Product Reviews

We reviewed Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 in What's New, Shopper February 2006 and thought it was a well-conceived video editor for home users, but it was crippled by stability problems. The Titanium Edition reviewed here includes extra features that were previously available as paid extras, as well as various updates that bring it (and Studio Plus) up to version 10.5.

We were pleasantly surprised by the power and versatility of the extra effects bundle. There are some interesting colour processes, such as Shift Channels for mapping RGB colour channels to different colours, luminance or saturation. Other highlights include sophisticated distortion effects. Best of all is the extensive user control available for each effect; the fire simulation has 21 parameters to help it integrate convincingly with your source footage. Along with the ability to morph effects settings using key frames, a feature that was introduced in Studio Plus 10, these extra effects boost the software's scope for creative editing.

Titanium Edition also includes MPEG4 support with templates for export to DivX format and iPod and PlayStation Portable (PSP) players. Doing so is quick and easy, with the PSP's awkward filename conventions

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handled automatically. Unencrypted DVDs can also be imported to the timeline and converted to MPEG4.

Studio Plus 10 introduced an error-reporting module that could send crash reports back to Pinnacle, similar to the one built into Windows XP. We thought it encouraging that Pinnacle was trying to address the stability problems that have plagued Studio for as long as we can remember. However, despite a long list of bug fixes, version 10.5 shows no clear sign of improvement. We suffered at least one crash in every session, with no obvious pattern as to what was causing them.

We noticed a number of recurring problems, too. HDV cameras are supported, along with various high-definition output formats, and we had no difficulty generating these HD files. But there appeared to be no more image detail contained within these files than with the standard-definition PAL export templates, despite using high-resolution source footage and text overlay.

Elsewhere, previews of certain real-time effects were spoiled by random flashes, although these disappeared once Studio's background rendering had kicked in, generating a temporary file of the clip with the effect in place. Weirder still, frames from other projects occasionally flashed on to the preview window, presumably a problem with background rendering getting its cached files mixed up. Worst was that resizing a video clip and replacing the soundtrack caused previews to stutter so much that the software became unusable. Background rendering fixed the problem, but we shouldn't have to wait 10 minutes after performing such a simple edit on an Athlon 64 PC to continue editing.

Studio Plus could be a great product, and Titanium Edition adds some welcome features. However, until it stops crashing and misbehaving, we can't recommend it.