Avid Technology Unveils Pinnacle Studio 11

April 24, 2007 By Nick Mokey

The latest version of Pinnacle's editing suite will offer high-def video editing for the low-budget crowd.

If you’re looking to break into high-definition video editing without breaking your bank account in the process, things might be looking up. Avid Technology announced Pinnacle Studio 11 on Monday, which will bring HD editing to those who can’t afford more expensive packages like Adobe’s $799 Premiere Pro CS3 or Apple’s $299 Final Cut Express HD 3.5.

Pinnacle Studio 11 will come in three versions: basic, Plus, and Ultimate. The $49 basic version will not feature HD editing capability; instead it adds one-click video publishing as an upgrade from the previous version. Sliding up the price scale to the $99 Plus version, users will find native HD editing capability as well as the ability to burn HD DVDs. The $129 Ultimate version will package all of these features combined with a suite of tools for cleaning up audio, adding “film-look” effects, panning, zooming, and working with green screens.

All three versions will be released in May 2007, with upgrades from Pinnacle Studio 10 also available for a fee.

Showing 61 comments

JVC at 2:53pm 27th February 2010 I tried studio 10.8, 11.1, 12.1 and they all work perfectly on windows xp, vista and 7
NEVER CRASH
Ezz at 8:08am 5th January 2010 I had pinnacle 11 installed on my computer, and i've purchased the upgrade to pinnacle 12 ultimate, i had previously bought the vitascene package and it worked perfectly, but my computer crashed so i had to reinstall...anyway, Vitascene has the watermark on it when i put it on a transition, but when i use it as an effect it will work perfectly without a watermark.
I've tried to enter my activation keys for Vitascene like 4 times now, and restarted the program and nothing happens. I really need to use Vita as a transition and i can't!!!
Could you please help me to solve this. I have used pinnacle before with vita and i never had a problem.
Please help
Leonard Partner at 4:40am 7th June 2008 I wonder if anyone out there can tell me what the video card part no. or specification is that was supplied with Pinnacle Studio version 8. I have had to replace my PC when it got fried by lightning. Did not think to remove the card for identification. The cord that was supplied with the program is red with a 26 pin plug at one end and a blue box with inputs & outputs for "S" video and also RCA type A/V plugs. The manufacturers plate has the following printed on it.
blueBOX
Pinnacle Systems Inc.
PN 40160734
Please help. There do not seem to be any agents left in South Africa.
As amatter of interest, I have been using Pinnacle Studio for a number of years and am currently using Version 10. There have been a few hitches but overall I am well satisfied with the product.
Opa at 6:15am 27th March 2008 To: KManovich

Of what benefit is your 4G memory? I have 2G and in the height of editing or rendering Windows always reports 1.2G or more as free. I've seen posts indicating Studio 10 will use up to 700M, so 2G should be fine. I have a 256M Nivida video card (Pinnacle recommendation), 2.3G Intel dual core, WinXP SP2, 500G SATA RAID 0 and a system dedicated to nothing other than Studio video editing. Studio 9 has worked perfectly for years, Studio 10 won't make a successful render.

Instead of getting so hard on the other readers I think you should realize you are one of the lucky few. Most reviews I've seen indicate Studio (any version) works great on a powerful dedicated system, lousy if not at all on the every-day average system. Pinnacle Studio is a wonderful program providing professional results with ease, however as it develops and gets more powerful it is less and less for the average PC user. To be successful a system really has to be "clean". Even professional magazine reviewers could not get it to run or in one case even load on a "typical" daily use machine. Only on a freshly loaded WinXP system with nothing else on it.
Opa at 6:14am 27th March 2008 To: KManovich

Of what benefit is your 4G memory? I have 2G and in the height of editing or rendering Windows always reports 1.2G or more as free. I've seen posts indicating Studio 10 will use up to 700M, so 2G should be fine. I have a 256M Nivida video card (Pinnacle recommendation), 2.3G Intel dual core, WinXP SP2, 500G SATA RAID 0 and a system dedicated to nothing other than Studio video editing. Studio 9 has worked perfectly for years, Studio 10 won't make a successful render.

