Pinnacle Studio Ultimate VS VideoStudio Ultimate

[tletter]

More plugins? More templates? More bells and whistles? If we were to take a poll of members of this form, I suspect most would be happy with the current offering of Video Studio. Its current functionality would keep you happily editing for years ... If Corel focus on these three words during their development cycle, in my opinion, they would have a winning formula!

I doubt if the "loyalty" sales of new releases at a preferred rate to active participants on this forum are a major driver of VS revenue. New sales are largely driven by current online reviews that place great emphasis on software features. Hence if Corel doesn't add new features as their competitors do, then undoubtedly VS's ranking in the reviews will suffer and so to will sales. Years of watching how VS has evolved, shows that Corel's VS main programming effort is to add new features to keep up with the other NLEs and little effort is expended to improve either stability or rendering performance. As well, QA is an afterthought as witnessed by the numerous SPs that immediately follow the annual new release of VS.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[Merlin]

I bit the bullet, paid the $2, and got Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 24. It's a lot like I would like CVSU 2021 to be! The audio waveforms can be displayed all the time in the timeline. The chromakey works WAY better! More output options. LOTS of FX and transitions. There are some things that look like they were swiped from CVS - the multicam - though frustratingly, PVS doesn't recognize the upgraded CVS multicam app, even though they look identical.

I've stuck it out with CVS for about 6 years now, and Corel never seems to fix the things I'd like them to. PV seems to be a better fit for me - though I'm doing a lot more stuff with Cyberlink PowerDirector these days as well.

[Vdanny]

Hi,
I have and use both programs but appreciate a couple of features in Videostudio that Pinnacle doesn't have (yet):
SmartProxy on the timeline which, for me, is essential for 4K editing
Blend modes for graphic elements
An adjustable strength slider for LUTs
Mercalli stabilizer

[Luna Esterhuizen]

Last year, I was thinking of upgrading to Video Studio 2020 (VS) but also had the desire to try something new. I decided to go with Pinnacle Studio 23 (PS) for four reasons. It had a comprehensive Library system which I was looking for and was lacking in Video Studio. It could create nested projects. It shared some modules with Video Studio reducing the learning curve and PS23 was close to the end of its life cycle which I figured they would have ironed out most of the bugs while at that time VS 2020 was going through some growing pains.

As a long time user of VS, I couldn't quite understand why Corel offered two different editors. But after using Pinnacle, I realised these two are targeted at different market segments. VS is really targeted towards the consumer while PS is targeted towards the prosumer as DavidK has indicated. Video Studio is uncomplicated in structure. Its timeline is simple as well as its library. And that makes it easy for beginners to grasp. But as the user becomes more proficient or the projects more complex, this simple structure of the core system starts to become a limitation. Of course, the VS Ultimate version offers some great additional advance plugins which allows users to grow in knowledge and skill when ready.

On the other hand, Pinnacle offers the next step in editing flexibility. One simple example, Pinnacle tracks can be defined as anything the user wants and are not predefined as Video, Overlay, Titles, Music and Voice (a structure helpful to a beginner, but not so much to an advanced user). I can see VS users migrating to PS but I don't really see Pinnacle users migrating to Video Studio. They would miss its flexibility.

But I can also see the two systems sit side by side on my desktop. For quick projects, slide shows and the fun use of the plethora of templates and Fastflicks I will use Video Studio. For bigger video based projects, I will use Pinnacle. And while both systems share some features/modules I don't think the two will merge into one in the near future. The big selling point of VS is its simplicity and Corel has always kept that in mind. So for the beginner or casual user, I would recommend Video Studio and for the more experienced editor; definitely Pinnacle Studio.

I'm also thinking to switch to Pinnacle and this is the reason why ended up here, seeking answers from others that know the difference between VS and PS. I've used Video Studio for many years but the last 2 versions I bought (2020 and 2021 Ultimate) are crashing so often that it is difficult to work with. Editing and rendering 4K videos is quite time consuming. To create proxy files for a long project takes ages and without the proxy files it is impossible to edit. The reason why I stuck with it so long is that it is so user friendly. I just do not want to learn another application. But if the outcome of my project could improve I guess it is worth switching. Pinnacle is not available on trial so I do not want to buy it and then regret it.

[asik1]

PS is not VS. PS work differently so you will have to learn. Any NLE needs proxies for proper 4K edit and so is rendering, this why coffee/beer/lunch brakes are made for.
There are few more PS/VS discussions here.

[Luna Esterhuizen]

PS is not VS. PS work differently so you will have to learn. Any NLE needs proxies for proper 4K edit and so is rendering, this why coffee/beer/lunch brakes are made for.
There are few more PS/VS discussions here.

You tell me, I've done it many times. The point that I tried to make is my total frustration with a crashing program and slow processing. I hope to see something better if I switch to Pinnacle at least a difference in the outcome. I once spoke to a Corel agent via the online chat service and even that person could not pin point that Pinnacle is better. It's more expensive, though both applications are fairly priced. I've tried Resolve, Magix, Edius, Power Director etc. Basically they work more or less the same but as I am so used to Video Studio I just could not do things so easily with them. Thanks for your input.

[asik1]

Most of the users here use/have many NLE's. I chose VMS (that unfortunately is not continued and moved to Vegas) and have also Kdenlive, Shotcut and Vloger. None is perfect but for the simple works I do they are fine. I had few PS versions and never really used any, so removed.
If you like to read PS comments you can go to http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/242/ShowForum.aspx