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  1. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    I'm thinking of buying Pinnacle Studio 8.
    I want an easy to use program for a relative novice at video editing.
    The most I'll do is edit little bits out of my home movies, fade one scene into another, maybe add a title or two and then burn to dvd-r.
    I currently capture with an ATI Radeon card from a VHS-C camcorder (I'm about to buy a digital camcorder) at 720 x 576 with Virtualdub and encode with TMPGEnc plus, generally at mpeg2 VBR5000 and then use Ulead Movie Factory (1.0) to author.
    My questions are...
    1) Is Pinnacle a good example of a good editing package
    2) Is Pinnacle better or worse than TMPGEnc, ie. should I edit with Pinnacle and then output as an avi (to encode to mpeg2 with TMPGEnc) or should I let Pinnacle do the lot?
    3) Does anyone have any opinions on the authoring ability of Pinnacle?
    I'm not looking for hollywood results, just a nice finish to my movies of my son's first year.
    Many thanks for any opinion/advice,
    Will Hay
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  2. Good interface but slow and buggy. Check Pinnacle user board for comments from users.
    PIV-2.4G ASUS MB, 1G Mem, WinXP
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  3. I use Pinnacle Studio 8 Deluxe for all my editing of home videos. There are a few bugs here and there I have to work around, but overall it is an easy to learn and use program.

    I know a lot of people bash it, but to be honest, for the money it is hard to beat. The deluxe version comes with a ton of wipes, fades, and affects. It is quite easy to edit out (trim) parts of clips. Also does motion menus (both the background in motion as well as the videos in motion on the menu).

    I have never had a problem with burning the actual DVD. Seems to burn as well as any othe program I have used (RecordNow, Nero, Instant CD/DVD).

    Bottom line is that I have had very few problems with the program and would make the decision to purchase again. I have also used all the other major editing/authouring tools out there and Pinnacle beats them all in features as well as an intuitive interface and is EASY to learn compared to the others (for the money).

    I am sure I will catch some grief for this post, but that is my experience with it.

    Phillip
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  4. Member
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    I used to use Pinnacle 7 and found it a fantastic editing tool for beginners to intermediate. I used to output as AVI and encode with TMPG or CCE.

    If 8 is as easy to use as 7 then it has got to be a good option for you. I have read that the Pinnacle 8 encoder is much better than 7 so you may not need to use one of the other encoders although, I'm sure that you would still find it worthwhile to use TMPG or CCE for the best results.
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    BUGGY AS HELL!!!!

    They have a new patch out every few weeks, and none of the bugs seem to go away!

    SAVE YOUR MONEY!
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  6. The application is very user friendly (when it works). it either seems to work for some people and give others nothing but headaches.
    so far it has worked for me in the following manner,
    I have created several DVD's of about 110 minutes with two menus and chapter points along the way.
    1. capture in studio
    2. edit in studio
    3. create image to hard drive
    4. burn to DVD from image, within in Studio

    the only bad part... it takes about 10 hours to render the DVD (workaround is, start your rendering around 8pm go to sleep and it should be done in the morning).
    good luck.
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  7. Good package... You can find some more info here

    Pinnacle Studio 8 and DV home video editing

    Here are some recomendations
    • Don't use it to edit mpeg file
    • Great for DV AVI files
    • You can edit AVI file, save it as AVI, encode it with TMPGEnc and author it back with PS8
    • It is good package for home video editing, not for DVD Backup authoring
    • Encoding in PS8 is good enough, but you will have to test this by your self. You will never get look as Commercial DVD's mainly due "shaky hands"
    • Again.... great All-In-One package
    • To avoid problems with it follow my link. I never had real problem when using my clean OS. I know how OS can look like after installing a lot of crap software a then they blame PS8 for problems. Of course there are bugs but you can avoid problems.
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  8. "My questions are...
    1) Is Pinnacle a good example of a good editing package
    2) Is Pinnacle better or worse than TMPGEnc, ie. should I edit with Pinnacle and then output as an avi (to encode to mpeg2 with TMPGEnc) or should I let Pinnacle do the lot?
    3) Does anyone have any opinions on the authoring ability of Pinnacle?
    I'm not looking for hollywood results, just a nice finish to my movies of my son's first year.
    Many thanks for any opinion/advice,
    Will Hay"

    1) No
    2) Sounds like that would be complicated and slow.
    3) Don't know I could never get Studio8 to complete a task without freezing or crashing the computer.

    Look if you want a simple program that absolutly works then just get NeoDVD Plus http://www.mediostream.com/products/neodvdplus/index.html
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  9. BTW: I forgot to mention this...

    Pinnacle Studio DV, AV or Deluxe includes same software which is Pinnacle Studio 8, but different cature card. At least that is my understanding.

    Pinnacle Studio 8 DV - FireWire (DV) card
    Pinnacle Studio 8 AV - Analog Capture card
    Pinnacle Studio 8 Deluxe - DV+AV card

    If there is an problem (especialy with AV or Deluxe) it might be card problem too, so don't blame software for everything.
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  10. I didn't have a capture card problem with Studio8 because it refused to recognize my Aver card.
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  11. I use PS8 to author DVD. It is slow and crash
    occasionally, but after a while, you learn to not
    to do some sequence of things to avoid the crash.
    Recently it is on sale in Frys for 59.99 with 50.00
    rebate. For less than $10.00, I think it is a bargain
    even with a few bugs here and there.
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  12. Member
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    I have a copy that I'll sell you cheap. It had so many bugs that I gave up on it.