Instead of getting so hard on the other readers I think you should realize you are one of the lucky few. Most reviews I've seen indicate Studio (any version) works great on a powerful dedicated system, lousy if not at all on the every-day average system. Pinnacle Studio is a wonderful program providing professional results with ease, however as it develops and gets more powerful it is less and less for the average PC user. To be successful a system really has to be "clean". Even professional magazine reviewers could not get it to run or in one case even load on a "typical" daily use machine. Only on a freshly loaded WinXP system with nothing else on it. You may be among the the the
Opa at 5:55am 27th March 2008 So, where do I go from here? I've been using Studio 9 since it first came out w/o issues. First on a minimum P3 1G system. Rendering was slow, but it worked. I must say this system was dedicated to video editing only. Only Win XP, Studio 9 and NTI CD/DVD burning software. then I built a new top of the line dual core computer, ran Studio 9 for another year ... worked great!!! 3 days ago I installed Studio 10.8 & have not been able to create as successful project yet. Always has one issue or another with rendering. Since V10 is no longer supported I was going to buy V11. But after reading these posts I think I'll go back to V9 & stick it out until V12 comes down the road ... if it does at all.
KManovich at 1:38pm 26th February 2008 I'm amazed at so much whining from users on this forum. Of course you're going to have issues if your system only meets the minimum requirements of the software. This is true for Windows OS and any other program you may purchase.
I personally have a dual-core system with 4-gb's RAM, a separate drive for the editing and have NO problems whatsoever!! My video is an 8800 GT w/512 MB's RAM.... Upgrade your system hardware if you want a pleasant experience with such hardware intensive software.
And yes the previous versions have had usability issues, but I've been very happy with
Version 11....
marcel at 4:18pm 20th February 2008 I use version 10.7 without big problems. However, I bought a new Sony harddisk recorder rdr-hx950, and this player won't play DVD's created with version 10.7 if it includes a menu.
Does anyone recognize this problem and know if it is solved by upgrading to version 11?
Eddy at 4:12am 5th February 2008 I upgraded from Pinnacle studio version 9 to pinnacle studio plus version 11 recently. I used 9 for a couple of years with many headaches and frustrations & thought perhaps after some years of trial & error Pinnacle may have finally have got it right at last. Being a novice, I was looking for something simple to install and user friendly to operate. Perhaps I was asking for tooooo much! Version 11 what a load of ......!!!! I am so frustrated with all the bugs & glitches that I dont want this software anymore. The headaches & frustrations dont end there though. Guess what? I cant uninstall the damn software
Norman Moore at 3:50pm 19th January 2008 Thanks to everyone for your reviews of Studio Ultimate 11. I bought it today because I got fed-up in that vs 8 could not write out to DVD above 750MB (support from Pinncale was nil - never answered 1 email I sent). I've not opened the box yet and will now be returning it to the store for a full refund. Point 1 - if I cannot use the software on multiple PCs / laptops, due to a single licence issue (not mentioned in any literature on their site though) then its of no use. I tend to travel a lot and in my spare time edit family videos - this new version makes this impossible (who wants to uninstall and install - its 2008 and not the 80s, thought we had moved on since then). Point 2 - vs 8 had bugs - I would have thought that by vs 11, the platform was stable ( what about beta testing - was this done, were issues raised resolved, or merely ignored due to launch committments)? I agree with a previous comment about the focus of Pinnacle. Focus is on launches, sales and finally to solve the bugs (their support budget must be small as their support is non-existent). Good luck resolving your issues - I'd get a class action together and sue for a full refund. That way Pinnacle will get the message where its most evident - in their pockets. The consumer comes first - first lesson in Business.
Mike A at 12:57pm 26th December 2007 I have alot of problems with burning Pinnacle projects. When burning to DVD blanks, I can't get sound to burn. When burning to CDRs I get sound and video, but it has skips and glitches. This is a brand new cpu that meets all criteria set by pinnacle.

I also run into a "Cyclic Redundancy" message when I try to install my bonus discs for Studio.

I love working with this program and it has potential to be the best. I need these problems worked out though. Please Help.

Mike
Guru-emeritus at 1:48pm 22nd December 2007 Sorry for a long introduction. As an ex-owner of a software development company, working with Studio 11 brings back all the horror of dealing with software developers. I tell you, what you see in Pinnacle is a case in point of what is wrong with software development in general. Developers work only to impress each other, managment is pushing for new features and puts the product for sale as soon as it can be installed and more or less removed. There is really no one in the company who cares about the end-user. Pinnacle 11 is not ready for sale (I bought mine in December 2007 at bestbuy). In my case, in addition to crashes, the damn thing simply loosing files (projects disappear!), it forces me into soundsoap trial and when it expires it seems to locks some sound and at every start gives me a non finished popup asking to buy it for something like #299. The software is garbidge. Do not buy it if you can.
Glenn Shaperd at 2:04am 28th November 2007 I currently have S10 and despite a few issues have managed to get out some good projects. I have now purchased S11 plus and Ultimate. My question is on install it advises to unistall previous versions ( yet this is an upgrade??). When you ignore this it creates a new folder under pinnacle called 11, so can you have both installed, if not how do you keep your old projects , effects etc . I have all of my projects and film on a seperate drive, will 11 be able to open these???
Alison at 1:36am 28th November 2007 I reluctently upgraded from pinnacle studio 9 to 11 as we purchased an AVCHD video camera and 11 supports this format. I had few problems with 9 and was very happy with it. As soon as I started working with 11 I noticed many problems that have been mentioned on this forum - hanging during rendering, not burning to disc, very slow to work with, etc. After many frustrations I have finally been able to make this program work for me. This is what I have done:
1. Upgraded my ram from 1gb to 1.5gb
2. Upgraded video card
3. Import all video files first and edit files before bringing in transitions, music and effects
4. Save finished project as an AVI file
5. Import AVI file into new document then add menu and chapters
6. Make movie by creating disc content but dont burn
7. Burn from previously created disc content

