Pinnacle Studio 9 Reviewed

If you’re a video editing enthusiast, whether for recreation or profit, you’ve undoubtedly run across more than a few software manufacturers in the market space in your search for the right video editing software package for your needs.  Functionality ranges from rudimentary to professional grade, so the choice you make depends more on your level of expertise and available budget than anything else.

We’ll look briefly at the Avid/Pinnacle family of products to help with your decision process.  Pinnacle began as a German company (its name is actually Pinnacle Systems GmbH, where GmbH are the initials for Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, the German equivalent of “Limited Liability Corporation”), and introduced a popular video editing family called Studio.  Its breakout offering was Pinnacle Studio 9, released in 2004 as an entry level video editing offering.

As an aside, there is also a software package from Apple called Logic Studio 9, but it’s designed to compete with Digidesign’s Pro Tools HD in the home music recording genre.  I mention it here just to avoid any confusion between the two.

Pinnacle’s Studio 9 was known for its incredible ease of use, which drove its popularity more than anything else.  Unfortunately, it had a couple of serious drawbacks that Pinnacle (and Avid, after the companies merged, sort of) spent a lot of time and money fixing.

First, Studio quickly developed a reputation as being quite buggy, and users complained of losing their work quite often.  This was fixed through a series of downloadable software patches, but not before consumers began spreading the word that the product wasn’t a terrific buy.

A second drawback was that Studio 9 didn’t offer multi-track recording or mixing, meaning that picture-in-picture or overlapping fades were not possible.  While it may not sound like a big deal at first, it turns out that only having the power to work with a single track at a time is severely limiting.

As Pinnacle and Avid evolved their Studio line, they have developed some world class editing packages, used to produce professional television programs and big-screen movies.  Before you decide on the right model for you, be sure to clearly define your video editing desires, and do your homework.  You’ll be happy you did!