Pinnacle Studio 8 for $30

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.process?RestartFlow=t&Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=&Product_Id=3239331&showcase=t&sh_rKeyWord=studio%208' target='_blank'>http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage....Word=studio%208</a><br /><br /></div>Totally off-topic, but Matthew Miller emailed me a few days ago about this deal from J&R, and it's just too sweet to pass up. Pinnacle Studio 8 is what I use for 80% of my video editing projects - it's not Vegas Video or Premier, but it's very simple to use and works quite well (the latest version fixes some of the stability problems earlier versions had). No affiliate links here, just a really good deal if you want to buy some video editing software. The latest version includes an integrated VCD/DVD burning application, and their titling application is excellent (better than most I've used).

[JonnoB]

I would be curious how this compares to other consumer video editing tools like Movie Maker 2 (Microsoft) and with the new transition effect add-ons from the new Plus package.

[Jason Dunn]

I would be curious how this compares to other consumer video editing tools like Movie Maker 2 (Microsoft) and with the new transition effect add-ons from the new Plus package.

I haven't seen the new transition effects package (since the Plus package isn't available to anyone outside the US yet...grr), but based on my experience with Movie Maker 2 so far, Pinnacle Studio 8 far, far better. I think it's great that Microsoft is giving people a freebie tool to experiment with, but...it's a little dysfunctional. :lol:

[Sheynk]

...it's a little dysfunctional. :lol:

Just like most things MSFT makes......excluding PPC ofcourse :wink:

[emmfan]

How does Pinnacle Studio compare with Roxio VideoWave (this is what I've used before). I was planning on upgrading to the latest version, but would contemplate switching to Pinnacle, especially with this great deal. 8O The next step after that is to move <u>Faster Smarter Digital Video</u> from my Amazon Wish List to the Shopping Cart. :D

[ux4484]

that is a good deal......to bad I've already got it :cry: .

It's a nice editor, but I've found my self using Movie Star 5 to capture/trim my vids as it has better integration with my Dazzle DVD.

[splintercell]

Outpost has Pinnacle 8 for $19.99 after rebate:

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/3410843

[ultimate_ed]

Well, I see what the catch is with this product:

"Capture and edit DVD quality MPEG video from your DV or Digital8 camcorder"

While Adobe Premiere is a good deal more expensive (the upgrade to v6.5 is $150) it edits DV footage in it's native format and that means that I can export my project back to tape on my MiniDV camcorder at maximum quality. (Of course, MiniDV is already a compressed format vs. full analog)

With this one, you are automatically getting kicked down to MPEG compression when you capture the footage. That seems like a lot of wasted effort for the processor, although it will save a lot of disk space for a working project.

Not necessarily trying to scare anyone away. It is certainly is a great deal for $20, just make sure you're aware of what it can, and can not do for you.

[Jason Dunn]

How does Pinnacle Studio compare with Roxio VideoWave?

Well, not to slam the video software you're using, but Roxio lent me some of their video editing software, and I really wasn't too fond of it. 8O I'd take Studio 8 over VideoWave anyday. :D

[Jason Dunn]

Well, I see what the catch is with this product: "Capture and edit DVD quality MPEG video from your DV or Digital8 camcorder"

That's not quite true. :wink: I can assure you that Sudio 8 can work with full quality DV-AVI - I routinely export in DV-AVI format before encoding to MPEG2 for DVD or SVCD.

[emmfan]

Well, not to slam the video software you're using, but Roxio lent me some of their video editing software, and I really wasn't too fond of it. 8O I'd take Studio 8 over VideoWave anyday. :D

Thanks for the "brutal" honesty :o , hehe, actually, that's the answer I was expecting and looking for. Now, I will no longer be lost in the "dark side".

[Rob Alexander]

Well, I see what the catch is with this product:

"Capture and edit DVD quality MPEG video from your DV or Digital8 camcorder"

With this one, you are automatically getting kicked down to MPEG compression when you capture the footage. That seems like a lot of wasted effort for the processor, although it will save a lot of disk space for a working project.



There's no catch, and it doesn't kick you down to MPEG. It's just a poorly worded sentence; they're trying to point out that what's new in v8 is that it has DVD burning built-in. I've used Studio for a couple of years now and it has always worked with full DV. In fact, it's quite efficient in handling your DV in that it doesn't decompress/recompress any footage that it doesn't have to, so you don't lose any of the original quality except where it has to render transitions and things.

For anyone looking to get into DV, you probably can't beat this package. Premiere is much more powerful (I use it too), but you'll spend a significant amount of time learning to use it. Studio is so intuitive that you could have a completed video together within an hour or so of installing it. (I did.)

Movie Maker is a joke next to Studio. Studio is quite powerful, doing pretty much anything that a casual home user would want. It comes with lots of nice transitions, a music generator, a nice little titler. It imports various video formats, still images, digital music. It outputs back to your DV camera, to uncompressed AVIs, to MPEG, to your DVD writer. It was a bargain at its full $100 RRP, but at $20 it's a steal.