After doing all this I can honestly say that I now love working with Pinnacle Studio 11 and I have none of the problems that I previously had, or the many frustrations!
Andrew Tucker at 6:48pm 19th November 2007 Hi,
I was thinking about getting Pinnacle studio ultimate version 11. First of all I have a intel core duo processor which is a 1.73 ghz and 1.5 GB of RAM. Is this enough to run it comfortably. Also, I have read about people needing to install more update to have it run better. But if I buy the ultimate studio 11 today as is will I need to install anymore updates. If someone could let me know it would be great. Thanks.
Fred at 3:58am 15th November 2007 I had version 9 and 10 and it was horrible. I could never get it to work. version 11 ultimate is GREATTTTTT!!!! I make a lot of video for my second job in an after school program and i will be using this more than premiere pro cs3. Premiere does not offer any good transitions, just the baskic stuff. At least with this program right out of the box I have the good effects, DVD authoring off the timeline, great video effects with vitascene. I don't use the Ken burns moving effects that much in this version. It is nice but I have another program that does this. I would tell people just to get the ultimate box version. The reason why is because you get the green screen, the hardware to shoot directly into the harddrive and the extra effects and plugins. you can do this all with the USB on a laptop. I would say that I would never do HD on a laptop because I am sure you will drop frames.

If you buy this program I would get 1 gig of ram, 512 video card, dual core processor, and a good fast hard drive 7200 or 10,000. Pretty soon, if my wife lets me I am upgrading for 289 dollars to a quad core and I heard that this program will rock even more with a quad core.

Here are the advantages of this program over premiere and vegas
1. backround rendering (I like vegas, but man it renders soooooo slow)
2. More transitions and professional effects
3. Interface is nice
4. DVD authoring off the timeline is much better in Pinnacle Studio ultimate. I sell these things so i know.
5. music with sound score
6. Audio effects
7. Pro dad titling vs premiere titling is not even close. Prodad titling is GREATTTTTTT. It doesn't do 3d but for a simple and easy 2d titling program, this is great. That's why I say get the ultimate Box version. It is included.

What I like in Premiere over this product is:
1. more layers
2. handles big video animated background better
3. movement ( I love how you operate the movement in premiere, better than vegas, avid liquid, studio 11 and canopus. I try out all the products except for final cut pro.

Well, I hope this helps.
Rich Edgley at 4:59pm 30th October 2007 I would do a test with the demo footage that comes with Studio 11. See if you can reproduce the problem with that footage.

If it doesn't work, then maybe there is an issue with your computers config, like the graphics card driver being out of date or the Studio installation being corrupt somehow. Update your graphics card or uninstall/reinstall Studio 11.

If instead the demo file works then maybe there is an issue with the project you created or the files you are using.

Can you narrow the steps down that you are using that give the blank preview? If you can, then we could try to reproduce it here. For example, does it always happen after you apply a certain effect or perform a certain step?

Since all I can give is general advice, I would recommend contacting support so they can drill down on your problem.

Please go to:

http://www.pcle.com/selfhelp

then you can look at FAQ, submit an email or chat with an agent.

Sorry that I can't make this more specific but the detail are somewhat vague and I can't ask questions to you before giving my reply.

Regards,
Rich Edgley
Technical Support
Pinnacle Systems
J Al**** at 4:54am 30th October 2007 I had been doing all right with Studio 10 and had learned to work around various problems. I upgraded to 11 Ultimate - and it is driving me nuts - the major problem is that the preview window turns to black and there is no way to get out of this but to close the programme and reopen the file. I have tested it with a very short file - just a few jpegs and a short video, and it will work fine as I play through the editor and then when I try to do it a second or third time - it is back to black. I have tried changing all the usual things - hardware acceleration, background rendering etc. I am using exactly the same sorts of pictures and videos that worked with Studio 10. My computer exceeds the required specs. Any suggestions?
Rich Edgley at 2:57pm 22nd October 2007 @ Unhappy User and @ Not Happy,

There isn't enough in your posts for me to comment on suggested solutions. Please email me at redgley @pinnaclesys.com and send me your incident #'s from support and I will research your cases. We can then see what is causing your issues.

