The Studio 400 is Pinnacle's lowest end video editing hardware/software solution.

Requirements:
Pinnacle recommends any Pentium-based PC with 16MB RAM, Windows 95, CD-ROM Drive, minimum 256 color DirectX 5.0-compatible graphics card, DirectX 5.0-compatible sound card, one free serial (COM) port, and Mouse. At least 30MB free disk space required to install software and 150MB free disk space required to edit one hour of video.

Features:
Studio 400 software provides you an easy way to edit scenes in home movies and videos with simple clicks of the mouse.
There is also an instant preview so you can watch your movie before you make the tape.
You can also add music from CDs and from the bundled Smart Sound software that makes it easy to generate license free music tracks.
The feature that really drew me toward the purchase of a Studio 400 was its ability to do simple transition dissolves, wipes and fades.

Installation:
The installation of the 400 was quite easy. The hardware portion consists of a parallel cable and an external break-out box. Plug that into your open parallel port (I had to unplug my printer) install the software, plug in your camcorder to the input RCA jack, your VCR into the output RCA jack, connect the LANC or the IR emulator(included), and install the software. Viola! You're ready to edit. I actually had to configure my parallel port to accept "enhanced" signals, you can do that in your system BIOS setup.

How it "works":
Studio 400 works in conjunction with your computer, VCR, and camcorder to edit video. Now, if you've ever transferred your home videos from your camcorder to your VCR, you've probably fast-forwarded and re-wound to put scenes in order, or to get rid of those scenes you didn't want on the finished product. Well, the Studio 400 automates that process to make it easier for you to edit your home movies.
The first step is to capture a 15fps preview video of all the footage you want to edit on to your computer. Next you arrange them in the order you like, add in music, put in some wipes/fades, and click "make tape" -- oh if only it were that simple.
This might be obvious, but i'll say it anyway. If you want any quick edits or have a lot of cuts in your film, do not even consider Studio 400. The 400 is as precise as a blind man is at hitting a target from 400 meters. Scenes that I specified in the software to start and end at specific times, under or over-ran their marks leaving a very choppy and amateurish product. Not exactly the "Professional Quality" that Pinnacle advertised.

Conclusion:
Those who have small hard drive (thus not able to capture more than an hour of digital video), those on a budget (thus not able to buy a more expensive, but more effective DC10+ and a larger hard disk drive), and those who do not care about precision editing are the ones that will love the Studio 400. However, if you want a better, more precise, and more flexible editing environment, look toward a Pinnacle DC10+ or DC30.

Recommended: No