or crahes or froze4 the D4 system - with lots of trying the AMD finally ran the best - with many many crashes - sent a detailed report on both machines to Pinnacle tech - ooooooo they were whelmed - finnaly stripped the "editor" from both machines - also Studio 9(9.4.3) - now use Sony Vegas Movie studio for teaching and Vegas/Sound Forge/Acid for my own work. Have a couple of new Vista Machines but havent tried the included editor as yet. I do all this with 4 cats helping me input - we have been to the very darkest of the cyber places thanks to their key combos. Better off with a vic20

User Rating: 7/10

Good product, but you need to read the manuals!by Fordnatic - May 14, 2007

Pros: Version 10.7 is very stable

Cons: Slow to load

Review: This product is actually quite good, but most users have problems with is for various reasons. I.e., not enough memory, CPU too slow, insufficient hard drive space, etc. Pinnacle's specifications for this product are too liberal. Double the amount of RAM specified, have a minimum of 300 gigs of free hard drive space, and a processor of at least 3.5 gigaHz or better. And, the program is optimized for Intel processors. AMD users can run this program but might have more problems than most. Lastly, you should not have any other processes running on your PC when you're working with Studio 10.7 as it is extremely CPU intensive. Lastly, take some time to play with the demo file and take the time to read the manual, or at least keep it handy and refer to it. Pinnacle Studio 10.7 isn't as intuitive as they would like you to believe.

User Rating: 7/10

Works great for me, so farby mountaindad - April 20, 2007

Pros: Easy user interface

Cons: Like all consumer-level video editing software, it crashes.

Review: Maybe my experiences with Studio DV, Studio 7 and Studio 8 have beaten the expectations out of me, but after a couple of weeks of living with Studio 10.7, I think it's great. I even prefer it to Apple iMovie version 4. I recently replaced my old computer with a 680sli, C2D e6600, 2gb ram, 2x250 striped hdd, and GeForce 7600 GT, so I had good resources for consumer-level software. My main complaints with old versions of Studio on my old computer were: dropped frames during capture, audio sync and slow rendering. It used to take me 36 hours to render a one-hour movie. But with the new hardware, I have zero dropped frames (even while running multiple applications) and I just rendered and burned a one-hour DVD in about 75 minutes. I believe Studio has audio sync problems because it captures footage in one long AVI file. Other programs break up the AVI files into individual scenes. I now use freeware WinDV to capture my footage in 12-minute segments to limit the audio sync problems.

I tried demo software from Adobe, Sony and Ulead. Adobe corrupted my test project file and could not open it any more. Sony and Ulead need to arrange their screens so the timeline can span the entire width of a monitor. They also need to lengthen the slider bar that zooms in and out of the timeline. A short slider bar makes it difficult to get to the right level of magnification.

A scan of user forums showed me that all consumer-level video editing software has some unhappy customers who complain bitterly about instability and crashes. Studio has by far the worst user ratings in this area, but in my experience, it is no worse and, compared to Adobe PE 3.0, better. Adobe and the others have more video overlay tracks and some of their effects give you more control, but I can navigate through Studio more quickly and it does what I need.

User Rating: 6/10

Still many issues, but does what I needby blomers - April 15, 2007

Pros: Improved effects. More formats supported

Cons: Default setup mad. Rendering slower

Review: I went for the upgrade with some trepidation having read the reviews, and was horrified when my PC froze on adding my first title. The CPU was maxed out and I couldn't do anything. Prior to this everything had worked ok, so I suspected the title.

After some investigation I discovered under Setup -> Video & Audio Preferences, that a box labelled "Enable background rendering" was ticked. Once I un-ticked this box, everything worked fine.

It appears in an attempt to claim that the product renders quicker, Pinnacle have tried to move the processing time into the editing stage. All I can think is that they do their testing on some sort of super-computer, because it's insane setting background rendering as default on a normal PC.

Once that obstacle was out of the way, things worked pretty well. There are still problems however.

Capture keeps hanging, but I prefer to create many small files so not too bad.

The last frame of the previous clip gets occasionally added to the next clip, but easy to sort out on editing so again a minor ittitation.

I find rendering is slower than in the previous version, despite claims to the contrary on the packaging.

It takes absolutely ages to load, and even before you start editing, uses up over 150MB of memory.

It can also take a long time to save projects, and can appear to hang for over 5 minutes while it hammers the disk.

The projects are saved as folders, but the files are all hidden. I did make the mistake of saving a DVD file in the project folder, and couldn't get at it via Windows Explorer. It took up 4GB of disk until I deleted the whole project.

I find once background rendering is switched off, the application crashes less fequently than the previous versions.

In summary, I'm surprised how bad the reviews are for the product, as I've produced an 80 minute film with no real problems, but expected so much more from the upgrade.

Would I recommend an upgrade? Not sure - if you have a previous version that works, then there's probably not that much advantage in upgrading.

User Rating: 1/10

A disasterby gwallster - March 27, 2007

Pros: Easy to produce crap

Cons: Worthless support

Review: I've dealt with this "product" for several years now, upgrading and hoping that the constant bugs and problems would be resolved with each upgrade. I also spent $$$ buying add-ins. What a horrible waste of time and effort. I'm an ex-programmer, and would analyze a multitude of problems and report them, and all I'd get from support is "try reinstalling the product." I'm trying to create a multi-chapter presentation on my family history, and good lord after many months of trying to produce decent results, I've thrown in the towel. Time to go with Adobe's product and start all over. Features that worked in Studio 9 didn't with 10, and vice versa. I can't believe how much time I've lost and wasted trying to stick with this piece of junk, with support folks who simply won't except there's a multitude of problems and log them so they can get fixed. Blurry images and titles appearing randomly, constant crashes, upgrade conversions which destroy existing projects, unable to detect DVD burners, the list is endless and I am done. Absolutely terrible.

User Rating: 1/10

USELESS - INADEQUATE - GARBAGEby eckramm - March 27, 2007

Pros: NOTHING!!!

Cons: DOES NOT WORK!!!

Review: I have been having problems with Studio 10 since I first installed it. It has never run properly. I have used previous versions and never had the problems I am having with this software. There are patches to download and install every time you run Studio 10. The problem is that whenever I try to install the patch, my computer freezes and locks up. The only thing I can do to get my computer working again is to shut it down and restart completely. The reason that I need to install the patch is because when I capture a video in Studio using the Pinnacle capture card, the audio is not synched up with the video.
I contacted Studio Technical Support and they told me told me to:

TRY TO INSTALL THE PATCH IN SAFE MODE.

When that did not work, they told me to:
1. LOWER HARDWARE ACCELERATION:
2. UPDATE YOUR GRAPHICS CARD DRIVERS
3. TRY USING A DIFFERENT GRAPHICS MODE
4. INSTALL THE LATEST VERSION OF DIRECTX

After I did this, and it still did not work, they said to:

INSTALL A FREE PROGRAM CALLED BELARC ADVISOR, RUN THE PROGRAM, WHICH PROVIDES A DIOGNOSTIC SUMMARY OF YOUR COMPUTER AND THEN SAVE THE REULTS OF THAT TEST AS AN HTML FILE AND SUBMIT THAT HTML FILE TO THEM FOR FURTHER REVIEW.

I did that and Technical support said:

TRY LOGGIN IN AS ADMINISTRATOR (THE LOCAL ACCOUNT) AND TAKE THE PC OFF FROM THE NETWORK. WHAT SEEMS TO BE HAPPENING IS THAT WHEN YOU LOAD UP STUDIO, THE SOFTWARE IS TRYING TO SCAN ALL THE DRIVES TO LOOK FOR MEDIA FILES, AND SINCE YOU HAVE A LOT OF NETWORK DRIVES, IT CAN SLOW DOWN THE PROCESS AND MAKE THE SOFTWARE HANG OR CRASH.

I told them I need to be connected to the network and they said:

WHAT HAPPENS IS THAT THE SOFTWARE IS COMPLETELY USABLE AND IT IS GOOD FOR VIDEO EDITING, HOWEVER, THE SOFTWARE WAS DEVELOPED TO WORK UNDER A SCENARIO THAT IS NOT YOUR CASE. THE PROBLEM IS NOT THAT STUDIO SOFTWARE ISN'T GOOD AT ALL. THE PROBLEM IS THAT STUDIO SOFTWARE MAY NOT BE GOOD FOR YOUR NEEDS. STUDIO WASN'T DEVELOPED TO WORK UNDER A NETWORK. IT IS A SOFTWARE DEVELOPED TO WORK WITH STAND ALONE STATIONS. SO MY SUGGESTION WAS FOR YOU TO TAKE THE PC OFF FROM THE NETWORK BECAUSE THIS IS THE WAY STUDIO WAS DEVELOPED TO WORK. IF YOU ACTUALLY NEED A SOFTWARE THAT RUNS UNDER NETWORK AND CAN DEVELOP MORE PROFESSIONAL OPERATIONS, I WOULD SUGGEST YOU TO TAKE A LOOK AT AVID LIQUID 7.

I am not running it from the network. Our other computers here at the school run Studio 9 and are set up just as my computer is. So, what am I supposed to do now? Buy Avid Liquid 7 as your technical support suggested? I am an Instructional Technologist at a large private University. I have informed our IT and Computer Science Department not to purchase from your company until this issue is resolved. I just want to be sure that what technical support told me is true? we can not run Studio at our school because our computers are connected to a network. If that is true, then I will make it very clear that we are not to purchase and software from your company.

User Rating: 1/10

AWFUL - avoid this softwareby motorcom - March 8, 2007

Pros: NONE AT ALL

Cons: UNSTABLE - cannot completely delete

Review: In about 2002, I bought Pinnacle AV Studio 7 to use on my Windows 98SE machine and it was pretty good for its time and caused no problems with my machine.

However, a trial download of Studio 10.6 on my 2004 XP machine has been a disaster. In 2 days, I could never get it to do what it should and getting on-line help was impossible. I could never get it to install and run mpeg files for editing. There are even bugs in trying to download needed components and updates. And the program is HUGE - almost a GIG just for the download before installing.

When I went to uninstall it, I wasted two hours on that and it still left remants of plug-ins in my other editing programs. Ugh!

Go with something else and save yourself a big headache.

Updated
I have Sony Movie Studio version 4 and it actually works like a champ. Although it handles MPEG source files effortlessly, there is some loss of visual clarity but I'll take it over the Pinnacle 10 nightmare in a heartbeat.

User Rating: 1/10

Pinnicle is criminalby jsqueoss - March 7, 2007

Pros: learned a lesson

Cons: doesn't work, crashes computers

Review: Not only does this software not work but apparently I purchased this product to be a beta tester? I had no luck making a single movie with this software, loading any type of mpg or avi would either crash the computer or, well, nevermind that's all that happens. Very often the website would offer software updates that took up more hard drive space but other than that did nothing. The thing that was the most entertaining about this software is that I read in the manual that YOU CAN CALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT ONE TIME FOR FREE, AFTER THAT IT WAS $25 A CALL?????? Robbery!

User Rating: 4/10

I wasted my $100 dollarsby rondavis3 - March 4, 2007

Pros: None I can think of.

Cons: Videos so garbled it was no use trying edit.

