Review: Pinnacle Studio Online

Don Bradbury reviews Pinnacle Systems' inexpensive video capture device.

Product	Studio Online
Company	Pinnacle Systems Inc
Web	www.colorvision.com
Price	£59 incl
We like
We don't like
Rating	9/10 hardware 7/10 software
Requirements

Many PC users have a camcorder, either digital or an older video camera of the analogue type. Copying videos from one of these - or even from a VCR - to your computer makes sense, not only because software lets you easily edit the video clips and enhance them in sundry ways but also because you can distribute the finished files to friends by various means.

Pinnacle's Studio Online gives you all you need to hook up the camera to one of the PC's USB ports, and it even provides basic editing software, though Pinnacle's Studio is Pinnacle's intended editing software.

I say the package contains all you require, but in fact the phono leads to transport the video and audio signals from the camera to Studio Online are not included. So add about £4 to the price to cover that, unless you already have the necessary, of course. Many PC users will have, hence the omission. If your video device has two ports for audio out, you might also need a phono to mini-jack lead to carry that. Attach it to the central port on the capture device.

Setup

Otherwise setup is simple. Load the software from the CD, plug in the device and let Windows (98, 98SE, ME, or 2000) detect and install it, hook up your camera, and away you go. You'll need to supply a minimum of a Pentium 233 or compatible, 64MB of RAM, a CD drive, 150MB of disk space, and one USB 1.1 port.

I employed a USB port on a hub successfully, though the amount of processing involved in video construction is substantial, and a faster CPU than the minimum specified would be highly desirable, judging by my experience. The Studio Online device is added to Windows' Device Manager list under 'sound, video, and game controllers'.

The Studio Online hardware is simply a yellow box carrying the three input ports, with an attached lead to connect to the USB port, but what you also get by way of software might be all you need to create your own videos.

This hardware/software supports video capture up to 30 frames per second, resolutions up to 320 x 240, composite video and stereo audio inputs, and output to AVI, MPEG, or RealVideo formats. Windows Streaming Media is Studio Online's intended speciality target for those who want to put their creations on the web.

Installation also places on your system - if not already there or bettered - DirectX 5.0, so you need a compatible graphics card and sound card. Studio Assistant software then lets you check out every feature of the finished system before you start capturing your video clips.

Editing

Ordering your video clips in the basic editor is easy, with automatic frame change detection and using simple drag-and-drop of clips to the composite tray. Insertion of sundry forms of clip transition, title page, and music and/or voice overlays is also easy, but when it came to creating the finished video itself, I suffered two lockups that necessitated "rendering" restarts, finally completing at the third attempt. Video creation was also slow-ish, even throwing at the job a 1GHz PIII, 256MB of memory, and acres of free disk space.

However, the intended application, ie video capture, worked well enough, and I finished up with some acceptable footage I could distribute via CD burner, or even email (shudder). Well, these video files are large. Even a five minute AVI file was to weigh in at around 58MB using program default settings (not the highest resolution or frame rate). The corresponding MPG file was 30% smaller, though it was quite blocky due to compression and generally not to be preferred if at all possible.

In conclusion

Pinnacle Systems' Studio Online video capture device worked well enough. The software was fairly basic and the hardware out of the box may need augmenting, as I explained, but it's all many will need to get them up and running in their desire to capture, edit, and then create their own videos. Studio 7 is intended to be superior as video editing software, so watch this space for a full review.

 

Don Bradbury