    My suggestion... don't buy it unless you can try it first.
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  13. Like many people here, I've been using Studio 8 to edit my home videos (DV). I tried many other programs such as Ulead VideoStudio 6 and 7, Ulead Media Studio 7, Adobe Premiere, and even Avid Xpress DV, Vegas at my friends house who are a professional video editor but I found Studio to be the easiest to use. That is if you are using it for your home video, not for professional or commercial use.

    Those expensive programs are too complicated and hard to learn. Of course, if you put your energy and time, I am sure they are better than other any other programs but who has time? VideoStudio got better but still it cannot beat Studio 8's titleDeko. I found it hard to insert title overlays with other programs. They don't have as many choices as Studio 8 either.

    Also when you detect scenes with Ulead programs, they make separate AVI files which annoy me a lot. Studio 8 makes one AVI but marks them in the pogram so I can edit them separately.

    Regarding the encoding... I would love to do it in Studio but it takes too much time as someone pointed out. (+10 hours for 1:30 movie) So I tried to output it as AVI file then encode it with either TMPGEnc or CCE then retrieve it back to Studio. One problem with this was that it took a long time to import MPG file back in the program. Also Studio only imports MPG files, not MPV and MPA files. CCE only lets you make MPV, MPA when you use multipass conversion. Also it is kinda slow to insert chapter points once MPG file is imported. But once everything is done, this program has one of the better menu templates then any other programs.

    Once I make MPG file, I usually import it to Ulead DVD Workshop to burn it in a DVD. If you encode your video according to DVD standards, it does not take much time to import it into the program. It also lets me modify DVD settings unlike Studio 8.

    Enough about pros... Let me tell you about some bad things about it as well. 1) As someone pointed out, it is slow. When you work with 90 minute video, you better have a good computer. -> that's why I upgraded mine to 2.4Ghz P4. 2) It's a system resource drainer. You should have enough memory in your system especially if you are thinking about encoding your video in the program. 3) Bugs... for me DVD menus didn't work (program hang) but since I reinstalled Windows XP and Studio, it's working fine.

    Well... enough said. In conclusion, for the price, I don't think there is a better program out there. And for a novice or intermediate like me, this is more than adequate. If you want to go professional, go with Adobe Premiere or something that costs thousands of dollars.

    Oh... BTW, many programs mentioned above are available as trialware so check them out first before you spend your money on them.

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  14. Member
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    I have been using Pinnacle Studio 8 and it is easy to use. Perhaps, you can consider looking at Ulead Video Studio. It is much easier.
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  15. I used PS7, then PS8 for about a year. It is true that there were some
    crashes. But I do not think it will crash so often if you just do some
    simple editing. I only used its some basic functionalities and hardly
    have had crashes recently. My process include

    capture (DV or AVI),
    editing, add manu and transition,
    rendering,
    generate MPEG2 or directly burn to SVCD.

    On the other hand, my flow only involves AVI/DV files. PS2 can also deal
    with MPEG2 files. But I do not know how good it is. Considering it costs
    only $10 after rebate, I will consider it a good deal.


    PS, you have to download and patch PS8 before you use it. I do not think
    PS8 is usable without patch.
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  16. Member
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    I'll make it simple for you:
    capture, editing, make AVI file S8
    Make MPEG TMPGenc
    Authoring/Burn Ulead DVD Workshop

    This is the best combination.
    Regards
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  17. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    Thanks for the advice folks, the good and bad
    Think I'm gonna' jump in!
    I'd been looking at the (45mb) tutorial and it seems just what I'm looking for.
    I think I'll encode with TMPGEnc and perhaps output to Movie Factory 1.0 or even import the mpeg back into Pinnacle.
    Could of other questions if you could oblige.
    1) Compared to the 10hrs+ (?!?!?) encoding time, how long would you guess a typical rendering (correct term?) would take?
    What I mean is if I'm saving the edited file (simple stuff, fading each scene, a menu or two and each scene trimmed) how long would it take to save as an .avi file, rather than as an mpeg?
    2) I must admit I like the idea of a menu with 'real clip' buttons, such as Pinnacle Studio 8 offers. With this in mind I'm keen to import the mpeg back into PS8. Is this an easy process?
    3) Is there a facility to output as a VIDEO_TS folder, so I can burn with RecordNow Max (or Nero, for instance), or is the function within Pinnacle relatively successful at burning to disk?
    Thanks folks,
    Will Hay
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  18. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by donpedro
    Good package... You can find some more info here