Review: My laptop exceeded all requirements for installing and running this application.
I am a newbe to converting and editing analog to digital, but it should be easier
than this application allows. I put it on the shelf and used a competitors
product with much better results.

User Rating: 2/10

Bugs, problems and disapointing.by ticuny - February 28, 2007

Pros: Nice Box and thats it.

Cons: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Review: Your purchase, your problems:
1) When you upgrading from trial version to SE version - you must reinstall system! If not web updater will say that you still using trial version and even fix from Pinnacle web site won't fix it.
2)When you changing something in menu - its adding a new menu!
3)When you changing volume in music track - changes stay forever in - must delete track and reinsert/change volume again!

This version is completely busted. I have ver.9 (working great) and I?m back to it - I recommend to wait at least few months, maybe Pinnacle will take care of it, so far I will Stay Away from ver. 10x

User Rating: 3/10

Good software that was allowed to go BAD!by hypothetisch - February 15, 2007

Pros: Inexpensive

Cons: Just to many bugs to count - and no support

Review: It is a shame that Pinnacle/AVID did not see fit to clean up their product.
Technical Support - 'shut up and reboot', 'uninstall/reinstall' and 'it's your hardware' is the only solution in their repertoire.
If you try to get help on their company forum (http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&ForumID=1321&SectionID=273&lng=1) you MAY be able to find some hints from users about 'work arounds' - but watch out what you say. I posted comments and at one point was subject to personal attack - see thread: http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_messages.asp?WebboardID=1&ForumID=1321&SectionID=273&ThreadID=291747&ThreadStart=0&Pos=11&cntThread=50&lng=1 .
When I posted to defend myself, my post was deleted (by support moderator/administrator) without explanation - in fact I was then accused of deleting my own post... I did not.
I was then blocked from posting on the forum AND Pinnacle 'flappers' then posted comments regaling the action! So much for an unbiased forum...
Studio 10 v7 is VERY buggy, so BEWARE:
1.) File handling is extremely bad - NEVER capture/edit on your system drive! YOU MUST have a dedicated HD for you projects! NEVER put the Render folder on your system drive! The hard drive will be hammering beyond belief - fragmentation is an understatement. You will need to defragment after capture, after edit, and after rendering. If the project is over 30mins you would be wise to defragment even while editing a large project - save, close Studio, defragment. Deleting Auxilary files is a must - to bad it does not always work from inside Studio. Documented - no work around.
2.) Creating Menus is a pain. Menu links will disappear, chapter links will disappear. Documented - pain to work around.
3.) Preview will disappear - whenever! Documented - pain to work around.
4.) Final DVD video is not sharp - not quality you would expect. Documented - have not found work around.
5.) If you believe that spending hundreds on hardware upgrades that may or MAY NOT work, at least you have new hardware for Vista

Documented - expensive work around!
... there are more surprises for anyone that wants to try this software ...
I would have voted with the majority on this review - ABYSMAL (it will actually harm your productivity) - but for the educational value of this product. It is an education in badly written software, so you can easily make better decisions in purchasing you next authoring product.
If you like a challenge, this is it. You can spend hours on 'work arounds' and then even more hours waiting for a DVD to render...

User Rating: 1/10

Poor, F-. Horribleby aam89541 - February 5, 2007

Pros: There are not ary pros

Cons: The software does not work

Review: Incredible. Time waster. Nothing more. The software does not work. Inconsistent crashes. The reviews are out there...don't feel you have to believe me. Do not buy this product.

Updated
I meant any...not ary. There are not any pros to Pinnacle Studio 10. This is a competitive world. Those that produce shoddy prducts should not be rewarded. Please do not buy this product.

User Rating: 1/10

Software does not workby KCRovert - February 2, 2007

Pros: great features, if they actually worked

Cons: completely locks up my PC, won't execute at all

Review: Purchased Pinnacle Studio based on features identified on the packaging. My mistake, I should no better than to purchase without fully researching first. Initial installed seemed fine, but upon trying to execute it froze my PC. My PC exceeds not only the required minimums but also the recommended levels (Windows XP, AMD 64 3400+ processor, 2.41 ghz, 1g ram, 200g hd). Had to reboot, then could not get back into the user, the PC was frozen for that user. I logged in as a different user and was able to uninstall the software. After multiple attempts to install, uninstall and re-install, I decided it was hopeless and this software was never going to function correctly. Fortunately, I was able to return it for a refund.

User Rating: 1/10

Don't buy it!!! Run away!!by tuffbeingright - January 16, 2007

Pros: Lots of interesting features.

Cons: You can't use any of the interesting features.

Review: I have never has so many problems with a software package as I have had with this one. Installation was an absolute nightmare (took over a day). The software won't recognize the bundled USB hardware device (I bought Studio Plus Movie box). I have to re-install the device driver everytime I want to capture video from the USB device. And now the DVDs I burn don't play in DVD players.

I bought a brand new PC and this software at the same time. All I wanted to do was convert my analog tapes to DVD - nothing fancy. Even the most rudimentary functionality doesn't work - if you are *really lucky* there may be a complicated workaround, otherwise you're just plain screwed.

All the wiz-bang features in the world don'
t mean much if a product does not install, capture video or burn useable DVD's. Check out their own customer forum for the collective misery if you don't believe me.

Save yourself - don't buy this software.

User Rating: 1/10

Utterly horrible!by ogman - January 13, 2007

Pros: None, zero, zip, nada

Cons: To numerous to mention, simply does not work.

Review: Beware! DO NOT BUY THIS! The only thing this product does well, if it even launches, is try to sell you massive amounts of add-ons. The program sucks and the support sucks worse. You have been warned!

User Rating: 8/10

Studio plus 10.7 is similar to the 9 version, I'm having no problems.by gregoryglen - January 7, 2007

Pros: I know version 9 well so learning 10 is easy

Cons: The bad publicity for studio 10 encouraged me to buy Ulead 10 first, wasting money.

Review: When I first tried to install Studio 10.6 on my new dual processor ultimate computer, it wouldn't load! Looking at the disc I found a hard black blob sticking to it. After nervously removing this, it loaded ok. I took HD video from the Sony HDef camera with no problems and tried the editing features. Next day I loaded an old DV video through the same camera. The editing wouldn't work! Reading the camera book I found I had wrongly connected the camera first, then altered the camera settings! confusing the computer. After recapturing the video footage I had no further problems, finally rendering and burning 60 mins of video in about 1 hour, one happy chappy

User Rating: 2/10

It's a disaster!by paropilot - January 6, 2007

Pros: Great potential if it worked

Cons: In 20 yrs I've never seen a program with so many bugs

Review: So you think you?ve got problems running Studio 10? I never got that far because earlier versions of Studio cannot be fully de-installed and cause conflicts during subsequent installations or upgrades.
In summary: Studio 10 SE is a bit better than Windows Moviemaker, but not much.
Studio 10 is a bit better than Studio SE, but not much.
Studio 10 Plus seems a great product with all the bells and whistles, when it works!
If you really must buy it, I'd advise going for Studio Plus at the start. On no account try to upgrade the others because Pinnacle software just isn't up to it. Similarly, it's impossible to de-install earlier versions of Studio without much hassle. Above all, anyone doing so MUST back up all their data first as there is great risk of losing it as happened to me.
I have been very pleased with Pinnacle Studio 8 software purchased in 2004 but I liked the extra features in Studio 10 Plus, so in November I downloaded the Studio 10 trial from the Pinnacle website. This worked well so after my one-month trial I re-installed my Studio 8 software as instructed by Pinnacle. This proved impossible as I received various error messages.
I foolishly purchased Studio 10.6 and encountered similar problems. I discovered three full screens on the Pinnacle website which deal with Studio 10 installation issues, still more which deal with update issues. The Studio 10 manual contains 12 pages devoted to crashes and hangs (pp228-240).
Next day my computer refused to boot. I learned that the registry had been corrupted by previous attempted installs and de-installs of Studio 8 and 10. I had to pay for recovery of data and re-format of my hard disc. The technician said that it's the third Pinnacle problem he had in the past three months, he said don't touch it.
To be fair, Pinnacle's live chat team were really helpful and Studio 10 has great promise, but why oh why did they put out an untested product? It's done Pinnacle immense damage.
In 20 years of digital publishing I have never known a computer programme so filled with bugs. Go for Adobe Premiere instead, it may not do quite as much but it?s stable.

User Rating: 3/10

Poor quality, Support a jokeby axonrus - January 3, 2007

Pros: Some nice features (if you could get them to work)

Cons: Crashes constantly, import kills processor

Review: This software has potential, but is extremely buggy. I used it to make around 25 one hour DVD's of our VHS home movies, but now I am unable to get the import to work which pretty much kills my ability to do any more work. It causes my processor to peg at 100% which causes it to lose frames. I also had many issues where it would just lose all my videos and all it would show on the preview screen is a big blue exclamation point. I am now in the process of looking for other software packages that can take the place of this software since I still have more work to do. At least the hardware piece that came with the software still works, so I at least still have a means of physically attaching my vcr to my computer.

User Rating: 1/10

Major Disaster !!!!by addhawk - January 1, 2007

Pros: No Pros - simply put, it's a rip off

Cons: Avoid Avoid Avoid

Review: Since the box is opened, I can't return for refund... but I can give a review.

I've tried getting this to install and run on 3 different systems. All installs were problematic - slow, hang ups, errors, you name it...
Never ran or captured video - fails all my video cards. Never detected the USB700 capture device.

My systems are no slugs, I do highend 3D cad Solidworks.

Avoid Pinnacle's tech forum - they only offer kludges. They should just do a recall and admit this was a mistake.

Updated
I've read through Pinnacle's tech forum 1 more time just to see if I could salvage something from this purchase.

It's obvious this is not a product that has been engineered for the mainstream. The contortions that their tech forum put the consumer through shows just how incomplete the programming is. I've read a few comments that the USB700 is nonfunctional out of the box. I'm suspecting that's the case. Was there a mess-up at the factory? Who knows? At this point I don't care...

User Rating: 3/10

Unstable is an understatementby skifly - December 29, 2006

Pros: Nice Transitions if you can keep it running

Cons: Truely unstable

Review: The product is slow to load. Doesn't capture scenes like Microsoft Moviemaker 2 for XP. I don't see the point in purchasing this product when MM2 will do it faster and better. If you want nice transition and a little more control, maybe this is for you. The product was runnin on a machine that FAR exceeds its min. requirments. Additionally, there is large patch that you have to sit through to get the thing to work. I spent more time trying to get this product to work than I do Making AVI files with MM2 and burning to DVD with Roxio. Don't believe all the review that are positive. This is a truely buggy piece of software.

User Rating: 1/10

Very Large Piece of Crap Softwareby dsapadin - December 26, 2006

Pros: The CHI and GUI are great

Cons: But none of it works!