We do have FAQs on rendering, installing, etc on our website but to be most helpful, I would like to narrow down the issue before giving advice.

Most customer's don't have the experiences you are having. That being said, some customer do experiece problems and we try to isolate the source of the problem and fix it.

Please contact me and I will look into your case.

Thanks,
Rich Edgley
Techincal Support
Pinnacle Systemns
Not Happy at 5:27pm 18th October 2007 Studio 11 Ultimate is one of the worst products I have ever used. I am testing the product for use in both my school district and by the state wide organization I am president of. We are looking for a new product to use in the district and I wanted something for my organization (30 teachers and 300 coaches)- this is not the product. I have had nothing but problems. Installing the product was a nightmare and that was just the begining. I have done more reinstalls for this product than for all the computer software I have used since 92 combined. I even contacted tech support and that was an experience unlike anything I have ever had. I got on their computer support at about 8:30 pm and spent the next hour waiting in line. At about 9:25 the tech service shut down and told me to send an email because everyone went home. Please note that they were to close at 10 pm. At that moment I was going to throw this out the window. I then began to wonder if it was my personal system (XP) and loaded it on Vista and other XP systems. If failed on every computer in one way or another. I am now playing around to see if I can get it to work. I finally did but now it will not render so that I can burn a DVD. At first it would not recognize my DVD burner then after shutting it downd and restarting the prodct it worked. I would not recommend all the reinstalling that tech support recommends in the user guide. I am now in the process of looking for another product that is simple enough for my teachers and coaches to use.
Unhappy User at 9:31pm 18th September 2007 I've been searching the internet for a site that would allow me to put a review in. Pinnacle is one of the worst pieces of s...software I've ever used. I've had corrupted files, the system consistently crashes, and runs extremely slow when developing something greater than 6 minutes. I've currently been working on a project that is about 35 minutes long and it has been an absolute nightmare. Now I'm struggling to get it to render. I've had to divide the video into smaller segments (a nightmare task, because it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to open, then don't get me started on how much time it takes to delete and move clips). Then I have to delete and put back clips and effects, and try to render until it successfully renders to small segment that I've saved. I've tried working on two separate XP machines and a Vista machine with mostly the same results. The support for this product is also horrible. To sale a product this terrible should be a crime. The only reason I'm pressing on with the current project, is because I'm developing something for a client. When I finally get this done (if I'm fortunate enough to get it done), I will never use Pinnacle again. I will go ahead a spring for something a little more expensive, because what I'll save in time and sanity will be well worth the cost. If anyone is contemplating buying this software, please do yourself a favor, and DON'T DO IT. I wish I'd seen a review like this before I wasted my money and so, so many hours of my time. If you purchase this software, after this warning, you have noone to blame but yourself.
Chris Rinaldi at 11:16am 10th September 2007 I own Avid Liquid 7 which is a Pinnacle product. I have had many other product from Pinnacle, some good and some bad. I was having issues with a recent upgrade to Liquid and needed to create and burn a dvd for an occasion so I bought Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate. I did this because it was faster than rebuilding the Liqid 7 PC. Anyway, I like it. It's very stable and geared towards power users. The dvd turned out ecxellent and it's easy to use. Feature wise it doesn't compare to Liquid 7 but for what it's worth it worked well.
Roelf Bruinsma at 1:02pm 6th September 2007 Yep... me too ! I fell for it. I installed studio 10.8 onto my brand new asus/vista laptop......very very limited success.What bugs me more than anything else is the time that it costs me. Totally lost all faith in pinnacle.... never again
Do pinnacle care ?
Rich Edgley at 1:37pm 4th September 2007 Tom,

Vitascene will get unlocked when you install the disc called: "Pinnacle Studio Ultimate install CD". If this disc is not installed, then there will not be an entry in Add/Remove programs for "Studio 11 Ultimate" nor "proDAD Vitascene" and in Studio 11, the VitaScene plug-in will be watermarked.

The comment you make: "when i go to edit it says not registerd run in read only mode" sounds more like a SoundSoap message. Are you sure this is not SoundSoap you are talking about? I can't recreate any message from Vitascene. It is either watermarked or not depending on if the Ultimate disc was installed.

