Thursday, May 18, 2006

Pinnacle Studio - supply worse than their software

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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