Review: Don't be fooled by the updates to Studio 10 available from Pinnacle. The latest, 10.7, is their biggest failure yet. Now, as always with Studio, fixing one problem creates others. The problem now is the software will make your DVD just fine and it will play back on your computer just fine. Problem is, the AUDIO won't play back on any stand alone DVD player on the planet. As usual, if you waste your time contacting Pinnacle, they will tell you to uninstall and reinstall (their soloution for everything...) and when that doesn't work, they will tell you to work around the problem by first encoding your project into an AVI file (using their CODEC) and then use that AVI file in your project instead of your original capture! Well, it works. But now it takes twice the time to do your project. And Pinnacle Support will offer no other explanation. Or, most importantly, no other solution to their crap attempts at video software. Save yourself a lot of headaches and avoid Studio like the Plague! You can't even get it all off your system if you decide to backtrack to say, Studio 8, which works better than Studio 10+ (not much but a little). You need to FDISK and start over to get rid of all the crap STUDIO puts in your registry - despite running their vaunted "REGFIX" software. (The fact that they have such a thing ought to tell you something). If you think you are getting real video desktop editing software for 49.00, think again folks. Avoid this like the plague!

User Rating: 1/10

Would be great if it actually worked.by vridge404 - December 18, 2006

Pros: If I could actually get a DVD to render and burn I might list the pros, but since I can't what's the point?

Cons: Rendering takes hours and hours.

Review: I hate this software. I bought it because I had Pinnacle 9 Quick Start and was able to successfully render and burn several DVDs. I thought Quick Start was very easy to use so I went with Pinnacle 10. While Pinnacle 10 is easy to use with regards to editing video, the actually process of rendering and burning a DVD never completes...and that's using a Core 2 Duo 2.67 GHz, 4 GB RAM, GeForce 8800GTS computer. After reading other reviews it looks like I might have to wait up to 9 hours to render a 45 minute DVD!!!!Ridiculous. Do not waste your time with this product. I can't believe this got a 7.1 rating.

User Rating: 2/10

Studio 10.7 stinks...don't waste your timeby rwinger - December 11, 2006

Pros: Lots of promise....

Cons: Very , very little delivery

Review: 1/ Trying to make a DVD from photos. Photo capture crashes the software back to desktop.
2/ Nothing is intuitive..very arcane.
3/ Tried Online Support "Live Chat"...no
representative available. A constant lopp of frustration. AVOID this crappy software.

User Rating: 1/10

Using version 10.7, Still Doesn't Workby mutualdisdain - December 9, 2006

Pros: Clean Interface, Simple Design

Cons: Crashes randomly with use. Most crashes require reboot. Could use Windows Movie Maker to make same quality video in much less time. Very slow operation.

Review: In case you are wondering like I did when I read these reviews 2 days ago; the latest version of Studio Plus, version 10.7, does not work any better than the previous versions.

This program crashes randomly during use, and runs slowly otherwise. It crashed when I right clicked a movie clip. It crashed when it spawned an internet explorer window. It crashed when I added a transition to the time-line.

I am a software engineer and I cannot imagine how this program got out of the alpha or beta stages of testing. Perhaps its IE7, or maybe its some configuration with my computer. Yet after reading all the poor reviews here again I have to think is the software itself.

Do yourself a favor and do not buy this software. It will probably not work any better in the later versions than it does now.

I was going to buy this as a present for my mom, but if I can barely use it I doubt she will get very far with it.

I am going to return it to the store tomorrow and demand my money back. If you bought this, return it as soon as possible!

User Rating: 2/10

Don't use, it will take you alot of timeby tranlink - November 28, 2006

Pros: Sound effect, easy to use

Cons: Take too much gb for the project file.

Review: Terrible. Don't waste your time and money on it. It took me more than 12 hours working to make a 45' video clip with some very simple transitions and sound effect.
-The project take too much gb
-I hate the SmartSound, it take too much time to render and i can't turn off the SmartSound function. Unstable.
-Can't burn directly to the DVD, i have to burn the clip edited to an iso file then use Nero to burn the file to the DVD

User Rating: 1/10

Too bad I can't go lower than 1by phuocle - November 26, 2006

Pros: User interface is very intuitive

Cons: Unfortunately, it's EXTREMELY SLOW and UNSTABLE

Review: Stay far far way. Save your money. I've been a loyal user of Studio since version 8 but over the years and countless updates, Studio is the epitome of bloatware.

The current version is so slow. It takes forever to start up, takes forever to do the most mundane things, and on top of that, it crashes ALL the time. My system is pretty beefy (AMD X2 64 4600, 2GB RAM, 1TB of hard drvie space) so that's not it at all.

I finally wised up and ditched it for Ulead's VideoStudio 10 and have never been happier. It's too bad because I really like Pinnacle's user interface. I just couldn't get anything done.

User Rating: 1/10

This product should be taken off the marketby samiam504 - November 16, 2006

Pros: It is a product with seemingly "cool" and hightech features, and supposedly "easy to follow" instructions...

Cons: Very unstable, crashes, none of these features are reliable, but its hard to tell because it is very dificult to keep the program running for more than 10 min without crashing!

Review: When we first bought Pinnacle, it seemed like a great product. However, then we started to experience numerous amounts of problems. At first we thought it was just our computer with the problem, but after getting a new hard drive, uninstalling everything on the computer, and constantly restarting, we realized it was the faulty product, not the computer. The cool features are only "cool" for a very short time. That is untill you start experimenting with them, and then everything gets screwed up, the system crashes, the computer screen freezes... etc.

We also had constant problems with the audio, which would be out of sinc with the movie. Adding long stretches of music and recorded sounds were also a major problem. Eventually we just all together gave up on adding any music or special sound effects, for it would ruin entire projects.

Copying the movie onto a DVD was almost impossible, and often the finished projects (those very few that were even completed) were stuck on the computer forever because we were unable to get them onto a DVD.

The Pinnacle support system was also a joke, ruiting us to places like India and basically giving us the only advice of "Just try restarting your computer." Yeah, well that did not work! Not to mention the dollars and dollars spent everytime a customer support person would convince us to fix the problem by unlocking something, or buying an something. Those additional features that we were convinced to buy were wasted and did nothing to solve the problems, only complicatied them further. And lets not forget the money spent on those long 2 hr phone calls! We invested a fortune in this product!

If I could, I would advise everyone out there too never consider this product. Looks can be deceiving, and this product is not all that it is hyped up to be! It should be taken off of the market. I would give it a ZERO rating but that is not an option.

User Rating: 6/10

Mixed feelingsby haroldvdh - November 8, 2006

Pros: It does the job...in the end

Cons: still unstable although not as bad as it used to be

Review: What can I say? There is definitely a love and hate relation going on between Pinnacle and me, from Studio version 8 on till the latest version. Hate, because it still isn?t stable, as it should be considering the price I paid for this product. I just finished editing a 43 minutes wedding video and I had a total of 4 crashes. Because I know it can crash easily, I immediately save every adjustment, no matter how in-significant. Just to be on the safe side. So in the end, these cashes weren?t such a big disaster, only annoying because you have to restart the program every time it happens. And now, probably the most controversial part of my review, the love part. Considering the other reviews, it?s probably not done to have some praise for the product, but I must be honest and I have to say that basically it does do the job in the end: making great videos. I have made more than 30 home video DVDs and even more small items for presentation purposes with studio 8, 9 and now 10. If it works, with the emphasis on IF, it is the easiest editing program available. I tried Ulead and Adobe, but prefer Pinnacle despite the shortcomings, simply because it is sooo easy to use. Family, friends and co-workers are always im-pressed by the end results, not only because of my editing abilities, which are none existent, but mainly because of Pinnacle. So they deserve some of the credits.

User Rating: 1/10

What Customer Service?by daiqarita - October 20, 2006

Pros: neat looking features (if the program doesn't crash)

Cons: errors, crashes, NO CUSTOMER SERVICE

Review: Version 10 has LESS errors than version 9. The first time I've contacted customer service since being a customer - was regarding the missing effects and transitions. I assumed that version 10 would be an upgrade and I would not lose anything I already had. When I contacted Pinnacle customer service, I was told standard ways to fix this (things that I had already read and tried on their website). It was like they didn't read what I was saying and kept telling me to do the same thing over and over again. I then sent screen shots, hoping someone would understand and READ what I was saying. Again, I was told to do the same stuff over and over again. After a dozen emails, I was told "some effects and transitions from version 9 will not work in version 10". I complained that my upgrade was seeming like a downgrade to me. I explained that I should not have to rePURCHASE effects and transitions that I already had. They didn't seem to care what I was saying... just explaining that that is how it is. I asked if they would at least make this one transition that I really planned on using work in my new version and not make me purchase it - knowing that it was already mine.... they didn't reply. Additionally, I was told a rep would call me, by two different reps. Neither one called after I submitted my number and the best times to reach me (which were anytime during business hours). SO. I will not recommend this software, this company to anyone. It will disappoint - it runs very slow, it has numerous crashes and error messages (on a brand new dual processor, pentium 4 with 3GB ram). And if you ever need to contact customer service... don't bother, they will not help you...they will waste your time and make you feel like they don't need customers at all. It isn't like you can RETURN opened software! So they already have your money.

User Rating: 1/10

Disgrace...by paulo.sa - September 30, 2006

Pros: Found almost none.

Cons: Very slow to start. Permanently hangs

Review: Until version 8, this was a good software...

User Rating: 6/10

Great features for the moneyby shickernell - September 19, 2006

Pros: The price was substantially under $100. Point and click/ drag and drop ease of use. You can add voice over and soundtracks to photo slide shows. the video and audio clean up works fairly well

Cons: It's slow. I believe it's limited to 60 min on a DVD. can conflict with other programs causing instability. The basic Jasc program that was included is very basic

Review: I'm no professional but I've transfered several hours of Hi8 and VHS to DVD with little frustration. I've lightened old dark videos and I can see faces! I've created photo slide shows with soundtracks and we enjoy those almost as much as video. I just started capturing from mini DV and again it has been relatively painless. Get the Movie BOX or Dazzle capture device and those old VHS tapes can be converted to DVD with a little time and patience! I would like to know how to get more than 60 min. on a DVD and there customer support is not great.
In any case, I've been please to see those old home movies with a little better clarity

User Rating: 1/10

Look elsewhere for this type of product - CNET should post a warning instead of giving this a 7.1 !by craigkoch - September 2, 2006

Pros: Features not bad if the product worked

Cons: Complete lack of customer support.

Review: This review is simple - stay away from these guys. I've been a user of Studio 9.4 for some time, and it ran OK until I recently got a new PC. It started crashing, so when I received a recent sales offer for a reduced price upgrade, I took the bait and bought it. I received the wrong product (right one ordered, wrong one shipped), and it wouldn't install. 3 weeks later I still don't have it. Customer support is basically non-existant except for an occasional e-mail. Forget getting on the phone and getting a person you can understand. To explain how sharp they are, they asked for my address to ship the replacment products when it was on the order I placed 4 days prior to that, and they delayed shipping until I sent it to them again. Just got the CD's today, but they didnt' include any serial numbers, so they won't install. I am kicking myself real hard for not checking CNET prior to ordering this upgrade. Do yourself a favor and buy someone else's product. This company is the worst I've ever dealt with when it comes to customer service.

