Product Reviews

Whether you're looking to tidy up your MiniDV camcorder footage or create a high definition movie masterpiece, the latest editing suite from Pinnacle promises all the tools you need. The program comes in three flavours - Standard, Plus and Ultimate - and, like its rivals Ulead VideoStudio 11 and Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0, is aimed at users looking to get into video editing without paying a fortune.

As we showed in our introduction to video last month, you don't need to be an expert to get started. Connect your camcorder to your PC and you can let the software show you the way, which Studio Plus 11 does very well. With video clips stored on your hard disk and represented by icons in the Clip Album, it's simple to drag them to the timeline and assemble your movie along the bottom of the screen. Although Pinnacle's timeline differs in appearance from others, the principles are the same, and it's here where you can trim clips, change their appearance, move them around or delete them.

The program's user-friendly design makes it easy to pull together all sorts of digital files. You can record narration, add titles, graphics and music, and apply a wide range of special effects (like picture-in-picture and green-screen overlays) before creating menus like those on commercial DVDs. Everything is designed with an easy workflow in mind.

High definition

Where Studio Plus 11 differs

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from previous versions is in its ability to import, edit and export full-spec HD (high definition) video sources, whether from tape (HDV), using a FireWire cable to your camcorder, or from tapeless HD media (AVCHD), which relies on a USB 2.0 connection. The latter is treated in the same way as still pictures on a memory card, and can be quicker to transfer. However, AVCHD is a young and temperamental format and requires a patient and powerful PC. In tests, we couldn't open files from a Panasonic HDC-DX1 DVD camera at all. This reflects the state of the technology more than the software.

If you're completely new to video editing, the Smart Movie feature helps you produce a finished video from your clips automatically. As far as music is concerned, the Scorefitter feature will generate it for you, fitting your chosen loop track to the video sequence. A wide variety of musical genres and styles are included, and they're all free to use.

Not only is video editing a breeze, but the program is great for creating musical slideshows of images from digital stills cameras. The Pan & Zoom facility may also appeal. Import a load of still images and throw them onto the timeline, and you can pan and zoom around them and bring them to life with music and captions. You don't even need to resize or prepare the images - just drag and drop them.

Import and export

If you need to convert VHS or Video8 movies to DVD, the supplied Instant DVD Recorder makes it simple - just follow the prompts and leave it to get on with the job. It's pretty good, though in reality not an adequate substitute for a high-end DVD recorder.

As well as letting you create interactive DVDs, Studio Plus can also export to other media including HD-DVD (Blu-ray support will follow), standard DVD-R/RW, HDV and DV tape, as well as a range of video file formats compatible with iPod, PSP, DivX and Real Media. Quality is good in most formats, and you don't have to be a techie to get impressive results.