Pinnacle Studio 9 manual

Pinnacle S tudio 9 Including S tudio SE, S tudio QuickS tart, S tudio S tandar d and S tudio Plus Easy, MORE Powerful, MORE Creative Video Editing[...]

ii Pinnacle Studio 9 Special thanks to Mike Iampietro, William Chien, Richard Edgley, Ivan Maltz, Jon McGowan, Keith Thomson, Jörg Weselmann, and Chris Zamara. Documentation: Nick Sullivan Copyright © 1996-2004 Pinnacle Systems, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. You agree not to remove any product identification or notices of the prope[...]

Table of contents iii Table of contents BEFORE YO U START .................................................. XI Equipment requ irements ......................................................................... xi Abbreviations and conventions............................................................. xiv On-line help .............................[...]

iv Pinnacle Studio 9 Digital capture .......................................................................................... 26 SmartCapture: Previe w-quality capture ................................................. 27 Full-quality capture................................................................................ 29 Audio and video leve ls[...]

Table of contents v CHAPTER 5: VI DEO CLIPS ........................................ 73 Video clip basics ....................................................................................... 74 Adding video clips to y our movie ......................................................... 74 Working with multiple capture files ......................[...]

vi Pinnacle Studio 9 Fun effects ............................................................................................... 109 Lens flare ............................................................................................. 110 Noise .................................................................................................... 1[...]

Table of contents vii CHAPTER 9: DI SC MENUS....................................... 161 Disc authoring in Studio ...................................................................... 163 Using menus f rom the Album.............................................................. 165 The DVD Player Control .............................................[...]

viii Pinnacle Studio 9 Audio effec ts............................................................................................ 220 Noise reduction.................................................................................... 221 Equalizer .............................................................................................. 223 Gru[...]

Table of contents ix APPENDIX C: TRO UBLESHOOT ING ....................... 285 Technical help on-line ............................................................................ 286 Studio crashe s in Edit mode ................................................................ 289 Capture error occurs on starting ca pture ...........................[...]

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Before you start xi Before you start Thank you for purchasing Pinnacle Studio. We hope you enjoy using the software. This manual covers all ve rsions of Studio, including Studio Plus. Differences between version s will be noted as applicable. Most of the time, the word “Studio” will be used generica lly to refer to all versions. If you have not[...]

xii Pinnacle Studio 9 • Microsoft Windows 98 SE, W indows “Millennium”, Windows 2000 or Windows XP (recomm ended). The MicroMV digital video format is supported only under Windows XP. • Graphics card compatible with DirectX 9 (ATI Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce2 or higher recommended) • Sound card compatible with DirectX 9 • Audio system with[...]

Before you start xiii If disk space is a concern with your DV captures, use SmartCapture to capture your video at preview quality (see “SmartCapture: Preview-quality capture” o n page 27). This feature uses much less disk space. An entire tape can fit in as little as 360 MB. Tip: We recommend using a separate hard dri ve dedicated to video capt[...]

xiv Pinnacle Studio 9 Abbreviations and conventions This guide uses the following conventions to help organize the material. Terminology Studio: “Studio” and “Studio Plus” refer to th e editing software. DV: The term “DV” refers to DV and Digital8 camcorders, VCRs and tapes. 1394: The term “1394” refers to OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394, [...]

Before you start xv Keyboard conventions Key names are spelled with an initial capital and are underlined. A plus sign denotes a key combination. For example: Press Ctrl+A to select all the clips o n the Timeline. Mouse clicks When a mouse click is require d, the default is always a left-click unless otherwise specified: Right-click and select Go t[...]

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Chapter 1: Using Studio 1 CHAPTER 1: Using Studio Creating movies with Studio is a three-step process: 1. Capture: Import source video material – your “raw footage” – to your PC hard drive. Possible sources include analog videotape (8 mm, VHS etc.), digital videotape (DV, Digital8), and live video from a video camera, camcorder or webcam . [...]

2 Pinnacle Studio 9 Setting the mode Select which step of th e movie-making process you want to work on by clicking one of the three mode buttons at the top left of the Studio window: When you switch modes, the Studio screen changes to display the controls n eeded for the new mode. Undo, Redo, Help and Unlock The Undo, Redo, Help and Unlock buttons[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 3[...]

4 Pinnacle Studio 9 Setting options Most options in Studio ar e set using two tabbed dialog boxes. The first lets you control opt ions related to Capture mode and Edit mode. It has four tabs: The other dialog box is concerned with options relating to Make Movie mode. It has six tabs, one for each of the six movie output types: Each panel of both di[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 5  E DIT MODE Studio opens in Edit mode ea ch time it is launched, because that is the mode you use most often. Th e Edit mode display includes three main areas. The Album stores resources you will use in your movies, including your captured video scenes. The Movie Window is where you create your edited movie by arranging[...]

6 Pinnacle Studio 9 See Chapter 3: The Album and Chapter 4: The Movie Window for detailed information on those topics. The Player The Player displays a preview of your edited movie, or of the item currently se lected in the Album. It consists of two main areas: a preview window and playback controls . The preview window displays video images. The p[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 7 for previewing your DVD, VCD or S-VCD disc productions, including menu interaction. The preview window This is a point of focus in Studio because you use it so often, especially for previewi ng your movie. It can also be used to display: • Any type of Album content. • Still images or titles from your m ovie. • Change[...]

8 Pinnacle Studio 9 The DVD toggle button Switch between the two playback modes with the DVD toggle button at the bottom right-hand corner of the Player. This button is only available when your edited movie contai ns at least one menu. Playback controls The Player presents either of two sets of playback controls depending on the playback mode you c[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 9 Fast reverse, Fast forward: These buttons let you preview your movie at two, four or ten times the normal speed, in either direction. Use them to scan for a particular pi ece of video you want to work with. Click the buttons repeatedly to loop through the speed factors. Go to beginning: This button halts playback and skips[...]

10 Pinnacle Studio 9 The counter The counter displays the current playback position in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. You can directly modify the counter fields to select an exact frame to view or at which to start playback. Simply click on the number you wish to change and type a new value. To move to a different field, click again or use the[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 11 Further editing topics Please see the following for details on specific editing topics: • Chapter 5: Video clips • Chapter 6: Two-track editing with Studio Plus • Chapter 8: Transitions • Chapter 8: Still images • Chapter 9: Disc menus • Chapter 10: The Title Editor • Chapter 11: Sound effects and music Expa[...]

12 Pinnacle Studio 9 symbolized by a small padlock symbol in the top-left corner of the icon. Such item s can be upgraded by purchasing an unlocking code called an activation key . Each key unlocks a small group or theme pack of related content. Additional items of locked content will be provided for download as they become available. These item s [...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 13 when seen in the Audio effects tool and the Video effects tool, would let you unloc k a pack of audio or video filters. Here, the “Bravo Studio Pack 2” page is open in the Video Effects tool. The Unlock Effect Pack button could now be used to unlock the effects in this se t. Similar buttons in the Album let you purcha[...]

14 Pinnacle Studio 9 The licensing mechanism employs two distinct but mutually related codes: • An activation key for each premium content item you purchase • Your Passport , which is a number generated the first time you install Studio on your computer. You can view your Passport by selecting the Help ¾ My Passport menu command. Because the P[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 15 CHAPTER 2: Capturing video Capture is the process of importing video from a video source such as a camcorder to a file on your PC’s hard drive. Clips from this “capture file” can then be used in Studio as ingredients of your edited movies. You can open capture files into the Album in Studio’s Edit mode (see Cha[...]

16 Pinnacle Studio 9 This opens the Capture mode interface, enabling you to set up and carry out video capture. The details of the interface are somewhat different for analog than for digital video sources. Topics in this chapter • “The Capture mode interface” (below) introduces the controls and displays for both analog and digital captures. [...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 17  T HE C APTURE MODE INTERFACE The tools and controls you see in Capture mode are different depending on whether your capture hardware is digital or analog. Digital capture If your video source is di gital, your Capture mode screen will look like this: The Album, at the top left of the screen, displays icons represen[...]

18 Pinnacle Studio 9 The Camcorder Controller, at bottom left, provides a tape counter display and a se t of transport controls for operating the playback device. Finally, the Diskometer, at bottom right, displays the capture space remaining on the drive. It also pro vides the Start Capture button and buttons for setting capture options. The Diskom[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 19 The Diskometer The Diskometer displays, both numerically and graphically, the amount of space available on your capture drive. It also indicates the ap proximate duration of video that can be accommodated, which depends on both the available spac e and the configured capture quality . Capture quality settings are selec[...]

20 Pinnacle Studio 9 Setting the capture directory: To save captured video to a different location, click the file folder button . This displays the Select Fo lder And Default Na me For Captured Video dialog. The folder you assign will be used to store captured vide o during this and future sessions. The file name you enter will be offered as the d[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 21  T HE CAPTURE PROCESS Studio lets you capture video from a variety of analog and digital hardware types. Choose the device you wish to use on the Capture source options panel. See “Capture hardware” (below ) for more inform ation. Performing the actual capture is a straightforward step- by-step procedure (see pa[...]

22 Pinnacle Studio 9 Availability: Capturing video from Micr oMV camcorders is supported only under Windows XP. Pinnacle Systems offers a com plete line of DV, analog, and combination capture boards and devices. For more information see your dealer or visit our web-site: www.pinna clesys.com To select a capture device: 1. Click the Setup ¾ Capture[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 23 Capture step-by-step Here is a step-by-step outline of the capture process. The instructions apply to both digital and analog captures, with differences noted as required. Further information relating to some of the steps can be found elsewhere in this chapter. Also see Appendix A: Setup Options (page 247) for detailed[...]

24 Pinnacle Studio 9 you may choose to make your full-quality capture in MPEG rather than DV format. For an analog capture, keep in mind that the higher the quality setting, the larg er will b e your captured video file. See “Digital capture” (page 26) and “Analog capture” (page 32) for further explanation of these options. 4. Click the Sta[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 25 drive (unless you have unchecked Capture preview on the Capture source options panel). During capture, Studio performs automatic scene detection based on the current setting in the Capture source options panel. 8. Click the Stop capture button to end capture at a point you select. Studio automatically stops capturing i[...]

26 Pinnacle Studio 9 a DV source. Studio monitors the time stamp data on the tape during capture, and starts a new scene whenever a discontinuity is found. • Automatic based on video content: Studio detects changes in the video content, and creates a new scene wherever there is a large change in the images. This feature might not work well if the[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 27 Capture) and full quality. At full quality, two types of encoding are availa ble: DV and MPEG. The two DV capture quality choices are covered in detail in the following pages. This section concludes with a note on adjusting audio and video levels in digital captures (pag e 31). Note: If you are using a MicroMV camcorde[...]

28 Pinnacle Studio 9 quality, automatically control ling your source deck to locate and capture the footage. The reduced quality of the preview video the ref ore has no impact on the quality of your finished movie. Scenes cap tured at preview quality are den oted in the Album by a dotted border. Continuous timecode For the greatest convenience in u[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 29 the captures “vacation-picnic”, “vacation-sailing” and “vacation-soccer”. Because St udio processes th e files in alphabetical order when recapturing, following this convention will greatly reduce the number of tim es you have to switch tapes duri ng the Make Tape process. Analog tapes and Digital8 camcorde[...]

