The learning curve is decent. It's fairly intuitive and user friendly. I did not use the most simple functions, such as camcorder to DVD auto creation. I like to get my hands dirty in the good stuff; there is plenty of good stuff in Pinnacle Studio Plus 9.3. There are some bugs, but it's really not too bad; I chalk it up to the industry being in it's infancy and developing very rapidly.

I am a beginner videographer and video editor. I went in expecting the worst after reading many reviews on all major video editing software.

I had this product for about two weeks now. I am very pleased with the end result: a 2 hour DVD of my family trip to Hawaii. The scenery didn't limit the quality of the video: The camcorder was fine: DCR-TRV280(Digital8 Tape).

I have the following in my computer...
- Computer Model: Dimension 2400 Series, Intel Pentium 4, 2.66G.
- RAM: 768 Megabytes.
- DVD recorder: Pacific Digital: INTERNAL IDE 16X +/- BURNER MACH 16X8 DVD+/- BURNER.
- Hard drive: Maxtor 6B250R0 250GB Ultra ATA 133 7200rpm (dedicated for video files and 'My Documents' only).
- (Separate 120G drive with O/S and program files).
- Firewire card (about $30 in MicroCenter).



Pluses...
- Importing of video from Digital camcorder using Firewire was problem-free.
- Auto creation of clips (scenes) from the raw video file.
- Easy trimming and placement of clips, and re-use of them.
- Very nice timeline feature allows for a good view of what you've created, plus a zoom in and in and out on the timeline.
- The little things can be taken for granted but help greatly:
- Undo and redo functions are excellent.
- 'Ripple' effect where all 'tracks' to the right are moved further to the right when you insert clips. This keeps each track in synch and saves tremendous time.
- 'Ripple' insertion of transitions: adding a transition between hundreds of clips at once instead of one at a time.
- Ease of using digital photos in the DVD.

Minuses...
- Very limited choice on predefined DVD menu templates (2 of them): unless you are willing to pay more, of course.
- Occasionally, an aggravating slowness to editing, such as moving clips, inserting transitions, and trimming.
- Occasional failed operations (acceptable quantity and severity).
- A few times, the program stopped completely and closed itself.(few enough times for me not to be overly concerned, though).
- .AVI files imported from camcorder using Windows Movie Maker were not imported successully into Studio Plus even though .AVI is marked as a supported file type.

SUMMARY:
The high quality of the software editing process and the end result warrant a close look at this sofware. From what I've read, it's critical to have the recommended hardware for ANY video editing software, especially RAM, chip speed, and hard disk size/speed: meet the recommended specs, and I doubt you'll have much trouble.


DETAILS:
I previously transferred 7 hours of digital video from a Sony digital camcorder using Microsoft Windows Movie Maker and the firewire cable. The file format was .AVI. I attempted to open those files in Pinnacle Studio Plus 9.3. The import failed.

I then reloaded all the files directly into Studio Plus using the Capture feature. That worked fine.

I then created a 20 minute highlight section from 7 hours of raw video. I spent 50 hours editing the software and experimenting. It's not necessary to dedicate that much time because the software is very easy to use, but I wanted to get into the nuts and bolts of thw editing tool to maximize the output.

I created transitions between clips and that is nice. I changed the properties of the clips. I used automatic color correction, which is a very, very nice tool. It does well lightening up darker scenes. It can increase the color quality on some clips. I slowed down some short clips so they would last longer. I also created overlay titles, scrolling titles of different fonts. That is very nice.

I put MP3 music as one of the audio tracks. The volume of all tracks, including the camcorder audio, to highlight different section's sound. That was very helpful. It was pretty easy to do. Music adds greatly to a video. Many people commented about that.

RECOMMENDATION: Download a demo first for any video editing software to make sure it works with your hardware; this is very important so you don't feel jilted if it doesn't work on your system.

NOTE: Firewire is essential to create DVD quality video. USB will NOT create the DVD quality you want.

NOTE: I downloaded a demo from www.pinaclesys.com. The demo download requires a credit card number: the card is charged if you do not cancel the product within 30 days after the download. It's $99 plus about $10 for shipping. They will ship the box after the 30 days. Currently it is backordered, but I will call before I cancel and buy using another route.

RECOMMENDED HARDWARE:
- Sony Digital Camcorder with Firewire port.
- Pentium 4.
- 768 Meg of RAM at the minimum.
- Dedicated hard drive which is fast (Maxtor Diamondmax works great).
- High quality DVD recorder which can created DVD-R disks(among others).
- Firewire card.

Recommended: Yes