Reviewed by Harry Eaton
Pinnacle Systems a division of Avid Technologies Inc. just announced The Pinnacle Studio 12 Line of Products.

Pinnacle Studio 12 comes in three varieties, Standard, Plus, and Ultimate.

Pinnacle studio version 11 was the number one choice for video editing software in 2007.

Let’s see if Pinnacle 12 will be number one in 2008.

Pinnacle studio version 12 includes MONTAGE with 11 themes and over 80 templates including:  50’s Modern, Album, Baby, Instant Photo, Love, Multi-layer Mix, Season, Sports, Star Tribute and Video Wall. Montage let's you enjoy multi track editing without the complexity.  Add animated text and graphics with video and photos.  Each theme gives you access to a series of templates to give your video a polished “look”– over 80 templates for multi-layered effects, animated graphics and great titles. Pinnacle Montage automatically generates all the necessary titles, effects and animations. It’s very easy to do and gives your video that finished look. Amaze your friends and family with professional style videos. Who ever thought that mixing your media together could be so simple and create such amazing home movies?

You have access to Picture-in-Picture, Chroma Key (green screen) or A/B editing with two video tracks at the tip of your fingers to create multi-layer effects. With Scorefitter® music generator you can automatically generate a rich soundtrack to match the length of your movie. Scorefitter now has over 40 source tracks that feature more choice, higher fidelity and increased accuracy.

When it comes time to output to DVD there are 27 new title templates and 32 new DVD menu templates to choose from. Easily create DVDs with motion menus and custom navigation for playback on DVD players. With integrated CD and DVD authoring you can preview your work in progress with full, on-screen DVD controls.

 You can also output movies to Sony® PSP™, Apple® iPod®, DivX® certified players and even 3GP mobile phones. Export to flash video too. If you want to put your movie on the web there’s also direct upload to video sharing sites like YouTube and Yahoo! video.

The Studio 12 Plus and Ultimate versions add complete end to end HD workflow from native importing, editing to export. Including cutting edge AVCHD editing capabilities and export to Blu-ray format on BD and BD-RE discs. There’s support for AVCHD 1920 X 1080 video.  Natively author Blu-ray format discs with full motion menus. Or make AVCHD format discs on standard DVDs to play on Blu-ray players. With built in disc burning support you can burn your project to both BD-R, and BD-RE Blu-ray media, as well as standard DVD's.

Pinnacle Studio Plus works natively with HDV and AVCHD footage. Native HD support means you’ll get the same pristine quality from your original source all the way to final output – without transcoding and in real-time. You can even combine projects that mix standard and high definition video and photos for a final result in full HD resolution.

The Ultimate edition also adds professional video editing tools.

Boris Graffiti – 3D and Motion Titling. a $299 Value

Easily craft sophisticated title animations including type on text, text on a path, jitter and randomization. Create 3D text with bump maps and reflections. An expansive Style Palette and the Boris Library Browser provide fast access to hundreds of preset effects and styles.

Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet Looks – Pro film styles. a $399 Value

Whatever the location, the look of your footage sets the mood. Now you can define the style of your video or film, regardless of on-set conditions, with powerful imaging tools. Choose from more than a hundred Looks presets, all neatly organized into 10 categories, to help set the mood for everything from a wedding to a film festival winner.

ProDAD VitaScene – lighting, glows & more. a $399 Value

Now you can achieve sophisticated effects and transitions that contribute greatly to the style and mood of your project: light rays, color matching, artistic film styles, and much more. Now it’s easy to add those subtle details that give you professional looking results.

All three plug-in programs come with hundreds of presets.

The Ultimate Edition also comes with a Chroma Key Green Screen.
Green Sheet (approx. 5.95 ft x 5.58 ft). (Essential for creating high quality Chroma Key effects.)

Addressing Feature requests from their loyal users, Pinnacle has added controls for Audio with a Timeline, A Volume Monitor, Numerical Audio Volume Controls, A Master Volume Control and Peak Audio Indicators.
 
Editing enhancements include Marker Tools on the Timeline, Reference Images in album and project, Direct Page Access in album. Direct Crop Control to rotate and crop images, and enabling video to fit the screen removing the black bars.

