i ham using pinnacle 11 ultimate im a novice but i find it very user friendly it has quite good video efects including pip

This has been edited. If you've read this before, I misinformed you. Paragraphs marked with an asterisk (*) are changed.

Well, I'm not very qualifiedto answer, because Studio 11 is the only editor I've laid hands on. But, I can tell you this much --

Studio 11 is fairly stable. There are two patches for it, the latest being 11.1.1. The only crashes I've experienced is when checking out burning a CD, and the CD in the drive was already written. This causes black screen, and windows restarts. Upon restarting Studio, it tells you that the program ended unexpectedly and asks you if you want to try to recover. It has failed only once at recovery. I have not checked it since applying patch 11.1.1. I have not written a CD or DVD yet.

Pinnacle has online chat support. They are fast at getting to you. However, some of the answers are non-answers. Answers are dependent on how qualified the technician is. One in particular, Alexander, knows what he's doing.

The interface is very intuitive. More advanced things (which I haven't gotten to) are in the manual. The manual is 300 pages long.

There are two video layers that act independently of each other. The second layer takes priority, and will omit video that is on the first layer, if the two overlap. However, the second layer is for more advanced things, like picture-in-picture and green screen.

There are three audio layers --

1 -- the one attached to video imported
2. -- a sound effects layer
3 -- a music layer, which supports most formats and importantly, mp3 files.

All three of these have adjustments that are independent. You can adjust volume and balance.

I'm fairly happy with it, but I don't know about other editors, so I'm exploring other options. I wish I had done this BEFORE i bought it, but if I hadn't gotten my feet wet, I wouldn't know a thing. Also, I have not tried many features in it. But I've looked at some of the extra content you can purchase, and frankly I don't think they're worth buying. Some of the content (effects) that come with the Ultimate edition is worthless too -- I have no use for them.

Studio 11 is fairly stable. I see lots of complaints about 10's stability, but I've seen no real major issues with 11. Then again, I have not tried to write a CD or DVD, and I have not used the advanced things like key frames, picture in picture, and green screen.

*Video correction is possible and filters are available for chainging hue-saturation, color balance, and brightness-contrast. These are effortless.*

But all in all, for $99, it's quite powerful. Still, I have not tried other editors, and can't say that it's better or worse than it's competition. But hey! I'm using Photoshop 6.0. It's great stuff for what my budget can handle. I'd like to get my hands on Photoshop CS2, but PS 6.0 works pretty great. Pinnacle Studio 11 may fit your needs.

Edit:

Oops! One other thing -- titling. This has my panties in a knot.

* Transitions and other effects are added to the title layer separately, if you add the titles on the title layer. Titles can be inserted into the main video layer also. *

Adding titles to the main layer allows you to add backgrounds and images. This is cool. however, I can find no info on how to add your own custom backgrounds.

*More addition: I worked with this last night for over 8 hours. It didn't crash once! I made about 6 short experiments and wrote them all to disk. Every experiment worked and behaves as the manual describes them. I still have more to learn, and need to write to CD or DVD, but overall, from what I've seen, Studio 11 patched to 11.1.1 is very stable AND easy to use. I'm VERY happy with it outside of burning. I need to get going on that. Will report when I find out about this.*

This post added so that the boards show there is new material, but the new material is found in the preceding post.

Erm....

I've downloaded the trial for Sony Vegas. This is so much better! Sony Vegas offers up real features, like markers, and regions, and REAL NUMBERS, not just guess work. The interface is a bit clumsier, but that's what you get for better features.

I'm gonna get my money back on Pinnacle Studio and Buy Sony Vegas 8. This is more of a real tool. However, Pinnacle Studio has it's place. If you're not very demanding, the interface on this product is superb! It is very easy to use.

Now... that's all you're gonna get outta me! That is, unless you offer up some dollars.

I am a fan of Studio 11 mainly because it is easy to use and reliable. My interest is in producing film and so I do not use many of the "Extras" supplied in Studio. With all the technonogy available, it is often forgotten that the process of videoing and editing is to produce the perfect viewing as the end product.
All too often I see questions (on other sites) "How do I do this or that with Vegas, Adobe etc." There is much dicussion on Codecs, m2t and so on, very little about the final films.
It is too easy to forget that the camera, editing suite and DVD are tools to do a job. The job is only as good as the craftsman.

Well, don't get me wrong. The editing in Studio 11 is easy. This is one fine editor, with tons of features, most notably Pinnacle's Hollywood Effects and plug ins from ProDad -- Heroglyph and Vitascene. Is most cool, and very friendly. But I've spent hours and days trying to get a decent render out of this. I just can't do it. I've pre-rendered to WMV with MS' Windows Media Encoder on Fraps' support advice. I've prerendered to mpeg-1 using Pinnacle's TRex on Pinnacle's support advice. I can't get a sharp video. But using the native output (AVI) from Fraps, I got a clean and sharp video using Sony Vegas 8 demo. The same source file used in Pinnacle results in a blurred video. This is most disappointing! I certainly like Pinnacle's interface and the hefty features of Hollywood Effects and Prodad, but I can't get a final result that is clean and sharp. It's always blurred, no matter the output format -- WMV or MPG in any resolution for file, or DVD or CD.

I am also a big fan of Pinnacle Studio 11. Dowloaded the trial for Sony Vegas and after a few days uninstalled it. Way too complicated.

I can't believe you don't get good renders out of Studio. I find the DVDs I produce in Studio, to be superior to those I get with my professional software. The quality is outstanding, even when you put as much as two hours on a DVD. Something else must be wrong if you get blurry output.

I've used the Heroglyph plugin since version 1. They have really come a long way.

I hear so much complaining about Studio, but it is an amazing program for the price. I think "all" programs have their issues, and it's probably best to have a few to work with. I also use Ulead Video Studio and Adobe Premiere Elements and Pro Show Producer, all for different reasons. To truly produce the best finished job, I realy on all of them. But Studio is my main and favorite editor.

Lengo - you didn't mention an AVI output from Studio - is that blurred too? Studio's .wmv is not the best (not the worst either), but if you are comparing a studio .wmv output to a sony .avi - that is not a fair comparison - perhaps you just forgot to mention avi.

I I am a member of the HV20 forum and, when it comes to NLEs, all the questions are on Vegas or Premier. Most members believe that these are the "superior" editors but have problems using them. Since upgrading to Studio 11+ from 10.5 I am gaining confidence with the program. I even had to do a total reload after a file was corrupted and it continued to perform perfectly.
I prefer a simpler program (even if it misses out on the 99 tracks and all the other flashy bits) because I get the results I want.

^ that's how i felt, i was embarassed for buying it, and then i was embarassed for whoever put it together and released it.

Stormberg - you are quoting Marc from something he said in 2005. Pinnacle Studio is a few versions ahead since that time. Studio 11 Plus/Ultimate is a very stable program. No disagreeing that it used to have major issues, but it is pretty good now.