Updated
If you want to see more information on their record, check the link below or other online BBB sites prior to making your purchase...

http://www.bbbsilicon.org/commonreport.html?bid=204590&language=1&code=IQ

User Rating: 1/10

Dog's Breakfastby yule828 - August 29, 2006

Pros: Anything but professional

Cons: A real turkey - earlier versions work this does not

Review: Do not buy this program, if you can get Studio 9 or even 7 for that matter do it, save your money, Avid really screwed up Pinnacle's superior program by rebuilding "from the ground up" The only groung this program stands on is a grave!

User Rating: 1/10

FULL REFUND PLEASE!by Maclan - August 25, 2006

Pros: NONE ZERO ZIPPO

Cons: GARBAGE - Works best at crashing your computer

Review: My decision to "upgrade" from Studio V. 8-SE to V. 10.5 was a HUGE mistake. Version 8-SE was free software bundled with another purchase and it worked "OK" so I thought an upgrade would give me better features.

WRONG.

Customer support is useless on V. 10.5 and my roll of the dice on the Beta 10.6.0.3813 came up a loser.

I hate ripoffs like this. Retailers should rush their supplies of this garbage back to Pinnacle so they don't chase their customers away.

I even checked CNET before my purchase and saw a 7+ rating. Shame on me for not reading user opinions. How can CNET rate this garbage 7.1 and users rate it 1.6?

User Rating: 1/10

Junk Programby hbogie - August 25, 2006

Pros: no pro at all

Cons: nothing works correctly

Review: I purchased studion 10 Titanium edition and it's crap also. Tried to use it to make a slide show of still images then make a high quality movie out of it. I think they would have been clearer if I would have DRAWN the images. Pluse each time I tried to make a DVD system would crash and I would then have to restart the machine.

Aviod this product.

User Rating: 1/10

Buy only if you like throwing your money awayby rdondisch - August 15, 2006

Pros: Can't say because it will not run

Cons: It has crashed every time I've tried to use it.

Review: I loved version 8 and made the huge mistake of "upgrading" to this version.
I have not been able to even try it out, as it has crashed each and every time I have tried to use it.
Pinnacle customer service is non-existent.

User Rating: 8/10

Studio 10.5 works Great!!!by SeagoatLeo - July 26, 2006

Pros: Uses Liquid burning software, faster than ever

Cons: Extras (color balance, adjust, etc.) can confuse or overlap

Review: I've suffered using Studio 9 since it first came out, all of its upgrades. YUK!!! It would stop rendering whenever it felt like it, didn't like long videos, etc. It was a mess.

I waited until 10.5 arrived from AVID. A HUGE difference. On my HP dv8000t dual core 2.0 chip w/2 gig RAM I am getting real time encoding/rendering 1:1 with chapters/titles and backrounds. Color balance and other extras take longer to render but not one hang up yet with 5 97 to 112 minute AVI DVD movies. This is working for me and works better than most of other programs. So, I suggest using a fast computer and 10.5, none of the earlier versions will suffice.

User Rating: 3/10

It's a nightmareby llcontre - July 3, 2006

Pros: Use the previous versions

Cons: I agree, the previous versions are better than this one

Review: I was a user of the Studio 8.0, and I was very happy using this version, then I decided to ?UPGRADE?, downgrade to the Studio 10.0 and It was I nightmare. The video that I captured from analog device doesn?t show right at the edit mode. I requested a technical support at the Latin American site, they told me to install a serial of fixes and upgrades and they could not resolve my problem, and the end they told me that was a problem with my graphics card drivers. I bough another graphic card, with more memory and the problem persist. I open a new issue, this time at the US site, and it was the same. At this moment I agree with the person that said that this product is frustrating. Since I bought this product I could not make a one project well. I waste time, effort and money. If some body could recommended another software where I can use the video capture card that came with de Studio 8.0 with out the frustrating things of the Studio 10, please let me know.

User Rating: 1/10

DO NOT BUY THIS!!!!by kmoore007 - July 2, 2006

Pros: Fantastic user-friendly interface

Cons: Poor, poor, poor quality - crashes all the time

Review: I have had this software for 8 months and have yet to successfully create a DVD movie. And this is after two patches and another patch beta version! They should fire all the programmers and managers and just start over! CRAP, CRAP, MAJOR CRAP!

User Rating: 8/10

Works Well For Meby schwartzz - June 21, 2006

Pros: Easy to use interface, background rendering, easy volume control

Cons: Certain transitions require purchase

Review: I have read many of the reviews here, and I have to admit I am a little confused. I have been using the program for a few weeks now, and I haven't had the same problems others are writing about. My install went well, and I have already made a couple movies. Granted, the program has crashed once, but I think that was more my fault than that of the program. Just to be clear, however, I have 1.5 GB of memory, I purchased an external 300 GB harddrive, and a Dell 4700 which has a Pentium 4 3.5 Mhz. I think many of the problems other are having is because they don't have the systems to support the software. I purchased Studio 10 after using Adobe Premiere 1.0. That program was just too complicated for my purposes. I just want to make fun home movies. One of my favorite features of Studio 10 over Adobe is the ease of controlling volume so that I can put music into my videos, and do really cool fade in and fade outs. With the program as cheap as $30 with rebates (i.e., Fry's), I think it is worth a try. It is, after all, the best selling consumer video editing software. And, no, I don't work for Pinnacle.

User Rating: 2/10

Many Functions Do Not Workby Gramps101 - June 4, 2006

Pros: 700-USB hardware works well

Cons: Many software functions do not work, like the Media Manager.

Review: Very poor product & support. Spent several days trying to get the software to fully function, without any success. I had to switch back to my older Adobe software for video editing. I know of another person that had the same results as mine. I evern updated to version 10.5 from 10.0 with no improvement. Pinnacle needs to fix the software.

User Rating: 1/10

This product is the worst i've ever seenby michealpage - May 19, 2006

Pros: None, nothing works very well

Cons: Everything is bad because you can't use it effectively

Review: I hate to be so loud in my title, but this software is absolutely garbage. I work with software all day long and have never come across such an unstable worthless piece of garbage in my life. It's completely unusable...you will NOT be able to make a movie or anything else with this software. I've tried the tech support, forums, upgrades, and nothing will make this work. Even their tech support have no idea why it fails. You are allowed one call (long distance) and then it's $25 per call. It's $10 for every add-on transition that you want and they actually contribute to the crashing. Do not walk...run away from this software.

User Rating: 1/10

Waste of money and timeby aloyolac - April 25, 2006

Pros: no any pro

Cons: weak aplicatio

Review: listen to the others opinions. the editors' reviews are not always very acurate. I wonder if they put high ratings just to make propaganda to the products...

User Rating: 1/10

Lots of features but you can't use it, use Adobeby tlive - April 21, 2006

Pros: Features and price

Cons: Programs: Full of bugs and crash a lot

Review: If you're a pro and you want to make a good video, Pinnacle Studio got the features you need but is unusable: it crashes during capture, editing and exporting. I like the features Picture-in-picture but it crashes every time. The chroma key feature's good too but it doesn't work. Sometimes it crashes randomly, the "patchs" don't work and the support is very BAD. And when you're finished after several restarts and crashes, you try to make the movie but now, CRASH while exporting to .mpeg .wmv or whatever you try. You cannot insert a 23.97 fps in a 29.97 fps, inserting different movie sizes is OK but you can't export it after. Finally, it slows your computer (I got a Pentium D, 2Gb RAM) when it'S working and even when it's turned of off. I would recommand to EVERYONE Adobe Premiere. And finally (again), the programers had a lot of ideas for this software but the program was horrible. Buy something else.

User Rating: 1/10

10.5.2 "Upgrade Patch" a farce- NO IMPROVEMENTSby redheadedbarbarian - April 20, 2006

Pros: It gave me a false sense of security.

Cons: I've been conned every time I purchaced these programs & updates.

Review: Still VERY,VERY unstable. I have yet to complete a project without it shutting me down. You will get more entertainment burning your money (and better results)than by using this C.W.O.T. program.

User Rating: 1/10

Poor Customer Service! I haven't even received it in the mail yet and I already have an issue!by Tseana - April 20, 2006

Pros: Do not buy this product to replace an older version. Just keep the older version even if you do get a few freeze ups!

Cons: Horrible customer service and I haven't even installed/opened mine!

Review: I currently have a trial version Studio Pinnacle 8 and have done a couple of small projects on it. It has some freeze up issues that I thought would resolve by purchasing version 10. I ordered version 10 last night on the internet and then I started doing research on the cool stuff you can do in the full version. HOLY COW! After I read all of the sorry reviews I canceled my order as instructed on the internet 40 min after I ordered it. Well, they have shipped it out to me and have informed me via customer service that I have to pay for the shipping to ship it back to them. I have my order email and my cancellation email that shows it was cancelled 40 minutes apart and that wasn't good enough for them. I have to pay to ship the sorry program back to them. DO NOT BUY, I haven't even opened and tried installing the program and have already not received good customer service.

User Rating: 2/10

After years and years - I can not put up with it anymoreby arcanjl - April 19, 2006

Pros: Eventually works

Cons: Crashes all the time, and is never consistant

Review: Here is my story: First let me start by saying that I have used Pinnacle Studio since Version 6. Here is a run down:
Version 6 $80
Version 7 Upgrade ($80)
Version 8 Upgrade ($80)
Version 9 Upgrade ($80)
Misc add-ons ($50) (i.e., still picture panning)
Version 9 Plus ($50) (Includes Still Picture Panning)

I was just about to go to version 10. In all this time, I thought that I loved this program. It crashed all the time, films came out wrong, but overall ? I still loved it, made great films with it, just taught me patience. Even upgraded my computer and software (operating system) just for it. I am really big into video editing, I have over 600G of Hard drive filled with AVI ? and I do it semi pro. (I would be the first to admit that I still have a lot to learn) So let me go on?

Recently I have had some real problems, the videos were losing sound, just randomly, in the middle it will play for 3 seconds and then go a way. I always use Window Movie maker as a back to test my AVI?s and it didn?t have a problem. After a month of trying to get help from Pinnacle (again ? they suck ? I have gone through this in all my versions for one thing or another ? but I don?t know if any other company is better), I decided that the thing to do (as always) is upgrade. But I was tired of it, so I started researching, and reading, and researching, and reading. Let me start off by saying Thank You for Trial Versions!!! After all the reading and reviews, and more reading I wanted to try an other program ? seeing that there were other people unhappy with Pinnacle too ? made me feel better. The 3 I chose to try (and the ALL had trial versions) were:

Cyberlink PowerDirector
Ulead Video Studio 9
Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0

Adobe seemed the most promising, but guess what ? won?t work on my system. I read that but hoped it wasn?t true, so downloaded the 100MB Trial, and yep ? won?t work. Even thought about upgrading my system for it, but decided (being not made of money) that I could not afford a $250 upgrade for a $100 program. In time I will have to upgrade anyway ? so forget it. Thanks adobe! - NOT. (I have an AMD 2600)

Cyberlink was the one I was most hopeful about ? It took me a half a day to realize I would rather stick with Pinnacle! There were not as many options, and not as intuitive, and some things were just too dang simple. And all their wizards made me feel like an idiot. Not to mention, the playback was crap, and the rendering was slow,) slower than Pinnacle ? which I could not believe!) and the end product was crap too. After that I thought I was sticking with Pinnacle.

