Pinnacle Systems - was it worth the x-tra money?

[Prison Kids]

Ok guys,

Two questions.

First, here is my system:

MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR
AMD Athlon XP2500 Barton
Speeze 370 Cooling kit
S-Bracket / D-Bracket 2
IEEE 1394 Cable
Maxtor 7200 160gig HD
Seagate 5400 10gig HD
2-512mb DDR Memory Modules
Pacific Digital 4x DVD +R/+RW
Samsung 32x10x40 Cdrw


I just bought Pinnacle Studio Deluxe - $199
Includes:
Pinnacle Studio v8
Hollywood FX Plus
Pinnacle AVDV Capture Card
Breakout box w/36" cord (AV/DV in and out, w/stereo I/O connectors)
1394 Firewire

Questions:
1. I wanted to go with the 69.00 "dazzle" unit, but they were out, so this looked like the best buy. The guy said that the capture quality on this was nicer, and that this comes with the full version of Pinnacle 8 (dazzle had a trial version). In the opinion of someone experienced in this area, was this pinnacle system worth the extra money, or sould I have gone with the cheaper brand and used movie maker?

2. I just captured my first analog video and created a really cool movie, with menus, transitions, etc. but this thing is taking forever to "render" and burn. Is this normal? It says it is a 25 min movie. How long should this take? I'm used to my Cdrw. This is my first dvd burn.

Any input would be great. I'm feeling like maybe I screwed up, when I decided to by the nicer video capturing hardware/software.

I do have alot of analog I need to convert, plus I can't afford a new DV camcorder (I've got a really nice 8mm). Did I do the right thing!
Help!

[JacobM5727]

well, to render and DV, and stuff, a dual setup works a lot better if the program can support it, i think theres a pinnacle version that does

i do 3d rendering now and then, and it uses very little ram, it is very cpu intensive though

another thing is if your seagate is on the same channel as your maxtor, it will slow it down - thats what i have heard at least, that a slow hdd will bring others on its channel to its speed

[Prison Kids]

Originally posted by JacobM5727
well, to render and DV, and stuff, a dual setup works a lot better if the program can support it, i think theres a pinnacle version that does

i do 3d rendering now and then, and it uses very little ram, it is very cpu intensive though

another thing is if your seagate is on the same channel as your maxtor, it will slow it down - thats what i have heard at least, that a slow hdd will bring others on its channel to its speed

Yes, my CPU is running between 96-100%, temp is up to 58 degrees, everything else is cool.

My seagate is on a different channel.

Can you give me an estimate on how long this should take? It has been "rendering" for almost an hour. It's now on it's second pass...

[JacobM5727]

sorry for not replying sooner
i dont know how long it should take, i dont do video >.<
my wallpapers i make sometimes however take up to an hour on this cpu, usually much much less though, maybe like 30 minutes, also about 3x longer if i do superfine antialiasing (for any image)
i would guess video would take much longer, my cpu is also not as fast as yours

so, im not too sure, sorry

[phenious]

I have had some experience with the Pinnacle system at my school. I work in the multimedia lab and they use Pinnacle Stuido 8 for software and their hardware to capture. We have been having a lot of problems but after lots of testing It seems to be dells fault for not building proper computers. I have been able to get one of the machines to work nicely and I must say the software was very stright forward and easy to use when capturing. It comes with a nice set of effects and transitions and I havent messed with the Hollywood FX but the video teacher says it has a lot of cool sound effects which you are free to use in your work Sounds like a sweet deal and all and if you are liking it I would stick with it. My friend uses a Dazzle on his Mac and he says it works... thats about it... dosnt love it dosnt hate it... just does what it is supposed to do I played briefly with the menu editor in Pinnacle but I didnt like what I saw but I am partical to my Adobe Encore but for what I have seen I think its on part with what one would expect from a program thats made to do everything

-: phenious :-

[DPA]

perhaps a bit off base on the topic, but someone told me to verify this:

i do 3d rendering now and then, and it uses very little ram, it is very cpu intensive though

which yes, in some cases this is true, but as soon as you begin adding textures, dynamic maps, and radiosity/cacheing of any form--your ram is gone. No matter how much you have, you don't have enough. Now as to how 3d rendering pertains to TV recording i do not know, but i just thought i would clear that up a bit.

[Prison Kids]

Thanks again Phenious.

I feel better about my purchase now. I also like to idea of capturing the AV through an AVDV capture card, rather than through a usb port. Probably just a mind trip, but the captured AV is perfect now (even with my old handycam8).

I don't have much experience with other software, but with pinnacle, I was able to make a really neat DVD of my daughter's cheerleading competition, with great transitions, sounds, and a cool selection of menus.

I've also got "movie maker" on my XP Pro, but have never been tall on MS programs (just converted my 2 websites to dreamweaver as well - no more frontpage). Anyway, bla-bla-bla, I'm rambling.

Thanks for you great advice and help...