Mike Shaw's Video Tips for Studio Software

The World’s Top Tips for

Pinnacle Studio Video Editing software

(with some Avid Liquid snippets)

HOLLYWOOD FX,

Click here if you cannot see the buttons to the left, or your browser blocks ActiveX controls...

IF YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED THE GUEST BOOK - I'd sure appreciate it if you did. You can reach that by clicking here

IF YOU’D LIKE TO SEARCH THIS SITE - try the Google search facility which you can find by clicking here

CHANGES CHANGES CHANGES!

Much has been happening over the past year or so on the Pinnacle and Avid front - changes which have held me back from continually updating these pages, then changing them again a short time later. But now, things are beginning to be clarified ...

About 3 years ago, Liquid, then back under the Pinnacle name, was officially ‘dropped, and the announcement at the time indicated that a brand new editor, nick-named ‘NewGen’, aimed at the ‘middle range’ market would take its place. Subsequent events meant that, earlier on this year, questions were asked on the parent company Avid’s website.

Those questions yielded a considerable amount of comment within hours, resulting, ultimately, in the CEO of Avid herself entering the ‘conversation’, promising ‘results’. Then just a short time later, the ‘results were announced.

Liquid is now officially ‘dead’ - no longer being sold, will no longer be replaced by any ‘NewGen’, but will be supported (not with patches though) in the short term. This would mean a large base of Liquid users (estimated at around 120,000 registered users) would have no replacement for their editor - now quickly ‘tiring’ and losing touch with today's camcorders and operating systems. To compensate - and to keep existing Liquid users within the Avid camp, Liquid users who had registered their product by March 10th 2010 (and requested to be kept in touch with the latest information by checking a ‘tick box’ on the registration page) were offered an opportunity to upgrade to the Media Composer software package, for about 20% of its normal cost. In the UK, this meant £419 (with taxes and delivery) instead of just under £2000 (in the USA $495). Moreover, the package includes SonicFire Pro 5.5, Boris Continuum Complete 6, Avid FX, Avid DVD by Sonic - additional programs which alone would cost several hundred pounds.

But the Offer closes at the end of June.

This is a phenomenal offer - and one that ALL Liquid users should seriously consider: Media Composer, while being less ‘user friendly,’ is considerably more powerful than Liquid. It is used by the Hollywood Studios - to edit films such as Avatar (in 3D), Slumdog Millionaire, Hurt Locker, and so on.

If you are a Liquid user and haven’t had the invitation but have registered (too late now to register) - go to the Avid Forums, seek out and email Marianna, the Avid advocate. (I don’t like including other people’s email addresses where nasty web-crawlers can pick them up for spamming).

What happens to Pinnacle Studio? At the moment, all I can say fairly confidently is that it - and any possible future developments - will continue to be Avid’s ‘offering’ to ‘entry level’ editors and will continue to be supported and developed. Over the years, Pinnacle Studio has grown considerably in stature and in content, whilst retaining its intuitive ease of use. It has an enormous user base - running into tens of millions round the world.

When the dust has settled, these pages will be drastically pruned of out-of-date material, and relevant new material added.

Thank you for your patience!

Mike Shaw