30 Pinnacle Studio 9 An MPEG movie requires mu ch less disk space than the equivalent full-quality DV movie, although thanks to SmartCapture this is no t generally a concern. DV DV is a high-resolution form at with correspondingly high storage requirements. Your camcorder compresses and stores video on the tape at 3.6 MB/s, at a quality equivalent [...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 31 VCDs. MPEGs intended for use on the Interne t will be at lower resolutions and in MPEG-1 form at. The Capture format options panel ( Setup ¾ Capture Format ) includes a variety of options to control the quality of MPEG captures. Refer to “Capture form at settings” on page 252 for detailed information about MPEG qu[...]

32 Pinnacle Studio 9  A NALOG CAPTURE The topics in this section re late to capture with analog equipment, such as: • A camcorder or VCR with analog outputs connected to a DirectShow-compatib le capture board or external device. • A USB video camera or webcam. If you are using a DV or MicroMV camcorder connected to your computer via a 1394 p[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 33 Audio and video levels – analog Studio provides fly-out panels for controlling video and audio levels during capture. This feature is especially useful when you need to compensate for differences in video captured from multiple sources. Video (L) and audio (R) panels for setting levels during analog capture. Although[...]

34 Pinnacle Studio 9 brightness (video gain), contrast (black level), sharpness, hue and color sa turation of the incom ing video. Note: The Hue slider does not appear when capturing from PAL equipment. Audio Use the Audio capture buttons to control whether Studio should capture the audio along with the video. Select the Off button if your source i[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 35 CHAPTER 3: The Album The Video Scenes section of the Album. Click the tabs down the left side of the Album to access the materials in the other sections. The source materials you n eed for making a movie are stored in the various secti ons of the Album, each of which is accessed by its own tab as follows: Video Scenes: This [...]

36 Pinnacle Studio 9 including the elaborate Holly wood FX transitions. To use a transition, pos ition it next to or between video clips and graphics in th e Movie Window. See “The Transitions section”, page 50. Titles: This section contains editable titles, which you can use as overlays or as full-screen graphics. You can create your own title[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 37 All types of Album content can be previewed simply by clicking on the icons. This chapter introduces each of the Album sections in turn, beginning with a detailed discussion of the all- important Video Scenes sec tion. Actually us ing the contents of the Album to create your edited movie will be the subject of chapters 4 thr[...]

38 Pinnacle Studio 9 The source folder for the section’s content is listed at the top of the left Album page, next to a small Folder button . To change the source of the current section, either select a folder from the dropdown or list, or click the button, browse to anot her folder on your system, and select any file. The file you select will be[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 39 • Scenes that have been added to the Movie Window are distinguished in the Album by a green checkmark. The checkmark remains as long as any clip in the Movie Window or iginates with that scene. • To see how a particular Al bum scene is used in your current project, use the Album ¾ Find Scene in Project menu command. Stu[...]

40 Pinnacle Studio 9 Opening a captured video file The default locations for your video files are the Windows default capture f older and the My videos folder. When you are viewing the folder conten ts page of the Video Scenes section, both of these locations always appear on the dropdown list at the top of the Album. You can also choose other hard[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 41 Opening a folder The folder contents page is displayed whenever you choose a new folder. It lists both the subfolders and the digital video files within the folder yo u chose: Three ways to open a folder: • Select the folder name on the dropdown list on the folder contents page. • Select a folder listed on the folder con[...]

42 Pinnacle Studio 9 Scene detection and thumbnails The Album now fills with the detected scene s from your captured video (see “Scen e detection” on page 25). Each scene is denoted by a thumbnail fram e – an icon of the scene’s first frame. It may be that the first fram e doesn’t make a good icon for the scene, so Studio lets you pick a [...]

Chapter 3: The Album 43 Viewing captured video Individual or multiple scenes in the open captured video file can be viewed at any time. To view captured video star ting at a selected scene: 1. Click on the scene’s icon in the Album . The Player displays the fi rst frame of the selected scene. 2. Click the Play button in the Player. The Player now[...]

44 Pinnacle Studio 9 preview the video without actually opening the file into the Album. You can even select multiple files for playback using standard selection techniques. Selecting scenes and files Studio offers a variety of wa ys to select scenes and other items in the Video Scenes section of the Album. Selected video scenes are indicated by a [...]

Chapter 3: The Album 45 • Ctrl -click to add or remove individual items from the selection. • Starting with the mouse poi nter over a blank area of the Album page, click and drag to “marquee” an area, selecting all the items that inte rsect the area. • Use the arrow keys to navi gate the Album grid. Use the arrows in combination with Shif[...]

46 Pinnacle Studio 9 Comment view In the default view f or th e Video Scenes section, known as Scene view , each scene is represented by a thumbnail frame icon. To see m ore information about each scene, use the Album ¾ Comment View menu command. In comment view, editable captions are displayed for Album scenes. The usage of th ese captions is up [...]

Chapter 3: The Album 47 Enter a keyword into the text field and click OK to highlight all Album scenes whose caption contains the keyword. The default captions are not searched – only the ones you have customized. Combining and subdividing scenes After previewing your scen es, you might want to combine or subdivide some in to larger or smaller un[...]

48 Pinnacle Studio 9 Several selected scenes (b lack) are merged into two longer scenes. Having no neighbors, scene 4 is unaffected, even though it was part of the selection. To subdivide scenes in the Album: 1. Select the scenes to be subdivided. 2. Select Album ¾ Subdivide Scenes . The Subdivide Selected S cenes dialog box appears. 3. Choose the[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 49 You can subdivide these s cenes still fu rther, if desired, down to the minimum duration of one second. Three selected scenes are subdivided to a duration of five seconds. The vertical stripes indica te five- second divisions within each scene. The uneven clip timings at right occur because time le ft after subdivision is ad[...]

50 Pinnacle Studio 9 To redetect scenes: If you need to recombine a ny scenes, first select the subdivided scenes, then apply the Album ¾ Combine Scenes menu command. 1. Select the scenes you wish to redetect. 2. From the Album menu, select either Detect Scenes by Video Content or Detect Scenes by Shooting Time and Date . A progress window appears[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 51 Studio’s transitions collection includes 74 standard transitions, 52 Alpha Magic transitions, 16 unre stricted Hollywood FX 3-D transi tions, and many m ore “locked” Hollywood FX transitions (with a padlock symbol in the top-left corner of the transition icon). Using the locked transitions These demo transitions are fr[...]

52 Pinnacle Studio 9 symbol (indicating that the transition can be dragged from the Album to the Movie Window). If you pause momentarily on the icon, the name of the tr ansition is displayed. The display persists for several se conds or until your mouse pointer moves off the transition. Previewing transition effects When you click on a transition i[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 53 In the Album, a gray checkerboard is used to indicate the portion of a title that will b e treated as transparent in overlays. As with video scenes, titles that have been added to your current project are indicated in the Album by a green checkmark symbol. With Studio’s powerful built-in Title Editor, y ou can readily crea[...]

54 Pinnacle Studio 9 The Still Images folder: The icons in the Still Images section represent files in the folder nam ed at the top of each left-hand page in the section. Images can be added to the section by storing them in this folder. For instance, you can save grabbed video frames into the folder from the Frame grabber tool, or save a title fro[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 55 Any sound clip can be previewed simply by clicking its name or icon. For information on using sounds in your movie, see Chapter 11: Sound effects and music . Along with the many unrestr icted sound effects that come with Studio, you will also find several folders of effects in the UFX, or “Ultimate FX” series. These effe[...]

56 Pinnacle Studio 9  T HE D ISC M ENUS SECTION This section of the Album contains a collection of artist-designed menus for VCD, S-VCD and DVD authoring. Menus in Studi o are really specialized titles: they can be create d a nd edited in the Title Editor, and either saved from the editor into a d isk folder or incorporated directly into your mo[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 57 Along with the many sta ndard menus and m otion menus that come with Studio, you will also find several folders of menus in the “Pinnacle Premium DVD Menus” series. These menus are “locked” (indicated by a padlock symbol in the top- left corner of the m enu icon.). Many of these professional DVD menus include looping[...]

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Chapter 4: The Movie Window 59 CHAPTER 4: The Movie Window The Movie Window, where you build your movie from the raw materials in the Album , occupies the bottom half of the screen in Studio’s Edit mode. To access the Movie Window, first switch to Edit mode if you are not already there: The Movie Window title bar c ontains several important contr[...]

60 Pinnacle Studio 9 Split clip/scene button – the razorblade Click this button to split the currently -selected clip in the Movie Window, or the currently- selected scene in the Album. No information is lost. I f the item is an Album scene, it is split at the indicated point into two shorter scenes. If the item is a clip in the Movie W indow, it[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 61 that would otherwise be created by the deletion is automatically closed up, and clips on other tracks are removed or shortened as requi red to keep everything in sync. If you delete clips on other tracks, the default behavior is that gaps between them are not autom atically removed, so the timing of ot her clips is no[...]

62 Pinnacle Studio 9 When the Clip propertie s tool is open, a third scrubber, the trim scrubber, is available for adjusting the current positi on within the clip during trimming.  M OVIE W INDOW VIEWS The Movie Window provides th ree different views of your project: Timeline , Storyboard and Text . Select the one you want to use by clicking the[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 63 uses thumbnail icons for quick ly structuring a movie. You can choose large or small thumbnails in the Edit options panel. Timeline view Timeline view shows the positions and durations of clips relativ e to the Timescale. This view also dis plays up to eight tracks on which you can place various types of clip: • Vid[...]

64 Pinnacle Studio 9 • Overlay video and audio: In Studio Plus, video and images placed on the overlay track can be used with the Picture-in-picture and Chroma key tools to give your video productions a professional appearance. These features are locked in other versions of Studio, producing “watermarked” output when used. You can upgrade to [...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 65 Because many editing operations can be carried out only in Timeline view, you s hould choose it whenever extensive, detailed or advanced editing is required. Track locking The video track norm ally takes precedence over all other tracks for trimming or deleting. This has several consequences: • When you trim a video[...]

66 Pinnacle Studio 9 Track muting The audio tracks can be individually mu ted with the mute buttons at the right edge of the Movie Window. These buttons have the same function as the mute buttons in the Volume and balance tool. (See page 215 for more information.) Placement feedback Studio gives you several types of feedback about your actions as y[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 67 “unavailable”, and the st atus line tells you, “Only scenes, titles, photos and transitions on video track.” Green placement lines with the “copy” pointer mean that an action is valid; red placement lines with the “unavailable” pointer ; show that it is not. Text view The Movie Window Text view is a li[...]

68 Pinnacle Studio 9 The toolboxes are available only in Edit mode. They are opened and closed with the buttons at the top left of the Movie Window. Select the toolbox you want to open by moving your cursor over the icons. The individual buttons highlight, indicating which toolbox will open when you click. The Album is then replaced by the toolbox [...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 69 The Title Editor One powerful tool that is not directly accessed through the toolboxes is the T itle Editor, in which you can combine text, images and other graphic resources to make titles and disc menus for your Studio prod uctions. Access the Title Editor through the Title and Disc menu tools, or with the Go to Tit[...]

