Pinnacle Systems

[crokett]

Anybody use any of their products for video editing? What was your experience with the company? I picked up one of their capture devices last weekend. It is a nice product but I am strongly considering returning it. I have a problem with hearing audio when editing clips (movie maker plays the audio as does demo SW from ULead) and the company so far has been zero help. I work in support and have little patience with piss-poor service.

[Pappy]

I have the Studio AV/DV Deluxe but haven't used it a lot.

[cgallery]

I prefer Sony Vegas products. Pinnacle has historically been a little less than stable.

[linear]

I've used Studio 9 for a couple years now. Maybe 100 hours total time at the thing. It came bundled with my ATI All-In-Wonder Card.

It works. I've had stability challenges, but I just built a new PC and it seems to be holding up pretty well. Less than an hour time on the new setup though--all my workflows are pretty refined now so I get in, do the work and get out.

No specific comment on their bundled hardware. I don't care much for their pay-to-unlock-features model. On the plus side, the 20 dollar enhancement I did pay for carried over to my fresh install with zero hassle. I've had no need to deal with their support.

I mainly capture video and edit it for Youtube.

[crokett]

I don't care about the pay to unlock features - I never plan to unlock any. I just want the SW to work or get some kind of response from the company other than a suggestion to try Movie Maker. If I wanted to use Movie Maker I'd be doing that. Gonna call 'em tomorrow but I expect to have to return it. I don't see them being able to do anything I haven't done already.

[mpc]

I tried their HDTV USB TV Tuner - the older model that doesn't have the internal flash memory - a while back. The tuner guts are pretty much the same as the Hauppage, KWorld, etc USB tuner sticks; I don't know who actually makes the itty bitty circuit board used in these things. Pinnacle's software though was very flakey - just the TV tuner drivers and TV application were nightmares; I never got them working enough to try the editor studio software that came with the tuner. I never did get the Pinnacle software working correctly - and I tried two rather different XP systems. Back to the store it went. I got the Hauppage HVR950 (same basic hardware) and their software is much better - so I doubt my computers had any inherent incompatibility with the tuner electronics. Just with Pinnacle's crappy software.

mpc

[crokett]

It is less the technical issue than the customer service I am not getting. I've work in a technical field for 15 years and it is rare I find an issue that can't be solved. In just the one topic I posted in on their forums there are 4 or 5 folks that are going to return the product or are at least threating to. The Pinnacle reps don't seem to care.

[messmaker]

It is less the technical issue than the customer service I am not getting. I've work in a technical field for 15 years and it is rare I find an issue that can't be solved. In just the one topic I posted in on their forums there are 4 or 5 folks that are going to return the product or are at least threating to. The Pinnacle reps don't seem to care.

Can't seem to get it right will drive you nuts. "Just don't care" makes me want to strangle someone.

[crokett]

Things are looking up. Called a rep this morning. He started asking some basic questions. I requested level 2. He said there were some things he needed to check. I told him let me tell you what I've done and you tell me what else to do. After I got done he said he'd escalate my case.

[lkazista]

Just get a Mac.

[BobSch]

I use VideoReDo ( http://www.videoredo.com/en/ ) and have had good luck with it. The couple of small questions I've had have been handled with no problems.