Pinnacle Systems Studio 9 - Video Editing review:1 stars (Buyer Beware with this software ) - The reviews below explain at length many of the the problems I have also encountered, so I will be more brief. I do not usually write reviews, but I have never had a software program fail at such a fundamental level. On my system it will not render full length videos and therefore it also will not burn them. I have a Pentium 2.5 processor, 1 gig of ram and an 80 gig hard drive, which according to their information should easily be enough. I did upgrade to the most current version, 9.4.2, though even that was difficult - their web link instructions did not match the actual web page once you got there. I did not run any other programs while trying to make Studio 9 work. It does capture video sucessfully, but locked up my machine every time I tried to render more than a few minutes, which is a preliminary requirement for subsequently burning a DVD. I could not reach Pinnalce's "one free call" support in three tries of about one half hour each, on three different days. After that it is $30 per call and I think there is a fair chance you will be making some additional calls.

The store salesman told me that this is the best program in its price range, and unfortunatley I believed him, even though I had read the reviews and been adequately warned! (stupid, stupid, stupid!) I am now out $100, which the store will not refund, as the software has been opened! Therefore they are losing my not-insubstantial business. Not exactly a best buy on my part! BEWARE on your part!

My computer tech at work is sucessfully using Adobe Premiere Elements and that is my next stop, after my wallet recovers. Another guy at work, who uses the expensive version of Premier and does a lot of video has also heard of several people with problems with Pinnacle Studio 9.2 stars (Read these reviews before you don't buy!) - Wow, looks like I'm not alone in my pissedoffedness of Pinnacle Studio 9. The board is easy enough to install, and I got no complaints about the 1.2Gig of software you have to load before you fire this tool up, but I do have a HUGE problem with the 69Mb "patch" you have to download from Pinnacle's website in order to make this product semi-functional. Yes, sixty-nine meg, and it WILL NOT WORK without it!

I have been able to successfully render short clips of 5 minutes or less in decent quality, but as another reviewer wrote this product is useless for creating DVDs in any length. Maybe if you're running a Cray or something you might be able to make this work, but as it is Studio 9 is way too unstable, and the DVD authoring process is just too damn slow, even on a 3.2G P4 with 2Gig of memory.

Sorry, I cant tell you what to buy instead, I can only tell you that you wont be happy with Studio 9. At under $80 it's cheap for a reason. 1 stars (Possibly the worst software I have ever purchased!) - Do not, under any circumstances, buy this software! It has been a source of frustration from day one! First, this software has serious memory problems. It cannot run smoothly and froze my computer on a regular basis. The fact that I have a new Sony VIAO with all the bells and whistles, and the fact that subsequent video editing software run perfectly, has to point to an inefficient memory use by this software. Also, the videos that I tried to edit were your plain vanilla family trip clips, nothing extraordinary. Still this software couldn't handle them.

To add insult to injury, this software is full of locked features, yes even at that price! For example, if you want MPEG-4 computability, you need to purchase additional drivers ($10). If you want to use MP3 files, you need to get additional drivers. MP3? Isn't that an industry standard? Anyway, the list of "premium" locked features goes on and on, even downloading the latest patch (9.4 at the time of this writing) doesn't help.

There are other serious flaws with this software, primarily around burning the DVD's. I can't fully report on these since unfortunately I only got to briefly sample the DVD burnning process. Why you might ask? Because my computer kept on freezing before I ever got to finish editing the movie...
Pinnacle Systems Studio 9 - Video Editing Features:
Computer software (programs)
Video
Editing
CD
Add powerful one-touch video and audio restoration tools
PC-based, consumer video editing system--make more dynamic home movies
SmartMovie automated video editing and integrated Video CD and DVD creation
Experience a stunning array of video editing features
Add titles, transitions, sound effects, and background music

Pinnacle Systems Studio 9 - Video Editing is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 74.99USD.