Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Plus and Studio 10.5 Plus Titanium Edition: everything you need to capture, edit and share your video.(HARDWARE REVIEW)

Pinnacle is back! Not that it was ever really gone, but there was a hiatus after Avid acquired Pinnacle in early 2005, and then Avid figured out how to integrate Pinnacle's professional broadcast products with their product line. And now Pinnacle is refocused as the consumer brand, particularly with a strong presence at retail.

There's the flagship Pinnacle Studio home video editing software, plus Studio bundled with video capture hardware. And the affordable Dazzle hardware for easy video archiving, editing, and television viewing, plus the PCTV line to watch, record and time-shift TV onto a PC. Pinnacle has also added a Mobile Media line for place-shifting--managing and moving videos, photos and music to portable devices, including the Apple iPod, Sony PSP, and DivX devices.

STUDIO MOVIEBOX PLUS

The Pinnacle Studio software is available as a stand-alone, or bundled with video capture hardware--both PCI boards and external USB break-out boxes. The Studio MovieBox is the USB version--a palm-sized external device with analog and digital connectors, easy to connect to a desktop or laptop PC, especially for analog capture.

The MovieBox has inputs for composite video (RCA connector), S-Video, and stereo audio (2 RCA) for NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. There's also a FireWire in/out connector for hooking up a DV camcorder, and the USB connector to the PC.

Studio MovieBox Plus is the enhanced bundle. This adds video and audio output connectors on the back side of the box, especially to connect to a TV for real-time preview of your edits. It also upgrades the software to support HDV editing with Studio Plus Titanium Edition.

Then for studio and videocast productions, Pinnacle also adds a professional handheld microphone with a small table stand for narration and interviews, plus a 10 feet x 12 feet …