Pinnacle S/W Opinions?

[Xesdeeni]

Any opinions on Pinnacle Express (DV) or Impression DVD (SE/Pro)?

I'm authoring edited home movies (miniDV), but I want more flexibility than DVDit! SE and support for Dolby Digital (AC3) audio (to be sure the DVDs will play on all my relatives' NTSC DVD players).

SpruceUp is not bad, but it takes forever to import the video and create the VOBs (relative to DVDit! SE and DVD Workstation), and after adding a few chapter points, it starts screwing up the video and I have to restart.

Motion menus with sound would also be nice, and I'd like to be able to define more complex navigation (e.g. if you hit this button, it will play these four clips in sequence, but if you hit one of these four buttons, you will play only the associated clip and return to the menu).

Impression DVD Pro appears to be $399 (as low as $279? on PriceWatch), which is much too high, but based on its feature set, it appears to be (relatively) a better deal.

Xesdeeni

[Xesdeeni]

Yesterday I went by CompScrewSA and they had Pinnacle Express, but no Pinnacle Impression DVD (SE or Pro). I also didn't see a trial version on Pinnacle's site (www.pinnaclesys.com). So how the heck am I supposed to check it out? (and of course, if I but it to check it out and it bites, I can't take it back)

Xesdeeni

[wkc]

Impression DVD Pro gives you complete controls on the menu flow but it is not easy to create menus like those in most entry level products.