Posted by Harry Kiri on 11/30/05 13:43

"TonyP" <arpierre@hooptonline.net> wrote in message
news:6DMif.14421$mM2.7706@fe09.lga...

> So, you admit you had a problem with Pinnacle in the late 90's.

Not just one problem, they were endless. I had them particularly
badly, I had to try and support those I had sold boards to - an
impossible job in the circumstances. I couldn't continue like that,
because the drivers were riddled with problems which Pinnacle, for
whatever reason, was unable to fix. So we dumped Pinnacle back at the
beginning of 2000.

> How long ago was that? Have you tried any of their new products?

Why would I do that, when another company makes far superior
products? Read what Nick had to say in his last couple of paragraphs.
He summed it up quite succinctly I think.

Start quote:

I'd wondered what "childish foul language" people in the group were
talking about, and I guess I just found the motherlode. Whew!

ANYWAY, looking at Pinnacle as a company, I'm reminded of Iomega and
their infamous 1998 experiment with cheaply-made Malaysian Jaz disks.
I fortunately escaped getting burned by that one, but I knew plenty of
people who didn't. Mistakes happen for all kinds of reasons, but a
cover-up is inexcusable: Iomega's unscrupulous denials of their error
kept people buying their disks, unaware that the products would fail
within days. I think that's criminal fraud. When I needed a Zip drive
last year, I bought it used--that company is never getting another
cent of mine. (Anyone who thinks I'm being too drastic must've never
had to explain the concept of a "bad sector" to a teary-eyed art
student at 4 a.m.)

Like Iomega, Pinnacle used underhanded tactics to make a fast buck,
without considering what it might cost them in customer loyalty. To
me, it doesn't matter whether or not their current products are any
good--I've seen too many good people lose time, money, and sanity over
the stunt that Pinnacle pulled when they bought out Miro.

I liked Miro's old product line. Back in '97, I learned Premiere 4 on
Mac Miro DC's. Although the quality was never stellar, they were as
dependable as any consumer solution got in those days. Then Pinnacle
took over and deliberately made those venerable cards obsolete. They
had us over a barrel--we needed new drivers to get the old cards to
work with Premiere 5. The ones they released were awful. Their tech
support repeatedly misrepresented the source of the problem and, time
and again, would finish by handing us straight to a salesperson, to
"trade in" perfectly functional gear for newer products we didn't
need. All so we could use a world standard program that nearly
everyone else in the industry supports as a matter of course. Sure, I
was working at a studio that could afford to throw away some extra
cash, but this was a con, pure and simple.

Like I said, the quality of Pinnacle's current products doesn't matter
to me. All I know is that we work in a medium where there are many
layers of abstraction between us, our tools, and our material. An
honest exchange of information is vital to helping us understand just
what it is we're doing.

If we end up making poor decisions about what to buy and how to use
it, we could lose a job or a client in an instant, or even place our
own personal work in danger. There are enough other choices out there
in the video arena, so I can safely say that I'm not going to
patronize any company that's proven willing--even just once--to
jeopardize a customer's art and livelihood for short-term profit.

Fuck 'em.


Nick
End quote.

It's always interesting to watch Pinnacle supporters attack and flame
those who had bad experiences - as though you had to have a character
defect if you had a problem with your Pinnacle product. Sometimes the
venom was due to a less than pleasant commercial motivation.

Some veteran posters will remember how Pinnacle was forced to action
to handle the tidal wave of complaints and calls for help in the ng.
They employed someone to monitor the ng and offer "unofficial" help in
an effort to deflect the battering the Company was taking over its
appalling drivers and software. After a while, when this didn't seem
to work very well, they changed their approach to character
assassination. People like nappy and many others who refused to keep
quiet and spoke up about the bug ridden software and shoddy treatment
they received.

Anyway, that's how they tried to keep the avalanche of criticism under
control. I am not sorry to see Pinnacle go, I believe it can only
benefit our industry. I know Avid is anything but perfect, but at
least they don't treat their customers with the same contempt that
Pinnacle historically has done.

If Avid can turn around the Pinnacle company mentality, they deserve
to do well.

Regards,
Hughy

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