I imagine the idea is to see how Studio 8's fabled instability and finickiness have carried over to Studio 9. Basically, it has -- Pinnacle never claimed that this 9 was a fix for 8; in fact, they emphasised that it is not. I'm (still) a Pinnacle user, but far from an apologist, because it's the buggiest, most godawfully difficult to get running right program I've ever had the misery of being thrown into a pit of vipers with. My impression, after using 9 for a month, is that, users who had trouble getting things to work in 8 will have the same problems with 9. And vice-versa. This is a generality, of course.

Having gone through all the grief with 8 before getting it working reliably, I have a lot of empathy for the people who are wasting their lives trying to get Pinnacle to work. And a lot of contempt for the company and its lame tech support efforts. I have to admit that I silently cheer when I see a new user come in and intelligently bodyslam Pinnacle to the ground, because they're speaking for so many who were duped by the advertised ease of use, only to find themselves hip-deep in hardware and software marsh bogs.

In the end -- although, this is hardly the end -- as long as 9 continues to work for me, I'll do the bulk of my editing and DVD creation with it. I have purchased and loaded Screenblast on my system and am very impressed with it. (Particularly because everything I've tried to do with it has worked...) I think it'll be a great complement to Studio because of the several features lacking in Studio 9. After all I've read about MyDVD, I haven't even loaded it. If Screenblast had the DVD authoring ease of Studio, I'd be inclined to use it far more than I am. Meanwhile, the two can peacefully co-exist.

Pinnacle really cracks me up and frustrates the heck out of me all at the same time.

How long has Studio 9 been out and already you have a "Studio 9 Urgent Update: We recommend that all Studio 9 users download and install this patch."

And to add icing to the cake (or salt to the wounds), Studio 8 has now been relegated to a "Legacy Product" status. Pinnacle has not release a non-beta upgrade to Studio 8 since October 22, 2003.

Now to go to my happy place...
SB3... SB3... SB3...

Al