Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate

Version 12 adds Montage multi video feature, more workflow enhancements

By John Virata

Pinnacle Systems has released version 12 of its class leading Studio entry level video editing software. It is available in three versions; Pinnacle Studio version 12 ($49), Pinnacle Studio version 12 Plus ($99), and Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate ($129). When the company released the first versions of its application in the 1990s, editing video on a computer was still a rough experience. The computers were not readily up to task, extra hard disk space and memory was very expensive, and the Windows operating system that Studio ran on was prone to crashing, freezing, and locking up.

Editing video today is easier to do, virtually any home computer can successfully edit video, and in fact, Microsoft has been shipping a free video editing application with Windows for several years. Today, Studio 12 Ultimate is probably the most powerful consumer based editing tool on the market, and with the release of Studio 12 Ultimate, it makes it a more compelling buy with the addition of several professional level tools, including Boris Graffiti 5.2, Magic Bullet Looks Studio, and additional ProDAD Vitascene effects.

When you get to a version 12 product, what do you do to improve on it? You would think that everything that could be done to a product that is pushing its teens would have been done, but with version 12 the company has added some cool workflow features, a weird auto recovery feature, and the Montage. Within the scope of this review, a few of the new features will be covered.

Workflow
The Pinnacle Studio Workflow is built around three simple steps; Capture, Edit, and make Movie. These have been the hallmark of Studio since the beginning, and version 12 doesn't change on that, it just adds more to it. Studio 12 Ultimate enjoys the benefit of the latest dual core CPUs, and certain processes have been sped up, including quarter resolution MPEG-2 preview background rendering, and 60 percent speed up in old film style, chroma key, auto color correction and motion blur effects. In addition, for those who create graphics in Photoshop, you can now directly import GIF and PSD files from Photoshop.

Timeline mode

Storyboard

There is also support for AC3 audio import. Export capabilities include direct export to YouTube (finally, as other editors have had this for a while), the capability to create Flash videos from the Timeline, as well as support for video output to 3GP mobile phones. Video viewing is changing and the target is always moving. With this release Studio 12 Ultimate supports the widest range of output formats for the widest types of devices, be it your personal video player, the Internet or your TV, Studio 12 Ultimate has a format for you.

You can now export your projects to Flash video

Enhanced workflow features
While not the sexiest of features, Studio 12 Ultimate does have new features that are designed to enhance your editing sessions. These include the capability to burn your completed projects to Blu-ray media, support for AVCHD files and motion menus, 1920 resolution AVCHD support, and support for some of the new flash based camcorders, including the Canon Vixia series, and Sanyo Xacti. Other features that make it easier for you to create your videos include the capability to find images that you have on the Timeline in your image album.

Find image in Album

This is done by right clicking the image on the Timeline, and selecting Find Image in Album. Studio 12 will locate the image in your library by placing a border around the image. You can also add markers at your scrubber on the Timeline for reference. Other features include the capability for Studio to pause export of your clips if there is no space to house the clips, an auto shutdown feature after Studio completes making the movie, a make movie audio alert, direct crop control, and direct page access in the album.

Add markers

Page: 1 2 Next Page