Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Ultimate Collection 14 (USB)

I bought this package because I just bought a semi-pro Sony HDV camcorder and I realised that both my current laptop and desktop computers don't have Firewire/iLink ports.Plugging the Moviebox hardware into a USB port allows you to import S-Video, composite video and, most importantly for my needs, DV,DVCam, HDV (and I guess other formats) via Firewire/iLink.I tried to import some DV footage using a few video editing packages:* The bundled Pinnacle Studio had no problems* Corel Video Studio Pro X3 worked seamlessly - allowing the high speed shot logger to index a tape before selecting the shots to grab* Sony Vegas Pro 10 did not work- it crashed ungracefully when an attempt was made to connect to the camera. I suspect this might be because I have the 64 bit version of Vegas installed.[EDIT: Note, the above Sony Vegas Pro 10 test was capturing DV footage (which Vegas does with a separate app) - when I captured HDV footage this morning with Sony Vegas it worked perfectly. ]* Adobe Premiere Elements 9 worked well with no problems.As well as the hardware and the Pinnacle Studio editing suite the package contains some video effects plugins, a USB connector cable, a Firewire (6 pin to 4 pin) cable and a large Chromakey green screen cloth.All in all, I'd say this was a good buy but if you currently use Sony Vegas you're probably going to have to capture your footage via Pinnacle Studio and them import it into Vegas.I hope this review has been helpful to you.

Frankly I did not get a chance to use this product. I bought it from Amazon which was about £[] more than their market place sellers one of whom was selling it for around £[]. I went for the Amazon sale because I felt more confident with buying it directly from them. The delivery time was very good. I found the installation instructions which required that I install the installation DVD first and then I would be prompted to install the plug-in CD-ROM. The problem was I could not find the plug-in CD ROM. Everything else was in the box. I was quite disappointed because I was looking forward to transferring my camcorder holiday tapes for video editing ad adding music. However Amazon did not waste any time taking the product back and I am waiting for a refund. While waiting for this, I tried to contact Pinnacle systems to find out why they were distributing this product without the plug-in CD, or if there had been a change to the product in which case an amendment to the installation to the documentation should have been included with the purchase.Unfortunately it seems that you can only contact their customer & technical help only if you have bought the product and registered it with them.I did not use the product to discover if changes had occurred. Naturally I am quite dissatisfied after all the trouble I went through to make this purchase. It might have made a difference if I was given an explanation as to why the plug-in CD was excluded which it seemed was a part of the installation process?

It looks good and has plenty connectivity options but i just couldn't get the darned thing to work.The software looked good with plenty tricks to perform with the exception of i just couldn't get it to capture from any source.If you have the patients to sit and figure out setting and scoure the help forums for bug fixes and stuff then this has the potential to be a moderatly priced option for video capture and editing.

Expensive and not entirely bug free.

I bought this so that I could download Hi Def and AVCHD straight from my video camera . I should have known better , I also own the previous studio 12 version which constantly stalled and generally did not work as it should . I hasten to say that I do have a fast computer with plenty of memory . Studio 14 has proved to be even more of a disaster . First it decided it would stop importing ,I then tried to uninstall it and it refused to uninstall and would not allow me to reinstall it either .After checking for help online from various sources ,I found that numerous other people have had the same problems . In my opinion Pinnacle software is not to be trusted and I will not buy it again . Sony Vegas is a possible alternative .

I like pinnacle products as I have purchased them in the past. But the Pinnacle Studio Moviebox Ultimate Collection 14 was somewhat of a disappointment. The software appeared fine, but I was unable to download any of my tapes (DV or VHS)to my PC using the 710 breakout box. I contacted Pinnacle but they were of no help. I returned the lot back to Amazon for a full refund.