But what the hell, I will try Ulead. Yes Baby! What a program. It is simpler, but not stupid. It had every option Pinnacle had (and even the picture panning was fantastic!). It allows you to use smart sound technology, and filter out the ones you have with the ones you need to buy ? none of the others did that ? it was SUCH a pain ? but Ulead ? a simple snap! The Transitions were awesome (and even has a fade to black then next scene which Cyberlink didn?t!) What else, the capturing, and importing were fast and flawless, and the rendering was incredible! I couldn?t believe that I was banging my head the whole time with pinnacle. It even adjusted your screen (unlike Pinnacle that made it stay at 1280 x 1024). Everything I thought it couldn?t do ? I figured out how to in less than 5 min after looking for it. The only thing I didn?t like was (minor) the lack of DVD menus ? but I think that is because it was the downloadable trial. I don?t know for sure. This had features I only dreamt of too! Quick DVD?s fro DV ? that is great those visiting guests - Burning only your audio, or EVEN ADDING TRACKS FROM A PREVIOUS BURNT DVD! ? FREAKING AWESOME. I am purchasing this program, and never looking back. I could go on and on ? but let me just end it with this:

Download the trials ? and try it out for yourself. I believe that Cyberlink is good for fast editing, and Novices.
Adobe ? No Idea.
Pinnacle ? The Masochist.
Ulead ? for me.

I hope that this helps some of you in your decision. ? Good Luck!

User Rating: 2/10

Extremely Frustrating to install!by clifflee256 - April 12, 2006

Pros: Never got that far! Version 9 is great!

Cons: To install, I would have to purchase a new video card...

Review: I tried to install the version (which consists of 4 disks). After installing, it took forever to start, and when it came up I was given a message about my Video card not being 3D video acceleration compatable. I refuse to spend MORE money for a new card that MIGHT solve the problem! I have been unable to see how the program works because it crashes after showing this message.

NOT worth the upgrade price. I'll stick with version 9.4 for now. They will have to convince me that is fixed before I'll try again!

User Rating: 1/10

Messed up my New Windows Installation Badlyby Mike111111 - April 6, 2006

Pros: There could be some if it would not mess up Your PC

Cons: Messes up Your PC do not buy

Review: I installed this product on a nice clean Windows XP Installation. After installation my system crashed with BSOD. Downloaded the patch for 10.5 but the patch wouldn't install. Took me 3 hours to uninstall everything and reinstall my Chipset drivers to get the system clean again.

No more Pinnacle for me. Sorry for the money, but better to throw away this product than mess up Your system.

User Rating: 3/10

Buggy Flakey programby m-802 - March 30, 2006

Pros: Fairly Easy to use

Cons: Crashes, performs unexpectedly

Review: I didn't have any problem installing it however, I found it crashes a frequently requiring me to restart the program. And it loads real slow. I've spent more time re-doing clips I've already set up because inserting new photo between existing photo screws up the story board. Sometimes the sound track would play but the slide show stopped. Some .mp3's just won't play in Pinnical 10.5 when they play fine in any other media player. I wish I could just get my money back and try another product. Waste of time and money. Live Tech Support was not very helpful either.

User Rating: 1/10

Horrible. Buggy. Avoid at all cost.by Roger Moen - March 30, 2006

Pros: User Interface is similar to Studio 9

Cons: Far more bugs and crashes than Studio 9

Review: I was a professional software developer for 15 years, and I know nightmare software when I see it.

Studio Plus 10 (even when patched with the latest 10.5 download) is a nightmare of bugs, crashes, and frustration. It is unusable. I am a computer nerd and have a modern computer with all the updates.

I have been a loyal Studio user since 2002, starting with Studio 8, and with each upgrade Pinnacle added more features and maybe a LITTLE more stability, up till Studio 9.4.3 which is very usable, even though slow and crashes occasionally. I then made the mistake of believing Pinnacle's propaganda that Version 10 is even better, "Rebuilt From the Ground Up on the Pinnacle Liquid Edition Engine". THIS IS THE MOST UNSTABLE BUGGY PROGRAM I HAVE EVER USED.

It would be better to simply burn your money, than to buy Studio 10, because burning your money will take a lot less time than trying to argue with tech support that the problem is their buggy software and not your computer, and that uninstalling and then re-installing will NOT help.

I now have to go find another vendor and another product, as I am done done done with Pinnacle and Studio.

If you think I (or the other 50+ reviewers on CNET) have some axe to grind, check out Amazon's user reviews -- last I checked, the average rating from 83 users was 1 star out of 5 stars.

User Rating: 1/10

Complete and utter STINKBOMB!!!!by robnap - March 28, 2006

Pros: none. zero. zilch. nil. nada.

Cons: hopefully Pinnacle developers lost their jobs

Review: As soon as I opened the box I should have noticed the stench of this stinkbomb .. I have a powerhouse PC complete with a P6, 1024 memory, 400 GB HD, Nvidia GeForce 7900, etc and even with this the program spontaneously just STOPS... FREEZES... then shuts down. Ive downloaded the "patch" and it seems even worse.
It took forever to install and I now find out most of the install is FX THAT YOU DONT GET!!!! Thats right... the Studio PLus first of all comes with a depressingly SMALL amount of FX to begin with but then the program installs all of the FX you want but you'll you have to purchase to unlocked the content.
When I contacted support and let them know I had a ver of Hollywood FX v.1 I wanted to use but it wouldnt accept my registration code, all the response said was my code is no good and to buy another copy!!!! 2 weeks later I still havent been assisted with this dilemna ...

I hope developers lost jobs and execs are sucking **** for beer money.

They screwed me big time. Ill be going elsewhere from here out for all editing and pc software ....

User Rating: 1/10

Garbage Wareby edtomasi - March 28, 2006

Pros: Nice Packaging ;P

Cons: Crash'o Rama

Review: I would honestly say that Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 crashed 95% of the time. Update you say? Yeah, right . . . 10.5 was no different.

I know it's not my hardware . . . it doesn't get more top-of-the-line than an Alienware Area-51 m7700 with a Intel Pentium4 3.8GHZ processor, 60 GB HD and a NVIDIA 6800FXGO video card.

DON'T BE FOOLED by all the online advertising and (paid) product reviews you see out there for this product . . . its only a cover-up to how poor a product they have.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS GARBAGE WARE PRODUCT. This product is going straight into the garbage . . . and is not even worth blemishing my 100% eBay rating by selling it there.

Now I see CNET's editors' true colors. How much were they paid to give Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 a 7+ rating!? Shame on you CNET!

I tried Nero 7 Ultra Edition's free full-version demo and not only has it not crashed once, it actually did EXACTLY what I needed it to do . . . and so much easier than Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 could ever hope to do.

User Rating: 1/10

WORST PROGRAM EVERby pcooper1680 - March 26, 2006

Pros: The cd case works, but that is about it.

Cons: Absolutely everything.

Review: The question you need to ask yourself before you buy this product is "Do I really want to have my video done before next year?". This program is terrible. I am shocked that there has not be a class-action lawsuit against them for releasing trash.

User Rating: 1/10

Don't waist your timeby sandbunker - March 14, 2006

Pros: The interface is alright, but it masks the devil

Cons: Unstable, slow, waist of time

Review: And people think Windows is unstable... I ran this program on a robust machine that exceeded the recommended specifications and found it to be painfully slow and extremely unstable. After spending tens of hours getting my content in the program and rebooting the machine after the program crashed endlessly, the program crashed during a save and I lost everything. My advice to anyone who cares about their time, DO NOT BUY this software. The support is terrible as well. When I called about my issue, they told me that all programs crash and if they crash during a save, it's common to lose all data. Because it crashed during a save and that is "common to other programs", they wouldn't refund my money.

Mark my words, if you try and use this program you will be frustrated and ultimately angry and will likely go out and buy a differnt application.

Come on CNET, you should revise your rating. How can users rate this product a 1.4 and your rating be a 7? It makes me wonder if your ratings are truly unbiased.

User Rating: 1/10

DO NOT BUY THIS "PRODUCT" !!!!! or anything studio 10 relatedby crwombat - March 13, 2006

Pros: Looks nice on paper. (that's it)

Cons: Freezes, crashes, has not worked since installed, support is non-existent.

Review: Enough wasting my time on this software, not enough even to write anymore about on this review. (I hope that sums it up well enough)

User Rating: 1/10

A 100% software disaster, pathetic and worthlessby dkadc - March 10, 2006

Pros: None, this program has zero redeeming value

Cons: Crash after crash, video and audio lose sync

Review: Studio keeps trying to put lipstick on a pig by adding features to what was already a very unstable program. I had upgraded Studio 8 to 9.4.3, which was a horrible mistake; it could not render a video without crashing on my 3.6Ghz P4 with 2 gigabytes DDR2, Radeon 850XT, serial ATA raid 0 & audigy. Tech support kept trying to tell me it was my PC overheating so I purchased a Centrino Laptop with Pentiuim M 740 CPU, 100gig HD, Radeon Mobility X700. Program crashes there too.

Version 10.0 was supposed to import Studio 9.x videos so I purchased Studio 10 hoping to at long last finish projects I have been working on for nearly a YEAR. But when Studio 10 imported them it lost much of the effects.

Pinnacle patched Studio to 10.5 and it got more stable, but for me (and many others) the audio and video go out of sync in the burned video, by the end of an hour they are a second off which looks very stupid.

I am sick of being an alpha tester for Pinnacle. Maybe one day, they will get it right but I grow sick tired of waiting for that day to come.

Avoid this program like you would avoid a hot poker shoved up your bootie. Come to think of it, the hot poker would be more enjoyable than the hundreds of hours I wasted trying to make this thing work.

User Rating: 1/10

Horrible. Could have been a lot better.by FatherLeimeisei - March 7, 2006

Pros: There are no pros

Cons: Everything pretty much.

Review: This thing is horrible. It says you need at least 512 mb of RAM, but you will need like 2 GB or more if you want it to run even slightly smoothly. But if you want to buy any version of Studio, buy PLUS and not the Regular version. the regular version is basically an advertisement for the Plus version because Regular doesnt let you do anything. The regular version even comes with a bonus dvd. After you install the DVD and eat up 3.5 gigs of your hard drive, you will find that EVERYTHING on it cannot be used unless you upgrade to plus.

Well anyway, im supposed to be reviewing the plus version. This software is also extremely buggy. Crashing happens all the time, and sometimes when you hit File > Exit, it will show a message next time you run about how the program crashed last time you used it. And if the program does crash, you need to wait 5 minutes for this one thing to gather info on your computer so that you can send it all into Pinnacle. Let me just say do not buy. If you need a video editor, buy Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0. Right now you can get Premiere for like 55 bucks or something on buy.com. Trust me it works a lot better, but let me suggest that with any video editing program you will probably want at least a Gig of RAM.

User Rating: 1/10

Worse than Horrible!!by Chyre - February 27, 2006

Pros: Excellent way to WASTE TIME & MONEY!

Cons: Too numerous for this space!

