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I’ve been reviewing software for PCMag since 2008, and I still get a kick of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft win and misstep up to the latest Windows 11. Read Full Bio Updated February 11, 2013 facebook (Opens in a new window) twitter (Opens in a new window) flipboard (Opens in a new window) social share Flipboard (Opens in a new window) Pinterest (Opens in a new window) Reddit (Opens in a new window) LinkedIn (Opens in a new window) Email (Opens in a new window) Copied Error! Copy Link https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/pinnacle-studio-20-for-ipad Comments 4.5 Outstanding The Bottom Line It may lack iMovie's nifty trailers feature, but Pinnacle Studio for iPad replaces Avid Studio as the most powerful and easy-to-use video editing app for the iPad. MSRP $12.99 $2.99 at Apple.com See It (Opens in a new window) PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. Pros Clearest iPad interface for editing video. Sophisticated video montage capabilities. Many fonts for text titles. Easy full-screen viewing. Shares directly to YouTube, Facebook, email, and Pinnacle desktop software for more advanced editing. 1080p output. Cons Edits often require time-consuming rendering. Rotating video not straightforward. Requires rendering during editing. No free upgrade for Avid Studio app users. With Corel's purchase of the Pinnacle video editing software assets from Avid last summer, my Editors' Choice iPad video editing app, Avid Studio, is no longer supported. The good news, however, is that the app has been reborn as Pinnacle Studio for iPad. Unfortunately, existing Avid Studio users don't get a free update to Pinnacle Studio, even though it's essentially the same app. To add insult to injury, what was a $4.99 app is now $12.99. That doesn't take away the fact that it's the best, most powerful, and easiest to use iPad video editor around. And this version is even better than its forbear in several ways, among them 1080p output and a voiceover feature. Setup and Interface Users of first-generation iPads need not apply, as Pinnacle only runs on iPad 2 or later. The app's 57.3MB is large by iOS app standards, but much smaller than Apple's iMovie for iPad ($4.99, 3.5 stars), which takes up a massive 496MB. You Can Trust Our Reviews Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. (Read our editorial mission(Opens in a new window) & see how we test everything we review(Opens in a new window).) When you first start Pinnacle Studio, you'll see its attractive movie-film-styled home screen, from which you can start, open, share, or delete movie projects. You can also access help from here (and only here), and set default durations for titles, transitions, and photos you add to movies. Once you open or start a project, you'll see the standard three-panel video editing interface, with source tray and preview window on the top, and a storyboard and timeline across the bottom. To add a clip to your movie timeline, you drag its thumbnail down from the source panel down to either the storyboard or timeline. You get just one video track but up to three audio tracks. Pinnacle's toolbar along the left makes common editing options obvious, with buttons for the clips, images, sound, transitions, montages, and text. A record button lets you start recording new video from the iPad's camera. Pinnacle Studio rearranges the display nicely when you switch from portrait to landscape orientation. It nearly fills the top half of the screen with the project video preview, and you can pinch and unpinch to contract and expand the timeline. Neither Pinnacle nor iMovie for iPad lets you resize the interface panels, but Pinnacle does let you view projects in full screen right from the editing area, while iMovie makes you go back to the home project page. For icing on the cake, Pinnacle displays the current frame's time code at the top, though this is probably not of interest to the average iPad video editing enthusiast. For some interface actions, Pinnacle Studio is more intuitive than iMovie. For example, Pinnacle's garbage can icon makes it clearer how to remove a clip, and its razor icon is more intuitive than iMovie's swiping down to split a clip. Pinnacle also shows both storyboard and timeline view, while iMovie only shows its hybrid thumbnail-timeline view—unless you hold your finger down on a clip's entry, when it changes into a movable storyboard thumbnail. Pinnacle's way makes arranging clips much easier. A couple of minor annoyances, however, detract from Pinnacle Studio's appeal: in order to see a lot of the effects you apply in action, you have to wait for a sometimes lengthy rendering process, and when opening a project, you'll often be asked to rebuild its media library. These operations usually took about half a minute on my 3rd generation iPad; users of the newer model make experience shorter wait times. Fortunately, the rebuild library message doesn't appear every time you open a project, and I encountered no crashes during editing in the new app. Basic Editing Pinnacle makes it easy to trim and split clips. You simply tap the clip you want to edit in the timeline (or its storyboard thumbnail), and drag a handle at the bottom in the direction you want to trim. Double clicking the edit point in the timeline brings up the precision editor. Here, you can actually specify the number of frames to move the edit left or right. The edits are of the "ripple" type, meaning you don’t have to worry about empty holes in your timeline—all the clips move to fill the space. GET MORE IPAD APP COVERAGE: 100 Best iPad Apps 10 iPad Apps Everyone Should Have 75 Best iPad Games iPad Apps Product Guide Pinnacle adds a bunch more transition options over its Avid forebear. Applying transitions to your movie is a simple matter of hitting the lightning icon and choosing from the four dissolve and 12 push styles. Apple iMovie restricts you a cross dissolve or to an (often goofy) "theme transition", but a third app, ReelDirector ($1.99, 2.5 stars) offers the most transition options, with various versions of flash, blur, push, and wipe added to the two basic ones offered by Pinnacle. When it comes to sound, Pinnacle and iMovie are pretty close, and it now joins Apple's editor and ReelDirector with the ability to record voice-overs. The microphone icons starts up the voiceover tool, with 3-2-1 countdown beeps. After you've recorded, Pinnacle lets you adjust the voice-over volume and fade it in and out—just as it lets you do with all other sound tracks. Pinnacle and Apple also offer sound effects such as applause, barking dogs, birds, even bear growls! And both apps show you audio waveforms below your