Digital Home Thoughts: Pinnacle Studio v12 Released

"Pinnacle Systems, Inc., the consumer division of Avid Technology, Inc., announced today version 12 of Pinnacle Studio™, its market-leading consumer video editing software. Pinnacle Studio version 12 builds on the features that have established the Pinnacle Studio family as number one in the consumer video editing market in the U.S. and Europe(1). The new version includes Pinnacle Montage, an innovative tool that makes high-end compositing and animation effects accessible to consumers. With more than 25 new features, version 12 adds many new capabilities requested by users, while still maintaining the ease of use that has become the hallmark of Pinnacle Studio products. More titles, DVD menus and templates have been added as well as new professional audio and video controls and a complete HD workflow with Blu-ray authoring in certain versions of Pinnacle Studio version 12."


Back in the days of writing Faster Smarter Digital Video (wow, was that really six years ago?) I was a big fan of Pinnacle Studio. Such a big fan, in fact, that it was the software I spent the most time on in the book. At the time, that was version 8.0 of the software. When v9 came out, I upgraded...and noticed that it was more unstable for me than v8 was. I gave v10 a try, but still wasn't happy with it, so I stopped using Pinnacle Studio - until I was sent a copy of v12 to play around with, and first impressions are quite positive - it seems quite a bit faster and lighter than previous versions. It also packs many new features, I think more than any recent version of Studio. Three versions are available, covering a good spectrum of price points: Studio Version 12 ($49.99 USD), Studio Plus Version 12 ($99.99 USD), and Studio Ultimate Version 12 ($129.99 USD). Looks like a solid offering so far, but I'm going to continue using it and report back with my findings...