[Mike Temporale]

Outpost has Pinnacle 8 for $19.99 after rebate:

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/3410843

Ya, but they wanted $21 US for shipping to Canada!! 8O That's pretty high.

[Jason Dunn]

Ya, but they wanted $21 US for shipping to Canada!! 8O That's pretty high.

That's about $61 CND after shipping, and if you go check the store shelves at the Future Shop you'll see this selling for around $99 (at least, it was the last time I checked). Of course, there may be a price drop at Future Shop too.

Canadians always get screwed on shipping from the US. :evil:

[PPC to go]

There are lots of unhappy customer comments on Amazon about this product (Version 8 in particular). I usually shy away from products with this "red flag" auora. It sounds like some of you have had good experieces with it. Why would there be such a disparity in opinions?

[splintercell]

Ya, but they wanted $21 US for shipping to Canada!! 8O That's pretty high.

Sorry about that, but I was just looking at base prices. Unfortunately, lots of places overcharge for shipping, be it to Canada or even within the US.

[XmanHP548]

Ok PCers,
It's not too late to get that PowerMac or PowerBook and to snag iMovie 3 (which is set to be released as a free download on Jan 25th). Also Final Cut Express has now be released as a good middle ground between Final Cut Pro and iMovie. I think it retails for $300....
And I think that Avid is coming out with a free, stripped down version of their software as well pretty soon.

Sorry Jason, if I took this off topic, but it drives me bonkers to see people trying to do video on the PC when this is one area that Macs clearly SMOKE the competition. :twisted:

[peterawest]

Jason,

As long as we're on the subject, did you ever get your new site up and running? If so, what is the address?

:?:

[dhpss]

I am trying to copy my VHS tape to a VCD format, b'cause I want to play back on my regular home DVD player and still keep the video in MPEG-1 format. Below are my experience using several products:
1-Bought Jason's book
2-Bought MGI Videoware, now becomes Roxio, works well but Mpeg compression does not provide good quality (when select VCD)
3-Bought Pinnacle Studio 8
4-Bould Plus! Digital Media (Movie Maker 2 is free)
6-Bought Nero 5.5
5-Movie Maker only produce WMV from analog video, so it is no good.
6-Pinnacle Studio wors OK but I get Capture error message without much explication...So I have to use another shareware product to capture my video to AVI, then I can edit with Pinnacle to produce a MPG from AVI, then I use NERO to make VCD....

It is not simple....

[Will T Smith]

How does Pinnacle Studio compare with Roxio VideoWave (this is what I've used before). I was planning on upgrading to the latest version, but would contemplate switching to Pinnacle, especially with this great deal. 8O The next step after that is to move <u>Faster Smarter Digital Video</u> from my Amazon Wish List to the Shopping Cart. :D

I tried using VideoWave and was EXTREMLY frustrated by many quirks.

Studio 8(.3) is VERY EASY. Studio 8 is also complete, end-to-end. It does the captures, editing, authoring and rendering all within the confines of one application. It makes everybody's list as the best "entry-level" video editor on the PC platform (Mac users use iMovie of course).

For VERY large projects, it has some shortcomings.
* It's hard coded to 1024x768 monitors. They should include a copy of quickview (free from http://www.pcworld.com). Since you have to down-res high res monitors in order to see the application full-size.

* No full-screen/quarter screen preview is available. Nor can you drag the preview window onto a second monitor.

* You can't "cut-up" footage from multiple video sources. That is, I can create a scene but it treats the original film capture as "immutable". I'm compiling a "season highlights" video for my niece (going to college). I have about twenty tapes so in order to do clips I have to render scenes to individual AVIs.

* Only one video source is allowed at a time. Interleaving multiple video sources isn't possible. It's also difficult to do picture in picture effects (you need their optional Hollywood effects package, and even then it's difficult).

* No zooming/panning is possible on your video source without Hollywood effects. Within hollywood effects, it's fairly difficult.

In retrospect my project would be much better suited to Video Vegas. But hey I'm a newbie and I'm poor. If you have a large project, OR you have a bit more money to spend, Vegas Video is a better choice.

If you just want to do some basic editing and titling then straight to Video CD/DVD, then Pinnacle Studio is definitely your best bet.

[Will T Smith]

I am trying to copy my VHS tape to a VCD format, b'cause I want to play back on my regular home DVD player and still keep the video in MPEG-1 format. Below are my experience using several products:
1-Bought Jason's book
2-Bought MGI Videoware, now becomes Roxio, works well but Mpeg compression does not provide good quality (when select VCD)
3-Bought Pinnacle Studio 8
4-Bould Plus! Digital Media (Movie Maker 2 is free)
6-Bought Nero 5.5
5-Movie Maker only produce WMV from analog video, so it is no good.
6-Pinnacle Studio wors OK but I get Capture error message without much explication...So I have to use another shareware product to capture my video to AVI, then I can edit with Pinnacle to produce a MPG from AVI, then I use NERO to make VCD....

It is not simple....