clips in the timeline. Advanced Video Editing, Output, Performance Advanced Enhancing Pinnacle Studio's sophisticated montage capability really sets it apart from competing iPad video editing apps. You can simply drag one clip's storyboard tile on top of another, choose Picture-in-Picture to overlay it, and then pinch to resize and rotate the resulting montage. Unfortunately, this is the only way to rotate video, with no simple 90-degree choice. Pinnacle also supplies 15 presets (available from the Montage button next to the source panel) that can animate the overlaid video(s); some also add artistic backgrounds. Each montage preset demos what it does in the preview window when you click on it. The one downside to this standout capability is that, in order to see the effect on your video, you have to render it by hitting the gear icon, which can take several minutes for even basic montages. Text is another strong point for Pinnacle, with a lot more font choices than iMovie for iPad. You can choose from over a hundred typefaces, change the size and color, and even tilt the title or caption. But again, you'll have to wait for rendering to see your results. Output and Sharing I liked how I could output or share my Pinnacle movie directly from the editing page, rather than having to go back to the project page as I had to in iMovie. Thankfully one important output limitation has been removed: you can now export full 1080p high-def videos, just like you can with Apple iMovie for iPad. Pinnacle Studio lets you not only save your creation to a local video file, but you can directly upload to Facebook, YouTube, Box, and Vimeo. The uploader looks good, takes the video name from your project title, and lets you decide whether the video will be public or private. You can also save your project for use on the desktop version of Pinnacle Studio, via Box, iTunes, or iCloud. GET MORE IPAD APP COVERAGE: 100 Best iPad Apps 10 iPad Apps Everyone Should Have 75 Best iPad Games iPad Apps Product Guide Performance In general Pinnacle Studio didn't feel quite as snappy as iMovie, perhaps the result of its need to render to display some effects. And a video rendering test on my iPad 3 showed Apple's video editor to be faster: My simple 23 second test movie with just two clips and one cross-dissolve transition took Pinnacle Studio 44 seconds to output to 1080p, compared with iMovie's 58 seconds. But both of these vastly outperformed ReelDirector, which took over 5 minutes to complete this simple rendering operation. The Pinnacle of iPad Video Editing? Pinnacle Studio may be the most powerful iPad video out there, and it's surprisingly easy to use. Many will likely prefer iMovie's themes and impressive trailer creation, but Pinnacle leaves you on your own when it comes to creating a feel for your movie. If you want prefab options that restrict you but are guaranteed to produce a respectable result, Apple's iMovie is for you. But if you want the most control, power, and ease-of-use in your iPad video editing project, Pinnacle Studio is the way to go, which is why it's our Editors' Choice. Read more iPad app reviews: Space Images (for iPad) Google Currents (for iPad) Mailbox (for iPad) Stellarium Mobile (for iPad) Marvel Unlimited (for iPad) more Pinnacle Studio 2.0 (for iPad) 4.5 Editors' Choice (Opens in a new window) See It $2.99 at Apple.com (Opens in a new window) MSRP $12.99 Pros Clearest iPad interface for editing video. Sophisticated video montage capabilities. Many fonts for text titles. Easy full-screen viewing. Shares directly to YouTube, Facebook, email, and Pinnacle desktop software for more advanced editing. 1080p output. View More Cons Edits often require time-consuming rendering. Rotating video not straightforward. Requires rendering during editing. No free upgrade for Avid Studio app users. View More The Bottom Line It may lack iMovie's nifty trailers feature, but Pinnacle Studio for iPad replaces Avid Studio as the most powerful and easy-to-use video editing app for the iPad. Apple Fan? Sign up for our Weekly Apple Brief for the latest news, reviews, tips, and more delivered right to your inbox. Email Sign Up This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. Thanks for signing up! Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox! Sign up for other newsletters Advertisement Dig Deeper With Related Stories The 10 Best Board Game Apps for the iPad By Daniel Starkey The Best iPad Apps for 2022 By Jeffrey L. Wilson & Jordan Minor How to Use Your iPad as a Second Monitor on Any Computer By Whitson Gordon How to Add Custom Icons and Widgets to Your iPhone Home Screen By Michael Muchmore PCMag Stories You’ll Like {X-html Replaced} Editors' Choice About Michael Muchmore PC hardware is nice, but it’s not much use without innovative software. I’ve been reviewing software for PCMag since 2008, and I still get a kick of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft win and misstep up to the latest Windows 11. Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech, and before that I headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team, but I’m happy to be back in the more accessible realm of consumer software. I’ve attended trade shows of Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products. I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler—I’ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds! Because I’m also a classical fan and former performer, I’ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music. Read Michael's full bio Read the latest from Michael Muchmore Adobe Photoshop Review Google Photos Review ACDSee Luxea Video Editor Review Microsoft Windows 11 Review Walgreens Photo Review More from Michael Muchmore PC Magazine Digital Edition (Opens in a new window) PC Magazine Digital Edition Read Great Stories Offline on Your Favorite Device! 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About Ziff Davis(Opens in a new window) Privacy Policy(Opens in a new window) Terms of Use(Opens in a new window) Advertise(Opens in a new window) Accessibility(Opens in a new window) Do Not Sell My Personal Information(Opens in a new window) AdChoices (Opens in a new window) truste logo (Opens in a new window) (Opens in a new window) Ziffmedia Logo (Opens in a new window) Askmen Logo (Opens in a new window) Extremetech Logo (Opens in a new window) ING Logo (Opens in a new window) Mashable Logo (Opens in a new window) Offers Logo (Opens in a new window) RetailMeNot Logo (Opens in a new window) Speedtest Logo Table of Contents Pinnacle Studio 2.0 (for iPad) $2.99 at Apple.com Pinnacle Studio 2.0 (for iPad) $2.99 at Apple.com See It (Opens in a new window) Return to The Top Advanced Video Editing, Output, Performance