• On The Insider: Britney's Bikini-Clad Top 10
October 31, 2008 9:06 AM PDT

Pinnacle Studio 12 gets updates and themes

by Dong Ngo

(Credit: Pinnacle Systems)

It's not exactly winter yet, though it feel fairly cold. However, folks at Pinnacle Systems think differently and on Thursday announced a new Pinnacle Theme Winter Pack for the Pinnacle Studio consumer video-editing application.

The Winter Pack is released together with the 12.1 update of the Pinnacle Studio software. The pack offers more than 80 additional winter-themed titles, DVD menus, and Pinnacle Montage templates. It will be included in special Pinnacle Studio Plus and Ultimate Winter Pack Editions at selected retailers until December 31.

The Winter Pack enables people to quickly create movies with themes relating to the holidays. If you already have the Pinnacle Studio 12 software, you can purchase the pack separately for $39.99 from October 30, 2008 to November 6, 2008, directly from Pinnacle Systems.

On the other hand, the 12.1 update is available as a free download for all Pinnacle Studio version 12 users. The update offers support for importing and exporting of the QuickTime file format, expanded support for the latest H.264-based camcorders such as Aiptek H.264 and Sanyo Xacti, and performance improvements.

Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong.
Recent posts from Crave
Sponge absorbs 180 times its weight (in toxic sludge)
Prizefight: Motorola Droid vs. iPhone 3GS
Accessories for the iPod Touch
Beware the Blue Yeti
Smartphone users, keep complaining
Two new remote Webcams: Mole and Vue
MP3 Insider 168: Inspired by the uninspiring
WiiWaa: Fun for kids, coma for animal controller
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (3 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by scythie October 31, 2008 12:09 PM PDT
>It's not exactly winter yet, though it <b>feel</b> fairly cold.

Seriously?? Seriously?!
Reply to this comment
by ICU812 December 21, 2008 3:27 PM PST
Studio 11 edited AVCHD but with no smart rendering. Now Studio 12 edits AVCHD. Still no smart rendering. Another video software that I know and use does have smart render for AVCHD and works like a charm. It only costs $80.00 and is a suite of softwares that do more than just edit movies. I have used Studio for years and prefer it's interface. To me it's ignorance in software engineering that it doesn't include smart render at this late date. Does the people at Pinnacle actually think that we want to tie up our computers for countless hours while their software completely rerenders and damages every frame of our AVCHD video? I've tried rendering an AVCHD video in Studio 12 Ultimate without changing bitrate or anything else and burning it to AVCHD DVD only to find the video full of digital artifacts. Plus it took a couple of hours to render a 17 minute video. The other software can add titles, transitions, menus and leaves the untouched video pristine with few if any artifacts. My advice is not to walk, but run. Run screaming for your lives from Studio 12 if you want to edit AVCHD. At least until it includes smart render. Then I would highly recommend it.
Reply to this comment
by thewizardofahhs August 21, 2009 10:40 AM PDT
The software seems to have plenty of features, however it it SSSSSSLLLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWW
87 minutes of video took over 8 hours to render. There is no reason for a rendering operation to take longer than the length of the video and it should take considerably shorter (since everything is digital).

two hours of video should render in less than 30 minutes (especially if the video is an unedited single stream).

Thumbs down on this..
Reply to this comment
(3 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next

About Crave

The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to: crave@cnet.com

Add this feed to your online news reader

Crave topics

After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges

Mozilla helped reshape the Web since releasing Firefox 1.0 five years ago. Now it's got a reawakened Microsoft and Google Chrome to reckon with.

There's a map for that: GPS or smartphone?

Almost every handset comes with mapping software these days, but standalone GPS devices are becoming more affordable than ever.