Silicon Valley-based Pinnacle Systems' Pinnacle Liquid Edition version 5.5 was released in September last year to provide a comprehensive professional editing solution, with real-time compositing, special effects and DVD authoring within a single intuitive interface.
It is part of Pinnacle Systems' Liquid product line and replaced the old Pinnacle Edition and Liquid purple systems.
The company claims that Pinnacle Liquid Edition version 5.5 is the first professional non-linear video-editing application to use both the computer microprocessor and graphics processing chip to provide more than 1,000 two-dimensional and three-dimensional effects with up to 10 real-time project setups.
Other professional features include Pinnacle's advanced CX primary and secondary colour corrector, and Dynamic slow-motion controls. It also offers background rendering so editors don't have to interrupt any creative workflow. The slow-motion feature is fabulous. It let me adjust a video clip's speed and acceleration simultaneously and view the effects in real time.
DVD authoring is timeline-based for faster content creation. With Pinnacle Liquid Edition, the DVD track appears alongside the standard audio and video tracks and enables the user to easily create and edit graphic menus directly within the Pinnacle Liquid editing environment. Sophisticated wizards and templates expedite the DVD creation process.
The Pinnacle software's ability to use network drives for media playback is also great. For environments where multiple users want to access the same media, such as in post production and broadcast facilities, this feature boosts group productivity.