70 Pinnacle Studio 9 Titles: This tool lets you edit the name and length of titles. The Edit Title button provides access to the Title Editor window where you can change the text and a ppearance of the title. Disc menus: The Disc menu tool has a number of controls for editing the links between the buttons on a disc menu and entry points into your m[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 71 The Audio toolbox The six tools in this set operate on or create audio clips – “original” audio, voice-ove rs, sound effects and other audio files, CD tracks and SmartSound background music. Clip properties: The Clip properties tool lets you adjust (“trim”) the start and end times of any type of clip. You ca[...]

72 Pinnacle Studio 9 fourth set of controls, which affect the overlay audio track. Availability: Surround sound i s not supported in the SE and QuickStart versions of Studio. Record voice-overs: To record a voice-over, simply click the Record button and begin speaking into your microphone. Add CD audio: Use this tool to add tracks, in whole or in p[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 73 CHAPTER 5: Video clips The cornerstone of most St udio video projects is the Album section containing your captured video scenes. To create your edited movie, you drag scenes from the Album into the Movie Window, where they are treated as editable video clips . This chapter explains how to set the “in ” and “out” ([...]

74 Pinnacle Studio 9  V IDEO CLIP BASICS The first step in creating a movie is to introduce some video scenes from the Albu m into the Movie W indow, where they become editable clips . At some point you will probably also add some transitions, titles , audio and other extras, but a set of video scenes is the starting point for just about any pro[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 75 Ctrl+C for copy, Ctrl+V for paste), or select the desired operation from the right-button menu. When the Movie Window is in Timeline view, you can drop a video scene or clip onto any of the following: • The main video track. If the clip has associated audio, it is added to the original audio track. This video will serve [...]

76 Pinnacle Studio 9 of the files in turn and drag whichever scenes you want from each file into your movie. To use multiple capture files: 1. Drag scenes from the f irst capture file into th e Movie Window. 2. Using the dropdown list or the folder button in the Video Scenes section of the Album, open the second capture file. Studio displays scenes[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 77 • When a clip is added to the Movie Window, a green checkmark appears on the Album ’s icon for the corresponding scene. The checkmark remains as long as any clip in the Movie Window belongs to that scene. • To see the original location of a clip in your source video, use the Find Scene in Album command on the right-c[...]

78 Pinnacle Studio 9  T RIMMING VIDEO CLIPS In general, captured video scenes contain more material than you actually require for your movie. “Trimming” – the process of adjusting the in and out points of a clip to remove unwanted footage – is a fundam ental editing operation. No data is lost by trimmi ng: Studio sets new s tart and end [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 79 Let’s first consider the sim plest trimming case, in a movie with only one clip. Then we’ll turn to the m ore usual situation of trimming a single clip that is surrounded by other clips. To trim a single clip on the Timeline: 1. Delete all but one clip from the Timeline. If the Timeline is empty, drag a scene in from t[...]

80 Pinnacle Studio 9 to as little as a single fra m e, or increase it up to the end of the source scene. 5. Release the mouse button. Th e clip is now trimmed. Multiple clips The secret to trimming a clip when m ultiple clips are on the Timeline is that you must first select the clip to be trimmed by clicking on it with the m ouse. To trim with mul[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 81 4. With the second clip s till selected, move your mouse pointer over the left edge of clip until the pointer changes to a right arrow. 5. Drag the left edge of th e second scene to the right. As you drag, the first frame of the clip is displayed in the Player. As long as the clip remains selected, you can continue to trim[...]

82 Pinnacle Studio 9 This default trimming behavior simplifies editing under most circumstances, but Studi o also gives you a way to invert the behavior when needed. If you press the Ctrl key before you begin trimming a clip on the video track, neither that clip nor any other will be reposition ed, and gaps are not closed up. There is no effect on [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 83 Trimming with the Clip properties tool Although it is possible to trim video clips directly on the Tim eline with full frame accuracy, rapid, precise trimming is often easier to achieve with the Clip properties tool. To access this tool, select the clip you wa nt to change, then use the Toolbox ¾ Modify Clip Properties me[...]

84 Pinnacle Studio 9 and jog buttons. The layout of each preview area is similar to that of the Pla yer during normal editing. Setting playback position: A scrubber control across the bottom of the tool lets you set the playback position anywhere within the clip. Y ou can also set the playback position using the counter and jog buttons located betw[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 85 bracket button beside the counter in the right preview area, set their respec tive trim points to the current position. You can also adjust either trim point by: • Entering a value directly into its counter • Adjusting a counter field with the jog buttons • Dragging the corresponding trim caliper The Duration text fi[...]

86 Pinnacle Studio 9  S PLITTING AND COMBINING CLIPS If you want to inse rt one clip on the video track into the middle of another clip, split the latter into two parts then insert the new item. “S plittin g” a clip actually results in it being duplicated. Both clips are then automatically trimmed so that the first ends at the split point an[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 87 To combine clips in the Movie Window: Select the clips you wish to combine, then righ t-click and choose Combine Clips . The operation is allowed only if the combination of clips will also be a valid clip – that is, a continuous excerpt of the source video. On the Timeline, clips that can be combined meet along a dotted [...]

88 Pinnacle Studio 9 Timeline view. Each of the standard tracks (all excep t the menu track) provides a lock button. See “Track locking” on page 65 for mo re information on track locking. A locked track is grayed out in the Timeline view, indicating that the clips on the locked track cannot be selected or edited in any of the three views; nor a[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 89 Insert editing In ordinary Timeline editi ng, a video clip and the original audio that was captured with it are tre ated as a unit. Their special relationship is symbolized in the Movie Window by the dotted line connecting the video track indicator with the original audio track indicator, showing that the latter is depende[...]

90 Pinnacle Studio 9 the Split clip/scene button. Now move to the point where the insertion should end and again split the clip. Finally, delete the p or tion of video that will be replaced by the insertion. Because the audio track is still intact, having been locked, the video to the right of the insertion point does not move leftwards to fill the[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 91 unbroken video, is needed less often but is also readily performed in Studio. The procedure is analogous to the one for inserting video: simply reverse the roles of the two tracks at every step. Split editing In “split editing”, a clip’s audio and video are separately trimmed so that the trans ition to one occurs bef[...]

92 Pinnacle Studio 9 Audio and video cut simultaneously. Instead of cutting the audio and the video simultaneously, you might decide to let the speaker’s voice overlap into the following scene. This makes it clear to the audience that the new scene they are now watching illustrates whatever explanation the speaker has been providing. Notice that [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 93 2. Select the left-hand clip and trim its right edge to the point where you want the audio to end. 3. Lock the audio track. Now drag the right-hand edge of the same clip’s video leftward to the point where the following clip’s video should start. 4. With the audio track still locked, dr ag the second clip’s video to [...]

94 Pinnacle Studio 9 5. Unlock the audio track. The video now cuts away to the second clip ahead of the audio. Video has been trimmed from the end of the first clip, and au dio has been trimmed from the start of the second clip. The J-cut In the J-cut, the new audio cuts in before the video switches. This can be effective when the second clip’s a[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 95 3. Lock the audio track. Now drag the right-hand edge of the same clip’s video back to the right by the overlap interval. 4. Unlock the audio track. The audio now cuts away to the second clip ahead of the video. Note: The procedures described above for performing the L-cut and the J-cut are not the only possibilities. Wi[...]

96 Pinnacle Studio 9 attached to the current ly-selected clip(s), and at the right, a parameters panel where you can tune the effect as required. Video effects vs. audio effects In most respects, the Video effects tool and the Audio effects tool work identically, except for the type of material they apply to. Working with the effects list Each vide[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 97 illustration, the “Speed” effect has been disabled while the other two effects on the list remain in force. Adding and deleting effects To add an effect to the list for the current clip, click the A dd new effect button, which opens an effects browser on the right- hand side of the tool window. Click an item in the bro[...]

98 Pinnacle Studio 9 production, you can purchase an activation key without leaving Studio. For information about purchasing locked video and audio effects, and other premium content for Studio, see “E xpanding Studio” on page 11. Changing the order of effects The cumulative result of using more than one effect on the same clip can vary dependi[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 99 parameters panel by pressing function key F1 or clicking the help button at the top left of the parameters panel. Note: Some plug-in effects may provide their own parameter windows with specialized controls. In those cases, the parameters panel on the effects tool displays a single Edit button, which accesses th e external[...]

100 Pinnacle Studio 9 zero). As the clip begins to p lay, each affected parameter gradually approaches its configured value, until by the end of the fade duration the eff ect is at full strength. Fading out reverses the process, by moving from the configured to the neutral v alues in the closing portion of the clip. The durations for fades are set [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 101 Studio commences “rendering” the clip – recalculating its final appearance – in the background without interrupting your workflow. The progress of rendering is indicated by a colored bar that advances from left to right along the Timescale above the clip in the Movie Window. Options affecting backgr ound rendering[...]

102 Pinnacle Studio 9 Building your effects library Studio’s plug-in architecture means that you can continue to add new eff ects to your video effects library as they become ava ilable. Expansion packs of effects from Pinnacle and other vendors will integrate seamlessly with the program . Some expansion effects are shipped with Studio as locked,[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 103  C LEANING EFFECTS Cleaning effects help correct defects in the source video, such as noise and camera shake. Note: Studio’s video cleaning effects are general- purpose filters designed to reduce the most common problems found on a wide range of material. They are not a panacea. Your results will vary depending on th[...]

104 Pinnacle Studio 9 Noise reduction This plug-in applies a noise-reduction algorithm that may improve the appearance of noisy video. In order to mini miz e artifacts (image defects caused as a side- effect of image processing) , noise reduction is only performed in areas of the frame where the amount of motion falls beneath a certain thresho ld v[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 105  T IME EFFECTS Availability: Unrestricted use of the effects in this group is not included with the SE and QuickStart versions of Studio. Until unlocked with the appropriate activation key, a “watermark” graphic appears over part of the video frame when clips using an y of the effects are played back. See page 11 f[...]

106 Pinnacle Studio 9 the Speed effect, move your mous e pointer to the clip’s right-hand edge. When the Speed change pointer appears, click and drag the edge of the clip as though you were trimming its length. You can select anywhere from one-fifth to ten times the original duration. The actual trimming of the clip – th e range of frames it in[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 107 The strobe effect omits some frames and repeats others. Here, with strobi ng set to 2, six frames (shaded) will be dropped from the first nine fra mes of the clip (top). In the final movie ( bottom), the remaining frames are repeated twice each.  C OLOR EFFECTS Availability: Unrestricted use of the effects in this grou[...]

108 Pinnacle Studio 9 Color correction The four sliders in the parameters panel for th is effect control the coloration of the current clip. Brightness: This is the relative intensity of light, without regard to color. Tr y adjusting both brightness and contrast to correct vi deo that is underexposed or overexposed. Contrast: The range of light an [...]

