Pinnacle Studio Ultimate V14 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Pinnacle Studio line of video processing software has a
very simple and intuitive interface. It is relatively easy
to learn the software. Even though it is for beginners/home
users, it does provide options for more advanced, Hollywood
style video processing. But only when it works.
I have used Studio consistently since its version 9. The
most recent version is now Studio 14 and it comes
in several variations: basic, ultimate, and ultimate
collection.
My recommendation: 4 stars for its simple interface. Zero
for everything else.
* Installing Studio 14 (in my case the Ultimate version)
If you purchased earlier "Ultimate" or "Plus" versions of
Studio, or if you bought fancy "transitions" or similar
premium features for earlier versions of Studio, the ONLY
way that you can take advantages of only SOME of them,
is to re-install the older Studio versions. In previous
installations of Studio, you could simply reuse your
activation code to get those features, plugins, or premium
options back. For Studio 14, your earlier activation codes
or serial numbers mean nothing. You have to reinstall old
software. But how many customers keep three, four earlier
versions of a software? Pinnacle never gave a hint that
an older version has to be kept.
Furthermore, even with older versions, you cannot recover
everything for Studio 14. For example, I had already paid
for two plugins (known as Heroglyph and Adorage). Even
though I re-installed Studio versions 11 and 12, I was
unable to get these two plugins activated. I contacted
Pinnacle. They asked me to repay for these plugins! That's
absolutely unacceptable.
Note that the above problems are well documented in
Pinnacle's own users' forums: to visit, go to pinnaclesys
dot com, under support, click on forums, and follow the
"edit" forum. Many customers have complained that they had
to go back and install Studio 10, 11, 12 in order to get
back some of their "transitions" or other premium features.
* Customer service: absolutely horrible
You will have a service code that entitles you to one phone
call. For other calls, you will have to pay. When I called
the support, it was an absolute waste of time. First,
there is a long queue. Second, the person only talked
in uncertain terms: "it should", "I think so", "try it",
"I am not 100% sure", etc. No definite or precise responses
to any of my installation or activiation questions.
* Pixelation problems continue
A popular feature of many video processing software is that
of making a video (DVD) of still photos, using certain
transitions or filters to make photo presentation more
fun. A common (and well documented) problem with Studio
version 10 and afterward has been pixelation. The photos,
especially at transition points, get pixelated and look
ugly. Pinnacle's response: it is your hard-drive, update
your video card driver, replace your video card driver,
re-size your photos, etc.
The pixelation problem is a very serious one as there are
several threads in the "edit" forum, each consisting of at
least 40-50 individuals experiencing the same problem and
complaining.
* Personal experience with Studio 14
No MAJOR differences with Studio 12. It crashed the very
first time but worked the second time. However, because I
still do not have access to many of the "transitions",
premium features, and plugins that I already purchased
with earlier versions of Studio, I do not know if I can
do anything other than simple video processing that I can
do otherwise with the free video software that comes with
the Windows operating systems.

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Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Video editing is not simple and projects place the most severe demands on your PC. When you move to HD, the demands increase exponentially. Ulead VideoStudio 11, like any editor, does have a learning curve, so be patient. Be certain to read the manual that comes with the box or download it from their site in pdf and take it with you on your laptop or pda.
If you are just starting out as a video editor, you have some surprises ahead because it is a tedious job; not only to learn, but to produce. It is far more difficult than working with photos. If you are just looking to produce a short DVD movie from your camera, it is easy. But, adding titles, overlays, and audio tracks does take time.
I have had several months experience comparing the Ulead VideoStudio to Pinnacle Studio Plus 11. I find the features and reliablity of the Ulead suite to be superior to any of the consumer level Pinnacle softwares. In fact, my experiences with Pinnacle have been less than satisfactory and their support is non-existent. I would stay far away.
What is particularly nice about this product is that when you install and register, it is fully functional. There are no gimmicks requiring you to activate other features. Also, it doesn't seem to overtax your processor. With Pinnacle, my processor fan was on high the entire time and I experienced numerous hangups and crashes with the CPU @ 100%. Ulead doesn't do that. It does, however, pause in an inactive mode for a while when performing certain tasks like splitting scenes from your movie. These pauses appear to be hangups and provide no "...please wait", but eventually it comes back. Get another cup of coffee. Will you experience crashes? Probably, but fewer.
While I do like Pinnacle's editor a lot, I spent three weeks editing a series of digitized 8mm family movies into a one hour project. Pinnacle would only produce 41 minutes of the project either to disk or DVD. That was a lot of wasted time and their "support" could not solve the problem. If only Ulead would import Pinnacle projects; that would be a coup.
So, this review seems to be mostly what I don't like about Pinnacle Studio Plus 11, but for the reader's satisfaction I moved from that product to Ulead VideoStudio 11 and found some welcome relief as well as full features. I did spend three wasted weeks with Pinnacle and that is a sore point with me. The moral to my story is start with Ulead VideoStudio and when you get good at it, perhaps move along to high-end products like Adobe. My jury is still out for a while on this product, but so far it looks good.
I hope this was helpful.
Amended...just finished my one hour movie using Ulead VideoStudio 11. Completed the project over three days without one computer hang up or crash. The program is great and deserves five stars.

