Review by Brian A. Wolters

I’ve used Pinnacle Studio for many years, even way back when I had to have the breakout box to feed in video. Except for some old VHS and 8MM I still feed in via firewire, I’m pretty much digital video now. Pinnacle Studio has had some bug issues in the last few releases but I am happy to say, that 18 is quite stable and easy to use.

Installation is easy but takes a while because it provides a lot of content for you to use. I also like how it can work directly as a 64-bit program.

Making a video is pretty straightforward. Load your video into the timeline, edit, add transitions, titles and effects and export. And it works quite well and fast if you have good, modern processor. Analog video imported well enough via firewire but I sometimes fall back on Windows Essentials provided video importer as it works even better. Adding photos was also seamless and easy to do.

There is still no iMovie equal in Windows but in Pinnacles defense, it is not hard to use. And I often find iMovie difficult as far as making an event and then a movie. A little confusing. I do wish Pinnacle included themes that help make auto transitions and a constant them across the edit.

Pinnacle Studio 18 is a great bargain and if you are looking for an easy to use, stable video editor on a budget, can’t go wrong here.