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110 Pinnacle Studio 9 Lens flare This effect simulates the flaring seen when direct brigh t light overexposes an area of a film or video image. Tip: The parameters of this effect do not give go od feedback during stationary preview. You can use t he playback controls or the scrubbers to see the impact they have during playback. The Flare direction [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 111 reception. The slider controls set the amount and characteristics of the noise: • Amount: Set the strength of the effect. • Variation: Slightly vary the random noise pattern by setting a different “seed” value for the randomizer. • Transparency: Combine the original and the modified images in any de sired propor[...]

112 Pinnacle Studio 9 Finally, the Refraction slider controls the amount by which water refracts the light as it enters and leaves the wave. The resulting distortion increases as the slider moves right.  S TYLE EFFECTS Availability: Unrestricted use of the effects in this group is not included with the SE and QuickStart versions of Studio. Until[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 113 The Horizontal and Vertical sliders control the amount of blur in their re spective direction s from zero (no blur) to the maximum value. The Left , Right , Top and Bottom sliders specify the margins of the blurred region as percentages of the frame width and height. Sett ing all the sliders to zero applies the blurring t[...]

114 Pinnacle Studio 9 is determined by averaging the colors in the corresponding area of the original. Old film Old movies have a number of traits that are usually considered undesirable: gr ainy images caused by early photographic development proc esses, spots and streaks from dust and lint adhering to the film, and intermittent vertical lines whe[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 115 Stained glass This effect simulates the appearance of viewing the video through a pane of irregular polygons arranged into a mosaic. The Horizontal and Vertical sliders control the average dimensions of the polygonal “tiles” in the image. Move the sliders to the right to increa se the tile s ize, or left to decrease i[...]

116 Pinnacle Studio 9 music video almost instantly, in your choice of styles and using any combination of video footage and music. The tool walks you through the creation process with simple step- by-step instructions. To begin, use the Album to locate the video footage you want to include, and drag the scenes onto the Movie Window. With the visual[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 117 tracks. Move the slider all the way to the right if you want to hear only the music track in the finished video. The last configuration step is to ente r the text to use for the opening and closing titles. Each text line consists of two edit fields. Use Tab and Shift+Tab to jum p between the left and right fields. Finally[...]

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Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 119 CHAPTER 6 : Two-track editing with Studio Plus Studio Plus brings the power of m ultitrack video editing to Studio with th e addition of an auxiliary video track on the Movie Window Timeline called the overlay track. Now you can use advanced picture-in- picture and chroma-key effects while retainin[...]

120 Pinnacle Studio 9 Drop video on the title track to open the overlay track. Along with the overlay track, Studio adds an overlay audio track to accommodate the video clip’s original audio information. Note: If you have used earlier versions of Studio, you may remember that the Title track, as it is now called, was formerly known as the “Titl[...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 121 Displaying and hiding the overlay track As we have just seen, the overlay video and audio tracks are displayed when you add your first overlay clip. Similarly, when you remove the last clip from these tracks, Studio again hides them from view. This default behavior help keep the Movie Window unclut[...]

122 Pinnacle Studio 9 An insert edit on the ove rlay track. The main video is obscured while the B clip is playing. In the J-cut and the L-cut, the audio portion of a clip begins a little before (J) or a little after (L) the video. They are often used together to soften the star t and end of an inserted clip. Split editing on the overlay track. The[...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 123 The Picture-in-picture tool Picture-in-picture (often abbreviated to “PIP”) – the inclusion of an additional video frame within the m ain video – is a versatile effect familiar from its use in professional TV productions. Picture-in-picture with optional border, shadow and rounded corners ([...]

124 Pinnacle Studio 9 the two aspects of the tool separate ly as the Picture-in- picture and the Chroma key tools. The Picture-in-picture and Chroma key (PIP/CK) tool is really two tools in one. Because they are used independently, we treat them as separate tools. This illustration shows the PIP side of the tool. Click the Chroma Key tab at the top[...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 125 • Use the center control points on the edges of the PIP frame to change its dimensions arbitrarily. • Use the control points at the corners of the PIP frame to change its size but not its proportions (“aspect ratio”). Crop mode: In this mode the layout area repr esents the entire overlay fr[...]

126 Pinnacle Studio 9 Border: These controls set the color, width and transparency of the border that will be drawn around the overlay frame. Set the width to zero (slider all the way to the left) if you don’ t want a border at all. See page 135 for information on how to use the color controls. The Softness slider controls the amount of blurring [...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 127 The PIP effect interface If you prefer to enter your PIP parameter setting s numerically rather than gra phically, you can turn to an alternative interface provided by the Video effects tool. You can also combine the two methods, using the PIP tool’s graphical interface to spec ify the initial se[...]

128 Pinnacle Studio 9 Video: The Transparency slider lets the main video show through the PIP overla y to any desired degree. Border: The parameters in this group are equivalent to the Border settings on the PIP too l, allowing you to set the overlay border’s color, thickness, transparency and edge softness, and to select the rounded corners opti[...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 129 Blue and green are the gene rally-preferred colors for chroma key use because their removal from an im age will not affect human skin tones, but in principle any hue can be used with Studio’s chroma key tool. Creating a scene with chroma key: A clip on the video track (L) is chosen as the backgro[...]

130 Pinnacle Studio 9 Chroma-key tool controls The chroma key tool constructs a “mask”, shown in the Key channel graphic on the left si de of the tool, where the transparent part of the frame is drawn in black, and the opaque part – the part you will see in the final video – is drawn in white. Most of the remaining controls are used to defi[...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 131 The color circle on the Chroma key tool highlights a range of hues (around the circumference) and color saturation values (along the radius). Any pixel in the overlay frame whose hue and saturation fall within the highlighted region will be treated as transparent. Saturation minimum: Saturation is [...]

132 Pinnacle Studio 9 Apply to new clips: This option is handy when you want to set up the same chroma key settings for a number of different clips. As long the option is checked, chroma key will automatica lly be applied to each new clip that you drag onto the overlay track, using the same settings tha t were displayed the last tim e the tool was [...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 133 Chroma key tips No matter how good your software may be, successful use of chroma key depends on carefully setting up your shot, and may require experime ntation to get the details just right. Here are some tips to get you started: Light the backdrop as evenly as possible: Very often, background co[...]

134 Pinnacle Studio 9 Make a smooth profile: Chroma keyers do better with a smooth edge than a jagged or complex one, so try to have your subject present a smooth profile to the camera. Hair is particularly tricky, and should be slicked down if possible. If the subject can wear a hat, so much the better. Setting up a chroma key shot. The b ackdrop [...]

Chapter 6: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 135 Selecting colors To select colors in tools and effects that provide a color parameter, click either on the color swatch (left) or the eye dropper button. The first opens a standard color picker dialog; while the second lets you choose a color by clicking anywhere on the screen. Two ways to set colo[...]

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Chapter 7: Transitions 137 CHAPTER 7: Transitions A transition is an animated effect that eases – or emphasizes – the passage from one clip to the next. Fades, wipes and dissol ves are common types of transition. Others are more exotic, and may even involve sophisticated 3-D graphics. Transitions are stored in their ow n section of the Album (s[...]

138 Pinnacle Studio 9 Diagram: Five snapshots from the life of a 2-second diagonal wipe transition. If a transition is to last for two seconds (the default transition duration in a fresh Studio installatio n), the second clip begins to run tw o seconds before the first clip is finished. At the outset, only the f irst clip is visible; by the end, th[...]

Chapter 7: Transitions 139 own movies. Generally, it is advisable to refrain from overusing transitions that cause abrupt changes or otherwise draw attention to them selves: there’s a big difference between a subtle dissolve and a h eart-shaped wipe. The basic transitions discussed below – fades, dissolves, wipes, slides and pushes – are all [...]

140 Pinnacle Studio 9 Dissolve: A dissolve is similar to a fade, except that the new scene begins to fade up even while the old one is fading down. The visual overlap this produces is less dramatic than a fade, but less abrupt than a cut. A short di ssolve can take the edge off a cut, while a long dissolve is useful to suggest the passage of time. [...]

Chapter 7: Transitions 141 A basic set of fully-func tional Hollywood FX is included with Studio, along with “watermarked” demo versions of many others. Apart from the waterm ark (a special graphic superimposed on part of the video), the demo effects can be previewed normally within Studio. If you like the demo versions, you can purchase them i[...]

142 Pinnacle Studio 9 Background rendering of Hollywood FX Background rendering is an optional feature in which the computation needed to create a detailed preview of Hollywood FX transitions is carried out as a “back- ground task” with no interru ption of your workflow. Options affecting background rendering, including the option of disabling [...]

Chapter 7: Transitions 143 transition is placed between two clips, the aud io cross- fades (the audio equiva lent of a dissolve). The only exception to this rule is the Fade transition, which takes the audio completely out then back in again. Normal transitions cause a cro ss- fade in the audio (left). In a Fade transition (right), the audio fades [...]

144 Pinnacle Studio 9 Studio inserts a duplicate of the origina l transition between each pair of selected clips.  T RIMMING TRANSITIONS Although transitions are not true clips, they are handled very similarly to clips within Studio’s editing environment. Like clips, you can trim transitions either directly on the Movie Window Timeline, or by [...]

Chapter 7: Transitions 145 Trimming with the Clip properties tool The Toolbox ¾ Modify Clip Properties menu command invokes the Clip properties tool for the selected clip. For all transition types, this tool p rovides previewing controls, and the ability to set two properties: • To set the duration of the transition, change the value in the Dura[...]

146 Pinnacle Studio 9 Previewing in the Clip properties tool The Clip properties tool provides previewing controls for transitions similar to those for video clips. See “Trimming with the Clip properties tool” on page 83 for more information. The preview areas show the last full frame of the outgoing clip and the first full frame of the incomin[...]

Chapter 8: Still images 147 CHAPTER 8: Still images Video usually means images in motion, but m ost productions also include stationary titles or graphics, and may include other types of still image as well. The still images you can use in your movies include: • All types of text captions and graphics, including scrolling credits and “crawled?[...]

148 Pinnacle Studio 9 is placed on this track. Fo r optimum results, you m ay need to prepare the image in an im age-editing application beforehand. Note: Studio Plus users have an additional option, the overlay track, for adding their images to the Timeline. See Chapter 6: Two-track editing with Studio Plus , for details. The Album has separate se[...]

Chapter 8: Still images 149 Controlling transparency in overlay images Viewed in the Album, or in a graphics editor, an overlay image appears to have a solid background. When you place it on the title track, however, the background disappears, allo wing the video to show through. Studio uses the color of the top-left pixel of the image to determine[...]

150 Pinnacle Studio 9 Applying effects Most of Studio’s plug-in vide o effects can be applied to still images. (The exceptions are effects like Speed and Strobe that only make sense for moving video.) See “Using video effects” on page 95 for detailed information.  E DITING STILL IMAGES As with other types of clip, you can trim still images[...]

Chapter 8: Still images 151 With bitmapped images , including ordinary photos and image files, and with disc menus, double-click the clip for a third way to access the tool. Double-clicking a title, however, opens it directly into the Title Editor instead. All versions of the Clip properties tool allow you to set the duration and name of the curren[...]