If you need help authorizing SoundSoap, please see this FAQ

http://pinnacle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pinnacle.cfg/...

The SoundSoad key on a sticker in the packaging you have with Ultimate.

Regards,
Rich Edgley
Technical Support
Pinnacle Systems
tom nealon at 12:45pm 23rd August 2007 hi i have pinnacle 11 ultimate
i can not unlock vitascene
when i go to edit it says not registerd run in read only mode
and will not export to project.
can any one tell me where i can find the code to register vitascene
Don Huizenga at 2:02am 22nd August 2007 I went into BB and purchased a new computer to go do video only and bought V11...with the patch. Running 64 b Vista. This computer does it all, fast processor etc. But, EVERYTIME I create a disk, it crashes, in different spots at different times...sometimes at the very end of the movie. Very frustrating. The editing seems fine and works pretty good but I cannot make a single disc. Tech just told me that the software is NOT compatible with Vista 64 and I should return it. I wish I could....
Josh-Pinnacle at 3:48pm 2nd August 2007 Fred Lobster,

If you are talking about .dtl format files, it should be okay. Deko graphics (dtl-files) created with 8 or 9 should still work in 11.

If you are talking about HFX effects, then the you should be able to simply copy the “Effects”, “Objects”, and “Images” folders from the earlier HFX version to the “Hollywood FX for Studio\6.0” folder, or, even better you can simply Export to HFZ any HFX effects from the previous version, and then double-click the .HFZ files after Studio 11 is installed to make sure they get installed in there.
Fred Lobster at 9:42pm 30th July 2007 I had a questions I was wondering if someone could answer. I was thinking about getting version 11 but wanted to know will graphic templates that I made in Studio 8 or 9 work with studio 11? I have a couple hundred graphics that I made to use for my reoccuring projects and just wanted to make sure that they would work with the new version.

Thanks
Bertrand-Pinnacle at 12:49am 25th July 2007 Robert G.,
I already heard about this problem with FRAPS. This tool is using a very specific AVI encoder and Studio does not support it actually very well. One solution reported by some other customers was to convert the FRAPS AVI using any converter (as Virtual Dub) to a more standard format as AVI DV and then you can edit the file in Studio.
Bertrand
Pinnacle Systems
Robert G. at 1:16am 21st July 2007 I made a movie through FRAPS and when I try to open it in Studio 11 it doesn't work properly. I'm running it on Vista. The preview shows the video very pixallated or doesn't show at all while the timeline shows movement and sounds work. Tried different things, but it still comes down to it not working properly.
Rich Edgley at 1:26pm 13th July 2007 @ knutser

If you post back some contact info, I can have your case looked into.

Regarding stability, there are things in a system that can be done to make it more stable when editing video. It is not a matter of “blaming” the computer or the software on it but we do have to consider that they could have an effect. Examples are (1) updating graphic card drivers, (2) turning off hardware acceleration, (3) ending background tasks etc to try to isolate the source. We do have a document that discusses way address this issue.

http://pinnacle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pinnacle.cfg/...

Each of the items on any FAQ are real fixes that have helped customers resolve the issue. I can't tell ahead of time, which, if any solution on it will fix an individual customer though. Sometime troubleshooting is a process of elimination.

We do testing in a wide variety of systems and configurations but it is a never ending task and fixing issues in software is an ongoing process with new hardware and software on the market every day in an open architecture environment.

Our webboards are located at:

http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/default.aspx

I disagree that “You'll find literally 1000s of frustrated people”. It is a troubleshooting forum so you will see problems, questions, issues but most are solved and we escalate to engineering the ones that we can’t to try to reproduce.

Rich Edgley
Technical Support
Pinnacle Systems
Jake in LA at 2:53pm 7th July 2007 I upgraded to Studio Ultimate 11 (from 10.7) and then installed the patch for 11.1. It works fine on my computer but will crash on occassion while editing effects in a fairly complex video project. Overall, I'm satisfied. But I was wondering if anyone out there know's how to link multiple menus that are manually created. It seems if the menu pages have different backgrounds (i.e., video or pic), there's no link option in the Clip Properties Tool for "Next" or "Previous" buttons. The User Guide is vague on this issue. Also, I notice that sometimes the chapter and return settings will disappear after the project is burned to DVD. Can anyone advize?

