I've been working on a project that has taken its toll. I'm within sight of the finish line. Over two months, a thousand pictures, a couple of videos (unfortunately not usable). Oh boy, but in a moment of weakness, I decided to use Pinnacle Studio 11 (Plus, ultimate, whatever bullshit name they put to it. I happened to think their titler works pretty well; and my list of credits grows with every project.
Anyway, I like to keep things simple so I used a 10-sec black AVI vid I've used for the last five years, okay? Pinnacle wouldn't open it. Pinnacle thinks there's something not right about that file. But the file works just fine in my Sony Movie Studio and in Adobe Premiere Pro. It views properly -- IWO, there's nothing wrong with that piece of footage. But Pinnacle doesn't like it.
Their first possible solution was -- get this -- uninstall and re-install Pinnacle. Guess what? I'll do the first part but no way am I re-installing that rat bastard.
Okay, while I'm good and pissed about Pinnacle, I might as well say a few things about Pinnacle Studio: I think that any company that uses the word "Ultimate" in their product name ought to provide the ultimate (another word for everything) package. All inclusive. No crap to put up with. What's with all these activation codes? I would expect there to be several hundred nice transitions. I would expect there to be a reasonable array of audio and video filters. But no, you have to purchase them -- give them even more money than their product is worth. Now, I'll give the other side too. They do provide a few fundamental transitions and a couple video effects. But the transitions have no life or punch to them. They look like 50's film editing technology.
Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate does provide ProDAD's Vitascene. I have had very little success at getting it to do anything but their sample stuff.
I also want to mention that Pinnacle's still animation is a joke. You get an in point and an out point. Nothing in-between. I think even Muvee gives more flexibility than that. If you are thinking of using an editor to do "slideshows" but DVD videos are so much more than a slideshow, scratch Pinnacle Studio 11 (any flavor) from your list.
My gripe is that they sell you a package -- more like a bill of goods. The application is unreliable, clumsy and definitely not intuitive. And they always want more money.
Next time, I want to talk about editors but from the budgetary point of view.
If anyone reads these posts, I'd really appreciate a response. I know I wander sometimes but we pro-am video dudes have to talk and exchange ideas. That's exactly what I'm promoting here.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
I have used most of the NLEs out there, and...
NonLinear Editors (NLEs) seem to have flourished in the last few years. The price range shows systems from free (Windows Movie Maker) to Avid Liquid Pro (over a grand). I am sure the range is even higher but I am talking about things I can afford.
Let's get the trash out of the way first. If you have XP or Vista, don't even bother opening Windows Movie Maker. Typical of most Microsoft products, it was apparently a half-baked idea then someone forget to turn on the oven to finish it. When XP first came along, I spotted WMM, and went "Hmm, what's this?" Well, MS did not deliver a movie maker but a space-taker. Titling didn't work. No PTZ features. Forget the rest. Let's talk about editors, real editors.
I work mostly with pictures not video. I make the pictures move. That means I have to have control over features like pan, zoom and rotate. One of the first product that did that was Movie 10 by Magix.
Movie 10 worked pretty well. it had drawbacks but still produced a nice AVI file. The image quality looked good and the render times weren't too bad. But being the OCB techie I am, I had to try others. I knew there were better products out there.
I bought Pinnacle Studio 10 -- this is the "poor man's" video editor. I call it that because not only did version 10 not work well out of the box, but every thing you might want to do required you paying for a license for the particular feature. IOW, you'll be poorer for using Pinnacle.
Now I have to say the output AVI looks really good but not worth the hassle and extra expense Avid imposes.
That's it for today. Tell me what you think.
Let's get the trash out of the way first. If you have XP or Vista, don't even bother opening Windows Movie Maker. Typical of most Microsoft products, it was apparently a half-baked idea then someone forget to turn on the oven to finish it. When XP first came along, I spotted WMM, and went "Hmm, what's this?" Well, MS did not deliver a movie maker but a space-taker. Titling didn't work. No PTZ features. Forget the rest. Let's talk about editors, real editors.
I work mostly with pictures not video. I make the pictures move. That means I have to have control over features like pan, zoom and rotate. One of the first product that did that was Movie 10 by Magix.
Movie 10 worked pretty well. it had drawbacks but still produced a nice AVI file. The image quality looked good and the render times weren't too bad. But being the OCB techie I am, I had to try others. I knew there were better products out there.
I bought Pinnacle Studio 10 -- this is the "poor man's" video editor. I call it that because not only did version 10 not work well out of the box, but every thing you might want to do required you paying for a license for the particular feature. IOW, you'll be poorer for using Pinnacle.
Now I have to say the output AVI looks really good but not worth the hassle and extra expense Avid imposes.
That's it for today. Tell me what you think.
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