152 Pinnacle Studio 9 • In Studio Plus, put together “pan-and-zoom” animations in which a high-resolution im age is viewed as a succession of smoothly-connected close- ups at various degrees of magnification. This technique is closely associated with the well-known documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. The Clip properties tool for photos has pan-a[...]

Chapter 8: Still images 153 and magnification with these controls until the image is cropped and framed to your satisfaction. The Reset button removes all your position and zoom changes, restoring the origin al framing of the image. The red-eye reduction feature helps restore a natural appearance to photos in which the subject’s eyes are tinged w[...]

154 Pinnacle Studio 9 Animating Pan-and-zoom in Studio Plus If you own Studio Plus, or pu rchase an activation key by clicking the unlock button on the pan-and-zoom controls, you can create eff ective animations from your photos and graphic images. Use the highest-resolution images available with this technique, since they allow greater magnificati[...]

Chapter 8: Still images 155 above scenario, this returns the viewer to the original context, perhaps closing a chapter or episode within your movie. • Panning across a wide scene to absorb its details one by one. This technique can be used to impart a sense of discovery when a dramatic or humorous detai l finally comes into view. Complex pan-and-[...]

156 Pinnacle Studio 9 The pan-and-zoom controls are used here to focus in turn on four vignettes in the satirical painting “An Election Entertainment” by English artist William Hogarth. A fifth view pulls back to show as much of the entire canvas as will fit in a wide-screen frame without black sidebars. The tool automatically generates smooth [...]

Chapter 8: Still images 157 The Pan and zoom effect is found in the Fun Effects group. Most of the available parameter settings are exactly parallel to those off ered by the Clip properties tool: you can set Zoom , Horizontal position and Vertical position in both the Start and End parameter groups. You have an additional option in the Speed dropdo[...]

158 Pinnacle Studio 9  T HE F RAME G RABBER The Frame Grabber can capture a still im age from any video capture source suppor ted by Studio, or extract a single frame from any video clip in your current project. The grabbed frame can be a dded directly to your movie or saved out to disk in a ny of a number of standard graphics formats. Once you [...]

Chapter 8: Still images 159 configured in the Capture Source options panel (page 248) and the Capture Format options panel (page 252). The Frame grabber in grab-from-movie mode. When you grab from an external source (e.g. a camcorder), the Camcorder Controller is displayed. With DV equipment, you can navigat e the source tape from within the tool. [...]

160 Pinnacle Studio 9 frame is disp layed in the t ool’s preview area, and the two output buttons ( Add to Movie and Save to Disk ) are enabled. Add to movie: This button inserts the grabbed frame into the Movie Window video track ahead of the currently-selected clip. Save to disk: This button opens a Save As dialog so that you can select a folde[...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 161 CHAPTER 9: Disc menus With the advent of the DVD, VCD and S-VCD disc formats, video has become an interactive m edium, with new possibilities for both videographer and audie nce. Developing – “authoring” – a disc in one of these formats means going beyond the old idea of creating a movie to be viewed in stri ct seq[...]

162 Pinnacle Studio 9 Unlike any other kind of clip, menus automatically loop . When the end of a menu clip is reached during disc preview or playback, it is immediately restarted. This produces a jump in the playback position affecting all clips that run simultaneously with the menu, regardless of type – video (if the menu is an overlay), audio [...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 163 has links to five chapters. Our menu is designed to display two chapter links per page, so three pages are required to accommodate all the links. (The second page is the one appearing in the illustration.) We’ve also given each page a link to the M2 menu. The simple layout of this short movie can easily be extended to or[...]

164 Pinnacle Studio 9 create links to each scene after the m enu”, click Yes (see “Using menus from the Album” on page 165). A new track appears at the top of the Tim eline, and a small “flag” appears over each of your clips. These represent links from the menu you just added. And that’s it – sit back and watch the show. Instant slide[...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 165 Using menus from the Album The Disc Menus section of the Album contains a collection of menus that have been designed for particular occasions, aut horing styles and chapter counts. Each menu provide s a background picture, a title, a set of chapte r buttons (generally with spaces for thumbnail frames), and a pair of Next [...]

166 Pinnacle Studio 9 Dropping menus on the Timeline When you drag a menu from the Album and drop it onto the video track or the title track, Studio gives you the option of automatically generating links to all video clips to the right of the menu on the Tim eline. Multiple clips are combined into chapters if necessary to achieve the minimum chapte[...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 167 The DVD Player Control Studio’s Player provides a specialized set of controls for previewing movies that contain menus, patterned after the butt on layout on a typical DVD remote control. Switch the Player to DVD mode by clicking the DVD toggle button at the bottom right corner of the Player. A grouping of DVD controls a[...]

168 Pinnacle Studio 9 Button selection: The four arrow controls in this cluster move the on- screen cursor within a disc m enu to select one of its buttons. The oval button in the middle of th e cluster activates the currently-selected on-screen button, which is indicated by highlighting. Activating menu buttons directly One feature of the Player t[...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 169 track, which materializes above the video track the first time a menu is added to your m ovie (and vanishes again if all menus are removed). The menu itself is marked by a colored rectangle in the menu track ( M1 and M2 in the illustration above). Each link to a chapter is shown by a “C” flag. Here is a close-up of the[...]

170 Pinnacle Studio 9 To create a link: Right-click the menu track or the video track and choose either Set Disc Chapter or Set Return to Menu , depending on the kind of link you want to create. Return to menu links are always created at the end of the current clip, rather than at the exact poin t where you click. You’ll rarely want to return fro[...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 171 The Edit menu button at the top right of the tool opens the menu in the Title Editor. There you can change every visual aspect of the menu: its background and button images, the appearance and contents of its captions, and more. For full information about the many capabilities of the Title Edito r, see Chapter 10: The Titl[...]

172 Pinnacle Studio 9 Alternative methods of selecting menu pages: • Step through the pages by clicking the page link buttons in the preview area. • Use the Button selector control (described on page 172) to choose a button on any page of the menu. Show link numbers checkbox: Check this box to cause link numbers to be displayed in the preview a[...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 173 control to select the menu button you want to work on. The selected button is highlighted in the preview area. You can also select a button by clicking on it in the preview area. Button caption text field: Edit the text for the current button without going to the Title Editor. The “#” ch aracter in button captions has [...]

174 Pinnacle Studio 9 For more on background rendering, see “Hollywood FX for Studio” (page 140); and “Edit Settings” (page 256). Chapter-editing controls The controls in this area se lect or modify the individual chapter buttons within a menu. The Set chapter buttons: These buttons set or sever the link between the currently-s elected chap[...]

Chapter 9: Disc menus 175 To create a link using drag-and-drop: • Click the clip in the Movie Window that you want to link to, and drag it onto a button in the Clip properties tool preview area. The button is linked to the first frame of the clip. Or, • Click the button for which you want to create a link, and drag it onto a clip in the Movie W[...]

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Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 177 CHAPTER 10: The Title Editor Studio’s built-in Title Ed itor is a powerful facility for creating and editing titles and other graphics. Its extensive suite of text and image effects and tools provides endless possibilities for the visual design of your movie. The Title Editor is not lim ited to creating passive t[...]

178 Pinnacle Studio 9 Launching the Title Editor Reflecting the versatility of the Title Editor is the variety of ways of accessing it from Studio’s Edit mode, using either one of the tools in the Video toolbox (see page 69) or a mouse command on one of the Timeline tracks (see page 63). • To create a full-screen title or menu: Select Go to Tit[...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 179 screen title or menu, or vice ve rsa, just drag it onto the other Timeline track. If you find yourself creating a title when you wanted a disc menu, you can easily switch over in the Title Editor.  T HE T ITLE E DITOR CONTROLS The main Title Editor c ontrols are laid out in clusters around the Edit Window (see t[...]

180 Pinnacle Studio 9 menu is just like any other title except f or two attributes: • A menu has at least one button. A title has none. Adding a button to a title turns it into a menu, and deleting the last button on a menu turns it into a title. By the same token, if you click the Menu button while editing a title, Studio automatically add s a b[...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 181 When the object has the si ze and proportions you want, release the mouse. Whatever its type, the object is created with the sp ecified dimensions. Its other attributes – color, shading, shadow, etc. – are determined by the currently selected look in the Title Editor Album. All attributes can la ter be changed [...]

182 Pinnacle Studio 9 About text objects Selecting a text object is di fferent in one important way from selecting a rectangle or ellipse: the object’s text field is put into a “ready” state in which any keyboard activity will cause the f ield to activate and start displaying the input text. The activation of the text field is indicated by a [...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 183 Advanced text editing features As in a word processing program, the Title Editor allows you to format a sele cted range of characters. Simply mark an adjacent set of characters with th e mouse and apply the formatting you desire. Supported operations on character ranges include text styling (font, style and look) ,[...]

184 Pinnacle Studio 9 With text objects, th e s econd button provides two further operations, kern and change leading , accessed by control points in the cente r of each edge of the text frame: Kern (L) and Change leading (R)[...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 185 Object layout buttons The two left buttons in this clu ster are for grouping and ungrouping Ti tle Editor objects. The first button is availabl e when multiple objects are selected. Its action is to link the objects into a group – a composite object that is tre a ted as a single entity by editing operations. When[...]

186 Pinnacle Studio 9 either the vertical or horizont al directions, and the final three resize the objects so th at they have equal width, equal height, or both. All of these commands are particularly useful in menu creation, since you generally want menu buttons to be laid out in a regular fashion. The final object layout button opens another pop[...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 187 Clipboard and delete buttons The buttons in this cluster provide the familiar editing operations Cut , Copy , Paste and Delete , all of which operate on gr oups, individual objects, or on selected text within a Title Editor text ob ject. The first three work with the Windows Clipboard, while the fourth simply delet[...]

188 Pinnacle Studio 9 controls in the cluster, wh ich govern the appearance of individual characters, the options on this menu apply to all the text in a given text box . The three justification o ptions – Left, Center and Right – affect the placement of the text within its b ox (and not the placement of the box itself within the Edit Window, w[...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 189  T HE T ITLE E DITOR A LBUM The Title Editor Album is the rectangular panel on the right-hand side of the Title Editor screen. It contains resources for building menus and titles in the same way that the main Studio Album contains resources for creating movies. The Title Editor Album is controlled by the four bu[...]

190 Pinnacle Studio 9 To change the look of an existing object, simply click on the look you want while the object is selected. New objects are created with the most recently selected look. Selecting a look in the Looks Browser: Each button in the Standard tab is avail able in eight styles, which are presented to you as a submenu. Each look has a n[...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 191 otherwise standard Windows color-picker dialog to which an Opacity slider (0-100%) has been added. The swatch beside the second button pops up a gradient designer that lets you define a gradient by assigning the starting colors to each corner of a square surface. Click the color swatches in the corners of the gradi[...]

