Video-Editing Reviews

This may make wonderful videos but the problem is getting it installed so that it acutally works! If you just install it like any other program, it freezes up your computer. Then you write to support and they make you jump through hoops-uninstalling/installing, taking out your sound card, reinstalling the drivers for both your sound and video cards even though they work just fine. I got a list of 10 things to do just to make this program work. If you don't respond within 48 hours, you have to start the entire help process all over again and it takes at least that long or longer to do all the things they suggest if you have a normal life with other things to do. I have still not been able to make mine work so I am now looking for a new program. Any suggestions?

squirleyan@comcast.net

I returned this program after countless hours trying to copy VHS tapes to DVD.

I burned 4 coasters with no audio, video was fine. I spent hours on the phone with tech support and was given a different fix each time to try. When I finally figured out that when bringing up the volume control menu and selecting Properties then "Recording" I was able to burn the DVD with sound however the sync with the lip movement was terrible. I again attempted to copy a musical I created, the lip sync was even worse.

After purchasing a book by Jan Ozer and trying to figure out how to correct the Audio Sync, I still lost the battle and returned the product to Best Buy for refund.

Anyone buying this program is asking for a lot of headaches.

I purchase the Pinnacle Studio Av/Dv Deluxe version 9 video editing software. The package States that it includes 288 unique 2d and 3d transitions. The web site says " The package includes a professional breakout box, hundreds of additional 2D and 3D transitions and the full version of Pinnacle Studio v.9, the most powerful software video editor in its class" and the owners manual says it comes with the transitions. But I found out you must pay as much as $500.00 extra to unlock them. I found on their web sites frequently asked questions that this had been brought to their attention months ago and they have made no effort to change the web site or packaging to clarify that it may come with the 288 transitions but you can't use them without paying more. Most companies would put an * next to the description and explain that they are not usable without paying a fee. This is the most blatant false advertising I have ever seen. The reason some people can't make it work is if you use one of the locked transitions without paying the fee it won't burn the DVD. I didn't see that you had to pay extra and it will let you put them in but wont burn. No warning comes up or anything to inform you it wont work without paying extra. I have had no problems other then the false advertising it works good and mine is very fast to render and burn.

Initially I believed this worked reasonably well. That is if you put up with the capture freezing periodically. However, after owning it for two months (and therefore stuck with it), I find that it will capture off my DVD player perfectly, but it will not capture at all from my VCR. There simply is no video in the preview box and it does not capture. Pinnacle's "support" is poor. Forget speaking to a person. I am currently waiting to hear a response from email, however I suspect that it won't be helpful. If it was not for the expense I would simply throw it away. It is beginning to take up so much time. All for wanting to transfer tapes to DVD. I did end up buying a Panasonic DVD recorder with a hard drive for that purpose. It works well, the only draw back being the inability to edit beyond creating scences.( which is great to edit out commercials)

Everytime my source video has a scene change the capture hardware hangs, producing a stuttering image of the last frame sucessfully captured. The MovieBox manual says that during video "dropouts" the MovieBox "will wait for an interference free signal" and that this "can take a few momements" to acquire the new signal. It suggests that the unit be reset or power cycled if it does not properly reacquire the signal after it has stabilized. Since this issue occurs at every scene change you will need to babysit your capture so you can reset your hardware and restart the capture each time you turned off your camcorder during the original recording. The included software is good, but the hardware is fatally flawed - and the manufacturer is trying to sell it anyhow!

I bought this product to copy old vhs movies and copy my analog camcorder hi 8mm tapes to mpe(dvd) format. Like the other review says, the hardware is a piece of junk and in my opinion should have never been allowed to be sold to the public. It still amazes me how companies get away with this and still stay in business. The software seem ok Pinnacle Studio 8. I have a Dell 8300 running xp pro with sp1 installed, 512 memmory and 200mb harddisk, ati 9800 video card, siig 1394 firewire card. I have a high end sony hi 8mm camcorder. The bottom line is that when you capture video and you have a scene transitions(ex. tape a scene of my kids one day and then next day I tape a nother scene - normal use), it HANGS up(the video goes crazy and it starts making all these popping sounds). My first scene was 5 minutes and then it hung up. I could never get it to capture more than 5 minutes. I tried for hours to make it work and I have 20 years experience as a computer developer. I then started researching this product and found no good reviews, they were all terrible. The moviebox usb is going to have the same problem because of the mpeg encoder chipset in the box, it just does not work. If you want a great production, then the anwser is the Canopus ADVC100(approx $250.00 street price). I bought it the other day and have burned 4 hours of old vhs and hi 8mm movies to the .avi format. You can buy other Canopus products that do mpeg hardware encoding with variable bitrate, but they are in the $500 range. If you want to edit movies, you should be capturing the video to .avi(need a lot of disk space), editing it, and then converting it to mpeg-2(dvd) fromat. Editing in MGEP format does not work well. The Canopus worked flawlessly with hunderds of scene transitions. I could not find one bad review on the Canopus product. It is plug and play. I have used Microsoft Movie Maker 2 and Pinnacle Studio 8 to capture the video. Hope this review was helpful.

I bought this IEEE 1394 card soon after I got a brand new computer. My computer was operating fine until this component crashed my system everytime I use any type of multimedia. It has caused me a lot of headache and agony. Not even XP OS can tell you what crash your system. Until I removed this card, everything was running the way it supposed to be. Don't waste your money on this item.

