Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Deluxe 9.0 [USB 2.0]
from: Pinnacle Systems
![Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Deluxe 9.0 [USB 2.0]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J3TE0AHZL._SL160_.jpg)
Average Rating: 
Sales Rank: 5305
Sales Rank: 5305
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Software : Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Deluxe 9.0 [USB 2.0] |
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Rating:  - * Software Was Good, Hardware Not So Good ... The software was pretty good and had a nice feel to it. However, the Movie Box was a pain. Power cable didn't fit the device. Rating:  - * Works Great ... I actually have a MovieBox Deluxe 8.0, that I've had about 3 years or so. It worked perfectly. Captures from digital cable and all but the very worst VHS tapes wonderfully. (One day I'll have to fork over the cash for a timebase corrector.) My MovieBox 8 still works as advertised, but is making some noise, so I'm thinking I may need to purchase a new one. I won't hesitate to buy another MovieBox. Rating:  - * Lots Of Potential But Ultimately Too Flaky ... My system is a 3.2GHz P4 with 1GB RAM and an 80GB hard drive. First time I used it I couldn't capture audio along with video. Upgraded from 9.0 to 9.4.3 which fixed audio problem but I was losing capture after 16 frames. Found patch for just this problem and applied it. In capture settings could not find description of VCR check box option and this cost me an hour trying to figure out why it wouldn't capture. Finally got capture working and it worked beautifully. Then when went to render movies I kept hitting scenes that "stuck" - audio continued but video froze. I would delete the scenes causing the video freeze to get around it. Finally got good quality AVI and MPEG movies from analog camcorder video. Next day I restarted system, started video feed playing and preview screen in Studio shows video and plays audio. I click Capture and the preview goes blank. I've restarted Studio, unplugged Movie Box Deluxe, tried toggling the settings per Pinnacle's suggestions but cannot now capture video. Nothing has changed on my set up. Can you tell I'm frustrated? When it worked it produced high quality video but it's too flaky to use. Try another product, it can't be any worse. Rating:  - * 3+ GHz computer preferred, but 1.86 acceptable ... I got this to transfer my VHS tapes to DVD format before VHS players were no longer sold. The problem is that video recording is computationally intense. You will get jerky video if you overload the processor. My 1.86 GHz computer was able to capture in best quality MPEG for black and white and best quality avi for color source material after I had done the following things: There are two things not mentioned in the directions that you have to do. When capturing from tape you have to check the VCR box to prevent the video from wobbling left and right. The other is that you have to have the capture device and your external drive on different interfaces, one on USB and the other on FireWire. Otherwise you will overload the USB or the FireWire buss controller and get jerky recordings. Use the test drive button to find which buss has the higher write speed on your drive. If your external drive has nothing on it you want and if you are technically skilled you can do a quick format on it with different sector sizes to find the highest write speed setting. With slower computers you have to disable the preview option. You will also have to disconnect from the network and shut down all programs shown in the system tray including Norton Antivirus. It is best to do a virus sweep with the latest definitions before disabling Norton. Then make test recordings from color and black and white tapes. Start with best quality and then watch the results on the edit tab to look for jerky motion. Try both recording options, avi and mpeg. If both cause jerky motions, try the better option. Then go to custom and adjust the quality % to the highest level that does not have jerky motion. The advantage of mpeg capture is that it takes less room on the hard drive and makes the third tab make movie processing time shorter. The extra storage space is of no real advantage if you do not intend to permanently store the files after you have burnt your DVD. The shortened time in the third tab is no real advantage if you have to do the capture at a lower quality setting. Then on the make movie tab select make file to be burnt later. Then select the burn from stored file to do the DVD recording. Select the external drive for this option or you will get 10 GB of files left on your internal drive that you will have to manually delete if you need the room. If you have a 3+ GHz machine you can use preview, best quality capture and burn the disk while making the movie. Then there was a quirk of my Dell 9300 of its accessing the internal drive several times a minute which caused jerky motion. To overcome this I had to boot the computer with the peripherals disconnected, wait until the boot is finished, and then connect them one at a time. Then I had to wait 30 minutes while the computer did the internal bookkeeping and accessed the internal drive. After the 30 minutes this stopped. Then start the Pinnacle software. One quirk of the software is that it only recognizes devices that are running when the program starts, so you have to have your external DVD burner (if you use one) and external hard drive attached to the computer and powered before starting the Pinnacle software. Rating: - * no option for 0 stars! ... this product is terrible! Doesn't help me any to review it after all the time and money down the drain, but I just want to save someone else from making the same mistake. The software has so many bugs in it I can't believe that they can get away with marketing this garbage. The hardware doesn't work any better. Tech support is non-existent unless you want to pay $40 per call (which I did and still proved to be another waste of money, they ask you questions like 'do you have the movie box plugged in?'). Do Not waste your money or your time! This company needs to be put out of business or drastically improve and take their clientele seriously. |
