Studio 12 Offers BD Burning Support
By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 6/10/2008
New York — Pinnacle will ship this month the latest version of its popular Studio consumer video-editing software suite, offering three versions with various levels of professional-looking special-effects techniques and functionality.
Step-up versions of Pinnacle Studio 12 add support for high-definition video editing, including everything from AVCHD (H.264) support to Blu-ray disc burning. The Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate edition ($129 suggested retail) offers more than 25 new features, including more than a dozen user-requested enhancements in addition to a complete HD workflow.
 Pinnacle’s Travis White presents the retail package for the Ultimate edition of Pinnacle Studio 12, which is shipping this month. |
For users with less-demanding needs, Pinnacle also offers its basic Pinnacle Studio 12 ($49.99) and the step-up Studio 12 Plus ($99.99), supporting standard-definition video from a variety of formats.
Among the added features in Studio 12 is a Pinnacle Montage tool that adds a host of new compositing and animation effects, enabling a greater range of creative titles, DVD menus and templates.
All versions were developed with an emphasis on speed and simplicity, said Travis White, Pinnacle senior product manager, noting that Pinnacle has stepped up its outreach to women, who are among the product’s largest consumer-growth segments.
White said women are increasingly purchasing the program on impulse along with a video camera or camcorder, because they understand the benefits of assembling a final production.
As a result, the latest version of the program has a number of tools suited to the production of family video memories, Pinnacle said.
Another growing target audience is millennial-generation users who increasingly use short video productions in their online social networking exploits. The software includes tools and capabilities to develop professional-looking productions that can be instantly uploaded to video sites including YouTube, Yahoo! Video and MySpace, Pinnacle said
Pinnacle is recruiting video enthusiasts to Studio using its previously launched VideoSpin program — a free basic video-editing tool available online at www.videospin.com.
Simple productions made with VideoSpin can be developed further with the tools in the Studio 12 programs, White said.
In addition to offering features suited to new Pentium CoreDuo PCs, the new version of Studio 12 offers improved effects performance on lower-end computers, including advanced 2-D editing, the ability to rotate effects and new content for titles and DVD menus.
New basic features include direct access to specific file pages, image or video cropping to eliminate “black bars,” and pausing during the exporting process if drive space needs to be cleaned. Also added is an audio alert when a file is being made or burned to disc and the process is complete.
The Pinnacle Studio 12 Plus and Ultimate editions include new Blu-ray disc burning capabilities in BD-MV with motion menus. This includes support for AVCHD 1920 and various HD camcorder types including JVC full HD, Canon Vixia and Sanyo Xacti.
Studio 12 Ultimate adds a green sheet for Chroma Key (weather reporter) effects.
Other Ultimate features include the following:
* ProDAD Vitascene — a collection of customizable transitions and lighting effects, including film looks, blurs, glows, sparkles and glass effects.
* Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Looks — a set of tools for adjusting tone, color and focus to simulate the appearance of classic films or specific production conditions.
* Boris Graffiti — a 2-D/3-D vector title animation plug-in with text on a path; independent vector text; advanced type-on title animation; and automated rolls, crawls, fades and zooms.