    Pinnacle Studio 8 and DV home video editing
    Many, many thanks for the link to this excellent post.
    Will
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  19. Originally Posted by Silky31
    What I mean is if I'm saving the edited file (simple stuff, fading each scene, a menu or two and each scene trimmed) how long would it take to save as an .avi file, rather than as an mpeg?
    Lehnght of encoding does not realy depend that much on complexity (I think). Saving in DV AVI (same as captured) is fast. Transitions, titles and edited video need to be re-encoded and therefore exetend time. Saving in any different AVI takes time (re-encoding)
    Originally Posted by Silky31
    3) Is there a facility to output as a VIDEO_TS folder, so I can burn with RecordNow Max (or Nero, for instance), or is the function within Pinnacle relatively successful at burning to disk?
    Yes, you can just create "disk" without burning and use Nero or something to burn. That is what I do. I was able to burn one disk with PS8 and Sony DRU-500A (I beleieve -R) , but I don't do that. I use Nero. I just like it more that way. BTW: It is in that post
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  20. Member
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    I use pinnacle 8 and have had no problems. Search around for the best price. I bought a couple of weeks ago from Buy.com with a $50 rebate. Final price $19.99. The rebate form says this is valid until 03/31/03. So check it out. Amazon.com can have good deals as well.

    Another program I use is MUVEE (www.muvee.com) this will take your video file, say 1 hour, and music file (MP3 is OK) and "auto create" a finished edited movie of say 30 mins (or less if you want) using a number of selectable templates. The templates tell Muvee how to edit. e.g. "Music Video" will produce fast paced crazy transitions, where “pro medium sequential” will produce a sequential movie with sober transitions. One disadvantage is you have no say on what scenes are used. The music you add is analyzed as well as the video so the transitions are in time with the music. It’s a fun product for home videos. BTW, the new release has MPEG2 encoding.
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  21. I have tried and used both Studio 7/8 and Videostudio 6/7. I feel that Videostudio is easier and more flexible. When you capture DV with Videostudio, you can set it to capture as one file or break it up into scenes which makes it easier to do a rough edit. I capture my DV with Videostudio then, I use Adobe to edit. I burn using DVDit. Videostudio will work with more Video formats than Studio. Studio is very buggy. I installed Studio on a brand new Dell pent 4. Hosed it up so bad had to reinstall the whole OS. These are my opinions. Do what works for you.
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  22. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    Hello,

    Originally Posted by Rich927
    I have tried and used both Studio 7/8 and Videostudio 6/7. I feel that Videostudio is easier and more flexible. When you capture DV with Videostudio, you can set it to capture as one file or break it up into scenes which makes it easier to do a rough edit.
    Having had the opportunity to try Studio 8 it has this function too, which as you say makes things real easy when editing.
    I tried it on a 45 minute capture from a vhs-c camcorder via a vcr and Studio8 broke it up into thirty scenes, six of which I deleted straight away as they weren't even footage, they were just tape I hadn't recorded over. Had it not seperated each clip I'd have had to scan through to find them.
    Having tried the program I've found it a real ease to use, and although I haven't yet burnt anything the finished mpeg's look great.
    Will
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  23. Silky, in case of any problems with burning (for example burner is not recognized) you let it just create VIDEO_TS and burn with any burning program (more info in the other post)
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  24. Lost Will Hay's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by donpedro
    Silky, in case of any problems with burning (for example burner is not recognized) you let it just create VIDEO_TS and burn with any burning program (more info in the other post)
    Yeah, I noticed that, thanks, I'll definately do that sooner than use Studio8 (I trust RecordNowMax!, I've always used it).
    Will
    tgpo, my real dad, told me to make a maximum of 5,806 posts on vcdhelp.com in one lifetime. So I have.
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  25. My Studio 8 started great. Then it started to bug and it's gotten worse. Main issues: It freezes during rendering, has trouble capturing CD tracks, and the camera sound clips disappear, then reappear, then disappear again. Support for Pinnacle products is very bad. The best help is from the forum because the Pinnacle support is worthless. If I had to do it again, I would not buy the Pinnacle. Save your money.
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    I've done a lot of research lately on this subject.

    IMHO, Ulead Video Studio 7 is much better.
    1) It has 3 times the transitions
    2) It's faster and doesn't crash as much
    3) Integrates well with ulead cool 3D.
    4) All tasks (that I'm interested) can be done very easily. I rarely need to look at the manual. This includes (simple edits and transition effects, text / titles, sound overlay)

    I've found that Pinnacle S8 just had too many bugs and was too slow.
    If you find studio 8 easy then you should find video studio 7 just as easy
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  27. Sounds great Gene, but I already sunk $100 bucks into V8. I darn sure am not going to spend another cent on an another Pinnacle product. But thanks for the response.
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  28. Member rkr1958's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by q1aqza
    I used to use Pinnacle 7 and found it a fantastic editing tool for beginners to intermediate. I used to output as AVI and encode with TMPG ...

    If 8 is as easy to use as 7 then it has got to be a good option for you. I have read that the Pinnacle 8 encoder is much better than 7 so you may not need to use one of the other encoders although, I'm sure that you would still find it worthwhile to use TMPG ... for the best results.
    That's exactly what I do. I also capture with Studio 7, author with Dazzle DVD Complete / Ulead DVD Movie Factory / VCD Easy, and burn with RecordNow for DVDs and Nero for VCDs or XVCDs.
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