By Marc Peters
Published: February 18, 06
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I certainly won't claim a world exclusive review of Pinnacle Studio 10. The internet's littered with unfavourable opinions on Studio 10, and that's the very reason I've delayed reviewing the software: I've been too afraid for fear of what it will do to my PC! Lucky for Pinnacle, this kind of publicity hasn't stopped it's products gaining a huge dedicated following, and the software of choice amongst many beginners. So with that in mind, I decided to bury the rumours at the back of my mind and experience Studio 10 for myself. Will the rumours of bugs spoil the day for Pinnacle? Studio 10 comes in two flavours: the standard and PLUS versions. This practice of producing two versions seems to have become standard in the industry, with standard versions offering basic features required by the beginner and the PLUS versions including more advanced tools and plugins. More on this later. Studio 10's recommended minimum requirements are quoted as a 2.4Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM and a Direct X 9 graphics card with 128MB of RAM. Note however that the minimum requirements are significantly less than the recommended minimum. The package includes a 281 page user manual, 3 DVDs and a quickstart guide. Installation With fingers crossed, I placed the first install disc in my DVD drive and waited for the installation to start. The first thing you'll notice is the large amount of language options (19 to be precise), which demonstrates a significant global appeal. The first screen is the registration entry, which entices you with a free plugin upon completion - a few seconds after entry, I received 5 emails from Pinnacle (one of which was a duplicate letting me know I qualified for a free upgrade to DivX, iPod and PSP output). As promised, one of the emails contained an activation key for a free plugin, which in my case was Dream Glow. You'll also recieve an email with your customer care ID, but will you need this? Be prepared to wait a while for installation of Studio 10 as the contents of three DVDs are copied to your harddrive. However, after being prompted to insert the third DVD, the software refused to recognise the disc, and I was forced to cancel this part of the installation. A restart later and I was using Studio 10 for the first time. Studio Launcher Pinnacle Studio 10 features what's described as the "Studio Launcher". Mysteriously this isn't featured within any of the enclosed documentation, but can be described as a gateway to all Pinnacle products installed on your PC. For me this includes Pinnacle Studio 10, Instant DVD Recorder, and Studio 10 tutorials. (I would suggest your first step would be to sit back and watch the installed video tutorials). Clicking on the Studio 10 button launches the main software, and Pinnacle have wisely include a percentage progress indicator as the software isn't the fastest application to get started. I can well imagine that without this feature many users would be reaching for ctrl-alt-del. I would go as far as saying that this is the slowest application to start that I have ever tested. The Interface Once Pinnacle Studio 10 is up and running, you're presented with the default edit interface, which is a storyboard, video monitor and video library. If you can't wait to get started, Pinnacle have included a clip for you to play with and you can drag the thumbnails from the video library to the storyboard editor to experiment. Note that the thumbnails are all from one clip (which can be selected by using the folder icons) - you simply capture an entire tape and Studio splits in into scenes. The video monitor displays both the clips in your video library and the video created on your story board at the bottom. Click on the video in your storyboard, then play on the video monitor to display your edited video, or click on the thumbnail in your library then play to view the original video. Capture To start using your own footage, you'll need to plug in your DV camera via your firewire port, then switch to the Capture screen (the top left hand button). Here the interface is clear and beginner friendly with a graphical illustration of a camcorder providing the necessary controls (play, stop, fast forward etc). There's also what Pinnacle label "The Diskometer", which provides a visual representation of the space used and available on your harddrive (remember that Digital Video is harddrive space hungry!). Pinnacle have deliberately left the interface uncluttered to help the beginner get straight down to capture (the only button you'll need to press to get capturing is "start capture". The only options available are DV or MPEG capture (please note however that MPEG capture requires activation, which only takes a few seconds). I would however recommend that you aways stick to DV capture if you're planning on editing. Clicking on the settings button brings up more indepth option. You'll also see within these capture settings the option of Scene Detection mentioned above. Here you have the option of starting a new scene (which means you'll get a thumbnail in the video library) based on the time/date stamp on the tape, based on video content, at regular intervals or when the space bar is pressed. Clicking start capture brings up a further screen requesting if you want to automatically create a "smartmovie" after capture, and also the option of stopping capture after a specified time. Rather annoyingly, your tape continues playing during this screen selection! Once yoiu captured your video, you'll see that the scenes have been displayed above the camcorder and it's time to start editing... Edit Once you move to your Edit step, the