DO NOT use this software if you have a deadline to meet. It is not completely realiable. I have spent countless late nights trying to work around and research problems I've had with this product.

It's reedeeming quality is an extremely well designed user interface. If everything worked as designed, every time, this product would be a joy to use. But my expereience indicates it's still not ready for prime time. (Read Pinnacle's message boards if you want to see confirmation of this.)

"For the price! Great, but. . . ."
I received Studio 8 as a Father's Day gift to go along with a new digital camcorder. I am having so much fun with this product! With 20 years of family analog tapes + new digital tapes, I have a lot of material to play with. Studio 8 does it all.

However, it's not for everyone. I have read reports from folks who have a lot of problems with the software. Check out the Pinnacle forum at http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&SectionID=143&lng=1
This user forum has provided a lot of friendly help.

If I were thinking about this getting this program I would take the time and use the trial program to see how it works on your computer. It seems that your computer's setup, componets and other installed programs are the key in how well it works for you. There are few things that are as complex as video editing that we consumers are going to do. Many serious users have a dedicated second hard drive just for video. Video capture eats up HD space like potato chips.

Since Studio 8 is shuffling pixels and sound around in hugh numbers - it renders Very S-L-O-W-L-Y. The editing is fast enough, but once you start to render to disc or tape - better to leave it running overnight.

Ulead is OK but has much fewer featues and costs about the same. The more robust video editors (Adobe, etc.) are hundreds of $ more. If you try it AND it works for you - you will love it.

"The release: Studio 8.8.17"
Well, about 2 weeks ago, I had originally written a really nice review of this software. Now I am having to completely retract it, as my position has totally changed. Even upon upgrading to version 8.10 (ten) from 8.8.17, the software is proving to be unbelievably unstable and buggy. Really a sad deal. ... The interface is really nice. When the software works (about 15% of the time) its really nice. But after two weeks, I am disgusted. ...

"Almost Totally Unuseable"
I purchased Pinnacle Studio 8 to mainly make slide shows from stills, adding music. After I read several reviews, I was a little reluctant about spending this amount of money. But past experience has taught me that the majority of reviews are submitted by "Unhappy" consumers. So I took the chance and bought the program. Upon loading it, I immediately started having problems. Every few minutes, my computer would freeze-up, causing me to start over. I called Pinnacle support, whereas, they helped very little. Sending me an email containing fixes submitted by other consumers about their systems freezing up. So after several hours, trying different approaches, I finally fixed my problem. I have a 2.24 gig processor with 512 meg RDram. I ended up going to my video card manufacturer and downloading the lastest drivers and then I did the same thing for my sound card. Once I updated my driver for my video & sound card, Studio 8 started working flawlessly. The program runs great now. I can make my disks with little effort. In fact, it is a lot of fun producing my slide shows. I would rate the program 5 stars, except for the poor response I got from their telephone support team. So I deducted one (1) star for that. The program is worth the money. However, it has a low tolerance for out-dated drivers. I have a Nvidia 64 mg video card and a Sound Blaster 5.1 SBLive Sound card. The problem was not the program, it was my installed hardware. Reading reviews is good to do, but don't make your decision solely on what you read from consumers.
"UPDATE" Once again started having major problems with this software. Customer Service is almost non-existent. I'm done with this software and its manufacturer. I now use Sony's Vegas Video. It cost more, but it works perfect every time.

"Should be excellent"
I like the features and the control I can get with this product, but there are some major problems.

1. Rendering time is horrible. A 37 minute DVD took so long to render & burn that I went to bed after a couple of hours. I tried a similar length DVD render/burn with ULead VideoStudio 6 SE (came with my firewire card) and it didn't take long at all - less than 45 minutes or so.

2. The software has an annoying habit of corrupting and telling you that either your serial number is bad or that it cannot open and you must reinstall the software. I've downloaded at least 3-4 patches for Pinnacle Studio 8 and it might be working okay now. Time will tell.

Summary? If you don't mind the bugs and rendering/burning overnight, Pinnacle is fairly easy to understand. If you want faster times, use ULead.