So I got a copy of Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11 from work and I'm up in the air on it. For what I do, it isn't a great jump from Windows Movie Maker. It costs about $110, I don't think I used any of the "ultimate" features too. After sitting back, most of my problems with the product are from a pure user interface standpoint. This is a problem since I view the UI to be the most important part of an application.
First what sucked
- The UI for doing getting to transitions and captions is confusing.
- The fade transition effect I wanted was on the last page.
- Items acted "weird" from time to time. I was editing a text caption and I had to close out and reenter it to continue a few times.
- 2 gig footprint? Seriously? I expect that from Visual Studio. Not from a Video editing program. I think Adobe Premiere Elements has this type of footprint though so I may have to shut up.
- Value of it versus Windows Movie Maker.
- Can't resize the top areas to make parts bigger or smaller.
- I want to use my arrow keys from time to time to forward / reverse a movie, can't do this without using the mouse on either the time line or the clock by clicking.
- I have to hunt for commonly used functions like adding in a video effect.
Then what I liked
- The program didn't crash. (give me time on this)
- I liked some of the text overlays I could do.
- Encoding was nice, told me the size of the final file.
- I can have multiple audio streams.
- Uses both my CPU cores (faster encoding). This would be very nice on my Quad-Core at home.
And now Clint questions the meaning of life
I'm not sure if it can't pan / zoom. I couldn't find this feature. I could only figure out how to do a picture in picture. Found this in the Toolbox menu.
Final Verdict: Leaves some stuff to improve but not bad. I'd be wary of giving this to someone that requires training/books to learn new products due to the user interface issues.
Adobe Premiere Elements will be my next program to try out. Elements is $90 on Amazon while Pinnacle Studio Ultimate is $110.