file you've captured from your camcorder to your harddrive will be displayed in the library. Right clicking on one of your thumbnails brings up a list of options including selecting the correct aspect ratio, further splitting the video into scenes and displaying comments next to the thumbnails (these include the number of the scene and its duration). By default the edit view is in the style of a storyboard, which is perfect for the beginner to start creating a movie: you simply drop your thumbnails into the boxes on the timeline, and drop transitions between the boxes as required. However, to gain more control over your video editing you'll want to switch to a timeline view by selecting View > Timeline from the menu. This will show you movie represent by a long strip where you also see your audio track. You'll also be able to start trimming clips on the timeline rather than being forced to use the entire scene. You can now "scrub" along the timeline by movie the cursor backwards and forwards. If you'd like to cut the end of a clip on the timeline, simply place the timeline marker at the desired position, then click on the razor icon to split the clip. To delete the unwanted portion, click the cursor onto this area, then hit delete. Alternatively right click on the clip and select delete from the pop up menu. By doing this, you'll also have the option of deleting but maintaining the gap. As with storyboard editing, you simply drag your thumbnails to the timeline - if you want to insert a clip between two other, simply drop between the two desired clips and everything to the right will shift along. You can zoom into the timeline by placing your cursor on the yellow time bar at the tip of the timeline and moving the cursor right. Move left to zoom out. Another way of editing your clips in both storyboard and timeline views is to double click the clip in the timeline/storyboard. This will bring up a separate edit box where you can adjust the start (in) and end (out) points of the clip. However, more advanced timeline editing techniques with mutiple video layers require an upgrade to the PLUS edition. Smart Movie and Sound If you're feeling lazy, you'll be interested in the SmartMove option in Studio 10. As long as your audio track is at least twice as long as your video, you'll get some pretty nifty results as Studio adds transitions and cuts to your video to suite the music. I was genuinely surprised at how effective this worked and is certainly ideal for the casual editor not interested in spending hours creating a masterpiece. Studio also ships with SmartSound which works in a slightly different way. Instead of altering your video to suite the music, SmartSound tracks can be adjusted to suite the length of your video - no matter how long or short, the music will always end perfectly as the video ends. An interesting feature of Studio 10 is the included sound effects, which are available from the Album. A nice inclusion for the beginner. You can also add and edit music in the exact same way as video, or include music direct from an audio CD. Finally, you can add a voice over direct from to the timeline. Again an interesting feature for beginners which makes options instantly available within one package. Adding the Final Touches and Exporting Studio 10 ships with a range of transitions, but the number of effects are rather limited within the standard edition (although don't forget that glow transition mentioned earlier!). You can create your DVD menus straight on the timeline, and again you can do this more or less without the need of the manual as Pinnacle ensure beginner friendly functionality. Once you've finished editing and are ready to share your videos, it's time to click on Make Movie to create a disc, file or export back to file. Once again there's a simple interface which graphically displays what's required. Pinnacle certainly can't be accused of baffling the user with an array of options! Final Thoughts Using the check for updates feature within the help menu indicated I was running the latest version of the software. However, visiting the Pinnacle website suggested differently where they strongly advise users of my supplied version to upgrade using a downloadable patch. I would therefore advise users to manually check the Pinnacle website for upgrades. You'll also get used to the continual option of activating content such as MPEG4 editing and Hollywood transitions. Although most of these seem reasonably priced, the cost of Studio increases significantly if you start buying these additions. The Standard version of Pinnacle Studio 10 is aimed squarely at the beginner. This latest version of Studio 10 builds on the now familiar interface that's both beginner friendly and advances as the user becomes more comfortable with editing. Clearly this version isn't recommended for the more demanding user, and I'm not sure the features of the PLUS version would persuade me to recommend this over Pure Motion Edit Studio 5. But as a beginners tool, the software can't be faulted. I'm pleased to say that after extensive use, I haven't been able to replicate the bugs experienced by other users. In fact to test the robustness of Studio, I reset my PC without closing the software properly. Upon reboot and reload, Studio prompted me if I wanted to continue with the last project I was working on before Studio shut down unexpectedly. And there was my previous project in all its glory. Recommended for the beginner, this is an ideal stepping stone into the world of video. However, if you're looking for an advanced video editing tool, then Pinnacle Studio 10 PLUS is advisable, but competes against some very stiff competition.
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