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From:Pinnacle Systems
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#349 |
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19 of 25 customers found the following review helpful:
 Beware Pinnacle's Duplicitous Practices, 2008-07-29
Pinnacle's Serial Numbers and Activation Keys expire after two years.
This applies to all Pinnacle software, not just software downloaded online. Activation Keys bought online AND Serial Numbers for software bought in retail stores only work for two years.
It's in the fine print - which you can't even see until you rip open the box (thereby forfeiting your right to a refund) and click the "Yes, I Agree" button during installation.
If you have to reinstall the program (or any part of it) two years and a day after buying it, you will have to completely repurchase the software.
What's especially fishy about Pinnacle is how it will suddenly start crashing at 2 years after initial installation. My video drivers stopped working at a point, I'd later realize, coincident with the 2 year anniversary of my having installed the Pinnacle software.
In trying to fix the suspiciously-timed program crash I was mystified to learn that a number clearly printed on a CD sleeve was suddenly "Not a Valid Serial Number." The Activation Keys I'd bought online, and had on file, were suddenly incorrect.
I contacted Pinnacle, who informed me of the two year statement in the agreement. Here is an excerpt from their email:
"The reason you are not able to obtain a redownload of your purchase is
that the Extended Download Service was not purchased with your download
and the time to purchase this service has expired. Unfortunately, this
means that in order to obtain the product, you will need to repurchase
it."
Keep in mind - I was asking Pinnacle for no software. All I needed was a Serial Number and Activation Keys, because the Serial Number printed on the CD sleeve itself, and the Activation Keys I'd received two years earlier no longer worked.
Just something you might want to keep in mind before buying Pinnacle software.
1 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
 Great package, 2008-07-28
I bought this version 12 ultimate from amazon the other week after weighing up the other options. I've used Première Elements and Sony Vegas before, but I thought I'd give Pinnacle a try this time. It turned out to be a good choice. Firstly this ultimate package offers you special effects and plugins that you don't get with Première Elements or sony vegas in the same price range. That was my main reason behind choosing it. Because editing footage at the end of the day is just splicing video into the order you want it. I can do that in movie maker. Pinnacle adds the extra creative dimension that makes your videos that bit more interesting to watch and put togther. The process becomes more creative and rewarding. 'Magic Bullet looks' for example. This allows you to change the look and colour timing of your footage to match many blockbuster films, Tv shows and music videos. Boris Graffiti gives you access to professional titling tools. You even get a Green Screen sheet with Pinnacle 12 Ultimate so you can do your own green screen effects stuff. I haven't tried that yet. I've been playing around with Pinnacle for a few days now and once you get to know it you love it. I can see why it has a dedicated number of followers. At a first glance it looks fairly plain and basic, but then you get to know it more and you find how intuitive and advanced the performance can be. I've found producing videos to be a pleasure rather than a chore. So I would recommend it. You might want to check you have a good enough PC to run it first. That's common sense though.
6 of 8 customers found the following review helpful:
User since Version 6, 2008-07-22
There's a lot of people that complain about Pinnacle Studio, but I like it. I've like it since I bought version 6, with the exception of version 10. I'll assume you tried a version of Pinnacle Studio for my review, and know what you like and don't like. Here's my take on it.
Pro's: My favorite thing about Pinnacle studio has always been the transitions and ease of adding transitions to videos. On earlier versions I would notice that when I would add to many transitions, the video would sometimes freeze during the transition or not show the transition at all. With version 12 One of my favorite things about this version of Pinnacle Studio is that the ruler turns green on the part you edited and renders after you make a change. This way you know Pinnacle Studio is doing something, and not just hanging. Because of that rendering, previewing the videos with transitions has dramatically improved. Adding transitions/montages with multiple screens is a lot easier with the drag and drop ability for setting the video/picture to the specific frames.
Cons: Nothing new. Price, not necessarily the price of the software, but the price to unlock the modules you like. And there are a lot of modules to unlock. If you like transitions like I do, you'll have to spend a lot more than the retail price to unlock everything. Either that or you'll need a keygen to generate the activation keys.
My advise to Pinnacle would be to add a trial version to there website, so you wouldn't have so many people bitching and complaining about how it runs on there PC. Maybe put Pinnacle Studio in the middle of the screen for whatever they render in the trial.
Hope my review was helpful.
My PC:
Windows Vista Ultimate
2.8GHz Pentium D
2GB DDR2 667 Ram
320GB + 500GB SATA Hard Drives
ATI Radeon X1550 512MB Video Card
7 of 11 customers found the following review helpful:
Frustrating and Disappointed, 2008-07-19
I have had similar problems with my system crashing under Studio 11 and 12 Ultimate. I even had to reformat my system (Vista 64 bit/ Intel q6600) because of the conflicts caused by Studio. It was even more frustrating with the Pinnacle cust. service help. I have wasted my money on Studio 11 and now 12. I bought 11 and was hoping that version 12 upgrade would fix all of the errors...I was wrong. Please don't waste your time and money on this product like I did.
