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New break out box 
One of the biggest feature requests I've heard for the past year and a half is for a FireWire jack on the Break Out Box (BOB). The DV500 DVD has a new BOB that has it! No more climbing under the table and searching for the FireWire jack on the back of the card. Now you can just plug your DV camcorder right into the BOB sitting neatly on your desktop. Even cooler, there is a little LED light in the “P” of the Pinnacle logo that glows whenever you have an active FireWire device attached.
Proven technology
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The DV500 has been getting rave reviews since it first shipped. Check out our two earlier hands on reviews for even more great info!
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This is one of the hidden strengths of the DV500 capture card - it will run great on just about any computer you can find. The minimum CPU speed is a lowly Pentium III or Athlon at 600 Ghz. and it supports a wide range of Windows operating systems including Win98se, ME, 2000 and XP!! So even if you don't have a screaming fast new computer, you can still get fantastic real-time NLE performance and top notch DVD production!
Optimized for DVD
Pinnacle has added four new features to the bundle that makes this new bundle fully optimized for DVD production:
TurboMPEG Export allows you to export MPEG files directly from the Premiere timeline for DVD authoring. If you're going to make your own DVDs, this is a very important and powerful tool. The quality of the exported MPEG video is superb and it is very fast. On my 1Ghz machine it took about 15 minutes to export a 10-minute timeline. On faster 2Ghz machine you should be able to export the same 10-minute timeline in about 12 minutes.
The MPEG2 import allows you to bring MPEG2 footage back into Premiere and edit it. I find this tool very handy. Sometimes I'll export to DVD and then realize that I want to make a few small changes to the video. Before I had to go back into Premiere and re-export the entire timeline. Even better, the intelligent rendering means that only the portions of the video that have changed gets re-rendered.
The T-Rex file converter lets you convert your DV files into MPEG or vice versa. You can select from MPEG1 VCD, MPEG2 for SVCD or MPEG2 DVD for your output files. This is a very handy tool that will be especially valuable to those of you who have been messing around with VCD and SVCD over the past year.
Finally, the DV500 DVD includes the new 2.21 version of Impressions DVD SE. This new version allows you to burn directly to the Pioneer DVR-A03 or A04 DVD burner, as well as the Panasonic LF-D311 and HP +RW burners. It also allows you to make a DVD with up to 10 menus. For me, the features in SE are a bit limited. Those of you interested in serious DVD authoring will want to upgrade to the new Impressions DVD Pro 2.2, which adds chapter points, motion menus, unlimited menus, 8 audio tracks and 2 camera angles.
Real-Time Scene Cutter 
This is has got to be the best new NLE productivity tools I've ever used. It will save you HOURS of time spent capturing video. DV tools is still great for automated batch capturing, but with disk space so cheap now, this is the way to go. How it works is as follows. You digitize your entire video onto your hard drive as one big file and add it tot the Premiere timeline. Then you run it through the Real-Time Scene Cutter. It automatically looks for breaks in the DV time code and splits up the video for you. And it does this really fast - I loaded in a 30 minute clip and Scene Cutter analyzed it and split it up into over 200 clips in less than 5 minutes!! Each scene is represented as a thumbnail in the Premiere Storyboard editor. Now you can go in and trim, re-arrange and delete scenes. Then you can just click the mouse to export the storyboard to the Premiere timeline or play it directly from the storyboard back out to DV. This feature works great and I figure it will save me well over an hour on a typical 30-minute home video productions. Event videographers will find they save even more time!!
Same great DV500 performance
As important as what is new in the DV500 DVD is what still stays the same. You can capture and edit both analog and DV footage. You can attach your TV monitor to the analog output of the BOB to view all your work in real-time while you edit. Pinnacle's DV2 CODEC is very fast and the more CPU power you give it (including dual CPU support), the faster your final export to DV will be.
You still get the full Adobe Premiere 6.0 with excellent integration including the real-time audio mixer; Real-time Image Correction filters for changing hue, contrast and brightness controls; and speed controls. Plus you get a rich bundle of Pinnacle's plug-in software that gives you even more tools for polishing up your video and giving it Pizzaz. You get TitleDeko RT for adding broadcast quality titles; Alpha Magic with over 400 real-time gradient transitions and Hollywood FX Copper with 100 animated 3D transitions.
The DV500 DVD is much more then a new and improved bundle. With the additional DVD tools and real-time scene cutter it is an excellent solution for non-linear editing and DVD production. Add in the cool new break out box with FireWire on board and you've got an exciting new product that offers a tremendous value. If you've been editing video with one of the lesser featured and lower cost NLE products and you find yourself wanting more, the DV500 DVD is my recommendation for you. You'll get a top-notch real-time NLE solution, loaded with powerful software including Adobe Premiere and a suite of DVD production tools including Impressions DVD authoring software.
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