The old adage reminds us that a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video has got to be worth millions of words. The trouble is trying to find a suitable video editing program on the PC that is simultaneously easy-to-use yet robust enough to give you all sorts of flexibility and features. In my quest to become the next James Cameron or Martin Scorsese, I had the opportunity to give Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection a try. Version 14.0 is supposed to bring several enhancements over previous editions, but will it help me film the next Avatar?
What’s New with Version 14?
Let’s get one thing clear. Pinnacle Studio HD is not supposed to be a professional movie editing program, but it is supposed to be at the higher end of the consumer scale. It gives a professional look without the utter complexities that true professional software provides.
In Version 14, you are treated to such features as motion titling, image stabilization, over 80 Montage templates, stop-motion capture, straight sharing to YouTube, improved AVCHD support, and a full suite of Hollywood-style animations, transitions, and effects. You can thank the Red Giant plug-ins for some of that.
If these built in transitions and effects aren’t enough, Pinnacle also markets a whole range of creative add ons. From new text to transitions to special content, the software is meant to grow with you as you discover your talents. This makes it possible to create some very good looking video without having to create all your own assets from scratch and are compatible with the whole software line up.
Looking Inside the Box
While this is largely geared as a software product, when you opt for the Ultimate Collection, you get an interesting bonus that is not included in the two other versions of Pinnacle Studio HD. Sure, there is the regular DVD software disc and all the supporting documentation that you need, but you’ll also notice the large green canvas. This chroma-key green screen can be used to complement your creative style. Theoretically speaking, one could create their own “avatar-like” sequences on a budget. Or not.
The Standard User Interface
Considering that I am coming from the perspective of using Windows Movie Maker, it’s understandable that Pinnacle Studio HD is remarkably more robust than that pre-installed solution. It’s also much more powerful than the FlipShare software that comes with Flip Video UltraHD pocket camcorders.
The plain grey background gives this program a professional appearance and it feels like everything is within easy reach. You can see the multiple timelines along the bottom for your video feed, text and titling, sound effects, and music soundtrack. Along the left side is a toolbar for access to the different features and the preview area is located to the right. To the top are the three steps you need to concoct your creation: import, edit, and make.
This layout is reasonably straightforward, but there is a natural learning curve with any kind of video software. For instance, I found it easier to right-click in the title timeline to add text rather than use the text tool from the toolbar in the upper-left. Luckily, Pinnacle does offer a number of online tutorials that you can refer to for more training. The better you get with these tools, the more creative you can be.
Dashing Through Transitions
As mentioned, there is a clear learning curve to Pinnacle Studio HD. For the transitions button (second from the top), you get a pull-down menu to choose between different kinds of transitions. I stuck largely to the plain old 2D transitions, but you can get a lot fancier with Hollywood-style effects and Montage themes too.
It also took me a little to realize how to adjust the volume on the audio track, mixing the sounds from the video file with the background music soundtrack file. In the screenshot above, you can see a yellow line in the audio portion. You can grab any part of this line to drag it up and down, fading in and out as you see fit.
Fumbling With Fonts, Music and Effects
I was quite impressed with the number of pre-installed sound effects and soundtrack files included with Studio HD. We all know that YouTube can be a pain with trademark infringement, so having access to this “free music” is certainly appreciated.
Similarly, adding text is easy to do. You get all sorts of different font styles, including a choice of about eight colors per style. This is above and beyond your font choices, giving you thousands of possible combinations.
The static text editor worked just fine for me, but I had some trouble with the motion editor. I wasn’t able to create a visible text box in the preview area, but this could be due to the underwhelming specs on my Dell laptop.
I’m running an Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 (1.73GHz) processor with integrated Intel graphics and 2GB of RAM. This meets the minimum requirements, but it’s clearly not enough to handle HD video editing properly. Do bear that in mind when buying this kind of software. I highly recommend good discrete graphics and plenty of RAM.
The Sample Video Creation
Using the Samsung HMX-U10 pocket camcorder, I shot a few quick videos during the Samsung press conference at CES 2010. Most of the talk is about their TV technology. The video was then chopped together with Pinnacle Studio HD.
Again, I suspect that my underpowered notebook caused many of my woes. The program would freeze, crash, create black screens, fail to render, and come up with all sorts of other problems.
For a couple of other examples, you can watch the videos I put together for visiting Hollywood. The first version was cut as-is, whereas the second version used image stabilization for the first three clips. You can see the liquid “warping” effect that resulted.
Final Thoughts
A lot of people will tell you that you should just buy a Mac if you want to do any video editing, because iMovie does such a good job. Though it may be true that iMovie is a great package and really easy to use, the PC guys don’t have to feel left out either. Not to mention, Pinnacle Studio HD Ultimate Collection 14 does a whole lot more than iMovie. You also don’t need to break the bank on complex professional software to get some of the effects available in suites like Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.
Pinnacle Studio HD is very robust with its huge assortment of features and options, giving you the ability to use scrolling text, funky transitions, fading soundtracks, Montage themes, and so much more. More value is added to the package as you grow with support for a wide range of add ons. As you get better with the software, you can become more creative with these add ons. Since Pinnacle is part of AVID, a leader in the movie and TV industry, you know that the pedigree is strong with this software.
Before you consider chopping any HD video together, however, I’d highly recommend you check the specs on your computer. My cheap Dell could run FlipShare without a hitch, but this software is so much more powerful and, thus, more resource-heavy. In the end though, the software was impressive for its $129.99 US price tag and with some time and patience, maybe you too could become the next “James Cameron”.
Pros
- Huge library of transitions, sound effects, and soundtracks
- Professional appearance in a consumer package
- Reasonably easy-to-understand interface
- Simple audio level editing
Cons
- Minimum requirements are somewhat deceiving
- Only single video stream?
- Adding motion titles seems buggy
- Lock for streams is too small
Overall Rating: 8.0/10.0
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Pinnacle Studio HD Ultimate Collection V14 – Photo Gallery