Review: Owned Studio 8, "upgraded" (NOT) to Studio 10. Constant Crashes & burns... NO, MAKE THAT WON'T BURN a useful DVD. After a new 150 GB computer etc. still nothing but problems. Pinnacle help just tells me to re-install. DID THAT 4 TIMES! My husband finally convinced me to read the reviews here on cnet. OKAY! I give up! It's not ME, it's not my computer...it's REALLY JUST HORRIBLE, USELESS SOFTWARE.
Went out and bought Adobe Premiere Elements 2
had to spend an extra $100 to add SmartSounds but should be well worth the money.
After 2 years of frustration I submit this to others who may be realizing they will never sort out all the problems with Pinnacle Studio products and that perhaps it is time to move on.

User Rating: 1/10

Let the customer ratings tell it like it isby mc2zap - February 17, 2006

Pros: The only pros I have for this product are the smiling faces on the box

Cons: A complete waste of money. Don't buy it.

Review: I want to know who it was on CNET that reviewed this pile of garbage and gave it a 7! Like other people, I thought that CNET was on the ball. Somebody was asleep at the wheel on this heap of wasted programing. The instruction book must have been outsourced to some other country that speaks a different language other than English. I don't have any friends that I would even consider giving this to. When you go shopping for a product to help you transfer your video to a CD or DVD, keep walking past Pinnicle.

User Rating: 2/10

Nothing but troubleby brockster77 - February 16, 2006

Pros: I didn't find any pros

Cons: Terrible performance

Review: Doesn't support new Diamond ATI Radeon 9250 PCI card. Crashes and burns. Takes forever to install, and that is their support line---uninstall/reinstall, make sure you have all the upgraded drivers.....blah blah blah

User Rating: 1/10

Junk, Junk, Junk.by durrroy - February 15, 2006

Pros: A lot of great tools, if they would work.

Cons: Won't work , messed up my Drives and registry.

Review: Were was the Editors Head stuck when he gave this a 7.1 reting?

User Rating: 1/10

A terrible productby gregzilla - February 11, 2006

Pros: Kickback to cnet reviewer for giving it a 7.1 our of 10

Cons: No kickbacks for anyone else

Review: I bought this back in November partly based on the cnet reivew. As all of the other reivews have noted, this software simply does not work. It is not a matter of a few things not working; I don't believe it is possible to create a DVD using this product. I tried to get a refund (which is apparently possible if you threaten legal action-see other reviews), but was unsuccessful. I tried using Pinnacle support for a while, but the problems were too numerous to make it worthwhile. As an alternative try Cyberlink PowerDirector. I used this prior to Pinnacle and it is rock solid. The DVD authoring is very basic, but it does work. I have also read good things about Sony Vegas (~$90) and may give that a try. For Pinnacle to have released this product with the problems it has is not just negligent, but possibly criminal.

User Rating: 2/10

Wow! Horribleby mac2233 - February 8, 2006

Pros: Awesome funtionality at a consumer software price

Cons: Does run properly at all.

Review: I tested my many video editor/DVD authoring software packages. This was one of the best for functionality but it does no good when it freezes and takes infinity to complete many procedures (PC 3.0 gig hrtz 3g ram). Go with Sony Vegas Platinum Edition. By far the best at the consumer level for functionality and performance. Nothing will have it all but Sony comes very close.

User Rating: 1/10

Rated a one because there is nothing lowerby delpi - February 6, 2006

Pros: Feature rich on paper

Cons: None of the features work

Review: Sent a registered letter to Avid CEO David Krall asking for a refund. He's the first CEO I've ever written to that didn't at least have the courtesy to reply. You may download or view the letter at www.neonrow.com/pinnacle.

I tried the software on a Pentium 4 running Windows XP Pro, SP2, an Athlon 64 running XP Pro, SP2 and and Athlon 64 running Windows XP Pro 64 bit. In all cases, the software was completely unusable.

In my thirty years in the computer business, I have never seen a piece of software as unstable as Pinnacle Studio 10.

Think of the most unstable application you ran on Windows 98 or Windows ME. Whatever that was, it would be rock-solid compared to Studio 10.

User Rating: 1/10

Multiple Issuesby S_E_M - February 5, 2006

Pros: They do acknowlegde there deficiencies.

Cons: Pinnacle declared the program was in its infancy and to expect problems.

Review: This program has many negative issues. After receiving much solicitation from Pinnacle, I ordered Pinnacle 10 Suite as an upgrade. Before the program was delivered I was contacted by Pinnacle, with instructions to download a patch before installing the program. A problem had been detected in the software and the full program would not install until the patch is installed. From there the problems continue one after another. I have contacted Pinnacle several times without resolve. My latest phone conversation with Pinnacle support, I was told the program was still in its infancy, and I should expect a few problems. My order was $250, including the additional add-ons I purchased from Pinnacle. For that amount, I would expect to be buying a program that had been tested and was beyond its infancy. When asking for a refund I was denied. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Studio 10 Plus at least ten times to date. I have even formatted my drive twice in an attempt to get a happy install to no avail. To date I still can not install all of the features which I paid for......Opinion.... If you do not want much grief, stick with a more stable product like Sonic or the likes. I have been a happy user of Pinnacle for years, unfortunately this time they dropped the ball. Software companies should be required to have a buy back program, especially when there are known issues.

User Rating: 2/10

Run Away, Don't Walk!by ericmechelle - February 2, 2006

Pros: Plenty of options (if you pay for them AND they work)

Cons: Unstable, slow, poor tech support, everything costs extra!

Review: I am a certified IT professional who works for a television production company, therefore I know something about PCs and video editing hardware/software. While I did not expect Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 to be the same caliber of the products I support at work, I did expect it to work. I literally spent over 50 hours trying to get my first project (40 minutes worth of video) to not lock up my system (which nearly triples the recommended configuration). I did everything Pinnacle support recommended (which involved five full uninstalls/installs) and in the end could only get it to work half of the time. I ended up tossing the software and bought Power Director; have had no problems once I cleaned out all the remnants of Studio Plus 10. Shame on Avid/Pinnacle for putting such a troubled product on the market and shame on CNET for rating it so highly.

User Rating: 1/10

Waste of time!by unique2u - January 29, 2006

Pros: None, well maybe if it worked.

Cons: Too long to launch and freezes up constantly!

Review: This is the worst software I have ever used. It takes forever to open and if you click to fast or just on certain things, it freezes up and you have to get out of it. I contacted support and they suggested reinstalling and downloading patches and updating things on my computer. I did this and have had no good results. I have a new computer and shouldn't have to spend a lot of time getting an application to work correctly. They also sent me an advisor which is suppose to list everything on your computer to see where the problem is. This is truly ridiculous, I really would like to use it but will probably have to consider this a loss and wished I would have looked at these reviews before buying because there is no way I would have bought it with everyones bad reviews for this product.

User Rating: 1/10

Miserable excuse for a toolby mculley1375 - January 28, 2006

Pros: There aren't any because this program fails to meet even the minimum standards of operation

Cons: HUGE memory footprint, way too slow performance, various instability issues

Review: Look, this doesn't even come close. The feature set looks great, but it fails to live up to any of them. I spent 5-6 hours trying to get this product up and running and I still can't even playback video. Tech support is likely swamped and unable to help because Engineering has laid an egg. What's a tech support guy to do? My advice? Go back to Pinnacle Studio v8. Yes, it had a few issues, but you can get it to work for home video applications. If it doesn't meet your needs then you need to step up to Premiere or another more sophisticated tool.

The biggest shock was that I couldn't even get playback to work! What!?! The second shock was a whopping 300MB memory footprint! That's ridiculous.

Me? I'm going back to Fry's and ask for my money back!

User Rating: 2/10

Wait untill they get the software correctedby Tony McQueer - January 27, 2006

Pros: Could be a great product if worked

Cons: Customer service not helpful

Review: I could not get pinnacle 10 to work and received an email that said a patch was being made.. I waited for the patch, which put me over the 30 day return period.. the patch did not work and pininacle refused to refund my money...

User Rating: 1/10

It's complete JUNKby t0m0 - January 25, 2006

Pros: The shiny box is really nice

Cons: The box contains worthless landfill fodder

Review: If I could rate this software with less than a 1, I would. Don't waste your time or your money!!!!!

User Rating: 1/10

Can you rate lower that 1?by dbays3 - January 25, 2006

Pros: Could be very useful software.

Cons: Doesn't work.

Review: I have had this for just over a month and have spent multiple hours working with it. To date I have "successfully" burned 3 DVD's, one of which did not sync audio/video. All others have either hung up during the process or aborted due to error. I have never seen more poorly performing, inconsistent, and flawed software ever!! I wish I could give lower than a 1 rating!!

User Rating: 1/10

Totally unuseable. Released long before it was readyby lverbier - January 24, 2006

Pros: Potential based on pedigree

Cons: Does not work. Crashes. Corrupts files (see Pinnacle's own support site !!!!!!!)

Review: I've been burnt by early release software before but never ever this badly. Heaven knows what Troy Dreir was testing to give it a 7.1 score !!!!! Crashing and glitches are annoying but when it corrupts the very files you have loaded while telling you they have been saved, it defies belief. Reading Pinnacle's own support boards shows how little testing they must have done. And now the fix is released as a Beta pice of software. Unbelievable. So its off to the shops we go to buy Adobe Premier Elements and Photoshop. Overall, this is tragic because Pinnacle have not just boobed a bit; they have lost a customer forever. Even Microsoft in it's worst days (and there were some grim days) released code this poor.

User Rating: 1/10

Don't Waste Your Moneyby Chris Akker - January 21, 2006

Pros: Nothing At All

Cons: Doesn't Work

Review: BAD software, save your money.
I have previously used Studio 8 and 9, and was OK with the results. A little buggy, but not bad. I purchase a new copy of Studio10Plus, and have still not been able to get it to work. It crashes on start, crashes loading previous projects, have not been able to get it work at all. I've tried it on WindowsXPPro and Pro-x64, with no luck. Technical support from Pinnacle is a joke, automated email with canned replies. And they won't refund my money...I'm going to Adobe. Save your money.

User Rating: 2/10

Sadly put togetherby xpsd300 - January 19, 2006

Pros: cost,... colorful startup screen

Cons: Buy the program and you will see what a con job is!

Review: I wish I'd read the Cnet reviews/user opinions before I purchased this program! It loads very slowly. Smartmovie worked once. The first time I tried it. Now, it crashes everytime or locks up the laptop.

Smartsound keeps asking for a cd that I do not have (not included with the program I guess). Three cd's came with the program. The info the program wants is not on the cd.
I upgraded the program from their web page. Still a no go! Smartsound also causes the program to freeze now. I upgraded my memory from 512 to 2 gigs. Still a no go!

I'll have to trash it and keep looking for DV software. Maybe if I spend the $499.00 Avid will provide the good software.

User Rating: 1/10

TRULY DISMALby DQLarkin - January 17, 2006

Pros: Box is not actually empty

Cons: Wait, an empty box would be BETTER

Review: An utter disaster. I bought this software in desperation trying to get a project to complete that Studio 9.4.3 keeps crashing on. It takes an excrutiatingly long time to install, runs lots, lots slower, and crashes almost immediately. I updated my video drivers to the most recent, and installed the most recent Studio 10 patch (my OS is already always up-to-date), with know apparent improvement. Even the crash reporter crashes! After spending 8 hours trying to get it to work, I took it back to Frys, yelled bitterly at the sales people, and was able to return the opened box of software for a refund, against their stated policy. It was a moral imperative for me that no money go to Pinnacle for this horrific product.

