Pinnacle Studio 500 PCI Capture Card

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Pinnacle Studio 500 PCI

DV/Firewire
Analog VideoIn

Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP
Vista NT4? MAC? Linux?
*based on user reports.

PCI

$50

5.4/10
5 votes

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Description (from the manufacturer site)

Pinnacle Studio 500-PCI version 10 provides the ease and power to quickly combine and enhance your precious memories from digital and analog camcorders and effortlessly preserve and share them on DVD and beyond.

Hardware Specifications
Inputs:

* Composite video input (RCA connector) PAL, SECAM, NTSC
* S-Video input (mini-DIN connector) PAL, SECAM, NTSC
* IEEE 1394 I/O connector (6-pin type)

Outputs:

* Composite video output (RCA connector) PAL, NTSC
* S-Video output (mini-DIN connector) PAL, NTSC
* IEEE 1394 I/O connector (6-pin type)

Analogue Video Capture and Output

* Video format: PAL/SECAM (SECAM input only)
* Frame rate PAL: 25 frames per second/50 fields per second
* Frame rate NTSC: 30 frames per second/60 fields per second
* Frame size PAL: 720 x 576
* Frame size NTSC: 768 x 480
* Compression: MPEG-2, MPEG-1, DV, MJPEG (User-selectable. Available real-time capture formats depend on CPU speed.)

Export Formats

* Video CD (VCD) or S-VCD* with optional CD burner (CD-R or CD-RW)
* DVD* with optional DVD burner (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R or DVD+RW)
* DV, AVI, DivX® **, RealVideo® 8, Windows Media® 9, MPEG-1, MPEG-2*, MPEG-4** files
* Dolby® Digital Audio 2 channel* & 5.1 channel** audio

Import Formats

* Video: DV, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2*, DivX®**, MPEG-4 (AVI)**, Windows Media Format, Non-encrypted DVD Titles**
* Audio: WAV, MP3
* Graphic: BMP, JPG, PCT, TGA, TIF, WMF

Visit manufacturer's site

Comments

5 comments, Showing 1 to 5 comments

I have much experience with working with many Pinnacle Studio programs & capture cards. Firstly I must say Pinnacle Studio have some of the worst out of sync audio problems I have seen.
During the past 10 years I have owned Pinnacle Studio 9,11,12,14 & 15. I own a Pinnacle PCI 500 & PCI 700 capture cards will only now work with Pinnacle Studio 11 & 12 on Windows 7 64bit.
If you use Pinnacle Studio PCI – 500 or PCI -700 capture cards with studio 14 or Pinnacle latest Studio 15 the capture cards on windows 7 64 bit will cause your computer to crash dump every time you try to capture any analogue video signal even when using the latest Widows 7 64 bit capture card updated drivers from Pinnacle.
Forget buying any video capture device via usb 2 or you may also suffer out of sync audio problems regardless of the brand.
My advice to any person wanting to capture any analogue video signal in mpeg 2 you must purchase a capture card with built in audio in & mpeg 2 hardware processing within the PCI capture card this will avoid any out of sync audio problems when recording video in mpeg2. There are some capture cards with inbuilt hardware mpeg 2 processing available from around $199 to $399 AU dollars.
When using Pinnacle Studio Programs with Pinnacle hardware capture cards you must continually defrag your hard drive & constantly reboot your computer & it is pot luck when you start to capture if you get out of sync or in sync audio capture when capturing in mpeg 2.
If you want to capture the best possible picture quality you must only capture in AVI uncompressed video format this will use much hard drive space depending NTSC or PAL 1 hour = 80 to 100 gigabytes of hard drive space but you get the best possible picture quality for editing and you not get the out of sync audio problems when you edit your video from AVI compressed or uncompressed formats.
Unfortunately all Pinnacle Studio programs will only capture analogue video in mpeg 2 or AVI, DVD compressed formats. Pinnacle capture AVI compressed format reduces the picture quality so severely it is better to record in mpeg 2 then you have out of sync audio problems with Pinnacle Studio software 9,11,12,14, & 15 & Pinnacle Studio capture cards.
Pinnacle Viewcast OSPREY sell other video capture cards however in my opinion their video capture cards are ridiculously over priced.
The Pinnacle Viewcast OSPREY 100 is selling for $200 this capture card looks identical to the Hauppauge capture card that sells for $49.00 Both capture cards have identical printed board layout and P.C. semiconductors are identical too.
It is a shame Pinnacle do not offer within all their studio programs to capture AVI uncompressed format & with 2tb hard drives at affordable prices Pinnacle need to update their next Pinnacle Studio software programs to enable full AVI uncompressed capture but I guess Pinnacle products are mainly made for beginners not high quality video capture or they would have allowed to capture full AVI uncompressed video format/codec within their previous studio software programs & capture cards.
Pinnacle do supply via a little program called AM capture AVI uncompressed. This program is so buggy it will not work correctly on Vista or Windows 7 32 bit or 64 bit. This little program is a piece of crap.
Pinnacle needs to produce more up to date PCI capture cards suitable to work correctly for Windows 7 32bit & 64it instead of selling in early 2012 their PCI hardware capture cards are more than 12 years old now & Pinnacle need to allow full AVI uncompressed format while capturing video from composite, Super VHS & Wire fire via their capture cards and Studio software programs.
It is my personal opinion I believe Pinnacle is a company that design software to purely generate huge amounts of profit but offer sub standard video capture cards & sub standard Pinnacle Studio software programs.
I would rate Pinnacle products 3 out of 10. In my opinion if you buy Pinnacle your just wasting your money if you want high quality video capture & not have out of sync audio problems while capturing in mpeg 2.
I am now looking at buying a H264 & HDMI capture card. I have been told Blackmagic's Intensity Pro is popular however I have read on the internet they drop the retail price down to $199 because of many issues concerning this card I cannot verify if this is true or false perhaps readers might like to comment concerning Black magic Intensity pro?
I am also looking at the Hauppauge Colossus will capture in component giving superior video quality capture compared to Super VHS video capture might be worth looking at too.

