My previous impressions to Pinnacle Studio 18 Ultimate for a good week
1) Preliminary Information
My PC equipment:
Processor: AMD FX-8350 8x 4Ghz
Graphics: AMD HD7979 3072MB
16GB of memory, 240GB SSD + HD 2TB, BR-burner
I use Windows 7 in 64bit version.
My last Prg. were PowerDirector 10 and 12. Before that I had Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11 and 12.
2. Installation / Start: Everything went smoothly as the patch at 18:01 as the first program start and every start since.
3) stability of Prgs .: This is one of the most positive points at all. So far there was no crash for me. That was in previous versions also quite different. As far as I was remember V 11 (or at least 10?), When I secured every 20 minutes to avoid a crash by losing a part of my work again.
4) Import Media Files: Easily I could import the formats MPG, m2ts, mts, mp4. It is nice that in addition to JPG, TIFF and MP3 also old pictures of me with Studio 12 (m2v and. Wav) can be imported.
The pity is that V18 does not understand ts. This is the ending for all my Sataufnahmen. As a last resort but helps here a conversion after m2ts (eg with the free TSRemux).
5) Intuitive operation: Unfortunately, I was helped by my knowledge of Studio 12 only slightly, since this is a virtually new product. By the sum of my previous experiences I am nevertheless almost all the time along without manual. In general, the Prg. So logically. But to explore the wealth of the given options, I'll look in the future often times at the manual.
6) Some positive points:
a) The fast startup time of just 20 seconds, but promotes safe by my SSD.
b) There are some good ideas like the 2 windows for source and timeline.
c) The amazing stability of Prgs. at this early stage (see Fig. 3)
d) Direct support of Sony format for UHD XAVCS.
e) Support for 64bit.
f) Some very meaningful operations with the right mouse button, for example, transitions
g) is a good thing that there is, for example, stabilization. But it delayed rendering.
h) looks very interesting the multilayer Mixa Imation in demo movie. But I have not gotten to try such a thing.
7) Render time: I found for UHD-material fine. For a clip of 3min 37s length I needed nearly half an hour, so a factor of 1: 8 about. But is faster, of course, always better. FHD material is expected to go much faster.
8) Problems: When 4K I still see a need for improvement. So I'm working mainly.
Despite my potent hardware and 64bit ran sound and image in the preview apart sometimes. Nevertheless, I still managed to cut relatively well. With FHD-material this problem does not occur with reasonable PC equipment (at least 8GB, 16GB of RAM better).
The data rate for my Sony AX100 is moderate with 60 Mbps in UHD. Therefore, I am keen that the data rate is as high as possible when exporting.
For 4K 25p there is a default. If one uses the, then the data rate is limited to 22000 Kbps. For You Tube and sometimes perhaps the smartphone is optimal for ambitious filmmakers but too little.
But there are at user defined a type of modular. I can because z. B. also switch to 24p. There, an increase in the data rate to 40000 is possible.
For FHD-material, which ensure at least 90% of the people working here, there are practical presets for 720p and 1080p. Since in any case everything is running smoothly, at least what I've seen so far.
Basically, the longer I have worked with the Prg, the better I liked it. Once because of the many possibilities that it offers, on the other hand but also because a number of things go but where I just said, it does not work or would be too cumbersome.
Opposite my original files with 60Mbps I could practically in the exported file with 40Mbps not tell the difference in image quality (3m wide canvas in my home theater).
Even with the conversion to 25p, 22 Mbps, I could only with great difficulty realize to my surprise when watching small differences in image quality (comparison of still images). Because the people have done a good job at Corel / Pinnacle.
After a long break, my return to Pinnacle was worth, and I would recommend this program highly. I have not even tried numerous ways.
