Pinnacle Studio 9 Editing Software Review (page 2)

There are so many features in Studio that it is not entirely surprising that some people just can't get it to work on their computer. We installed the application on a handful of machines, including a 1GHz machine and a laptop, and burned full two-hour projects on each and only had one major problem on one machine. The machine that it bombed on (regularly) was a 2GHz Windows XP machine with an nVidia GeForce4 card. This is a well-maintained older machine (e.g. no virus, no extra tasks running) that has dozens of other programs on it (including games and other audio and video editing applications), but we did not have time to track down what was causing the problem. The manual does have 20 pages of troubleshooting, which boils down to: update, close unnecessary programs and reinstall.

This is all good advice, but it did not solve our problem. Will you have problems on your computer? There is only one way to find out: download the demo version and try it yourself. It's large, so you should find a fast connection and burn it to a CD if you don't already have broadband. If the demo works on your computer, we're sure you'll love Studio 9.

Version: 9
Patch: 9.1.2 (48 MB)
Platform: PC
Operating System: Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 or XP
Processor: 800MHz or equivalent
RAM: 256MB
Hard Disk: 500MB
Other: disc recorder, DirectX 9 sound card
Printed Manual: 262 pages
Demo Version: 180MB, restricted, 30-days
Upgrade: $70

• Great user interface
• Background rendering
• Solid audio tools

• 48MB patch
• Single video track

Studio 9 is a huge application with a wealth of features, but it fundamentally performs well as an editor.

D. Eric Franks is Videomaker's Technical Editor.

$100
Pinnacle Systems
280 N. Bernardo Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 526-1600
www.pinnaclesys.com

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