Long term, last year's takeover of Pinnacle (purveyors of PC home video editing software) by Avid (providers of industry strength video editing suitable for broadcasters) can only be a good thing. Anyone who has edited for longer than half an hour on Studio version 7 or 8 will know that it tends to crash. In my experience, Studio 9 still crashes, but at least it now saves a journal of edits as it goes so you don't miss so much when it inevitably keels over. In any case, it's still wise to tap liberally Ctrl-S and save often.
On the plus side, I've been really impressed with the Moviebox DV hardware that came with Studio 8. As a standalone format converter, it has performed flawlessly.
But starting a video project in late March, I realised there were a few features of the new Studio 10 that I wanted - so ordered the upgrade online.
Out of stock, on back order.
What?! Although the software can be downloaded as a massive file for evaluation, you can't buy and obtain a license key online, and have to wait for your box to arrive through the post.
Four weeks later, still no box through the mail, and no license key. A while back I emailed the sales support team - but was told it was still on back order.
Now I'm stuck. I've invested in previous versions of Pinnacle Studio Plus, so don't want to have to splash out on a whole new product. Yet Pinnacle can't let me use their software.
Moral of story - if you're about to purchase Pinnacle Studio for the first time, at least consider buying something else before you proceed. And you could always edit on a Mac with the iLife/iMovie software.
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