That you can add as many tracks as you like and use keyframing, which is awkward at best in Studio 16 Ultimate, doesn’t make even that version suitable for professional video editing rather, they merely make it obvious that the least-expensive version is artificially hobbled. The least-expensive version lacks support for Blu-ray disc authoring, 3D file importing, Dolby 5.1-channel audio, and keyframing the middle version omits the Red Giant Filmmaker’s Toolkit and Motion Graphics toolkit and the green-screen background sheet (to aid in “keying,” or knocking out the background in a composition). The application comes in three different versions: Studio 16, which costs $60 and allows you to add up to three video and three audio tracks Studio 16 Plus, which costs $100 and allows up to 12 video and 12 audio tracks and Studio 16 Ultimate, which allows you to add an unlimited number of tracks. It looks significantly different from last year’s Pinnacle Studio 15, though it still has lots of help tools and tooltips, and Corel includes 2 hours of video instruction on the DVD it comes on. I even found “Avid” references in several places throughout the application.

But is this actually Studio 16? Not exactly it’s really version 2 of Avid Studio, a slightly higher-end application that Avid introduced last year.