Nice Integration With Premiere 6, Great Software Bundle -- a Great Deal for $700

Pinnacle's DV500 Plus uses the same hardware as DV500 with some new software and drivers thrown in, notably Adobe Premiere 6.0.

If you like Pinnacle's DV500, you're really going to like the newest version of the DV editing hardware and software package, DV500 Plus. The Plus version is a software upgrade; the hardware is exactly the same as the DV500, so if you have the DV500, I'd suggest you upgrade right now to the newest version. The upgrade price is right -- for $150 you get an upgrade to Premiere 6 along with the DV500 software driver update. If you already have Premiere 6, or want to stick with Premiere 5.1 (why would you do that?) the DV500 Plus driver update can be downloaded for free from the Pinnacle Web site. The DV500 Plus's main claim to fame is that it now works with Adobe Premiere 6. An equally strong selling point is that it's capable of "real time, when it counts." That is a conditionally true statement, depending on what counts for you. If you don't mind rendering 3D effects or rendering when you lay your segments back to DV, it's true.

Along with the full version of Premiere 6, also included in the box is Hollywood FX Copper and Alpha Magic, Cleaner EZ, DVTools, TitleDeko RT, Smart Sound Quicktracks, and a Total Training Introduction to Premiere 6. The bottom line is, for $700 you get a lot for your nonlinear editing dollar with the DV500 Plus. Gone is the Pixelan Spice Rack effects package, but in its place is Hollywood FX Copper and Alpha Magic. The Alpha Magic package offers hundreds more effects than the old Spice Rack, so you come out ahead with this new bundle. Hollywood FX Copper is a fine collection of transitions that mix 3D objects with transitions, making for a batch of fun effects that you may not use that often, but if you do, your viewers will be amused. Too bad Pinnacle thinks it's OK to put advertisements in the middle of the software, urging you to upgrade. I think this ploy is nothing but sleazy.

Hollywood FX Copper adds lots of great-looking transitions to Premiere, like this 3D stopwatch with the next video mapped to its face. What you can't see in this graphic is the hoary advertising at the bottom of this dialog box. Boo! Hiss!

But there's nothing sleazy about another software package included with DV500, TitleDeko RT. I've been using Pinnacle's FXDeko in a broadcast environment for the past two years, and have had a chance to get used to its power and performance. So I was understandably delighted to see it included with this system. It's easy to use, flexible, powerful and comes with lots of canned text styles, all of which I'd be proud to use on a professional production. Best of all, it works in real time. The only difference I could see between it and the FX Deko is that FX Deko can animate text in a number of ways, many in 3D.

Next Page: Real Time 3D Effects? Nope.