Pinnacle Studio DV
Type: Digital Video.
Price: $309.
Distributors:
Lako Vision.
Ph: 03 9852 7444; Fax: 03 9852 7400
www.lakovision.com.au
Multimedia Technology.
Ph: 03 9419 6600; Fax:03 9417 5799
www.mmt.com.au
If you are looking for the lowest-cost Pinnacle entry into DV editing then the Studio DV is for you. And, as far as packaging and software are concerned, the Studio DV is nigh on identical to the Studio DC10 Plusâ€"just DV versus analogue. The only major difference is that the Studio DV card does not include some of the Pinnacle utilities and tools that ship with the Studio DC10.
The card itself is tiny, barely the length of the PCI slot and, in places, around half the height. But then all it has to accommodate are a pair of TI IC's and a sprinkling of other components. I/O is pretty typical when compared to the other DV cards tested, with a single internal IEEE1394 port, two external ports and a standard cable provided to hook up the card to your camcorder.
Installation was quick and easy and the supplied User's Guide more than adequately covers this process and the operation of the Studio editing software. One of the utilities that the Studio DV does include allows the user to select which DV IEEE1394 driver to use, either Microsoft's or the one specifically written for the TI chipset. The editing software provided was Studio DV and you can find a more in-depth description of its operation in the sidebar. We should note, however, that the Studio DV card did not work as seamlessly with the software as the Studio DC10. It took a couple of attempts to capture our video clips, the capture would inexplicably stop part way through without the system hanging, despite using the TI drivers as recommended by Pinnacle.
Video quality was as good as any of the other DV cards because the card itself does not interfere or alter the digital data stream in any way. Colours were rich with very good definition.
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