How Stable is Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0

ADinelt wrote on 11/13/2003, 3:51 PM
I recently bought an analog video capture board so I can preserve our old home videos. It came with Pinnacle Studio 8.0. I love the software except for when it comes to rendering or creating a DVD image (it will either hang or crash). The Pinnacle forum was full of similar complaints from other users as well. I have downloaded trial versions of other software and was either not impressed with the software or it was unstable as well.

To give you some idea of my setup, I am using Windows 98SE on a Compaq Presario P3 - 650 with 128 Meg RAM (I know I should have more RAM). I have a dedicated 40 GByte hard drive for video work. If I can get software that will actually work properly and not crash, then I will invest in more RAM and a DVD burner.

This brings me to my question regarding Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0. I have not seen a lot of complaints in this forum regarding crashes, etc. Since a downloadable trial version is not available, I am reaching out to existing users for your thoughts and opinons (good or bad).

How stable have you found the software and how satisified have you been with it?

I am a true believer in keeping legal with software and don't mind paying for it if it is worth it. However, I don't have a lot of extra money to be throwing away on bad software, so any help you provide would be greatly appreciated. (I am from Canada, so $100 U.S. is about a gazillion Canadian!!)

Thanks in advance...
Al

Comments

IndyGuy wrote on 11/13/2003, 4:00 PM
Compared to Pinnacle Studio 8, this is the Rock of Gibralter. I was never able to make a DVD with Pinnacle. I have been running Screenblast on Win XP with 512 Ram and 120 gig hard drive and I have had no problem with it at all. Obviously I can't speak for your setup.
BrianJ wrote on 11/13/2003, 4:01 PM
I dumped Pinnacle Studio 8 for the reasons you mentioned about 3 months ago and started using Screenblast. It has been 100% stable. It has never crashed, locked up my machine, etc. and I've never had to uninstall, manually delete stuff from the registry and then reinstall, etc. These are all part of your regular routine I'm sure if you're using Studio 8. Once you try Screenblast you'll never go back. The MyDVD software that is bundled with Screenblast leaves a lot to be desired. I've switched to Ulead MovieFactory and it does everything I need it to do. If you want to do very complicated DVD authoring you might want something more powerful. Pinnacle has agreed to refund my money for their crappy software. I'm still waiting for the credit to show up on my card statement. BTW, Pinnacle's CEO got canned a week or two ago
Chienworks wrote on 11/13/2003, 4:06 PM
If you click on Download at the top of the screen and browse to Updates, you'll be able to download Video Factory 2.0c. This is the last release of the previous version of what is now Movie Studio 3. It has a substantial number of the features of the current version and is almost fully functional in demo mode. It will give you a very good taste of what Movie Studio is like. And did i mention it's a free demo? ;)
IanG wrote on 11/13/2003, 5:05 PM
I'm a convert from Studio too - I spent more time reinstalling the s/w than I did using it! I've had very few problems with VF, and they were all quickly sorted out by the folks on this forum. The results are in a different league too - Studio encourages you to do it quick, VF encourages you to do it right.

Ian G.
ADinelt wrote on 11/13/2003, 5:10 PM
Outstanding!! Thanks to everyone who replied so quickly.

I am downloading the demo of Video Factory 2.0c right now. I hope it is as good as it sounds.

And you were right about going into the registry to delete entries for Pinnacle. And then when I re-installed it (due to the most recent updates were worse than the original 8.4 that I had), I had a licence problem issue. I then had to download a fix for that as well!

Thanks again...
Al