X-Ben_Killerby
Imported Account
Feb 18, 1999, 7:15 PM
Post #5 of 40
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I have it and I would have to say that in relation to the expectations built up by the blurb, it is a piece of [error! Word censored by CDA Censor program that has determined that this word is offensive].
The main reason is that it is an analogue system: when you cut and paste scenes on the program to form your final edit, then put a CD in as the background music - it looks great on your computer! You start getting really excited that you can do this for about A$700.
But it when the Studio 400 goes to work translating what you have assembled on your computer onto your VCR tape that the problems start. It does this by searching your raw video tape and putting each clip in the order you have selected on your VCR.
The difficulty is that it cannot match the cuts you have made on your computer program exactly with the tape. It cannot find the exact piece of tape on your camera tape with the cut you made on the program. The program makes the tape wind backwards and forwards till it finds the beginning of your footage, but it can never find it exactly.
The result is that you end up with a jumpy mish mash of footage on the screen.
Worse still, the CD cannot cover the jumps smoothly either, so not only is the vision all over the place, the sound jumps at every cut.
The setup is also a nightmare, resulting in over three hours of telephone support (which was excellent in Australia - just the software lets the great support team down).
All in all, it is a rubbish program, simply because it is not digital. What you really need to do is download the entire raw camera tape, edit it digitally, then output it back to a VCR. But that requires huge amounts of hard disk space and a different program. Pinnacle might have such a system higher up the product range.
The only good thing about it is that the Studio 400 mixer can double as a converter to play an ordinary video camera as a webcam.
Alternatively, the movies that you make on your computer (as opposed to your VCR) are quite good - perhaps you could use them to create web movies.
I think Pinnacle must have better systems further up the range, but you have to go digital I'm afraid.
All in all, the blurb leads people to believe that you can make quality edits for A$700, and that is not the case.
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