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VideoStudio 11 Plus is video editing and DVD authoring software for anyone who wantsto easily produce professional-looking videos, slideshows and DVDs. Capture video from the latest HD camcorders and create amazing High-Definition HD DVDs. Work quickly with timesaving template-based Wizards, or express your creativity with powerful hands-on tools. Fix common video problems with one-click corrective filters, generate Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio tracks, and add pro-quality titles and transitions. Share your movies everywhere, from iPod to DVD to YouTube to the latest Home Theater systems. Award-winning VideoStudio sets the standard for powerful features and ease of use.

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Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection V14 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is my third iteration of Pinnacle Studio, having owned versions 11 and 12 as well. I also own and have used several other video editing packages running from high to low end. At the top of the low end range, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection 14 comes in as a solid five-star performer - if you are willing to tolerate some minor stability issues. For reasons I don't pretend to understand, all video editing programs seem to have stability issues to one degree or another. Sometimes I think I may be part of the problem as I rush ahead performing other operations while the CPU is still rendering what I've already done. Other times, I just plain don't know: like Adobe Premiere Elements 7 simply not running on a Vista 32-bit system while it ran on a 64-bit version without problems. Given time, I could probably narrow down the issues, but I'm not that concerned. With Pinnacle, I am politely informed that the program has malfunctioned and given an option to close the program. Do that, restart Pinnacle and I'm back in business within a few seconds. Do frequent saves and the occasional crashes don't hurt.
Pinnacle runs about a 12 month cycle between new major releases. Frankly, every other release could probably be skipped because the improvements are not generally that earthshaking.
I am glad, however, that I upgraded to Version 14. There are three variants, each having a few more features than the others. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection is the top of V14 line. The only drawback is that some of the bonus content, such as the SoundSoap program, are no longer included and earlier versions will not run in V14.
The good news is that the user interface has been simplified again. Pinnacle uses context-sensitive functions. In other words, double-clicking on a video clip brings up a different menu than you'd get by double-clicking on a still image. I've found the current interface to be somewhat more sensible and easier to use. There are three primary tabs: import media, edit and render output. Import gives you the choices you would expect, covering the waterfront from analog video to AVCHD. It's pretty simple to use with some good on the fly scene selection options. There are also options for directly importing from a digital camera, and interesting, a stop motion option that lets you build something resembling a flip book. Automatic scene detection is available for those who want it. Personally I find it more of a nuisance than a help.
The editing section has everything you could want in a solid low-end program. The user interface offers a storyboard or timeline or text listing formats. I am generally in the timeline view. There are scrubbers both in the movie preview window and at the bottom of the timeline, so reviewing video is an efficient procedure. Lots of keyboard shortcuts permit a speedy workflow. There are dozens of ordinary transitions and a couple of dozen other effects that will probably see little use. Plug-ins offer special features such as pan and zoom on still images, RGB color correction and so on. There is Picture-In-Picture and Chromakeying. Pinnacle provides its own custom music program called ScoreFitter, which as the name implies will generate music of a sort to fit the time of your clips. There are also some sound effects.
There are tracks for primary video, overlay video (which can also be used for dual camera shoots), titles, music, sound effects and voice overs. All in all, it's a nice, functional layout.
Pinnacle provides two competent, if not brilliant, titling programs. One creates static text which may be kerned and otherwise adjusted. It may be used to create DVD menus and the like. The other, called Motion Titler, allows more dynamic titles. Third-party titling programs run rings around it, but it is still quite usable for those who don't want exceptionally elaborate titles.
Pinnacle includes something they call "Montage Themes" which the user can customize with clips, photo and captions. They are pretty hokey, in my opinion, and not something I would use.
You can output to just about anything. DVD menu layouts are included and you can create your own. Almost all common codecs are included for video output, which is nice.
Overall, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection V14 is a very nice video editing application that I would rank at the top end of the low-end programs. It has everything the average hobbyist videographer and, in a way, functions are more accessible than in Adobe Premiere Elements. But there's a caveat: buy the printed manual if it isn't included with your Pinnacle package. The manual itself is somewhat difficult to deal with, but comes in extremely handy as a ready reference when you need it. I have several low-end video editing packages and Pinnacle is the one I find myself using most often. It offers, I think, good value for the money and an unusually good user interface.
Jerry


