Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Ultimate Review

The MovieBox Ultimate comes packed in attractive black packaging. Popping open the box will reveal the 710-USB capture device, software package, usb cable, firewire cable, documentation and a green screen backdrop blanket (very cool!).

The 710-USB external capture device features: a composite video input, L/R composite audio input, s-video input and a DV/firewire input for camcorders. The other side of the device sports an output for the composite video/audio, s-video and USB to the computer. The outputs are necessary to preview your video and can be used to send the edited footage back to a tape instead of burning a DVD.




I remember being very impressed with Pinnacle Studio over six years ago. When granted the opportunity to do this review, I was curious to see how much improvement there has been in that timeframe. The new Pinnacle Studio version 12 pleasantly surprised me. After a self-explanatory 20 minute install I was up and running. Upon opening the newly installed program, I was presented with a basic interface that resembled other editing programs I have used.

Having edited video before, there was only a slight learning curve for me. As soon as I found my way around the interface it seemed pretty simple. Users who have never edited video may have some frustrations at first. The interface is laid out in a logical way that should be easy to pickup on.

To evaluate the software I decided it would be good time to convert some old dusty VHS tapes from my attic to DVD. My goal seemed simple, import the tapes, do a small amount of editing, create DVD menu’s with chapters and burn. After digging out a spare VCR, I made the necessary connections using a composite cables. I was disappointed that no composite or s-video cables were included, but I’ll let it slide since most people have a whole drawer full nowadays anyway.

After hooking my VCR up the video preview on the computer looked horrible. I thought my tape or VCR was bad, but upon further troubleshooting there was a checkbox in the capture settings for “VCR Input”. After applying settings the video looked surprisingly great and didn’t loose any noticeable quality. I proceeded to import about 4 hours of video off my tapes into raw DV format.

After the import I was moved on to the “Edit Movie” tab and was greeted with the familiar timeline. Next, I dropped all of my video into the timeline and edited away. The most frustrating part of the process was how sluggish the program was responding. I was using my older, but still fast, Core 2 Duo 2.13Ghz system with 2GB of ram (XP) for editing and was disappointed with the performance of the program. The system requirements recommend a Pentium class 2.4Ghz or higher processor for SD content, but that sounds painful to me.

Pinnacle included an impressive amount of effects that really put Apple’s iMovie to shame. Many of the effects were good enough for professional use. My edits were simple and used mostly basic transitions with a few effects to adjust color settings. I was able to maneuver around the interface at a satisfactory speed and again everything seemed very well laid out.

After several hours of editing I was happy with my video and was ready to create to start authoring the DVD. I liked how the DVD authoring was built right into the program and felt really unified. The process for creating a menu was more difficult then I had hoped, it took awhile to understand how they worked exactly. With my menu complete I went on to the final step, Output. Since it’s the 21st century, I opted to burn a dual layer DVD with my whole video. The dialog also includes options for exporting as a file, exporting to the web and exporting back to the tape using the outputs on the device. I selected dual layer and the visual on the screen changed to designate how much time I could fit on the DVD and how much the quality would decrease if you went over.




I was happy to see my final project playing on my TV, the initial learning and frustrations seemed worth it for the quality product produced in the end. My gut still tells me that I like Apple iMovie/iDVD combo better, but they’re very comparable.

Overall

Overall, we highly recommend the Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Ultimate to amateur video producers in need of a simple product that does more then just get the job done!

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 Loops

Pros

• Great features.


• Easy Setup.


• Good results.


• Priced right.


• Loads of FX.

Cons

• Slight learning curve.


• Slow performance.