It’s not stable enough for heavy use, but it will do fine for occasional home video editing. At one point it hard-crashed my computer while I was importing videos, and at other times it became sluggish performing tasks that didn’t challenge other products. This release is more solid than some previous versions, but it still has issues from time to time. However, stability is the biggest problem with Pinnacle Studio. The effects and transitions libraries are large, but they’re not always executed perfectly.
The interface no longer looks like it’s from another era altogether-it’s now one of the nicest-looking editors on the Windows platform. It’s mostly intuitive, and it comes with some solid tutorials in case you can’t figure it out for yourself quickly. That has changed in a big way with Pinnacle Studio 21.
Other software companies make a similar offer but Pinnacle’s is particularly straightforward and allows buyers to have a clear understanding of what exactly they’re buying.For years, Pinnacle Studio was known for its less-than-stellar user interface. Pinnacle’s ability to deliver better value for money makes that walk into the video software hills a trip worth making. That might sound like a small benefit but the challenge for makers of video editing software is that users are often required to pay for features they’ll never touch. The result is that if you head towards Pinnacle, you won’t just get a perfectly capable video editor, you’ll also get a choice of the features you want in line with the amount that you’re willing to pay.
(Studio offers just six tracks, and Studio Plus provides 24). Only Studio Ultimate provides 360 degree video editing, bonus effects, and unlimited video/audio tracks. You’ll get more than 2,000 transitions and effects in comparison to Studio’s 1,500 six-camera editing instead of Studio’s two cameras a mosaic blur for motion tracking, which isn’t available at all in the budget version and live screen capture, which the cheapest version also lacks. Each of those versions - Studio, Studio Plus, and Studio Ultimate - packs in basic editing tools but Studio Ultimate goes further. More importantly, though, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate is one of three of versions of the same piece of software offered by the company. It’s surprisingly useful and soon becomes a comfortable way to work. While video editors tend to allow users to switch between timeline and storyboard modes, Pinnacle Studio offers both on the same screen. The layout, for example, is a little unusual. Look a little closer though, and the differences become clearer. All the basic tools that an editor will find themselves turning to again and again are right there - as they are in Adobe’s Premiere and Corel’s VideoStudio. The software comes with a 21-day pass to training material and a stock library. Pinnacle Studio offers many of the same features that any filmmaker would expect from a video editing tool: multi-camera editing, stop-motion animation, montage templates for easy storyboarding, a large asset library and a huge selection of transitions. The question is whether budding filmmakers should make the effort to walk away from the familiar and the famous towards a path less taken.Īt first glance, they have little reason to. They’re excellent video editors that deliver very similar services and are much closer at hand. Because while Pinnacle Studio 20 glitters and delivers real value, Adobe’s Premiere and Corel’s VideoStudio both also gleam. There’s gold in those hills… and it’s yours if you can be bothered to get up and hike out there.