Paid video editing software

Pinnacle Studio 25 is the newest version of the renowned video editing software. Since Corel acquired Pinnacle Systems in 2012, Pinnacle Studio has improved its functionality that enables the everyday person to create stunning videos and movies from their home. 

After reading this review, if you find that Pinnacle Studio doesn’t cover the functionality you need, you may find better results with other editors such as Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas Pro. However, Pinnacle Studio is affordable with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Continuous improvement to become #1

Pinnacle Studio continues to improve and provide new functionality for its users. A significant update is the introduction of the 16 blend modes, each of which can be keyframes. 

Blend modes provide substantial control over what effects you can add to your media. Blending is widely used in the film industry, and thus, having the opportunity to add these alongside the ability to fine-tune their appearance is a great boon to budding filmmakers. 

Continuing this, multiple audio features have been added, primarily noise reduction and pitch scaling. Finally, the biggest change that will excite everyone that uses masking; smart object masking. Smart object masking mitigates the need to consistently remask an object as time progresses – as is the case with manual masking. Instead, Pinnacle Studio 25 will register your initial masking, and with this new technology, will recognize where that masked area is on the screen and retain the masking.

Unfortunately, nothing is perfect. While the update will help retain your masking selection automatically, it may not work for complex videos or for masking areas that are smaller in size, requiring manual alterations and quality assurance checks. 

A familiar workflow

Pinnacle Studio 25 retains its easy-to-use interface, making many editors feel at home. The interface splits into three distinct sections, with the timeline features at the bottom (a common location), the preview window above, and the imports/media section on the left. 

Once you enter a clip’s properties, you’ll find the editing section overlays onto the imports section, effectively doubling up the space and allowing for easier editing. Keyboard shortcuts also provide efficient means for comfortable editors to find the function they need at the press of a button. 

Effects and tools can be located around the media section. Those familiar with editing will find standard tools available to edit their timeline. Similarly, transitions, themes, audio files, and more can be found within the effects. The effects area might be intimidating for beginners, but pros should be able to find what they need without trouble. Like the tools overlay, selecting an effect will have it appear over the media section, allowing for quick editing. 

Exporting and sharing

Pinnacle Studio offers multiple options for sharing, whether locally or digitally. Pinnacle Studio itself innately features a full disc authorizing module that supports blu-ray, allowing you to burn a blue-ray disk. These modules also include DVD and AVCHD formats. 

As sharing online has become the new norm, Pinnacle Studio offers numerous options to enable your masterpiece to be seen across the web. Users can upload their media directly to the most known social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and more. Video quality is also customizable ranging from 360p to 1080p. 

An additional function is their GIF creation function. We’ve seen this included in more recent editing software, but it allows users to create GIFs of your project to be used online.

Your next editing solution?

Pinnacle Studio 25 creates a complete experience for all editors, regardless of their current skill level. The available effects allow you to create projects of high quality. Also, with an easy-to-use interface, learning how to navigate the tool takes minimal time. As functionality improves, we expect Pinnacle Studio to be a top editing software of choice. 

Users looking to make a change can benefit from using Pinnacle Studio, which is a fraction of the price of the big players in the market. With the 30-day money-back guarantee, there’s no investment risk to try it out.