Home > Consumer Reviews > Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Deluxe version 9 - Video input adapter - Hi-Speed USB - SECAM, PAL

So far this product has worked out very well for me on my laptop computer. Movie capture for DVD has been fast with no problems in audio going out of sync with Video as was common in Studio 8. Capturing direct to MPEG format for DVD has been a dream and allows me to have HOURS of video captures prior to making a movie.

Pinnacle Studio 9 and the Hollywood F/X programs come with the package. Studio 9 has no real new suprises in it (other than the direct MPEG capture). I've run into a couple of UI-related bugs, that are fairly easy to work around.

One thing to note is how incredibly TOUGH the Moviebox is. Made in Germany out of a cast aluminum shell and VERY high impact plastic, I'm pretty sure even the "pro-sumer" types would be impressed.

Pinnacle's support, however, is terrible. Hopefully you won't have too many questions about the product - if you do, don't expect answers from Pinnacle support - you won't get them. That's part of the reason for the 3-star rating.

If you're looking at the low-end Dazzle products from Pinnacle - don't bother - they're garbage. The Studio products are really the only ones to bother with. And if you have a notebook PC then *this* product really shines.

Would you like a sharp stick in your eye? Would you like a bowling ball dropped on your foot? If so, buy Pinnacle today. Your experience with the stick and bowling ball will be similar to your Pinnacle experience. It will prove to be the most troublesome and frustrating time you have ever spent on a computer. You should save your money and look into another product that actually works. My MovieBox has now become a $200 paperweight.

I bought this program 2 months ago and created the movie material using the MovieBox with relative ease after some trial and error, all of which I expected. Creating the movie was not bad at all. However, for the past 4 weeks, I have been going 'round and 'round with Pinnacle's grossly sub-par "Tech Support" because I have still not been able to burn my completed movie onto a DVD. The Information Technology guys at my office also had no answers. You would think burning the completed project to DVD would be the easy part, wouldn't you?

When I try to burn to DVD, my software shuts down due to insufficient memory if it opens up in the first place. I have a brand new Hewlett-Packard ZT3000 laptop with 60G memory and 512 RAM so I am using a good system. I was told I should upgrade my RAM, which I did. I DOUBLED my RAM to 1G at a cost of $300. It was then suggested by Tech Support that I burn Pinnacle to a hard-drive other than the one where Windows was saved. I bought an external hard-drive for a price of $150. I have also bought a program which shuts down all of my running programs because Pinnacle is extremely sensitive to running programs which I understand because this program is a "memory hog."

Basically I have done everything I can think of and am right back where I started. Oh yea, I am right back where I started although, when you factor in my expenses on Pinnacle and the upgrades that I thought would help Pinnacle work better along with the wasted DVDs that never burned correctly, I am about $700 lighter in the wallet. Thanks, Pinnacle - for your horrendous "Tech Support" and for software that crashes on a 60G computer with 1G of RAM due to "insufficient memory." Maybe I should upgrade to 2G of RAM. That should be only a few more hundred bucks. Why is 1G not enough RAM?

Also, when Pinnacle does open correctly, it is extremely slow and will often crash for reasons not related to insufficient memory. As another Pinnacle consumer stated, don't expect much help from Customer Support - you will not get it. You get one free call to them (which is not helpful) and you will pay for all subsequent calls to them. They have a system whereby you can email your questions to them. When they do get around to responding (often they do not respond at all), their answers are simply copied and pasted from their website. Why bother? Just go to the website and keep your fingers crossed that your question is there - most of my questions were not listed so I had no help at all for those questions. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give them a 0.5 for Customer Support and a 1.0 for functionality of their product. So add those up and divide by 2 and I would give Pinnacle a solid 0.75 out of 10 ...

This is my 3rd Video editor. Upgrade from S8. Saw very little difference between S8 and S9. This program is super easy to use.
No learning curve. You can turn out some awesome movies. There are a few limitations that you can work around, especially the limited number of sound tracks. It's easy to import your own .wav file and jpg pics for the background. The movie box is awesome !! It's the strongest part of the whole package. You can do a lot with it. Getting it registered was a pain. Their technical support is the worst that I have ever encountered. Almost non existent. This item would have gotten 5 stars if they had any decent technical support. They have a high power online forum which is awesome: (...)

Overall, I am pleased with this system. For the price, you are getting a good deal. I plan on moving up to the Pinnacle Liquid edition later. Thanks ! Bob :-)

I purchased this system for transferring Laser Disks and tapes to dvd. I found the system easy to use, and well enginerred BUT, the results are awful. The picture on a 65" TV is extremely poor. I compared this with a dvd copying program, and even a 2 hour 15 minute copy is far superior to a pinnacle 1 hour copy from a laser disk. I used "Death on the Nile" as my sources, laser, dvd, and VHS versions. An hour long burn was awful. Also it takes forever to burn a 1 hour dvd, about 9 hours, on a 2G P4 Dell Computer. Look for another system. I find it impossible to get any help from Pinnacle.

This system sounded like the perfect system ... NOT the case! After many hours of frustration and work with this I was able to produce 1 short 13 min. dvd which still has skips and music not lining up not to mention other problems. While using the program it kept crashing mid project and shutting down, regardless if the material was saved it would not open up correctly each time. I have new computer so the problem was not that. My head hurts and now I am exausted - I am returning this tomorrow ... what a disapointment.