This PCMCIA card installed easily into my laptop. Drivers came directly from Windows 2000 without a problem. This Firewire card was going to be used to connect an external Maxtor harddrive to the laptop. The hardrive connected properly to the laptop and the drive mounted properly. All the directories were visible and documents present. However, as soon as I tried to access files, sort the directory, or get file information, Windows quickly generated a 'Write Failure'. Tried reloading drivers, and rebooting all without success. I ran a series of tests, and then swapped with another brand of Firewire card. The other card worked perfectly and I could access the drive repeatedly without a problem. I contacted IOGear support and their response was that I should buy an external power source for the card and try that. I'm afraid I can't recommend this card based on its failure right out of the box.

I have been utilizing Matrox video cards exclusively over the past few years: G450's, 550's and most recently, a Parahelia dual-DVI 256MB. I have always liked their products, but seeking help from Matrox technical/service, however, is analogous to dealing with cell phone companies: Life is wonderful until there's a problem and you have to call them for help. Matrox is just as difficult and frustrating. Let me cite two examples, occurring fourteen months apart.

Last year, I had a Matrox G550 fail; luckily, it was still under warranty. After being transferred from Tech Support to Matrox Customer Service for an RMA, I was informed a replacement would be shipped only AFTER Matrox had received the defective card. When I asked the CS person what I was supposed to do with a PC with no video for two weeks, she didn't seem to care.

Almost all electronic industry manufacturers have a identical return/replacement model: You give them your credit card number, they send the replacement unit, and if you don't return the defective unit in a prescribed period of time, they charge your CC.

When I prompted this to the CS person, she replied they did have such a program. However, Matrox charges the replacement to your CC BEFORE shipment, then credits the charge upon return of the product. I was so bewildered by this, I forgot to ask why she neglected to mention the replacement scheme to begin with. After I got off the phone, it dawned on me: It generates more paperwork; she has to charge off the CC, perform the refund, etc. Lazy, perhaps? You be the judge.

Then, more annoyances: When the replacement card arrived, it had a "refurbished" tag on the circuit board. I can't ever remember any electronics company sending me a refurb'd device for replacement of a retail-value warranty item. I remember thinking, "geez, how cheap can you get?" Then I noticed on the enclosed paperwork that Matrox had charged my CC the full $125 list price of a new G550 card for the replacement, refurbished device! As we like to say here in the U.S., you have to have large, brass ones for that kind of chutzpah...

Fast forward to last week: I just finished building a new PC, utilizing the same G550 card. After working perfectly for days, I powered the unit on; no video. After much back-tracking (and cursing), it finally occurred to me to test the PC on two separate, identical IBM P260 monitors; the analog video port of the G550 would not function on either monitor. The only conclusion I could fathom was that either the card had failed again, or the driver just stopped functioning (and yes, I had diligently downloaded & installed the most current G550 XP driver posted on the Matrox site when I did the SW build). Deleting and re-installing the driver did not correct the problem.

At 10:15amPST Friday, I called Matrox Tech Support. Matrox's TS automated phone attendant requires a unique client ID number before it transfers to a live TS person. I punched mine in, and was informed that no one was in queue and my call would be answered immediately. The attendant paused, then stated there was a problem with my client ID and that it was transferring me. It paused again, then informed me that TS was closed! All the while, I'm staring at my confirmed client ID number (and the model/serial numbers of all the products I had purchased from them over the years) on the Matrox web site on my other, Parahelia-equipped PC, and it's the middle of the business day in Canada. ARGH.

I called back repeatedly, each time re-performing the client ID procedure, but the attendant kept booting me out. DOUBLE ARGHH.

In total frustration, I called Matrox's main line. I dug thru the menu and finally got a receptionist, who informed that, indeed, TS was open and transferred me... right into somebody's voicemail. TRIPLE ARGHHH, I'm thinking: "I want to fix this before Matrox goes home, I don't want to be dead for the whole weekend." So I "zero'd" back to the operator and begged for a live person, but she refused to help me. I ended up leaving a frustrated voicemail message.

That was three business days ago, and I have never received the courtesy of a return call. All those fruitless phone calls from Los Angeles to Quebec, Canada, BTW, were on my nickel: Matrox provides no 800- support telephone numbers.

What happened to the problem? Just for the heck of it, I removed the G550 driver and installed the latest Parhelia driver, then lit up the PC with the G550 installed. IT WORKED. The G550 is a analog/DVI unit, and my Parhelia is a dual-DVI device, so go figure.

To be honest, I had forgotten the G550 return incident last year, but this situation brought it back into sharp recall. I decided to post this because I believe users should have their expectations set appropriately when considering purchasing a Matrox product. This new PC I built is a high-end RAID A/V workstation that I wanted dedicated to Adobe PS/video editing. I had it in mind that the Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme HW/SW bundle was my product of choice to crown this new unit, but now, I going to take a second look at the market. Why would I want to spend this kind of money on a product from a company who treated me this way twice?

To summarize: Matrox builds great stuff, but if you ever have a problem, be aware of what you're likely to face: Matrox is seriously flawed, almost arrogant and uncaring (possibly the "French" in "French-Canadian"???), in their support operations. And long-time loyal customers, like myself, especially don't deserve such treatment.