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The complete package of everything you need to make amazing movies. Everything you need to make great movies.

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OmniForm 5.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)I really like OmniForm 5. Actually I'm using version 5.1 and I'm very satisfied with it.
I was using another forms program I had purchased that was adequate but not nearly as good. After using FormTool I have a much greater appreciation of OmniForm.
ScanSoft has been on my list of not to buy software recently because of some of the poor performance of some of their other programs, tech support is expensive from ScanSoft and none of their software that I have used have been easy to learn using the manuals or help files. In contrast OmniForm was well worth the money.
OmniForm 5 does a great job of either creating forms from scratch, scanning or converting from PDF. It's the only forms program I have tried so far that actually does a great job of importing a form from a PDF file.
Its has all the tools you need to create a form starting with a blank page. You can define any field with a variety of formats. Example you can create a date field with a specific format then no matter how the data is input the program will automatically reformat the data the way you specified. You can create just about any field simply by dragging a symbol from a menu onto the page. In the case of inserting a graphic you can choose to have the graphic saved with the form or not saving with the form itself to conserve file size. You can have the graphic resized by the program with little loss of quality. Features such as these might be available in other programs of this type but I found OmniForm to do the best job with creating a form field by field with the least effort.
Scanning in of a form is almost flawless. It even recognized fields on the paper form that were meant to be circled and created the field for them. Other programs I have used could not do this well if at all. The only adjustments I had to make on scanned forms were sometimes OmniForm recognized text as bold when it wasn't and occasionally it would change the font. For example it would change Arial to Times New Roman on some spots of the form. Strange quirk.
To get a form imported from a PDF file you have to open the PDF file and print to OmniForm. This is very accurate with little adjustment necessary after import. OmniForm really shines in this area. But I did notice if the form your importing from PDF has multiple pages OmniForm will give you an out of memory error when you try to save. To overcome this flaw you have to import one page at a time, creating a new page each time in OmniForm to make a multi page form from PDF. A little time consuming when you have a 9 page form.
It will create a self running .exe form you can e-mail and the person on the other end can fill out the form and send it back. This works even the other person does not have OmniForm on their machine. Because some people filter out .exe file attachments the program also creates a .html version of the form. This is a very handy feature.
The help file is not of much use. The paper manual is better but still lacking. If you have problems tech support from ScanSoft is expensive. But there is a user support forum you can get to through the support page on the ScanSoft web site. I have used the forum with great success.
Overall this program is a little difficult to use with some quirks and needed features like being able to import and save a multiple page form from PDF. But well worth the effort to use as it is the most accurate forms program I have used.
I do recommend this program. If the flaws I mentioned were corrected I would give this program 5 stars.

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OmniForm 5.0 allows you to quickly turn paper forms into digital forms, or create new digital forms from scratch. OmniForm 5.0 comes with a complete set of predesigned templates to facilitate the creation of new forms. Forms can be printed and distributed, or sent via e-mail so recipients can fill them out electronically on their computers.
OmniForm 5.0 also comes with a single license for OmniForm Filler/Data Manager to expedite the filling out of digital forms, a real timesaver for individuals who complete forms on a regular basis. The Filler/Data Manager software maintains a database of information about the user and automatically fills in information that has been provided on previous forms. OmniForm 5.0 is ideal for individuals who need to create forms, or who receive and fill out a large number of forms.

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