Like other members of the Pinnacle Studio family of video editing products, the Studio MP10 editing software provided plenty of helpful hints and handholding for beginning video editors. The simple drag-and drop interface is very intuitive, and gives users three different ways to view editing decisions: as a storyboard, a timeline or a simple shot list. The timeline view is used for trimming clips. You grab the forward or rear edge of a clip and drag it to the desired length. The storyboard view provides the easiest way to determine the order of the clips, while the shot list view gives more specific detail about each clip in text form. A total of three tracks of audio are available in the timeline view: one for audio locked to video, one for voice-overs and a third for music.
The titler that comes with the Studio MP10, a version of Pinnacle's TitleDeko software, is actually quite powerful for such a simple, inexpensive video editing package. All system fonts are available, as are a number of fun fonts included with the Studio MP10 software installation. Making your titles move or fade is as simple as dragging a transition from the Transitions menu and applying it directly to the title's icon in the Timeline window.
Output options for the Studio MP10 include settings for RealPlayer G2 streaming, CD-ROM video (.AVI files) and one that's labeled VHS video. The quality you'll get from the Studio MP10 when you output using the latter settings isn't nearly what we'd call VHS quality, mainly due to the 352x240 capture resolution (1/4-screen) and the use of the ever-lossy MPEG-1 codec. The other settings, however, provide high-quality video for CD-ROM multimedia, streaming video and video e-mail purposes. For those functions, and for those who simply want an easy way to create home-movie MPEGs, the Studio MP10 is a winner. Like other parallel-port MPEG-1 makers, the Studio MP10 can be finicky about the kind of hardware it likes to work with. If your system is compatible, and you're after a simple way to make videos for disc or the Internet, then you'll probably love the Studio MP10.

JMc

Platform PC
Interface EPP or ECP parallel port

Minimum System Requirements
Operating system Windows 95 or 98
Processor 133MHz Pentium
RAM 32MB
Graphics card 256-color, DirectX 6.0 compatible
Sound card DirectX 6.0 compatible

test results
strengths

• easy to use
• streaming video support
• user-friendly from capture to output

weaknesses

• problems with parallel port operation
• not for videotape output

summary

• An excellent product that simplifies CD-ROM or streaming video production

Studio MP10 ($269)
Pinnacle Systems, Inc.
280 N. Bernardo Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94943
(800) 4PINNACLE
www.pinnaclesys.com