64 of 80 customers found the following review helpful:
Shockingly bad software and shockingly deceptive representations, 2008-06-29
It is not often that I give such a harsh review.
To set the platform, I am a professional photographer and semi-pro videographer. I typically work in an HD/HDV format. My primary editing system is CS3 Creative Suite featuring Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc. My hardware is a 2.2GHz Dual Core Athlon running 4GB of RAM with an 8600GTS (Nvidia 256MB) video card. I run Photoshop CS3, Premiere Pro CS3, After Effects CS3 and CS3 Bridge simultaneously without a hiccup. Sometimes, I am running Fireworks 8, in addition to these programs. (BTW - This is not an advertisement for Adobe products. Adobe has its own issues. I only mention the software to give a benchmark as to system demands/requirements.)
I purchased Pinnacle 12 Ultimate as an upgrade to Pinnacle 9. It was purchased as a work around to Premiere Pro's lack of HD MPEG4 .mov export capabilities. (I'm an i [...] contributor and this is the requisite codec.)
Pinnacle was raving about its new features, including HD/MPEG4 file export capabilities. Thinking this was probably a big fat lie, I contacted and inquired of Pinnacle. Here is my conversation with online "chat" support:
Hi, my name is Donna Jumao-As. How may I help you? [12:52:43 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Hi - I have a quick question re exporting HDV files [12:39:38 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Specifically, I need to export HDV format in MPEG4. Can Pinnacle Ultimate 12 do that? [12:40:03 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: okay, [12:53:34 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: yes [12:53:46 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Is it possible to download a trial version of 12? I have v. 9. Also, is there an upgrade discount? [12:40:49 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: Answer Link: [LINK]
[12:54:45 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: there is no trial version for Studio 12. [12:55:06 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: ok - give me a sec to check out the link [12:41:52 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: But we offer upgrade version purchased for Studio 12 from older version. [12:55:33 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Ok - how do I go about doing that? [12:43:09 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: U there? [12:43:36 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: yes [12:57:11 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Hello? [12:44:09 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Hi- how do I go about doing an upgrade purchase? [12:44:22 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: one moment please. [12:58:08 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: Since you have Studio 9 version you can avail the $69.99 for Studio 12 upgrade. [12:59:16 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Ok - do you have a purchase link, or will it just ask at the time of purchasing? [12:46:18 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: Hold on please. [01:00:14 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Ok [12:47:57 PM]
Donna Jumao-As: [LINK] [01:01:39 PM]
Tony Zinnanti: Ok thanks. I'll figure it out from here.Take care. [12:49:24 PM]
'Tony Zinnanti' disconnected ('Concluded by End-user'). [12:49:37 PM]
Part of the unrecorded conversation was my express inquiry of whether Pinnacle could read an .m2t (HDV) file and export is as HD .mpeg4. She stated "yes."
After spending a full eight hours installing, tweaking, hunting, pecking, uninstalling and reinstalling this program, not only does this program NOT have an "export" function, but it will not play HD/HDV clips. Pinnacle doesn't even recognize .m2t files in the file dialogue. Further, after trying MANY times, it will not render an HD/HDV video. After putting clips in the timeline and rendering "High Definition" "MPEG4", both in Quicktime and and Windows Media Player, you get a black screen with no data. Adobe Bridge CS3 doesn't even see the data. The rendered video just plays black and there is no compatibility/file reading error issued.
What was stated to me by the Pinnacle representative was total misinformation - pure and simple.
Any HD/HDV clip loaded into the file area does not play. You can "scrub" over it, but you can not play it. It will play intermittently if you play it as full screen, then reduce.
Additionally, when trying to create a "new project," the software has a bug which keeps loading the previous project.
After much hunting and pecking, I also found no .mov export capability.
About this time, I had to cut my losses and move on. I contacted Pinnacle/Avid for a refund and was ignored. I have neither time nor money to waste. This was a waste of both. Now I an left putting in a claim with my credit card company due to the false representations of the product.
Lastly, I am aghast that a company would so blatantly misrepresent a product. It's mind boggling that a company would put out a product that is so seriously deficient.
If there is anyone who takes issue with this review, send me a video made with Pinnacle 12 Ultimate that is an HD/HDV export. Explain your workflow and I will amend this review accordingly.
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UPDATE: After calling Pinnacle to resolve a refund, I was told that I would be receiving a refund e-mail. It never arrived. Accordingly, I have had to take the matter up with my credit card company.
Personally, I find it very sad that a company would behave this way. A lot of people who will look forward to getting a product to put together family videos, etc. are going to find out they've been burned.
The Pinnacle representative with whom I spoke even stated that he could edit DV video with this, but not HDV.
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