Comments posted by lamon77 from Australia, December 30, 2011:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 3 of 10.

I bought the studio 500 pci and I have used two or three times, and for me it´s ok, because I caught my 8mm to dvd, and I can edit each shot, I like the transitions that come in the package, I´m sad becuse more or less the 60 or 70% of the effects and transitions are locked and you know it´s necesary pay for them, but in general it´s ok, I had a bad experience with the pinnacle on-line store, because i din´t realize that I bought only the software in the time that I want the hardware, so i cancelled the puerchase within the time that the terms of purchase said, but I couldn´t cancel the purchase, that was a bad experience, because i spent $100 in software that I didn´t want to.

(I´m sorry for my english, I hope you understand what I´m want to tell you)

Comments posted by joe from Mexico, August 15, 2007:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

Well to the person above who posted that the card doesnt work was obviously just having problems at his end.

I bought the card, installed the drivers and software FIRST, installed the card and that was that.

Connected it up via Composite video in and was able to capture straight away. At first the quality wasn't that great, and didn't look as good as the video on the TV.

However once i invested in some high quality gold plated RCA leads the quality was much better. Audio capture is done through your soundcard, so make sure you have a good one.

Overall for the price this is a very good bit of kit, great for transferring old VHS,and also MINI-DV digitally through the handy IEEE Firewire port.

Comments posted by Simon from United Kingdom, March 08, 2007:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

I've had no problems installing and using this capture card (4 years old, P4; 1,7GHz; 768Mb internal mem.; 120Gb HD, nVidia G-force 2mx200, on board sound card) but you have to use Pinnacle software (Studio 10 came with my card). Adobe doesn't recognize the card. Studio 10 runs very slow on my PC, but I only use it to capture.

My new S-video cable didn't work, but a composite cable did, so I stopped trying and returned the S-video cable to the shop.

When capturing the picture in the picture in the smal monitor window doesn't run smoothly and the sound level indicators are a bit too slow, but the capture itself is fine. Sound is in sync with picture. Even after 2 hours capturing.

Capturing in Mpeg is not possible on my (old) PC. but AVI is possible, even in highest quality.

To test the card I captured a movie from a "perfect" master, a commercial DVD (funny, you can't copy the DVD on VHS, but there is no protection against this capture card).
When looking at the copy DVD you can see that the colours are less bright. Parts of the picture (master DVD) that are very light and show little contrast (sky, desert)show even less contrast at the copy DVD. But the copy DVD was of acceptable quality.

I use this card mainly to digitize old VHS tapes. This low-budged solution is perfect for me.

Comments posted by Steven from Netherlands, December 28, 2006:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10.

I have been trying to install this hopeless product for 2 weeks, now. I am no longer able to return it to the shop, because it has been installed.

So far I have done a total install / re-install five times.

Be warned that it also trashes any drivers from other packages, too. I am now uninstalling it completely, and giving up, in order to re-install all my video editing software. Shame on Pinnacle for releasing this to the mass market when it just DOES NOT WORK. Surprising also that Pinnacle is a known industry manufacturer, but my experience of this product now means I cannot recommend them in my job as a broadcasting technician in a large broadcasting corporation.

(Ridiculously over-specc'ed computer, Pentium 4, 1024Mb RAM, 256Mb on video card (NVidia), 1 TB of disk space!)

Comments posted by DalstonPaul from United Kingdom, May 16, 2006:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10.

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Feature
What kind of main capture features it supports
Analog VideoIn = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input
Video Card = If it is a Video Card/Graphic Card
Tv Tuner = Built-In TV-Tuner
Digital TV = Built-In Digital TV-Tuner
DV/Firewire = DV/Firewire/i.Link input
DV Converter = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input and converts to DV video
MPEG1 hardware = Capture directly MPEG1(VCD) video using hardware*
MPEG2 hardware = Capture directly MPEG2(SVCD and DVD) video using hardware*
MJPEG hardware = Capture directly to MJPEG using hardware*
MPEG4 hardware = Capture directly to MPEG4(DivX,Xvid) video using hardware*
* = Most capture cards can capture to this format using software but it usually requires a very fast computer, if it supports realtime capturing it uses the capture cards hardware and it doesn't require a very fast computer and you may get better quality but less options/settings than software capturing.

Compatibility
What Operating System our users have reported that it works on, Win95=Works ~~Win95~~=Does not work Win95?=Not tested This is user based.

Cnx = Connection
What type of connection the capture device has to the computer, PCI, AGP, USB1/1.1/2, DV or PCMCIA.

Price
The price in US dollar.

Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating.

Comment
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