Pinnacle on WOOT

[Bobby]

For those who might want it, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 12 is today's WOOT at $49.99 + $5 ship.

http://www.woot.com

[Gerlinde]

I was kind of tempted to order it, it has some interesting features. Has anyone used it? Is this an older version of the program?

[Bobby]

It looks like V14 is on the market, so this is a leftover. But check prices - it might be worth it to quality for an upgrade price on 14.

[Gerlinde]

Thanks, Boby.
I think it is a great price even for the last year's model. Amazon is selling it for $65 and version 14 for about $90. The one thing on the feature listing that caught by eye was this statement:

Combine projects that mix standard and high definition video and photos for a final result in full HD resolution

. Is that even possible? I did not know that one can output standard video in HD format.

[Chuck Engels]

Pinnacle likes to crash A LOT, be careful.

[RJ Johnston]

I have Studio 12 that came with the PCI 500 Studio MovieBoard card. Then I upgraded to the Plus version. I should have waited.

The PCI 500 Studio Movieboard works great, even in Premiere Elements 8 using WDM. Unfortunately PRE8 has a frame rate limit of 15 fps.

Now I'll have to see what the difference is between the Plus and Ultimate version.

[JohnnyO]

Combine projects that mix standard and high definition video and photos for a final result in full HD resolution

I think Premiere Elements and MAGIX Movie Edit Pro also do this.

[Gerlinde]

I looked at some video tutorials for version 12 on the Pinnacle website. I liked it and ordered a copy from Woot. You can never have to many video editors

JohnnyO, I can see that you could combine sd and hd footage in one project, but the sd footage would not fill the frame unless you stretch it. So I'm still not convinced you can combine the different formats and make it look good. Unless you use the sd footage as a pip effect.

[Bobby]

...I liked it and ordered a copy from Woot...

Great, oh adventurous one! Please let us know what you think. With all the PRE8 problems and an obvious reluctance on the part of Adobe to fix 'em, perhaps it is time to look around. I want to evaluate Magix also (just no time).

[JohnnyO]

JohnnyO, I can see that you could combine sd and hd footage in one project, but the sd footage would not fill the frame unless you stretch it. So I'm still not convinced you can combine the different formats and make it look good. Unless you use the sd footage as a pip effect

I MEP if it automatically scales to the frame size. In PRE I believe it does by default also.

[Gerlinde]

Bobby, I have Magix MEP15 also, bought it for $49 a while ago. It's a great program too, with lots of features, almost as powerful as PE. But it has therefore a kind of steep learning curve too, even having worked with PE before. And, like you, I don't seem to have enough time to spend to learn everything. It's also getting harder to retain all that information

That's why I was so interested in the Pinnacle program, it seems a lot easier to use and more automated. Just perfect to polish a little video footage to keep everybody in the family updated on all the developments over here.

JohnnyO, I come to the conclusion that we are thinking about this in different ways. Since I switched recently to a HD work flow with some SD footage sprinkled in here and there, I'm always looking for a way to make the SD footage look as good as the HD footage, so in other words, I would be up scaling the SD footage. I still think that's not possible in either of the programs.

[Bobby]

I first used Pinnacle way back when, when I started my video hobby - five or six years ago??. It was fairly easy to use, just unreliable as hell. That was when I switch to PRE. But now, with PRE8, who knows...

[JohnnyO]

I've heard that Pinnacle is much more stable now than in the old days.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I've heard that Pinnacle is much more stable now than in the old days.

Seems odd!! The guy that was responsible for the Pinnacle product left them a couple of years ago and now the product has stability.

Meanwhile, the once very stable PrEl has stability issues. I wonder if there is a link? (Just my cynical thinking).

[Paul LS]

Yep, the product manager left Pinnacle and joined the Adobe Premiere Elements team.