The company has expanded format compatibility to include photo import in Photoshop’s native PSD as well as GIF format.

More Effects and More Effect Performance: 2D Editor Advanced/Rotate Editor; improved performance for Effects, Keyer, and Auto Color Correction.

During export Studio 12 will pause the export if drive space is consumed; A make movie audio alert and auto shut-down when finished have also been added.

Making great looking movies has never been easier. Simply select a theme complete with associated titles and animated graphics. Drop in your video and photos. Then surprise everyone with polished results.

Pinnacle Studio 12 is fully Windows Vista certified.

• Minimum System Requirements

• Windows® XP SP2 (SP3), Windows Vista™ (SP1)
  Intel® Pentium® or AMD Athlon™ 1.8 GHz (2.4 GHz or higher recommended)
• Intel Pentium HT or AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz or 1.6 GHz Dual core required for Windows Vista
• Intel® Core™2 Duo 2.4 GHz or higher required for 1440x1080 AVCHD editing
  Intel® Core™2 Quad 2.66 GHz or higher required for 1920x1080 AVCHD editing
• 1 GB system memory recommended
• 2 GB required for AVCHD*, recommended for HD and/or Windows Vista

• DirectX® 9 or 10 compatible graphics card with 64 MB (128 MB or higher recommended), 128 MB required for Plug-ins (for Magic Bullet Looks: Pixelshader 2 required, Intel GMA integrated graphics not supported; for VitaScene with HD: 512MB recommended)
  - 128 MB required on Windows Vista (256 MB or higher recommended)
  - 256 MB required for HD and AVCHD*
• DirectX 9 or higher compatible sound card
• 3 GB of disk space
• DVD-ROM drive to install software
• Optional:
  - CD burner for creating VideoCDs or Super VideoCDs (S-VCDs)
  - DVD burner for creating DVD, HD-DVD and AVCHD discs on standard media*
  - Blu-ray burner for creating Blu-ray discs*
  - Sound card with surround sound output required for preview of surround sound mixes*

Capture Options

• Capture from DV, HDV and Digital8 camcorders or VCRs (requires a FireWire® port)
• Capture from analog camcorders, 8 mm, HI 8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, SVHS-C, or VCRs (NTSC/PAL/SECAM). Requires DirectShow® compatible graphic board or TV tuner board with analog (Composite or S-Vide) inputs
• Import from AVCHD* camcorders (requires USB 2.0 and a UDF driver)

Output Options

• Output to DV, HDV or Digital8 tape (requires camcorder with FireWire Input port and a PC with a DV/FireWire port)
• Output to analog videotape (requires DirectShow compatible video device or video card with TV-output)
• Output to Apple® iPod® and Sony® PSP™ formats*

Import Formats

• Video: AVCHD*, DV, HDV, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DivX®*, MPEG-4*, 3GP (MPEG-4)*, WMV, Non-encrypted DVD titles*
• Audio: MP3, MPA, WAV, AC3*
• Graphic: BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX, PSD, TGA, TIF, WMF

Export Formats

• VideoCD (VCD) or S-VCD with optional CD burner (CD-R or CD-RW)
• AVCHD*, Blu-ray BD*, HD-DVD*, DVD* disc with optional disc burner (incl. dual layer)
• Apple iPod and Sony PSP compatible (MPEG-4) formats*
• DV, HDV, AVI, DivX*, RealVideo® 8, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4*, Flash, 3GP*, WAV, MP3* files
  Dolby® Digital 2 channel* and 5.1 channel audio*

* Requires free product activation via Internet at the first use.

Suggested Retail Prices

Studio Version 12.  $49.99
Studio Plus Version 12. $99.99
Studio Ultimate Version 12 $129.99

With its sleek, scalable interface, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 represents a leap forward in workflow refinement and ease of use. The ability to directly import your digital videos, photos and audio from a wide range of devices including DV, HDV and AVCHD camcorders, and digital still cameras along with automatic scene detection and clip creation gets your project off to a great start. Studio 12 is faster and more powerful than before with faster rendering and effect processing.

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate is better than ever with more features, effects, better support for the latest formats and comes highly recommended for all your video editing needs.