John
Bertrand-Pinnacle at 1:59pm 6th July 2007 To Jody,
Sorry that you did not had joy exporting your project (I presume to DD). You should perhaps look at the message I just posted few minutes before, the solution is perhaps inside (at least as a try before the final fix).
If you want to contact me, just visit our forum http://forums.pinnaclesys.com and send me a private message (my username: bvregille). Will be glad to help you.
Bertrand-Pinnacle at 1:56pm 6th July 2007 To Kipperman,
That's always the problem with forums, you will mainly see customers having problems. But at the same time Studio was sold by millions of copies and you will not see these users are they are just working with .
We found some issues with the first version and they were mostly addressed with 11.1. This version is also bringing support of AVCHD.
Studio Plus 11, as previous versions, comes with a high number of free transitions and a set of plugins available as demo and that you can buy if necessary.
Studio 11 Ultimate is made of Studio Plus v11 and 3 plugins (MovingPicture, ProDAD VitaScene and Bias SoundSoap). These plugins are similar to teh retail products and their extra value is more than the price of Studio Ultimate. These plugins are very powerful to create animation on still images, add efects to your video or filter your audio (remove noise or scrates etc.).
If you purchased plugins with a previous version of Studio, they are still valid with Studio 11, so your investment is not lost.
Bertrand-Pinnacle at 1:45pm 6th July 2007 To Leonardbuse,
Our engineering probably identified the burning problem that some of our users are facing and a solution will probably come out quickly.
In the meantime, I can offer you to test a fix we gave to some of these users and which was successfull for them.
Note: this fix is still experimental and is not the final version.
You can download this fix from:

http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/Studio11/D...
A Readme file with installation procedure is included in teh ZIP file.
Jody at 1:48pm 3rd July 2007 I have Studio 11.1 and am one of the frustrated users. From all the comments I have read there is no change in stability, Hours and Hours of wasted time. Tech support has been useless and I am now on to the Level 2 Tech support. If you want ease of use Studio 11.1 is your program, If you want to be able to actually transfer your project out of your computer this is not the program for you. Very disappointed in the final product.
knutser at 7:26pm 2nd July 2007 Like an idiot I have owned every version of Studio starting with Studio DV and ending with Studio 10.5. And I mean "ending"! A worse product is hard to find. Very unstable, every version has had tons of patches supposedly to fix instability issues. While I have succesfull made a handful of movies/DVDs, and the interface is slick when it works, I have made so many coasters it's not even funny.

When I have called Pinnacle for help, they have blamed all problems on other software in my system. It's not a turn-key, stand-alone system, it should therefor work alongside other software on your computer.

Today I read a review in PC World. As usual they gave it a decent rating (a fair acually), but forgot to focus on the fact that they made 2 coasters in 3 attempts, and had several crashes. They ought to have given it an "Unusable" rating.

If you want to read other comments about all versions of Studio, just go to their own support forum. You'll find literally 1000s of frustrated people.

Besides the money I have spent, what's worse is the hours and hours of frustration of waiting for the rendering and burning only to end up with nothing.

I would not buy Studio 11 unless they have a satisfaction guarantee or a fully functional trial version.
kipperman at 3:51am 2nd July 2007 I am looking at purchasing the studio 11 when it becomes available in Australia on July 7th but am concerned by all the comments here. I have read through the forum and no one seems to have anything on the issue which has plagued this set of software from the start. The fact that even when you purchase the ultimate edition you still have to continue to pay to unlock features. Does anyone know if this is still the case with ultimate 11 edition?
leonard buse at 7:14pm 1st July 2007 i have a problem burning dvds in studio plus 11
can only create hdv content to hard drive.
upgraded to 11.1 by advice of techsupport.I think
they dont know the answer, and passing the buck.
But i read a thread regarding this issue,and it suggested that it does not play well with nero7 ultra edition installed.it recommended to download neros wnaspi.dll and after renaming the excisting file to wnaspi32.dll old to copy neros winaspi32.dll to /windows/system32/folder and restart.nero does not recommend it ,it may be propriatory issue.I have not tryed it yet.make sure you know what you are doing,it may cause other problems?if some one is willing to test it,please share it with us.
Bertrand-Pinnacle at 1:48pm 29th June 2007 Sorry, I was meaning at this end of my thread:
Vista does not have this problem with UDF 2.5
Bertrand-Pinnacle at 1:47pm 29th June 2007 To John Manning,
The problme of Toshiba HD player not recognizing PAL HD-DVD is a known issue with these players. Apparently Toshiba has to release a new firmware for his devices to be able to read 50i HD-DVD, they are actually on ly reading 60i video. For more information, I would suggest you contacting Toshiba drectly.

