Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Videospin is a free video editing application from Pinnacle that helps you build movies for places like YouTube.  Rated extremely high by PC World (and I quote, “VideoStudio is head and shoulders better than any other free video application I’ve seen”) back in February, Videospin is back with a new website to help us newbies get headed in the right direction.  The site features how-tos, user-made examples and access to basic info and faqs.

This is a good free video download to grab.  Yes, the full suite is attractive and gives you tons more options, but this will give you a taste of the bigger software Pinnacle wants to sell you.  In using the free download, I found the tools pretty simple to use.  Dragging and dropping video, images, and music was a snap.  It is very intuitive and in just a few minutes I was off and running.  I’ve used Pinnacle Studio before and these programs always seem to give my computer the “freezies” bringing everything to a screeching halt.  Videospin was no exception.

The upgraded website now features user-made content. What kind of stuff is there?  Find out after the break.

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Sections: Video, Content, Web, Downloads, Websites

Pinnacle Systems has launched two new PC TV Tuners – the PCTV HD Stick and the PCTV HD Stick Pro. Both TV Tuners provide free digital HD and SD TV over-the-air plus unencrypted digital cable through ClearQAM channels.

For $69.99, the PCTV HD Stick will give you up to 1080i resolution digital HD TV goodness as well as an analog and digital TV tuner. The PCTV HD Stick also includes the TV Pro software bundle for PVR capabilities to easily watch, time shift or record SD and HD TV programs, full-screen and scalable viewing modes and a guide for locating programs and scheduling recordings.

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Product: Pinnacle Video Transfer
Price and Availability: $129.99
Pros: Simple capture device straight to iPod or USB
Cons: Almost too simple, no timer, no brains, just start and stop.  That requires you to be around and paying attention when what you desire to capture is done.
Overall: This works fantastically well for simple transfer.  Say movies off the camcorder to iPod or to USB sticks or old VHS movies to convert to digital.  Less effective for recording TV stuff as TV outs are in short supply.
Rating: 9/10

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Pinnacle has introduced the new PCTV Nano Stick, a digital USB TV tuner. Currently being released in Europe it has “ultra-sensitive DVB-T reception technology,“ which should allow the user to pick up even the weakest TV signal. The PCTV Nano Stick comes with a remote control and the Pinnacle TV Center Pro software which allows users to record, pause or rewind live TV. The signal can be recorded in MPEG1, MPEG2 or DivX formats and can be saved on the users hard drive or recorded directly to a DVD. With only a mention of Windows Media Center compatibility we suspect that it is just Windows only. The PCTV Nano Stick is currently available and retails for £39.99 (around $78).

Via [PC Advisor]

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Transferring videos to different devices can be time consuming and frustrating to many people with no technical expertise. Good thing there is a new pocket-size device called Pinnacle Video Transfer to help us out.

It is an easy-to-use USB device which enables users to record analog videos directly to any mass storage devices including the Apple iPod, Sony PSP or USB flash drive. Just press the button and it will record from your TV, DVD player, camcorder or set-top boxes instantly, without using your PC. Moreover, converting videos is never as quick and easy, this compact device captures videos in H.264 format, the same multimedia technology used in iPods and PSPs.

For those who tons of memories captured on VHS, VHS-C or Hi8 tapes, Pinnacle Video Transfer is a practical alternative to digitize them without using expensive and complicated software or paying for editing services.

It will be available beginning January 15, 2008 on Pinnacle’s Website and other retail stores in the U.S. for a price of $130, pre-orders will begin on January 7, 2008.

Product [Pinnacle Video Transfer] Via [SlashGear]

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