How does this thing get a review of 7.1? Clearly a sign of vendor influence on CNET's review process.

User Rating: 1/10

DO NOT PURCHASE THIS SOFTWAREby JM Boyer - January 16, 2006

Pros: None - with the exception of the snazzy packaging.

Cons: Serious performance issues; basic features do not work

Review: Save yourself time, money and aggravation by avoiding Studio Plus v10. I have experienced serious performance issues: it is slow to load, crashes or locks up frequently, and I have had trouble using basic features.

v10 needs serious de-bugging, and simply does not live up to the hype. Spend your hard earned cash on something else.

User Rating: 1/10

Worse than spywareby brianlang75 - January 15, 2006

Pros: easy to use

Cons: too unstable to be usable.

Review: Avid should be ashamed of releasing this product. I work in the software industry. If I had been responsible for making the decision too release this, I surely would have been fired. As everyone else has noted, this thing crashed.... all the time! What kind of Quality Control do they have there? My grandma could have told you this product was no-where near ready to release. I had been working on one progject for a couple weeks, and after one (of the many) crashes, it curupted the project file and I lost everything. I have a pretty fast machine. 3.8GHzs (overclocked) P4, 1.5 Ghz RAM, R800 video card, and it was brought to its knees by this program. I can do most of the same things in Windows Movie maker, that is free, never crashes, uses 1/3 of the RAM, and is much more responsive.

User Rating: 1/10

The worst program ever programmed.by MicahA - January 13, 2006

Pros: If there are Pros, I have not found any.

Cons: Crash! Crash! Crash!, 3GB required

Review: What a disappointment, moved from Studio 9 Plus to Studio 10 Plus. Captured one family VHS tape and cannot do anything since. The program freezes upon startup and crashes during rendoring. I upgraded based upon CNET review, what a disappointment. You gave it a 7.1 and it should have been a .01

Updated
Capture a 45 min video and put out a 85GB file which then the program crashed three times trying to edit the capture. Plus if you want any filters you must pay for them extra. I'm going back to share-ware software, more professional programming.

User Rating: 1/10

Studio 10 is MESSby MarvinHayes - January 10, 2006

Pros: There are NO Pros

Cons: The WORST software I have ever tried to use in 25 years

Review: WHY DID PINNICALE RELEASE STUDIO 10 > WHEN THEY HAD TO HAVE KNOWN THAT IT SIMPLY DID NOT WORK???
Each step making videos > loading the program takes for ever, capturing > it crashes, editing > it crashes, and making movies > it crash. The DVDs resulting from hours of work are the worst of it all > They pixilate or they stop and the sound is off sync or are not DVDs, but are known as coasters .
Hello, Avid > Pinnacle had to have sabotaged there user base with this worst than useless software. Some say that it was some kind of cooperate maneuverings with end of the year rush to market to earn a year-end cash or stock bonus that was negotiated during the acquisition. If this is true, and all indications are that it is, it is simply criminal.
I have spent the better part of two months trying to get this garbage to work. I was fooled by Pinnacle with Liquid Edition and now I am fooled with Studio 10 > I will not be fool again.
If anyone has gotten this garbage to work > please let me know > the Editor?s Rating of ?Very Good? 7.1 is a joke > Troy Dreier > you have no credibility!!! CNET should have a 0 rating, for that is what it deserves.

User Rating: 1/10

So bad I built a pinnacle studio 10 warning siteby way299 - January 8, 2006

Pros: it comes with a green blanket.

Cons: it is slow, it crashes, and it's crash is even slow, customer support really sucks.

Review: All i can say is stay away from Pinncale Studio Verion 10. I hated it and mostly the customer service so bad that I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General of the State of California and even built a warning site at http://pinnacle.regedanzter.com

User Rating: 1/10

Worst software I have seen in 15 years !!by jpnielsen - January 7, 2006

Pros: If it worked it might be cool...... but it's not even close!

Cons: Won't run on MOST computers, crashes like you have never seen before, FULL of bugs. Bloated software and SLOW !!!!

Review: In 15 years of using software, this has to be the worst software that I have ever used. I consider myself to be geekish and I couldn't make this product work on a top of the line machine. The average computer person has NO chance with this product. When I contacted tech support, the first thing they did is send me out a page and a half document of stuff to do: update ALL drivers (video, audio, DVD, etc) turn off all non essential software, virus checkers, spyware, etc...... it goes on and on. This product is YEARS from being ready. You have been warned!

User Rating: 1/10

Horrible! Don't waste your money!by TomInJax - January 4, 2006

Pros: Nice manual.

Cons: Slow, buggy, and unstable.

Review: I started with Studio DV, upgraded to Studio 8, then Studio 9 and 9 Plus. When 10 came along I expected the same if not better product with even more features. Wrong! I had to run the installation twice. It hung up at about 85% on the first installation and I had to do a hard reset to continue (pull the plug!). Then when I started it for the first time, I was surprised to see the loading indicator start at 1%, 3%, 5%, etc. It took over a minute just to load the program. Now, before you say that I need to get a new machine - let me tell you; I went down to Circuit City and purchased a new Pentium 4 desktop machine just for video editing. You would think that this would be enough. Anyway, when I finally got it all loaded, a warning message popped up that I needed to upgrade my video drivers. I did and re-ran Studio 10 plus. The same warning appeared.

All in all, I feel the upgrade price was a waste of money. When I contacted support and requested a refund, the response was no - but we will help you make it work. Right...

User Rating: 1/10

Studio 10 Series Should be Removed from Shelfby sgoh88 - January 3, 2006

Pros: User Interface look the same as earlier versions of Studio

Cons: capturing crash, editing crash and making movie crash. There is nothing from Studio 10 besides making the computer hang or crash and rebooting

Review: As a Studio 8 user, I'm very glad to learn about Studio 10 series and all new features and solutions that come along with it.

But soon after getting the Studio Plus 10 and running it, it was totally disappointing experience.

Studio Plus 10 Plus simply does nothing but crash or hang computer ( Pentium 4 HT 3 GHz with 1G on board memory and nVdia Graphic )

It is not just a waste of money but also loss of family and precious time.

User Rating: 1/10

Should Avid be investigated by the SEC for Studio 10?by dougwitt - December 29, 2005

Pros: 4th quarter revenue contribution from Avid's new business unit

Cons: Customers got the shaft

Review: When considering an upgrade from Studio 9 to 10 I called the company to ask about the differences. I was actually okay with Pinnacle 9 in spite of instability and resource utilization. But, I wanted to have the latest product. What a big mistake!

The sales rep assured me that Pinnacle 10 had been written on the Liquid platform, "new from the ground up" and would run better, faster and more stable than Pinnacle 9. I was dumb enough to buy in because I wanted to believe it was true.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. I'm spending another day trying to roll back to Pinnacle 9 and hope I can still use my project files. (Slim chance.) I'm also going to try and re-install my previous Pinnacle 9 software on another computer just so I can get some work done.

As an adjunct marketing professor at a large university, I not only use edited video in class, I also talk about great marketing successes and great failures. Though I have suffered a major set-back in my preparation for next semester, at least have I've gained a great story to tell about a company that rushed bad product to market and did damage to their customer base and brand. Not a great trade-off, but a story I plan to share.

What a shock that Avid did not recognize this problem during its acquisition of Pinnacle. Management obviously was buying a brand and an installed base, not a real company.

Here is a quote:

Avid president and CEO David Krall said: ?We see this acquisition as the next logical step in our long-term strategy. Just as our acquisition of M-Audio in 2004 brought us into the consumer audio business, by acquiring Pinnacle?s consumer video business, Avid will be able to tap into the next generation of video editors while they are still learning their craft. This creates a very large potential customer base for Avid?s future.

"...Over the past five years, Avid has increased its profitability and shareholder value by growing our top line, expanding our gross margins, and leveraging our talent and technology across the entire company..."

I see a clear statement about "top line" growth and the acquisition of a customer base. Unfortunately, the Pinnacle emperor is actually wearing no clothes. We will wait and watch to see as Avid peels back the lemon and may eventually find much of their $462 million having been wasted on an increasingly disloyal customer base, a product that needs to be re-written from the bottom up and re-branding campaign that could have been better executed under their own moniker.

My guess is that Pinnacle management had a significant revenue objective to make by year-end as a new strategic business unit of Avid. I speculate that Pinnacle execs drove a product to market that should never have hit the shelves just so they could earn a year-end cash or stock bonus that was negotiated during the acquisition.

With patches due in Q1 2006, I believe there are issues that could even be investigated by the SEC with regard to revenue recognition. I have a question about the viability of 2005 sales of Pinnacle 10 because the product was not market ready and, in many respects, not even usable by customers without FY 2006 software patches.

I am not an accountant and this involves retail sales not B2B systems integration work, something I understand a bit better. I do not profess to know how the SEC would rule in light of AICPA Statement of Position (SOP) 97-2, "Software Revenue Recognition" or how the rule would apply in this case. That will be addressed by others with appropriate expertise. However, the question begs an answer and Avid executives have some explaining to do. I'm sure there are many people waiting for the answer, including this not-so-happy customer.

User Rating: 1/10

Holy Cow!! It really Sux!!!by birdsell - December 28, 2005

Pros: There are none

Cons: It is a waste of Money

Review: I upgraded from Ver 8 to Ver 10. It takes aprox 2~3 minutes to load. I called customer support and they said it was normal!! The program keeps locking up and now my AV box that I got from my Ver 8 Setup does not work. I contacted customer support and got absolutely no help. they kept telling me to install the patch. (for 4 times in a row after repeatedly telling them I did and it did not work.) Please save yourself a lot of greife and...DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM!!!

User Rating: 1/10

Holy Cow!! It really Sux!!!by birdsell - December 28, 2005

Pros: There are none

Cons: It is a waste of Money

Review: I upgraded from Ver 8 to Ver 10. It takes aprox 2~3 minutes to load. I called customer support and they said it was normal!! The program keeps locking up and now my AV box that I got from my Ver 8 Setup does not work. I contacted customer support and got absolutely no help. they kept telling me to install the patch. (for 4 times in a row after repeatedly telling them I did and it did not work.) Please save yourself a lot of greife and...DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM!!!

User Rating: 3/10

Painfully SLOWby scottgo1216 - December 28, 2005

Pros: more stable than v 8. Not sure about new features, it took too long for everything to load.

Cons: way to slow to be worth the capabilities it provides. it takes too long just load, preview clips, set in and outs

Review: Unless you have a blazing fast computer, I would buy another product. I have found Videowave 7.0 much faster, provide adequate features, and less money. I do like the feature set of Pinnacle better and the UI is more intuitive but I couldn't overcome the serious performance limitations.

User Rating: 1/10

Pinnacle Failureby avramovratko - December 27, 2005

Pros: Good Idea , Great theory

Cons: System crash every time you use it

Review: This was the biggest waste of money for me. I used the Studio 7 and it was ok so I thought this new one will be better. I haven't been able to use it for more than 10 minutes without having the program crash. Don't buy it because it sounds better than it look.

