Pinnacle Studio Plus 700-PCI

Software was hard to load, had to consult with Pinnacle's site many times to get it to load. After loading, I have never been able to get a good/accurate capture of the source video. I spent chat after chat performing suggestion after suggestion, wasting blank DVD's after blank DVD's with not success. Video looks good/accurate in the "capture window's" preview box but then does not capture what is was showing. I've spent more than 100 hours trying to get this working and maybe 22 discs.... and two hours of long distance calling and still I am NO closer to having a good quality capture. Last night, I was told I had to reinstall everything because I "should have" a selection that says "VCR input" in the capture set up. In spite of the Pinnacle site stating that only 3 devices have this option (mine isn't one of them) the tech guy insisted that I reinstall again. I did. Guess what? As far as I am aware HE was WRONG. In my opinion didn't have a clue as to what systems of Pinnacle's have what options. I'm so over this Studio Plus. That's why I am here researching my next capture device. This process with Pinnacle could not be worse. I have never used a more user antagonistic piece of computer hardware/software in my life!

The Pinnacle Studio Plus 700-PCI video capture software box comes with 3 discs. I couldn't get it to install for the life of me. So after some Googling I found out that to overcome that problem you need to create a folder on your desktop called Studio, then copy the contents of Disc one into that folder. Then reboot and go into safe mode with networking. You do this by continually pressing the F8 (key) until you get to the safe mode menu. Once you are in Windows (safe mode) then open up the Studio folder and locate the setup.exe file and double click. You should be good to go. You might have problems installing the bonus DVD (Disc 3) due to some conflicts with InCD from Nero. There is a program that will delete just that program, and then you should be good to go.

What I've just told you is the worst case scenario. But I did all this and everything after that was smooth sailing. I'm quite happy with the card and software.

I think most people that complain about Pinnacle are those that just can't get around software conflicts. So if you don't mind the possibility of fiddling with that a bit, you should be fine. If you are not into troubleshooting at all, then I would make sure that prior to purchase you are assured that you can return the product. Again, I think this is a great product, but some initial tinkering might be needed. It all depends on your system and your software. I tried a USB capture Device from ADS and I returned it after a few days, and after comparing the two I would take the Pinnacle hands down. Although it does cost more.

Getting a PCI card for video capture is always better and faster than using a USB video capturing device. Definitely having the Firewire capability is great, as this allows you to use Pinnacle's editing software to make a great production from your DV camcorder recordings.