192 Pinnacle Studio 9 those described above for the Looks Browser (page 189), except that the color or gradient you select is instantly applied to the b ackground of the title you are editing. If you are working on an overlay title, you may find interesting ways to use the Opacity setting on the colo r- picker dialogs for these buttons, especially [...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 193 Picture objects behave just like text objects and the two types of graphic object with respect to grouping, alignment and similar controls. The Buttons section Since buttons are the magic ingredient that tu rns titles into interactive menus, this section of the Title Editor Album is mainly of interest for DV D, VCD[...]

194 Pinnacle Studio 9 The button art supplied with Studio includes several examples of each type. Each button is an im age file in Targa ( tga ) format. Exam ination of the files in an ar t program like Adobe PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro will show that the transparent por tion of the button image, and the special area for the display of thumbnails ([...]

Chapter 10: The Title E ditor 195 Would you like to make a bu tton that says “Grandma” and link it to the video of Grandma’s birthday party? Just create a text object, make it as fancy as you like with text stylings and the Looks Browser, and assign it the normal button action. Back in the Clip properties tool, link the new button to the chos[...]

196 Pinnacle Studio 9 These highlight options can be applied to any type of button made from any type of object, not just the button images brought in from the Album . Clear the Highlight style checkbox if you want to disable button highlighting while working in the Title Editor.[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 197 CHAPTER 11: Sound effects and music Video may be thought of as primarily a visual medium , but the role of sound in your movies is often no less important than that of the images on the screen. Feature film and television productions include numerous types of audio, be ginning with the dialog and other sound[...]

198 Pinnacle Studio 9 • The SmartSound tool autom atically creates a music track of any desired durati on in a variety of styles. • You can drop mp3 files from the Album onto the Timeline or import CD audio tracks with the CD audio tool. • The Voice-over tool lets you add narration or commentary as you preview your edited video. Audio, whatev[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 199 powered speaker system with Pro Logic support or a Pro Logic-compatible AV receiver. • A sound card and speaker system with Dolby Digital 5.1 compatibility. For best results a digital audio connection (RCA or optical) is recommended. Note: Even if you cannot hear your surround m ix when previewing, it will[...]

200 Pinnacle Studio 9 “synchronous” audio because it is recorded simultaneously with the video track. Overlay audio track: The original audio for video clips on the overlay track. Sound effect and voice-over track: Sound effects and voice-overs are the typical co ntent on this track. Sound effects are brought into your project from the Sound Ef[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 201 Switching audio tracks Although the audio tracks do have their specialized roles, as described above, these m ainly control the choice of track where new clips will appear. Original audio will always be placed on the original audio track when a new video clip is brought in; new voice-overs will always be cre[...]

202 Pinnacle Studio 9 If there is a CD in th e drive that you have not previously used in a S tudio project, Studio will ask you to enter its name before continuing. The controls on the tool will become available only when Studio can of fer at least one entry on the CD Title dropdown list. Select the CD from which you wish to capture audio in the C[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 203 the CD (if it is not already in the drive), so that the audio data can be captured. You won’t need to repeat this step subsequently unless you lengthen the clip. CD recording options Depending on your CD drive, Studio offers a number of recording options. The choices are found in the CD. Voice-over and Sur[...]

204 Pinnacle Studio 9 Ctrl+A .) The total length of the selected clips will determine the initial setting for the m usic duration, though you can modify the value at any time by trimming on the Timeline or d irectly editing the Duration counter in the tool. In the SmartSound tool, choose a style, song and version from the lists provided. Each style[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 205 When you have made your choice, click the Add to Movie button. Studio creates the new clip on the background music track beginning at the current time index (as shown by the Ti meline scrubber and the preview frame in the Player). The SmartSound button at the bottom right of the tool opens a dialog with opti[...]

206 Pinnacle Studio 9 Review the video scenes in your movie and decide where you want the voice-over to begin and end. When you are ready, open the Voice-over tool. Note that the recording lamp – the dark re ctangle in the upper left of the above illustration – is not lit. Select your starting point on the Movie Window Timeline. You may do this[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 207 level is set with the Recording level slider and its accompanying level meter on the Voice-over tool. Watch this meter to make sure yo ur recording levels don’t get too high or low. The indicator changes color from blue (0-70% modulation), through yellow, to red. Generally, you should try to keep your audi[...]

208 Pinnacle Studio 9 Choose from this list, then connect your microphone in the manner indicated (e.g. Microphone or Line In ). The Channels and Sample rate adjustments on the options dialog control the quality of voice-overs or other recorded audio. Set them at the highest quality level you anticipate needing, but keep in mind that increasing qua[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 209 • The Name text field lets you assign a custom name to the clip to replace th e default one assigned by Studio. The clip name is used by the Movie Window’s List view, and can also be viewed as a fly-by label when your mous e hovers over the clip in the Storyboard view. The other controls provided by the [...]

210 Pinnacle Studio 9 You can use these to change the source of the clip at any time. CD Title is also an editable text field, so you can enter the actual title of the CD. SmartSound ® SmartSound clips can be edited to almost any length, except that very short clips at some particular durations may not be available in every combination of Style an[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 211 Anatomy of an audio clip An audio clip icon on the Timeline has several parts. The boundaries of each clip are denoted by vertical bars. The actual content of the audio is indicated by a waveform graph: Waveform graph excerpt from three neighboring clips. The appearance of the waveform graph tells you someth[...]

212 Pinnacle Studio 9 Finally, if you make volume adjustm ents within the clip, the line consists of sloping segments that meet at volume adjustment handles . Unlike the waveform graph, or the adjustment lines for balance and fade (see below), the volum e adjustment line is scaled logarithmically . Perceived volum e varies logarithmically with the [...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 213 To select which of the three adjustm ent lines is currently displayed, u se the audio clip’s right-button context menu: . Availability: Surround sound i s not supported in the SE and QuickStart versions of Studio. Adjusting audio on the Timeline Audio levels can be adjusted directly within a clip on the Ti[...]

214 Pinnacle Studio 9 To adjust the volume of a clip on the Timeline, select it (by left clicking), then m ove your mouse pointer close to the line. The volume adjustment cu rsor will appear: Click the left mouse button, and drag up or down within the clip. The volume line bends as it f ollows the mouse. When you release the mouse, Studio creates a[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 215 In the case of left-right (ste reo) balance, adjusting the line upwards from the center positions the audio further to the left. With front-back balan ce (“fade”), adjusting the line upwards mo ves the apparent source of the audio away from the listener, while adjusting the line downwards brings the audi[...]

216 Pinnacle Studio 9 The Volume and balance tool provides i ndividual level controls for each of the audio tracks: original audio (left in illustration), overlay audio , sound effect and voice-over , and background music (right). The overlay audio controls are displayed only when the overlay video and audio tracks are open in the Movie Window. The[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 217 affects the vertical positi on of the volume adjustment lines on all clips on the trac k, but does not change their contour. Click on the knob and drag it with a clockwise rotation (up to the 2 o’clock maximum position) to increase the volume. Use a counterclockwise rotation (down to the 6 o’clock minimu[...]

218 Pinnacle Studio 9 digital signal – ensure that the m eter level never quite reaches the top of the bar. The fade buttons s produce a fade-in from or a fade- out to the current position of the movie. For a visual confirmation of their effect, watch the behavior of the clip’s volume adjustment line when the fade buttons are clicked. The fade [...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 219 (“balance”). Each track can be ind ependently placed anywhere within the re ctangular listening area. Surround mode: Here, the original audio track has been placed farthest from the listen er, near the left front speaker. The sound effect and voice-over track is on the right, closer to the listener. The [...]

220 Pinnacle Studio 9 Viewing volume and balance contours Each audio clip in your project displays a contour line showing one of its volume, left-right balance or front- back balance. To select whic h of the three types of line is displayed, use the comm ands on an audio clip’s right-button context menu (s ee “Anatomy of an audio clip” on pag[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 221 Icons for audio effects In Timeline mode, any special effects you have applied to an audio or video clip are indicated by small icons along the bottom of the clip. These correspond to the effects groups shown by the Add new effect browser in the Audio effects and Video effects tools. You can open the appropr[...]

222 Pinnacle Studio 9 audible effect, so you shoul d make changes in small amounts then pause to check if there is an im provement. Noise reduction: When a camcorder is used outdoors with the actors distant from the microphone, the “source noise” may be very hi gh, and to make m atters worse the internal noise of the camcorder may be amplified [...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 223 Equalizer This effect is similar in concept to the treble and bass “tone” controls on audio equipment, but provides a much finer degree of adjust ment. It divides the audio spectrum into ten bands , each centered on a different sound frequency. Note: In musical terms, each equalization band covers one oc[...]

224 Pinnacle Studio 9 Grungelizer The Grungelizer adds noise and static to your recordings. It can make your clips sound as though you were hearing them on a radio with bad reception or a worn and scratched vinyl record. Crackle: This dial adds crackle to create that old vinyl record sound. The farther to the right you turn the dial, the more crack[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 225 AC: This emulates the constant, low hum of AC current. Frequency switch: This sets the frequency of the AC current (50 or 60 Hz), and thus the pitch of the AC hum. Timeline: This dial regulates the amount of overall effect. The farther to the right (1900) you turn this dial, the more noticeable the effect. K[...]

226 Pinnacle Studio 9 Leveler This effect helps compensate for a common problem in recording audio for video pr oductions: the imbalance in the recorded volume of different elements in the original audio. For instance, your commentary as you shoot the video may be record ed at such a high level that it overwhelms other sounds at the location. The t[...]

Chapter 11: Sound effec ts and music 227 is greater for a large roo m th an a small one. The rate at which the echoes die away depends on both the room size and the reflectivity of the walls. The presets for Reverb are named for the type of room they simulate – from the passenger cabin of a car all the way up to a huge underground cavern. Initial[...]

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Chapter 12: Making your movie 229 CHAPTER 12: Making your movie Studio gives you a variety of ways to share your video productions. This chapter explains how to: • Attach a DV or MicroMV camcorder or a DV VCR (MicroMV with Windows XP only) • Connect an analog (VHS or S-VHS) camcorder or VCR • Connect a TV set or video monitor • Output your [...]

230 Pinnacle Studio 9 Preparing your movie for output Before your movie is actually ready for output some preprocessing will generally be required: • If your movie includes clip s that were captured in preview quality, Studio will prompt you to load your source tape(s) into your DV camcorder or VCR. Studio will then recapture th e clips at full r[...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 231 Outputting to a camera or video recorder... ... via IEEE-1394 cable If your recording device has a DV input, just connect it to your digital video car d with an IEEE-1394 (or “i.LINK”) cable. The connector at the camcorder end should be labeled DV IN / OUT . Note: On machines that don’t support recording back[...]

232 Pinnacle Studio 9 Connecting a TV set or video monitor Many camcorders have an integrated display, making it unnecessary to attach a video monitor. Otherwise, to view your movie as it is recorded, a TV set or a video monitor must be attached to the video outputs of your recorder. Vi deo outputs are not always available on DV camcorders. Output [...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 233 It’s good practice to slide the record- inhibit tab on your master tapes to “Save” to ensure there’s no accidental recording over original material. Note: Studio relies on continuous, uninterrupted timecode to recapture these clips. If your original tapes have discontinuous timecode (a zero timecode at a lo[...]

