bit-tech Shopping: Pinnacle Studio Version 11

• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows XP

• AMD Athlon
• Intel Pentium

Rating: 6

Time with product: 2 Months

Strengths: Improved user interface; good for editing video.

Weaknesses: Resource hog; slow rendering.

Summary: The user interface of Pinnacle Studio V.11 looks familiar to the previous versions. However, there are many improvements and new features. I like the storyboard viewing option which is handy for rearranging the order of video clips. It is simple to cut and paste or drag and drop video clips in the timeline mode. DVD markers and menus could be created from the timeline for final cut and production. Some users have reported that their systems became unstable in using Pinnacle Studio V.11. I did not experience that problem in a core 2 duo system running at 3.1GHz. So make sure that your system hardware are above the minimum requirements. On the other hand, some features like HD and AVCHD are still not quite mature in this Studio version.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 5 Days

Strengths: Better, smaller, stabler

Weaknesses: Not many new features from previous version.

Summary: The previous versions of Pinnacle Studio have been disasters. They were big, instable. They created more problems than solving them. They crashed, died. This version 11 is much better. I have found it more stable. The user interface does not change a lot. It?s pretty easy to use. I even installed it on my windows 2003 server without major problems. I only hope the rebates will come. I will update this post if the rebates do not come. On the down side, I don't see many new features coming with version 11. For a product to be a new version, we would expect more features.