HD-DVD disks are created with UDF 2.5 format. Windows XP is not able to read this format (except if you install a UDF 2.5 driver).
See: http://pinnacle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pinnacle.cfg/... does not have this problem.
John Stuart at 10:58am 27th June 2007 I received the V11 Ultimate upgrade, installed it (a little confusing) and found the player was mostly green with flashes like something was happening. It would crash occasionally when shutting down. I opened a chat with service and was told that my Matrox 64MB card was too small (even though the spec says it should work) so I upgraded to a hot Matrox card w/512 MB and it did resolved the green player issue. Yesterday I was notified the 11.1 patch was available so I installed it to fix the crash issue. I have not had time to do anything else with it since.
Pinnacle eStore Customer Service at 1:57pm 26th June 2007 Dear David Bridgman,

For current upgrade pricing please visit www.pinnaclesys.com/studio and click on the "Buy Upgrades" link in the left side navigation. You will only receive special offers from Pinnacle if you have opted into our newsletter during the product registration process or signed up for the newsletter on our website.

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Pinnacle eStore Customer Service
Pinnacle eStore Customer Service at 1:16pm 26th June 2007 Dear H-man, please contact us at 1-866-446-0833 and we can address your issues. Thank you.

Pinnacle eStore Customer Service
David Bridgman at 9:31am 23rd June 2007 Steve,
I have been using Pinnacle for years, I am currently using 10.7, but did not get an email on the $69.00 upgrade offer. Is there any chance of upgrading for the discounted price??
John Manning at 7:16am 22nd June 2007 I've used Pinnacle Studio (in the UK) in its various versions since 1996 and found its ease of use belies the potential. Yes, there have been bugs that were sorted by patches, but the program has always been usable and I have never found the need to move elsewhere, despite having tried trial versions of more expensive and 'professional' products. Admittedly I have always updated my PC to a high specification every 2 years or so.

I have had a big disappointment with 10 plus; now editing in HD from a Sony DCR-HC3 HDV camcorder, I bought the "HD-DVD on ordinary DVD media" option. Despite using different brands of DVD-R and DVD-RW media, and burning with and without menus, the Toshiba HD-DVD E1 does not recognise any of the discs. My PC (XP pro with ordinary DVD rewriters) will play them in high definition using WinDVD 8 despite Windows being unable to read them. I have had exactly the same result using a friend's Studio 11 ultimate.

If Steve has any suggestions I would be keen to try them - I like the look of 11 ultimate and am interested in upgrading if this is resolved. I have tried online chat and emails with customer services and was unimpressed. They merely wished to direct me to FAQs which didn't have any relevance to my problem.
John Stuart at 1:08pm 11th June 2007 I ordered the upgrade 5/22 and it finally shipped end of day 6/6. I have not received it yet but will comment once I do.

I can buy V11 Plus for $49 at Circuit City now!
H-man at 10:57am 8th June 2007 I've been a longtime and happy Studio user (since Studio DV). I'm one of the minority that never experienced problems with the product. I never did upgrade to V10 though because of all the problems reported. When I got an email from Pinnacle about the upgrade offer, I decided to give it a try.

Well, I pre-ordered it on 5/18, got an email confirmation of the order and been checking their site for the status (which says not shipped yet). I decided to follow up today why I haven't received yet since Amazon has it on stock. The Pinnacle sales rep I talked to says it's available and referred me to their customer service #. I was then told my order was cancelled, but she didn't know why or who. I never received a cancel email nor the online lookup does NOT say the order is cancelled. Talked to her supervisor and was told their accounting dept cancelled the order, but did not give a reason. I asked my order to be honored since I was not the one cancelling the order. He first says they'll have to charge full price and then they'll credit my account (HA! fat chance I'll let them do that). They should be able to adjust the amount and only charge that (never heard of any accounting system that can't).

I guess if they can't rectify the problem, not only they'll lose my business (since 2000) but all future businesses from me and my friends.

You know Pinnacle used be great (both the company and products), but since they were acquired by Avid, it has gone downhill (Studio 10 is the perfect example). Hope they'll realize this and turn it around or the franchise may go down the toilet.
Larry at 7:01am 7th June 2007 I am a satisfied Pinnacle 10.7 TE user. I found that if you have at least 1.5 times the recommended RAM and current drivers installed on your system, most problems will disappear. I still have an occassional lockup, but I attribute it to me trying do perform multiple tasks when rendering. I look forward to opening Studio 11 Ultimate on Father's Day. (Guess you know what was on my wish list :).
Pat at 3:16pm 5th June 2007 I had many problems with Studio 10 Plus including patches until I stored all of my video on a separate hard drive than the program, and upgraded my video card to the one recommended by the manual. It still is not the most stable program, but it is nowhere near as bad as it was originally. I guess I would try Studio 11 Ultimate, but will monitor the reviews of users to see how stable it is.
Tony at 8:18pm 4th June 2007 I've been given a new HD camcorder and I'm trying to decide between upgrading to Studio 11 or buying Ulead VideoStudio 11 (or possibly Ulead MediaStudio). I've run the Ulead demo for 4 weeks and it seems very stable. I currently own Pinnacle Studio 8, which has the occasional crash but nothing like the disastrous problems I've read about with Studio 9 and 10. It has been claimed that the new management has made Studio 11 much more stable than previous versions. However I've already read several comments in various forums about problems burning DVD's with Studio 11. I live in Australia and for some reason Studio 11 is not available on the Australian web site. I'd appreciate any advice people can offer.
Many thanks.
Mike Reeves at 12:44am 4th June 2007 Have used Studio 8 through 10.5 with no problems at all on a Windows XP system. I recently purchased Studio 11 (Works with Vista??) having just built a Vista Home Premium System.

