The 12th version of Pinnacle’s Studio product essentially does what the first version did - allow you to edit your home video clips, adding effects along the way. The Ultimate Version differs from the cheaper alternatives with the addition of extra filters and tools, as well as a whacking great green sheet, for colour overlays.

Pros: Some of the new features - such as direct YouTube or Blu-ray export - are great additions for existing users. The basic workflow is easy to follow and logical, and some of the Ultimate pack additions, such as Boris Graffiti (for titles) and proDAD VitaScene (for lighting effects) work surprisingly well.

Cons: Ultimate might just be too much video editing power for some purposes, and not surprisingly, it will chew up system resources painfully, especially on lower-specification systems. We did still hit a few crashes, but to its credit, Studio Ultimate 12 was a lot better at recovering from them than previous versions.

Verdict: A great video editing application with a myriad of uses.