User Rating: 1/10

What a piece of junk!by rogenea - December 27, 2005

Pros: The CD's are shiny

Cons: It just does not work!

Review: I purchased this product two weeks ago to complete a holiday project for Christmas night. It's now December 27th I still haven't gotten anything done. At first, the program just locks up and fails over and over. But no hardware problem here! Pentium 4, 3.4 ghz, 1 gig on board, etc. After downloading the patch, it stopped locking up, but wtill would not render a project for saving to a file OR to a disk. It just ran for hours and hours and hours without producing anything for all my work. You can't even watch your project in the viewer as it will only play music and voice overs without showing progession of video or stills. This is VERY dissapointing. I would avoid this program at all cost, or at least until Pinnacle comes up with a broad based fix of its many problems. Oh, by the way, avoid the "media suite." You can obtain better stuff as freeware on CNET!

User Rating: 1/10

I can't believe I bought this...by jj15951 - December 21, 2005

Pros: Nice in theory but...

Cons: The program doesnt work!

Review: Whats the first thing that comes to mind with this terrible program? Constant crashes, for no reason at all! And if you think buggy installation is the worst of your problems, just wait. Try editing a 4 hour video and having the program crash every 10 minutes or so, for no apparent reason, with no pattern and no rhyme or reason. Adding a title? crash. Adding a clip? crash. Adding music? blue screen of death. Forget about accomplishing anything great with this product, even with the joke of a 10.1.2 patch (just release 10.2). In my opinion, Pinnacle really owes its loyal subscribers something, maybe free DIVX coding? This will probably be the last pinnacle product I buy, if they keep releasing stuff like this I won't have to worry, there will be no more pinnacle.

Oh, and by the way, it takes about 10 minutes to load and you cant restart the program until it reports the crash to Pinnacle (which is so annoying).

My opinion: Stay AWAY from this product. period.

Updated
Has anyone installed the beta patch to this program? Is it worth installing?

User Rating: 2/10

It just stops...by vinylrecord - December 21, 2005

Pros: It can recover the file you were working on when it crashes.

Cons: It HAS to recover your file a lot.

Review: I was doing a simple hour long presentation of photos mixing in some music and titles. The program just stopped on me at five times before I gave up and uninstalled it.

User Rating: 2/10

One Of The Worst Programs I Have Ever Triedby mfb817 - December 20, 2005

Pros: Lots of extra effects

Cons: Unstable, unpredictable

Review: Studio 10 is a waste of money. I will go back to using Studio 9. Tech support is terrible. I have spent hours working with this program on a dedicated machine with no other software. It has a mind of it's own. I think it is truly one of the worst excuses for software I have ever seen. Pinnacle should be ashamed to have their name on the box.

User Rating: 2/10

Trash and waste of timeby doscarson - December 14, 2005

Pros: Good transitions, Multiple sound tracks

Cons: Cannot burn clean DVD, Unstable menu, Sound locks up on DVD player

Review: I own and use Studio v. 9 Plus and it is a much better product then v. 10 Plus, even with its latest patch. I have burned a dozen worthless DVD's. It seems Pinnacle consistently issues software for the public to purchase and beta test. I have wasted 12 hours and 12 DVD blanks attemting to burn a clean DVD using just photos, transitions and background music.

User Rating: 2/10

Don't waste your time and money.by geralde - December 14, 2005

Pros: Great potential - maybe.

Cons: A hassle to install, not usable.

Review: What a nightmare trying to install and use this program. There are too many problems to list. Why screw up a great reputation and release this product before it was ready? Use Studio 9.3. Forget trying to use version 10.

User Rating: 2/10

You will be so sorry you got thisby bmaber - December 13, 2005

Pros: nearly free, I like the interface

Cons: Unstable to the max

Review: To quote the ?Jack in the Box Ad? Pinnacle Studio 10 YOU ARE SO FIRED. This product is Unstable Unstable and oh did I mention Unstable? I installed it on a fresh clean Dell 3000 with ½ gig of RAM with two huge defragged hard drives, up-to-date Windows XP but it was all for not. This hopeless software would eat my modest editing project after about 5 edits every time. The program is full of silly wipes and other useless features, that will make your videos look armature. Watch professionally made movies and television, notice the avoidance of circle wipes, page turns and flying boxes? See how they stick to simple dissolves and cuts? This is lost on Pinnacle who even wants you to buy more silly wipes, they lock out, and nag you for, till you send more money.

What good is an editor that you work with for hours, if not days (as happens with editing) if it eats your project and you must start back at step one? Oh and slow, this thing is always off trying to render something. Still photos imported into video look pixilated and so do the cheesy credits the title program renders. Forget about support for HDTV and 16 x 9 support is poorly implemented. This is an old program with some band-aids to try and get you to move up to Liquid Edition I guess?

This program is what the Mac bigots are talking about when they say a PC can?t edit video. But I kept my Dell PC and I went to Sony Vegas 6 and I am much happier, Vegas is fast, low cost and rock stable on any level of PC. I also hear Adobe Elements might be stable too but much much slower than Vegas 6.

User Rating: 2/10

Frustration is the Only Word to Associate with this Softwareby riw - December 13, 2005

Pros: Good user interface

Cons: Crashes constantly, VERY slow, very poor rednering and audio synch

Review: It's just two weeks before Christmas, and all through the house, everyone can hear me shouting..... Because the yearly video that goes in the Christmas cards isn't ready yet. Why not? Because I'm trying to build it using Studio Plus v10. Pinnacle says this new version has a radical new rendering engine that's much better than the older versions. I can believe it--but they shouldn't foust a beta test product on the public as something you have to buy!

Start with this: It takes a full 5 minutes to load, on a 3700+ machine with 2GB of memory, a fast 128DDR video card, and a SATA 300GB hard drive. I would probably retire before it could load on something slower.

And it doesn't help that I have to load it about every other frame I try to edit, because it crashes! Sometimes it crashes so hard I have to reboot my machine. What's Pinnacle's solution? Buy another hard drive, and edit your video there, rather than on your main hard drive. And make certain you keep at least 70% (of a 300GB hard drive???) free. They should just include a SATA hard drive in the package, if this is the reality. At least it would be honest.

Now, I finally rendered the movie, and the audio is out of synch. Some audio has been transposed, even, so audio from one video clip is paired with a different video clip. I tried to remove one of the impacted clips (there are 10 or 15), and reinsert it, but now it comes up with no audio at all.

This isn't usable software.

User Rating: 1/10

HORRIBLE!!! DO NOT BUY!by scengr - December 11, 2005

Pros: Slick interface

Cons: Stability, Performance, Memory and System usage

Review: DO NOT BE FOOLED! Just because Avid bought Pinnacle, it does not mean that Studio 10 is any less buggy or stable than previous versions.

If you read the product release info, they say that Studio 10 now incorporates the high-end Pinnacle Liquid engine. I do not know how something so crappy could be the high-end product. This version is even more buggy than version 9. They have known bugs from version 9 that are still not fixed in version 10 (just browse the forums and you'll be shocked at the problems in this product).

Just to start up the application takes 30 seconds to a minute on my 2.4Ghz Pentium 4 with 1GB of RAM. And once it's running, it uses over 160MG of RAM with a blank project. When compiling a project, it uses 99% of the CPU, making it impossible to do anything else. It constantly crashes and pops up a dialog box that asks you to tell Avid what you were doing when it crashed in order to send reports back to Avid. It appears as though Avid is still beta testing their code at the consumers expense.

I have been trying for over 3 weeks to get it to compile 1 complete DVD. It crashes during capture, during editing, during creation of the DVD menus, and most frustrating, during compilation of the DVD. On the few occasions that I have been able to successfully edit and arrange my clips and start the DVD creation process, I have yet to have it finish. It either crashes or hangs during the transcoding of the video, or worse, during the burning of the DVD (and when Avid tells you to let it run over night to complete, I have let it run for 2 days with no success). I have wasted more blank DVDs in the past week than with any other program in the past 3 years.

It's a shame since I really like the interface and the non-linear video editing capabilities of Pinnacle Studio. However, if you can't create a DVD, there's no point in even using this application. I am going to Best Buy to buy Adobe Premiere Elements, even though I feel they are lacking in the video editing and menu creation capabilities.

User Rating: 2/10

Pinnacle Should Be Ashamed!by mistert - December 3, 2005

Pros: Offers a wealth of potentially great new features if and when the many problems are resolved.

Cons: For practical purposes the application (in it's present state) is NOT usable.

Review: The keyword for Pinnacle's new Studio 10 series is "frustration"! Frustration that the program is nearly impossible to install, frustration that most of the features (even the basic ones) don't work, and frustration that a respected developer like Pinnacle would knowingly release and aggressively market what amounts to something less than "beta" grade software. For confirmation of this, one only need visit the Studio 10 web board [ webboard.pinnaclesys.com/ ] and read through the postings, few of which have anything positive to say about the product. Pinnacle's once omnipresent forum moderators have mysteriously disappeared leaving those who have spent between $70 and $200 for various configurations of the program furious.

According to CNET's review, Pinnacle has stated that a fix will be forthcoming sometime in Q1, 2006. If so, my guess would be the later part of Q1 as such extensive patching will surely require re-spinning most of the code. Meanwhile, Pinnacle's previous consumer offering, Studio 9, remains a fairly solid product although it still awaits a patch (v 9.5) originally scheduled (and missed) for distribution in October 2005. With so much viable competition from the likes of Adobe, Ulead and Sony it's nothing short of amazing that Pinnacle has put their reputation in jeopardy with this not-ready-for prime time offering.

User Rating: 1/10

Don't waste your money!by cherden - December 3, 2005

Pros: Easy to use, powerful program

Cons: Very buggy!!! Highly unstable!

Review: As a long time Studio user I was excited to see a further improved version, but that didn't turn out to be the case. This is a definite DOWNGRADE! It is full of bugs, good luck getting any type of project done.

If you are a version 9 user don?t ?upgrade? you will be sorry. Just read the Pinnacle message boards.

User Rating: 5/10

The potential is there but....by drumstick - December 2, 2005

Pros: HD Support, Import mini-dvd's, decent effects, relatively easy to use (when it works)

Cons: If you like bugs then this is the software for you.

Review: Man, where to begin? The MediaSuite CD that I paid extra would not install because it refused to recognize that Studio 10 was installed. Pinnacle had to issue a patch just for CD to install. That was my first clue, that whoever tested this software did not really do a good job. On the postive side: I like the interface much better than Adobe's. Having used Studio 9, the interface is very familar and the additional functionality is very welcomed. I have a Sony DVD camcorder and can import the video directly from the disc.
The negative: I have been working on a wedding video and wanted some the upgraded features that Studio 10 provided. However, I have been extremely frustrated with the results once I burned it to the DVD (well, when I actually got it burn.). The SmartMovie playback is very jerky, sometimes the audio/video is out of sync and the software just seems to randomly crash. Fortunely, it will save your progress but I definitely get the impression that the software needed better product testing before it was released to the public.
Just check out Pinnacle's User Forum for all of the sordid details..
http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&SectionID=273&lng=1

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