234 Pinnacle Studio 9 make tape operation must be started again at the beginning. Once rendering is complete, Studio requires a few seconds to prepare for output to your camcorder or VCR. 5. Verify that the camcorder/VCR is powered on, and that you have inserted a tape cued to where you wish to begin recording. You now have two options: If you reco[...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 235 the trade-off between file size and quality: the more you compress, the more you reduce quality. Both video and audio compression are adjustable. Video compression adjustments include frame size, frame rate and data rate (a fter com pression). For audio, you can select monaural (si ngle channel) instead of stereo, [...]

236 Pinnacle Studio 9 Options are provided for turning off either the audio or the video. You ma y want to make an AVI audio-only file for import into another program. Alternatively, you might want to omit the audio from a small web-page video in order to minimize the file size. The remaining options pert ain to compression. For more information se[...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 237 Save your movie as an MPEG file The MPEG-1 file format is supported on all Windows 95 and later PCs. MPEG-2 f iles can only be played on PCs with MPEG-2 decoder software installed. Generally, MPEG files are smaller than AVI files, an d depending on the AVI options used may be of higher quality. To save your movie a[...]

238 Pinnacle Studio 9 3. Check the Diskometer to make sure you have enough drive space. 4. Click the green Create MPEG file button . Enter a name for your mpg file when prom pted. The default directory for saving your file is: C:My DocumentsPinnacle StudioMy Projects Click OK to start creating th e file. A progress bar on the Player lets you mon[...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 239 Save as RealVideo or Windows Media With the RealVideo and Windows Media formats, you can save your movies for playback on the Web. You can share those movies w ith anyone around the world who has compatible software: • For RealVideo, the RealNetworks® RealPlayer®, a free download from www.real.com . • For Win[...]

240 Pinnacle Studio 9 3. Click the green Create Web file button. Type in a name for your rm (RealVideo) or wmv (Windows Media) file. Th e default directory in which your file will be saved is: C:My DocumentsPinnacle StudioMy Projects Click OK to start creating the file. As usual, the progress bars in the Play er give you feedback on the processi[...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 241 button. If you want anothe r frame of your movie to appear, use the playback controls in the Player to find the frame of your choice, then click the Set thumbnail button. Click the green Share my video button to begin the process of sharing your movie. Your video-sharing account allows you to store up to 10MB (abou[...]

242 Pinnacle Studio 9 Output your movie to DVD, VCD or S-VCD If your system is equipped with a CD burner, Studio can create VCD or S-VCD discs on either CD-R or CD-RW media. Your VCD discs can be played back: • On a VCD or S-VCD player. • On some DVD players. Most DVD players can handle CD-RW media, but many will not reliably read CD-R. A major[...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 243 Your DVD discs can be played back: • On any DVD player that can handle the recordable DVD format your burner creates. Most players can handle the common formats. • On a computer with a DVD drive and playback software. Whether or not you have a DVD burner on your system, Studio also lets you save a DVD image –[...]

244 Pinnacle Studio 9 Diskometer-style display showing the amount of space consumed by your m ovie on the output disc. Also shown are the length of your movie, and a reminder of the disc-typ e and quality setting you have chosen. 2. Click the Settings button to bring up the Make Disc options panel (see “ Make disc settings” on page 272). There [...]

Chapter 12: Making your movie 245 Copying an AVI file to tape When the Tape tab is s elected in Make Movie m ode (see “Output your movie to videotape”, page 232, and “Save your movie as an AVI file”, page 234), a small side-panel opens on the Player. The contro ls on this panel enable you to output an AVI movie directly to videotape. The Op[...]

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Appendix A: Setup options 247 APPENDIX A: Setup options Settings are provided to ad just various aspects of Studio’s operation. The defa ult values have been chosen to work well for the m ajority of situations and hardware. However, you may wi sh to modify them to suit either your work styl e or your specific equ ipment configuration. About Studi[...]

248 Pinnacle Studio 9 Option settings in Studio apply to both the current and future Studio sessions. There is no master reset. If you want to return to the factory preset values, use the information in the f ollowing sections, which deal with all ten options panels in turn. Capture source settings This panel is divided into three areas: Capture de[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 249 camera, etc). Your selection determ ines the availability of some other Capture source settings, and of many settings on the Capture format panel. Audio: Your choice of audio devices is constrained by which video device is selected. With most analog devices, for instance, you can choose any of your sound card inputs; y[...]

250 Pinnacle Studio 9 changed. Preview the source video using your camcorder’s built-in m onitor instead. Aspect ratio: This dropdown list specifies whether the video source for future analog captures should be interpreted as having normal (4:3) or widescreen (16:9) format. Scene detection during video capture The effect of these scene detection [...]

Appendix A: Setup options 251 Data code does not work if the tape: • includes one or more blank (unrecorded) sections • is unreadable due to tape damage or electronic noise • was recorded without the camcorder time or date set • is a copy of another tape • was shot on an 8mm or Hi 8 camcorder, and is now being played back on a Digital8 ca[...]

252 Pinnacle Studio 9 Capture format settings The options available here depend on the capture device you are us ing (from the Capture source tab). You will not see all the se ttings described below displayed at once. Presets The settings in the other areas on the Capture format panel depend on your choice in this Presets area. The available preset[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 253 the video settings manually. Th e best preset to use is the lowest one that meets the requir ements of all the devices on which your movie will be played. Use Low if you are outputting onl y for VCD; Medium if you need to accommodate S-VCD; and High if your movie will be output for DVD. • Preview: Preview-quality dra[...]

254 Pinnacle Studio 9 Using codecs that have not been certified by Pinnacle Systems for use with Studio pr eview-quality capture may produce undesirable results. Pinnacle Systems cannot provide technical support for problems associated with the use of codecs that are not so certified. Options: This button gives you access to any setup options offer[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 255 Pre-filter: This option activates a smoothing algorithm to improve apparent picture quality when capturing at lower resolutions. The sharpness of the image is slightly reduced. Fast encode: This option speeds up the encoding process with some reduction in quality when capturing to an MPEG file. You may wa nt to evaluat[...]

256 Pinnacle Studio 9 Include audio: Clear this check box if you are not planning to use the capture d audio in your production. Options: This button gives you access to any setup options offered by the codec (compression/ decompression software) you have chosen. Compression: This dropdown shows the codec that will be used to compress the incoming [...]

Appendix A: Setup options 257 relating to editing are on the C D, Voice-over and Surround panel (see page 260). Default durations These duration times are measured in seconds and frames. The seconds counter advances every 30 frames for NTSC, or 25 frames for PAL. The three settings here c ontrol the initial duration value for transitions, still ima[...]

258 Pinnacle Studio 9 Rendering This area furnishes several options that affect rendering – the process in which the video for your final movie is generated from materials you have assem bled in the Movie Window. Depending on the speed of your computer system, Studio may be unable to calcu late some of its m ore complex effects rapidly enough to [...]

Appendix A: Setup options 259 The choices involve a trade-off: optimizing for preview will speed up background rendering but slow down the Make Tape step, whereas with Optimize for make tape the reverse is true. If you are not planning to output your project to videotape, Optimize for preview is always the better choice. As illustrated under “Mov[...]

260 Pinnacle Studio 9 When adding a menu When you place a disc menu on the Timeline, Studio inquires whether you want to generate chapter links from the menu to all the cl ips that follow it (at least until the next menu). The choices on this d ropdown list let you avoid the confirmation dialog by specifying that you always don’t or always do wan[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 261 Drive letter: If you have multiple CD drives, choose one to use as the CD audio source for your movies. Voice-over recording Microphone: A dropdown list of choices for attaching a microphone to your hardware. Channels, Sample rate: These settings control audio quality. A typical setting f or voice-overs is 16-bit m ono[...]

262 Pinnacle Studio 9 Make tape settings Studio automatically senses the hardware you have installed, and configures the Make Tape playback destination accordingly. If you are printing (making tape) to a DV device, you can choose to have Studio start and stop the device automatically instead of having to do it yourself. To control printing automati[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 263 5. Click OK . 6. Click Create . Studio renders your movie, then sends the record command to your DV device. Studio outputs the first frame of your movie (without audio) for the duration entered for record delay time, giving the device time to bring the ta pe up to speed and begin recording. Hint: When you play back you[...]

264 Pinnacle Studio 9 Make AVI file settings The Make AVI file options panel lets you adjust compression settings, whether to m inimize the size of the output file, to increase its quality, or to pre pare it for a special purpose (such as distribution via the Internet) where there may be requirem ents involving characteristics such as frame size. V[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 265 width and height greatly d ecreases file size, although compression moderates this effect. Quality, data rate: Depending on the codec being used, you can adjust the quality percentage or data rate with the slider. The higher the percentage or rate you choose, the larger the resulting file. Frames/second: The default va[...]

266 Pinnacle Studio 9 Type: In most cases, you w ill choose either PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) or ADPCM (Adaptive Delta PCM). Channels: You may choose between 8- and 16-bit mono and stereo sound. Sound quality and fi le size increases when you add a second channel or increase bit depth. Sample rate: Digital audio is produced by taking regular insta[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 267 Video settings Compression: You can choose either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 compression. MPEG-2 offers higher resolution and higher quality than M PEG-1. Note: MPEG-2 files require special decoder software. If you do not have an MPEG-2 decode r installed on your PC you will not be able to play MPEG-2 files. Width, Height: The f[...]

268 Pinnacle Studio 9 Audio settings Sample rate: Digital audio is produced by taking discrete samples of a continuous analog waveform – the more samples, the bette r the sound. MPEG supports two sample rates, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. Data rate: You can adjust the data rates for audio an d video separately using the sliders. Higher data rates yield h[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 269 typically used to identif y the movie for Internet search engines. Web server: The RealServer option allows you to create a file that can be st reamed from a RealNetworks RealServer. The RealServer supports a special feature that senses the connect speed of the viewer’s modem, and adjusts its transm ission rate to su[...]

270 Pinnacle Studio 9 In addition to these standard audiences, you can record clips for connection speeds of 100 Kbps, 200 Kbps, or higher. These higher bandwidths are suitable for audiences that use corporate Local Area Networks (LANs), cable modems or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modems. If you want to keep file si zes to a minimum , audio for m[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 271 • No audio: When this selection is made, the output file will contain video only. • Voice only: This option provides adequate qu ality for spoken audio in clips without music. • Voice with background music: This option is designed for situations where, even though background music may be pr esent, the spoken audi[...]

272 Pinnacle Studio 9 encoded into it so they are not vis ible to the casual viewer. Description: This 256-character field lets you enter keywords for encoding into the movie. It is typically used to identify the movie for Internet search engines. Playback quality: Choose the playb ack quality of your movie based on the capability of the target pla[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 273 Output format Select VideoCD (VCD), S- VCD or DVD. Options in other areas of the panel ar e dependent on this choice. Burn options Burn directly to disc: Your movie will be burned onto disc according to the format you ha ve selected under Output format . Create disc content but don’t burn: This choice is only availab[...]

