Pinnacle Studio Version 10

On Oct. 17, 2005 at Tewksbury, Mass, USA, Avid Technology announced their latest update of Pinnacle Studio™, version 10 – the next-generation of the popular home video editing family. Included are several new features, ranging from full native high-definition (HD) support to pan and zoom capabilities.

The new version 10 is available through the Pinnacle Systems' website (www.pinnaclesys.com) and major retailers such as PC World, Jessops, John Lewis and Comet. Studio version 10 is also available at e-tailers such as Amazon, Dabs and Misco.

The Pinnacle Studio version 10 family is available in three editions, Studio, Studio Plus and Studio MediaSuite. In addition to Studio V10 software, Pinnacle also offers four hardware packages that provide additional options, such as the ability to capture content from DV and analogue cameras as well as VCRs. Pricing for Studio software starts at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of £49.99inc VAT.

Pinnacle Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. has received nine Emmy® Awards for its technical innovations.

New Features

One useful new feature is the ability to quickly transfer video to DVD. Pinnacle Studio can instantly create DVDs with menus without having to transfer the media on to your hard drive first.

The range of real-time effects and transitions is extended, all of which can all be previewed full screen on the computer monitor.

A library of categorized royalty-free music is also included in the new version. I presume this is a number of clip tracks that you just drop on the timeline as the mood takes you. Not exactly the first manufacturer to include this but in the right hands it can produce high quality sound tracks.

Also is extended the range of capture devices which will interface with the application. DVD ripping / importing media from non-encrypted DVDs is yet another useful new feature.

I find the last updated feature a little difficult to understand. I presume that it automatically renders / encodes in the background while you are working on a project so when it comes to actually saving to tape / burning DVD the appropriate file is already there. If you know better please contact me on iacnews@gmail.com

The Studio Plus and Studio MediaSuite also allow editing in HD. I have no more information on how comprehensive this is and whether it gives you real-time previews.

All in all, it looks like a great updated product from Pinnacle and very good value for money. Hopefully in a few weeks I will have had time to have a play with it and will be able to give more details. I am very interested to see how it copes with HD media.