bit-tech Shopping: Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11

• Audio Editing/Capture
• Video Editing/Capture

• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows XP

Rating: 8

Time with product: 14 Days

Strengths: Price, ease of use

Weaknesses: not full featured

Summary: Great program for those not doing top end work. Will do all the basic editing and has some features, just not loaded. Very good for the prie of the software.

Rating: 4

Time with product: 3 Years

Strengths: interface

Weaknesses: Stability, price

Summary: Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11 has a of power and a pretty interface but the program is buggy and crash prone. Also a lot of the features that Pinnacle says are included cost extra to activate so you get nickel and dimed to death. Too bad Pinnacle can't get the bugs out If they did this it would be a great program.

Rating: 8

Time with product:

Strengths: Familiar interface continues to be refinedChroma Key background includedStill one of the easiest to use

Weaknesses: Some problems with my hardware supportStill locks up sometimesStill makes DVD image too big for media

Summary: I have been using Pinnacle for years, and was looking forward to this upgrade. One nice thing is that this is the complete version, so no more digging up all my old install CDs to upgrade and prove eligibility when moving to a new PC. I did have a problem registering the free effects included with a coupon in the box. Says it was already registered - still trying to figure that out. In spite of some compatibility and stability problems, this is still the best user interface for video editing I have used to date.

Rating: 2

Time with product:

Strengths: GUI

Weaknesses: Too many including support

Summary: I am so PO'd at Pinnacle right now I shouldnt write this. After reading many of the POOR reviews of earlier products I theorized that most people writing in comments are doing so because they are unhappy and the ones that are don't. With that in mind I purchased vers. 10.0, went through the computer crashes did the updates from 10 to 10.1 to 10.5 and the litany up to 10.7. Even bought a new computer with 2 GB ram dual core processor expanded hard drive etc. I had a project that required multiple menu's and of course this version didn't support that so I purchased the 11 Ultimate upgrade. I contacted both sales support and technical support to make sure of how to save existing projects to import into version 11. Both directed me to make SURE that I uninstalled the old 10.whatever version before installing the new version. I also have this in e-mails.Alas when you try to install the 11 upgrade it asks for the old version of 10. Now calling technical support they say that you must have the old version. I moved from another location and don't have the old version available. TOO BAD! But of course they are willing to SELL me the old version so that I can now install the new version.After dealing with ALL of the issues with the varied versions of this program and not listening the the readibly available disgruntled end users I guess I have arrived. Maybe I am more stubborn (stupid) than others, aferall I did wrestle in college.If there is anything I can say to have you consider all of the naysayers and steer you away from this purchase and company... consider it said. For all of it's plus's the downsides are just too great.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 6 Weeks

Strengths: A lot of features, powerful program, come with green cloth

Weaknesses: need a lot of computing resources, price

Summary: This is a very powerful video editing software. I would categorize it a pro-sumer product. It has a lot of special effect and sort of easy to follow features as well as user interface. If you have never done any video editing before, try the Movie Maker that comes with Windows XP or Vista first to get some basic idea. The package comes with a green cloth for the Chroma key special effect. Although it is not straight forward to use, it is not difficult to figure it out after a few trial. It is fun. The price of the product seems to be on the high side comparing with some other competitive products. This software requires a lot of computing resources. If you do not have a newer machine with a lot of RAM, you may be frustrated with the speed.