Pinnacle 10
 

Hello all, just thought I'd share this discovery with you. I recently came across on a copy of Pinnacle Studio Media Suite 10. Specs on the box says it edits HDV, so I thought I'd check it out for evaluation. There's no simple way to put it, but I definitely think this product is not ready for HDV. A few pros, it has some nice encoding options, WMV HD, if you have the codec, MPEG2, HDV1, 2, even DIVX-HD, so on and so forth. Well, it appears that the software, at consumer level, I think will make several people upset at their purchase. The purchase price is 129.99 for the bundle, but I think does not handle the HDV stream well. It appears to capture a raw stream directly into the software, which we all know is cumbersome and difficult to play with. It had no problem recognizing my HDV devices, which was nice, but continuously crashed when I tried to edit. The minimum system requirements, according to Pinnacle are: to edit 720p, 128mb dedicated video card, P4 HT Processor or equivelent, 1gb of ram. For 1080i, same specs except the graphics card requirement is 256mb! I'm picking up the Sony Vegas+DVD later today and I'll let you guys know how that handles.

Love peace and chicken grease!

I use its big brother (the base engine is from Liquid Edition). The video card specs are because Pinnacle uses DirectX calls to the GPU to do rendering and needs the graphics memory to handle the objects. Actually, being able to handle the native format without changing it is a feature, not a hinderance. Avid mentioned this specifically as one of the pluses of what they were getting when they bought Pinnacle (that and access to their consumer market.)

Thats what I figured. I suspect that liquid (although I've never used it) will handle much better than the Studio 10 version. I picked up a copy of Sony Movie Studio+DVD Platinum a couple of days ago and have been testing it out since. It performs much better on my system. It comes with a Sony sound effects sampler, some light audio production software, and DVD architect. The WMV-HD codecs are also included, along with another output option listed only "HD 720p" and "1080i." The HDV codecs are in there as well, only 1080i and 720p30. Sadly there is no 720p24 for the HD-100 (darn!) Well, I guess it's only because it's consumer software with a $130.00 price tag. The HDV stream handles really well on the timeline, and although I never thought I would move from Adobe to Vegas, this software has really grown on me. I also thought it was cool that it came with a copy of "HDV: What you need to know." Good reading. The only thing I notice when I re-export as an HDV stream from the software, there is a slight degradation: larger blocks of pixels, but I'm quite sure that it was due to a very dark shot. The software also had no trouble reading my JVC 30k deck, which I thought was cool. Now I only wonder if it will read the BRHD50. I'll just have to treat myself to one to find out :-)

Happy cutting.

Because this is a major release on a whole new engine, it will probably need a service pack before everyone is happy with it. :D

Carlos, Pinnacle has released the 10.1 update.

Sweet. I suspect this new update will improve some of the defects that I encountered. E.G. the freezing of the installation of the bonus materials, the cruddy performance of the HDV workflow, the lockup of the software, and finally, the crashing of my machine. :-D I'm sure the update solves some of those issues.

Thanks a bunch

just got the studio 10, media edition, and liquid. all of them freeze up as soon as i try to use them. studio 10 takes 1:37 min to open.
send several e-mails to pinnacle, no answer.
brand new pc, with all the bangs and wistles.
anybody has some suggestions please?????

die uninstall, repair etc. same thing.

greetings

try the 10.1 update yet? Pinnacle's website says it has "several fixes" so I'd say that's a start. Here's the link.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSit...mode=documents

ehello carlos,

thanks, but yes i have the 10.1 update. what makes me mad is, that pinnacle does not answer.

greetings

That sucks... that's why I got rid of my copy of pinnacle and came up on the sony software. I thought the pinnacle would be worth a shot, but after it crashed my machine I didn't want to deal with it anymore.

hello carlos,

since i am not a pro in editing, i started with studio 8 - 9, and now i purchased liquid and studio 10.
installed 10 several times, uninstalled, 10.1 patch what have you. several e-mails to pinnacle, but no response.
off course it could be me too...<G> will call pinnacle this week, and try to get real help. spend $ 700 for the software.

the funny thing is my new pc comes with the window movie maker program, very very simple, but easy to go around.

i do want to learn, but so fare pinnacle just takes the money. no support.
in one of their trouble shooting forums the claim that they will have an other patch comming, which will take care of the 1 1/2 start up time for s10
will keep you posted.

(should have spend a little bit more and go with adobe)

greetings

hello carlos,

called pinnacle several times today, but the waiting time is 30 min and longer.
will try more on friday.

greetings

You can also get peer support here http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read...onID=273&lng=1

Karl,

Have you tried the liquid software yet? If so, how do you like it?

Carlos.

hello carlos,

well, after the second install, liquid runs fine, no crashes...
but what a difference. i have to learn a lot.

@george
thanks for the link. there is a jon from pinnacle, and he answered one of my postings. so let's see if i can get this studio10 going

greetings