Others say...

"Latency and S-Video Connection issues"
I installed this device and software + latest drivers bringing it to version 10.7. The PC is a P4 with 2 gigs of ram and 120 gigs of hard drive space. Software from the DVD took about 1 hour to load for all full features (2 discs). My issue came with the actual video capture. The S-Video input did not operate as specified and kept returning a error that no signal was present. Because of this, I had to use the composite input. (Checked all software settings but nothing resolved with S-Video).

Monitoring of signal had a definite lag time with at least 10 seconds so it became difficult to sync the exact moment of capture. (This can be resolved though with the editing of the capture after executed. All in all I feel that this device is overpriced for what it is. Also, although it said on the box that the videos can be coded for Mpeg 4, the software settings did not list this other than Mpeg 1-2. I am returning the unit and getting just a basic capture device

"Does Not Work- No Customer Service"
If I could give this product, and this company, less than one star I would. I spent two months going back and forth with customer service in E-Mails trying to get the problems resolved. I followed all of their instructions. Not only did the product not work, their slow and inept customer service told me to upgrade my PC video card to make it work. I did. That didn't help. Then, they would not give me a refund. Steer clear. Once you buy this dog, you're stuck!

"Pretty good, actually"
OK, I'm actually 18, I just didn't feel like registring.
I first used Pinnacle software late last year, in my college's TV studio editing lab. The PCs there have Pinnacle Studio 8 and Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6 (now Avid Liquid 7). The Studio software worked really fine. I am sure it was because they had new computers. My computer was newer, and I needed a new capture device to replace my old Dazzle Digital Video Creator, which could only capture in MPEG-1 format. So I got the Pinnacle Systems' Studio Moviebox Plus, which included this software (version 10.6), the USB video-capture device, a high-quality microphone and a greenscreen. Once I installed the software, before running it, I added the 10.7 patch to it. Maybe it's the patch, but on my computer, Studio Plus 10.7 is actually quite stable! I probably only had a couple of crashes, and this was over the course of the time I got the product. So I guess Pinnacle's actually improving! The software is semi-advanced, with two video tracks that allow Picture-in-Picture and chroma-key effects, as well as a bunch of cool special effects that Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 doesn't have (fact is, Premiere Elements DOES have chroma-key and PiP techniques, 99 video and audio tracks, and is even better than Studio Plus!) The capture device also does great work. It can capture analog video with both Studio Plus and Windows Movie Maker, but not Premiere Elements (which only captures using the DV port on it). I'm sure it can also capture with the Nero and Roxio media software I have, too. I've successfully created quite a few videos on this software, and they came out great. I used to use a Canon ES-75 Hi-8 video camera (I still have it) for recording video, and it worked out really well with the Studio Moviebox Plus device. Now I have a Canon ZR800 MiniDV camera, and the results look even better and I'm able to capture into Premiere Elements now, too. The microphone that also came in the package is very cool. It is much better than the cheap microphone I used to use (I think it came with my computer, but I am not sure.) The audio quality is a big improvement in recording, I must say, including when using it with my MiniDV camera's mic jack. The green-screen is also pretty neat, as I have experimented with that a bit. So if you plan on getting this, you should have a fairly-recent (post-2004 computer) with Pentinum 4 and a gigabyte of RAM, and also download the 10.7 patch. You will probably have better results.

"Installation"
It seems that this product is getting not-so-good reviews. What I am about to tell you should set your heartaches and frustrations at peace. The first DVD will not install. The trick here is to copy its' contents to your HDD, then proceed with the installation from your HDD. The second DVD installs fine. After confirmation of suceessful installation, download to the latest version of Studio (currently 10.7). Next, download and install the Studio 10.7 Menu Template Pack. I hope this review helps.


"I have never written a review before"

I'm going to cut to the chase . I couldn't load the software on my computer . My computer met all the
requirements that were indicated and more . When I called their support services.I didn't get the help I needed. They basically told me to try various patches and to go their online help area . What a nightmare . I spent hours trying to just load the software . I was never successful . I bought the Sony Moviemaker software and I was up in running in less than twenty minutes . I must say I am not technically proficient in knowing about computers . However , I feel software companies should design their software so that the " average " computer user should be able to at least run it . It was an eye opening experience to see all the " solutions " to fixing THEIR software that should be easy to load . Again , I have never reviewed an Amazon purchased product and I basically have been satisfied with most of my purchases. I would suggest you thoroughly research all the software possibilities before making your selection . I wish I had researched more .

Frustrated in Ann Arbor