Pinnacle Studio 14

[fatalskydive 0]

Wondering if any DZ's out there use Pinnacle for tandem video editing? I'm thinking we can go tapeless with some cx100's and possibly edit faster than our current system, an analog mixing board that mixes tandem video footage with cd player music.

Needs to be as fast as editing in "real time" or faster.

I haven't used Pinnacle since studio 8. If someone could help me out with pros and cons......

[DSE 5]

Look at Pinnacle's forums, or search around here. You'll quickly see that not many use it. Crash-prone, no automation, and won't be any faster than the several more stable apps available. But...if it's what you know, it might be worth a go.

[fatalskydive 0]

I noticed not many use it, but wonder if anyone tried the new Version 14. What do you mean by "no automation"? Pinnacle's forums suck. I think Sony's and Adobe's programs are a bit over kill for tandem videos and such a steep learning curve, not to mention the price.

Like anyone, I want what works best, but I also want it cheap..... Sometimes you don't get what you want.

[DSE 5]

Yea, I've worked with Pinnacle 14. Has lotsa wizards. And it is unstable as hell (like all Pinnacle products post version 4).

I'm confused about "learning curve" comments for Sony Vegas. It's freakin EASY compared to Pinnacle and other apps.
Yeah, Premiere has a bit of a steep curve, but Edius and Vegas are simple as hell. And Vegas can be automated. Simply put, there is NOTHING. PERIOD. that compares to Vegas for tandem video. Nothing.

Pinnacle barely gets dev $$ from Avid these days (just ask their product manager. I go back 18 years with that guy). He'll be the first to apologize for their lack of stability. Writing apps on very old code is precarious when moving to Vista and Win7 environments.

[fatalskydive 0]

pinnacle isn't automated, but vegas is..... what do you mean by automated? Do you mean rendering in background while working on project?

[PhreeZone 20]

That and to write a script that does a lot of the heavy lifting of the editing. Things like dropping the clips at the right spot, adding the header/footer files at the right times, etc. It can be as easy as plug in the memory card, press ok a few times and then pick up the DVD after its done if you automate all the big things.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[DSE 5]

A picture is worth a thousand words, so a video must be worth a million.

The linked clip should answer the question better than I can. The value starts at about 1 mins. Watch the timer. This was done on an old single core computer. A quad core or 8 core is VERY fast.

[BirdWoman 0]

I'm using it as are two others at my dz. Haven't really had any issues with it. I can tell you this though...there are two using Vegas. If we hit "create disc" at the same time, mine will always be done first. But that very will might be a function of the computer itself (I am running a brand new HP pavilion elite e9820). One nice thing about it is that it is a stand-alone program, so you don't need any other kind of burning software to create your disc.

What I found saves time is I have a template with the motion disc menu, the leader and trailer on it. Since these have already been burned, they don't have to "re-render" every time.

The only thing slowing me down right now is me...I have only been computer editing for a month now and am still getting used to my own way of doing it. But once I hit "create disc", the disc is out in about 4 minutes.

I have not had any problems with it crashing or anything of that nature. The only odd thing is that when I go to import, the preview thumbnails it creates do not show the actual footage. The footage is correct, just the "import preview" thumbnail. But if you set it up correctly, it will only allow you to import the footage that you haven't already imported. So you just hit import and it will be ok.

"I don't know where it is that I'm going, but wherever it is there I'll be!" --quoted by me

[DSE 5]

Quote

The only thing slowing me down right now is me...I have only been computer editing for a month now and am still getting used to my own way of doing it. But once I hit "create disc", the disc is out in about 4 minutes.

This would suggest two things to me;
A-the vegas machines are slower and/or aren't using media that is speed-equivalent to the max speed of the burner

or

B-their system is not optimized properly.

A disc on a reasonably fast system should be under 1.5 mins.

One of the instructors here bought a new Gateway 2 days ago, it's fairly low end from a Staples or similar. His system out of the box burns only at 16x, but his media is 8x. Still only took 1min, 20 seconds to burn and spit it out.

Optimizint the system is fairly important.
That said, having Pinnacle 14 on the same machine as Vegas Pro 9....there is no comparison.

Pinnacle does have a few cool wizards, but the instability in a high pressure environment, the lack of system=recallable templates and slug replacement make it a deal breaker for me.

But that said, also very pleased to hear a report of GOOD stuff about Pinnacle.
The one single feature Pinnacle has over any "value" NLE is the lack of recompression required for low-bitrate MPEG 2. THAT is very cool.

[Remixen 0]

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Remixen