It’s worth noting that the MPEG-4 compression process can cut the bit rate (and file size) by as much as half for the same image quality as MPEG-2.Īll this does require quite a potent PC. You can import from tape, MiniDVD, camera-based hard drive or files already stored on your PC.Īssuming you have the necessary hardware, it’s now possible to edit HD video directly and save it as either MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 (including DivX). This Blu-ray format is in addition to the native HDV support the program already had. In particular, it supports Advanced Video Codec High Density (AVCHD) format files just beginning to appear in new Panasonic and Sony camcorders. The big news here is that version 11 of the program fully supports HD video.

The tabs are Capture, Edit and Make Movie and all benefit from new or improved features.Ĭapture is used for transferring DVD or video footage to a hard drive so you can edit it. The main screen of Pinnacle Studio Plus 11 supports three main tabs, each of which controls one of the working modes of the program.

Now owned by Avid, a major player in professional video editing on both the hardware and software sides, Pinnacle has gleaned some of the code from more expensive Avid applications in putting together this new version. There are three applications vying for the home video editing crown: Adobe’s Premiere Elements, Corel’s Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus and the subject of this review, Pinnacle’s Studio 11 Plus.

Pinnacle studio media suite version 9