1) Make sure your Pinnacle Studio is updated to version 8.3. Pre 8.3 had a LOT of problems. They have fixed most of them in the update.

2) Using Pinnacle Studio 8, there is no need to use Nero in order to make a VideoCD or DVD, superior authoring capability is available directly within Studio 8.

BTW, Nero has a new product out called Nero Vision Express. It's free to 5.5 owners. The catch is that there is no MPEG-2 encoder included. You have to buy the encoder separately. However, this is probably a godsend for Vegas users since Vegas has good MPEG-2 redering but no integrated authoring.

[Jason Dunn]

There are lots of unhappy customer comments on Amazon about this product (Version 8 in particular). I usually shy away from products with this "red flag" auora. It sounds like some of you have had good experieces with it. Why would there be such a disparity in opinions?

Pinnacle Studio 8 seems to be "sensitive" to certain hardware configurations. I've had pretty good luck with it, but I've heard of others having nothing but problems. They could stand to make Studio 8 more stable though, that's for sure - early pre-patched versions were a little flaky.

But, really, it's only $20, so how much do I really need to justify this? :lol:

[Jason Dunn]

Sorry Jason, if I took this off topic, but it drives me bonkers to see people trying to do video on the PC when this is one area that Macs clearly SMOKE the competition. :twisted:

Eh, "whatever". :lol: You're a Mac user trolling for a fight...not going to take the bait. :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

Jason,

As long as we're on the subject, did you ever get your new site up and running? If so, what is the address?

:?:

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com

Not ready to go just yet!

[Mike Temporale]

Ya, but they wanted $21 US for shipping to Canada!! 8O That's pretty high.

That's about $61 CND after shipping, and if you go check the store shelves at the Future Shop you'll see this selling for around $99 (at least, it was the last time I checked). Of course, there may be a price drop at Future Shop too.

Canadians always get screwed on shipping from the US. :evil:

I checked FutureShop.ca and Henrys.com, and both have it listed around $150 CDN, with no rebate coupons that I could find. :( And FutureShop doesn't have any in stock to boot.

I ordered from the original link Jason provided. Shipping to Canada is only $9. or so. I prefer to pay a little more upfront instead of getting half way through the checkout and finding out you're going to be rapped on shipping. I guess that's just how some of these places get the price so low. :roll:

[Mike Temporale]

Ya, but they wanted $21 US for shipping to Canada!! 8O That's pretty high.

Sorry about that, but I was just looking at base prices. Unfortunately, lots of places overcharge for shipping, be it to Canada or even within the US.

Ya, I got half way through before they "adjusted" the shipping rate becuase of where I live. There's no way to tell up front, I just wanted to warn others.

[Rob Alexander]

There are lots of unhappy customer comments on Amazon about this product (Version 8 in particular). I usually shy away from products with this "red flag" auora. It sounds like some of you have had good experieces with it. Why would there be such a disparity in opinions?

Later versions of 7 had gotten reasonably stable when they released 8 and it had lots of problems early on. I believe they have most of those worked out now. But as Jason said, it is also quite sensitive to certain hardware and software issues and it's not always obvious what is causing the problem. Even when it works, it's always had a few quirks, but nothing you can't work around.

If you have Studio and are having problems, then there is quite a good list of things to check for on the pinnacle forums. If you don't have Studio, then all I can say is that it works well for most people and you aren't risking much at these prices.

[Rob Alexander]

Studio 8(.3) is VERY EASY. Studio 8 is also complete, end-to-end. It does the captures, editing, authoring and rendering all within the confines of one application. It makes everybody's list as the best "entry-level" video editor on the PC platform (Mac users use iMovie of course).

For VERY large projects, it has some shortcomings.
&lt;snip>
If you just want to do some basic editing and titling then straight to Video CD/DVD, then Pinnacle Studio is definitely your best bet.

I couldn't agree more. Studio is a great option for beginners. For me, it lasted over two years before I started feeling the need for more features and moved on to Premiere, but for lots of people Studio is all they'll ever need.

IMO, pretty much everything you listed as shortcomings goes beyond what I would call entry-level. While the Hollywood FX add-ons can let you do quite a bit extra, they are pretty cumbersome to use. If you need to do those things, you're really pushing beyond the natural limits of the program and should be thinking about a higher-end package.

What it really comes down to for me, though, is this. I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of months learning Premiere after already having a good bit (2+ years) of experience with basic video editing in Studio. If I had started with Premiere right off the bat, there's a good chance that I'd have just given up and lost interest in DV. But using Studio first was so easy and intuitive that it made DV fun right from the start. Now that I have a firmly established love for the hobby, I don't mind spending some serious time moving on to a higher-end product.

If someone reading this is just starting out, then I really don't think you can do better than Studio. If you ever outgrow it (and many will), then you can learn something more complicated at the time. But I bet most people will never outgrow it and will be happy just editing up some cute shots of the kids, or whatever, for life. Why spend lots of money on something else when Studio will give you an easy interface, with lots of bells and whistles, at such a great price?