Studio generally gets good reviews because of the intuitive interface. When it works, it works well. I use Studio 7 and like it for quick projects. It is easier than Vegas overall and requires less planning. Obviously, not as powerful as Vegas and I would hesitate to compare the two, but a very productive application. Studio 7 is stable on my system, but I don't have 8.

If I am doing a project that requires creative transtitions and intense video or audio editing, I would use Vegas

Dave T2

I believe PC Magazine gave Pinnacle Studio 8 an Editors Choice a few months ago. you can go to their website to find the review (pcmag.com)

You said it for me DavidT2. I too have studio 7 and after paying to be a beta tester it has been working fine for me. And I have made good money with it. I used it to log and rough cut for are real editors. We would get back from the field transfer DV and beta, all to mini dv with window dub timecode. I would take the mini dv cam home firewire it into S7 then log, rough cut and script the segment. I then got deluxe so we could cut down on tape cost and went with vhs dubs. Once in a while I would put something simple together using titledeko, hollywood fx and smartsound for fun and send it back with my rough cut/script. They would ask what I was using and after telling them what it was and how much I paid for it the response was usually WOW! One thing I have learned about pinnacle is that they like to put their low end products out there with bugs and let the user forums figure them out. This was true for studio,S7 and now it looks like S8 is the same. So if you want to use a very limited but very powerful home editing software from pinnacle wait till they have patched the hell out of it and the user forums settle down. then go for it otherwise do what I did get then VV3 now 4 and live with the learning curve or as I prefer to call it the learning wall and start climbing. The difference between VV forums like here and the cow and pinnacle is that in the pinnacle forums a lot of folks there are trying to figure out how to make the software just work on there system and in VV forums its more about how to use the software.

Okay, after reading the review and seeing the prices, I don't think it's fair to compare Vegas with Pinnacle Studio. Probably more reasonable to compare it with Pinnacle Edition DV, since the price for that and Vegas 4 are identical at $699.
Although it's noteworthy that any company that releases buggy software at any price point is likely to have problems throughout the entire product line. It's a statement of the company's practices more than the one buggy application.
Note that I've never used Pinnacle Software so I can't comment on any of their stability issues. I just like to keep on top of what all the players are doing.

Maestro your right, you can't compare studio with vegas. One is targeted to home users and the other to prosumers and up. Its just a shame that they market a unfinished little gem for the entery level user and the poor owner of the product can't use it till all the forum pros tell pinnacle what needs to be fixed, and it is easy to use so its not just the user. Also look at how many products pinnacle has. I'm just glad that when I needed to upgrade/move up that edition was not offerd for studio deluxes and I found the foundry. And if I could of split the camera audio tracks with studio I would of stuck with it a little longer.(I heard there was a work around but that doen't work around for me) One of the first things that the pro editors that I worked with when I told them I wanted to start learning to edit was k.i.s.s it, (Keep It Simple Silly) and that is what studio can do and more, when it works for you. In defense of pinnacle most people who are using VV,premier,avid,etc are also looking into the systems they well be putting there software into. Where most of the folks buying studio have the computer first or camera and then go get the software and thats where the trouble start for them and pinnacle, For me it just would not run on my compaq because of IRQ sharing. Just go read the forums of any product your thinking about before you spend your hard earned cash and don't believe ever thing you read in product reviews.

"Just go read the forums of any product your thinking about before you spend your hard earned cash and don't believe ever thing you read in product reviews."

That's gospel, brother. Thanks for saying it.