Studio 11 repeatedly failed to install and wrecked the Vista installation. Fortunately I had an Acronis image of the system so reloading was only a 20 minute task.

Oddly enough Studio 11 did install and functions perfectly on my old XP system.

Warning to anyone installing Sudio 11 on Vista. DON'T
Red at 7:31am 2nd June 2007 Studio 11 Upgrade is on backorder. I received an e-mail stating the following:

We're Sorry! The product(s) you've ordered is currently out of stock and could not be shipped. The product(s) has been placed on back-order and will be shipped as soon as possible when the stock becomes available. You will receive another e-mail notification when your order has actually shipped. Your credit card has been pre-authorized, but you will NOT be charged until the product ships. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

HOW CAN A BRAND NEW PRODUCT BE ON BACK ORDER FROM A PRE-ORDER OFFER?
Tricia at 5:49pm 31st May 2007 We purchased Studio 11 Plus a couple of weeks ago. I am a novice and only need it to edit programs I have copied off TV on my DVR and saved to my computer. The first project I used it on, it worked great and was SO user-friendly for a rookie like me. I was delighted. The same on the second project. On the third project, when I got to the final stage, where you click on Make Movie, then Create File, the program just shut down. Poof! I reopened it and it gave me the option to go back to my project, which I chose. It was still in Edit, so I clicked on Make Movie, and the same thing happened. I have not been able to get beyond this, in spite of multiple e-mails to Tech Support, multiple un-installs, cleaning registry, and even a patch of the Beta of the next version. I'm so aggravated at this point I just want my money back. I have a brand new computer with plenty of power, so it's not my computer. I DO NOT recommend you waste your money on this product.
John at 12:34pm 24th May 2007 I have 10.7 and it runs good on my computer. I ordered the Ultimate 11 upgrade three days ago and I still haven't received my e-mail confirmation that it's been mailed. Is the software on backorder?
Shane at 8:44am 23rd May 2007 Will there be a trial download?
Matt at 12:34pm 22nd May 2007 I am more than willing to give it a shot Steve. I have had great success with earlier versions of pinnacle studio.
Shane at 5:35am 22nd May 2007 I'd really like to try pinnacle studio ultimate but with so many bad reviews of previous versions, I wouldn't buy this software without being able to try it first. I wonder if they don't offer a downloadable trial version LIKE EVERYONE ELSE because their software is still buggy? they are losing a lot of business by not offering the trial download...then again, maybe not...if their software s**ks!
John Stuart at 3:21pm 21st May 2007 I am concerned as to the quality of V11 too. I updated to 10.7 and it either locks-up or is terribly slow. I was going to upgrade to V11 because I was hoping for better quality and it sounded like it would perform better, but if noone has had any experience with it then I don't want to spend another chunk of money on it.
A P Dutson at 9:55am 16th May 2007 I have used the various versions of Pinnacle Studio from Version 7 through 10. I have found every version very unstable in many ways. "New and Improved" 10 was the worst. I had problems getting it to install and then get it off my computer.

I have loved the user friendly nature of the software and the features. If these people could get their act together, they would have a fantastic product.

I have produced many projects using the software, and the shorter ones usually turn out satisfactorally. It is common for Pinnacle to lock up in rendering and sometimes ruin the files, so you have to start totally over.

I don't think I trust that Pinnacle Studio 11 will somehow be any better.
Chris Radebaugh at 3:44pm 30th April 2007 I purchased the Plus 10 upgrade to my Plus 9.4 and was unable to install it. Pinnacle replaced the upgrade with version 10.6. This installed once, was so full of bugs I removed it and am unable to install again. I wasted money in purchasing this upgrade. I'm trying to get Pinnacle to replace this with a version that WILL work. Frustrating!