274 Pinnacle Studio 9 copies of the same project. Although the project is not used directly in making the disc, it must nevertheless be open in Studio when the disc is burned. Eject disc when done: Check this box if you would like Studio to automatically eject th e disc after the burn process has been completed. Video quality / disc usage Quality s[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 275 • MPEG audio support is always provided on PAL players. On NTSC players it is broadly supported, but theoretically optional. • Dolby Digital 2-channel encoding can be used to compactly store either a stereo or a surround soundtrack. To hear the surround mix requires equipment with Dolby Pro Logic compatibility. On [...]

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Appendix B: Tips and tricks 277 APPENDIX B: Tips and tricks Here are some hints from Pinnacle technical specialists on choosing, using and maintaining a computer system with video in mind. Hardware To use Studio effectivel y, your hardware should be optimally prepared and configured. It is recommended that you use UDMA IDE drives as they provide re[...]

278 Pinnacle Studio 9 For example: 1 hour of video = 3600 seconds (60 x 60) 3600 seconds x 3.6 MB/s = 12,960 MB Hence 1 hour of video uses 12.9 GB of storage. Due to their automatic inte rnal calibration, standard hard drives regularly inte rrupt the continuous data stream in order to recalibrate th emselves. During capture, this is not apparent si[...]

Appendix B: Tips and tricks 279 • After ScanDisk is done, click on Start ¾ Programs ¾ Accessories ¾ System Tools ¾ Disk Defragmenter (this may take a while). • Turn off energy-saving f eatures. Point your mouse on your Desktop, right-click, and select Properties ¾ Screensaver (under Energy… Settings ). Make sure everything under Settings[...]

280 Pinnacle Studio 9 always appear in full colo r and resolution at the video output. Windows 98 Second Edition To improve system performance under W indows 98SE, you can make the following modifications. Hard drive settings: 1. Go to Start ¾ Settings ¾ Control Panel ¾ System. Click on the Performance tab, then File System , then the Troublesho[...]

Appendix B: Tips and tricks 281 Taskbar: Switch the clock on the taskbar off. 1. Right-click the mouse on the taskbar. 2. Select Properties . 3. Deactivate the Show Clock option. Increasing the frame rate If your system is unable to achieve an adequate frame rate (25 fps for PAL/SECAM, 29.97 fps for NTSC), try the following: Deactivate network dri [...]

282 Pinnacle Studio 9 The better the sound quality, the more space is consumed. The highest quality (CD) is rarely required. However, the lowest quality (11 kHz/8-bit, mono) rarely provides acceptable audio sequences. Studio and computer animation If you are editing computer animation with Studio or wish to combine animation with digital video , re[...]

Appendix B: Tips and tricks 283 section. If you have followed the naming convention suggested on page 28, Studio will proceed to the next section of tape and repeat the process until all required clips from that source tape have been recaptured. Not following the naming convention results in changing source tapes much more often. When Studio recapt[...]

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Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 285 APPENDIX C: Troubleshooting Before you begin troubleshooti ng, take some time to check your hardware and software installation. Update your software: W e recommend installing the latest operating system updates for Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP. You can download these updates from: windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.h[...]

286 Pinnacle Studio 9 have NVIDIA or ATI graphi cs cards, for which the latest drivers are available at: www.nvidia.com and www.atitech.com Those with Sound Blaster audio cards can get updates here: us.creative.com Opening Device Manager The Windows Device Manager, which lets you configure your system’s hardware, has an important role in troubles[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 287 Access the knowledge base with your web browser by visiting: http://pinnacle.custhelp.com The knowledge base home page will appear. You don’t have to register to browse the knowledge base, but if you want to send a specifi c question to technical support staff you will need to create a knowledge base account. Plea[...]

288 Pinnacle Studio 9 If you search instead on the single keyword “Crash”, you will get far fewer hits, all relating to crashes in Studio. If one search does not turn up an article that seems relevant to your problem, tr y modifying the search by choosing a different set of keywords. You can also use the Search by and Sort by options to select [...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 289 Studio crashes in Edit mode Answer ID 6786 If Studio is crashing, the cau se is most likely eithe r a configuration issue or a pr oblem with a project or content file. This type o f i ssue can often be fixed with one of the following methods: • Uninstalling and reinstalling Studio. • Optimizing the computer. •[...]

290 Pinnacle Studio 9 Be sure to close all other programs before installing a new version. Adjust Studio settings: Choose No background rendering in the Rendering dropdown list, and clear the Use hardware acceleration checkbox. Both options are found on the Edit options panel (see page 256). End background tasks: Close other applications and unload[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 291 can see what sound and video cards you have in the Windows Device Manager. To determine what video car d you have, click the plus sign in front of Display Adapters in the Device Manager list. The name of your video card is now displayed. Double-clicking the name opens another dialog, where you choose the Driver tab.[...]

292 Pinnacle Studio 9 Uninstall, reinstall and update Studio: In case your Studio installation has become corrupted, try this procedure: 1. Uninstall Studio: Click on Start ¾ Programs ¾ Studio 9 ¾ Uninstall Studio 9 , then follow any on- screen instructions until the process is com plete. If the uninstaller asks whethe r you want to dele te a sh[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 293 uncommon format. If you have a wav or mp3 file tha t seems to be problematic, convert the file to the other format before importing the file. Many wav and mp3 files on the Internet are co rrupt or non-standard.. Reinstall Windows: This is quite a drastic step, but if the previous steps have not helped, Windows itsel[...]

294 Pinnacle Studio 9 methodical in your approach. Creating a small test project, as described for Case 2, helps eliminate variables that may conf use your test results. Capture error occurs on starting capture Answer ID 2687 Some problems can be traced to incom patibilities or issues with particular th ird-party capture cards: • ATI: Studio shou[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 295 the capture driver for your capture device is flag ged or not listed, reload the capture driver as follows: • Pinnacle drivers: Use the CD to locate and install the Pinnacle drivers for the card you have installed. • Third party drivers: Use the CD tha t came with the capture device or ca ll the manufacturer (o [...]

296 Pinnacle Studio 9 If you continue to get a Capture Error after trying the above steps, please test your setup with the A M C AP capture application. A M C AP is a generic application used to test device compa tibility. If you can’t capture with A M C AP , your capture card probably doesn’t have the right driver for your version of Windows. [...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 297 Studio hangs when rendering Answer ID 6386 With this type of proble m , Studio “gets stuck” during rendering (preparing your video for output in Make Movie mode). To identify the solu tion in a particular case, try the troubleshooting steps for whichever of the following failure modes best matches your situation[...]

298 Pinnacle Studio 9 • Reinstall Windows over itself (that is, without uninstalling first). In Window s XP, this procedure is called Repair . Case 2: Rendering stops randomly If the render hangs at random points even within the same project, the failures may be due to background tasks, power management or a thermal problem in the computer. Possi[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 299 2. Defragment your hard drive. 3. Ensure that you have ample storage – preferably tens of gigabytes – on the hard drive you use for video. Rendering may use large amounts of storage, and can be disrupted if space is insufficient. 4. If you have a separate captu re drive, make sure to move the auxiliary files fol[...]

300 Pinnacle Studio 9 Some possible solutions and workarounds: 1. Verify that the burner is listed in Device Manager. If it is not, review your burner’s documentation or contact the manufacturer to get th e device installed properly. 2. Uninstall and reinstall St udio from your original CD, then update it with the most recent pa tch. See page 292[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 301 return control to you – af ter what had seemed an uneventful launch. In all such cases, try any or all the following: 1. Restart the computer. Afte r the reboot, double-click the Studio icon. 2. Wait a few minutes to conf irm that the application is really hung. Even when you suspect Studio has failed to launch, w[...]

302 Pinnacle Studio 9 HollywoodFX transitions are still watermarked after upgrading Answer ID 1804 When upgrading to PRO, make sure you have completed the installation and obtained a keycode. The installer will prompt you to insert a keycode. To get a keycode, go to www.hollywoodfx.com and log into your account. In the lobby, click on Register a Pr[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 303 setting. To capture from an analog source, select the applicable devices in both lists. • Many analog capture cards lack an audio in jack, so you must both set the audi o capture device in Studio to your sound card's line in , and cable the analog audio source (VCR or analog camcorder) to the line in jack on [...]

304 Pinnacle Studio 9 Checking the drivers The procedure for checking your 1394 port and digital camcorder drivers is som ewhat different depending on which version of Windows you are using. To check the drivers under Windows 98SE and Windows Millennium: 1. Open the Windows Device Manager. (See page 286 for instructions on accessing Device Manager.[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 305 To check the drivers under Windows 2000 and Windows XP: 1. Open the Windows Device Manager. (See page 286 for instructions on accessing Device Manager.) 2. You should not have any drivers with the yellow exclamation mark error flag on them. If you do, the driver that is flagg ed is not loaded properly and will not w[...]

306 Pinnacle Studio 9 Repairing your Windows installation If you have Windows 2000 or Windows XP and continue to get the “cannot initialize” message after trying all the st eps above, it may be that the 1394 drivers built into Windows are corrupt. We recommend that you reinstall Window s on top of itself (i.e. without uninstalling first). For t[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 307 control other devices in your system: if a device no longer works you can get it to work again by rebooting your system. To keep applications from loading when your PC is started (or rebooted), use the following steps. 1. Click on Start ¾ Run 2. In the Open box, type: msconfig 3. Click OK . In the System Configurat[...]

308 Pinnacle Studio 9  O PERATION PROBLEMS Images are missing from th e recording, or the video is jerky. Possible cause: Your hard drive’s tr ansfer speed is too low. Solution: When working with some UDMA hard drives, the playback may “jum p” when an AVI file is played back at higher data rates. This can be traced back to the fact that th[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 309 4. After ScanDisk is done, click on Start ¾ Programs ¾ Accessories ¾ System Tools ¾ Disk Defragmenter (this may take a while). 5. Turn off energy-saving features (right-click on your Desktop and select Properties ¾ Screensaver (under Energy… Settings ). Make sure everything under Settings for… power schemes[...]

310 Pinnacle Studio 9 Solution 2: You may be using either a generic Windows graphics card driver or an older version of your graphics card. Your graphi cs card driver may also be corrupt. Please contact your graphics card vendor to ensure you have properly installed the m ost current driver. Reinstall your graphics driver with the help of your vide[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 311 My batch capture is inaccurate (DV tapes only). Possible cause: You do not have continuous, uninter- rupted timecode on your sour ce tapes. Sm artCapture needs continuous timecode to accurately locate and recapture your clips. Solution: Make sure your source ta pes have continuous, uninterrupted timecode (see “Con[...]

312 Pinnacle Studio 9 Solution 2: Save your current pr oject, close all your applications, and restart the system. When Windows comes back, open your project in Studio without running any other programs, a nd try to output to tape. If the issues persist, try the next solution. Solution 3: Tune your system : • Remove wallpaper from the Desktop. ?[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 313 inefficiently in small chunks rather than as a single block. This can slow file access significantly, so it is important to defragment th e hard drive on a regular basis. The Disk Defragmenter utility can be found in the Accessories ¾ System Tools folder on the Start menu of most Windows installations. • Check ha[...]

314 Pinnacle Studio 9 update from the vendor’s web- site (as usua l, enter the URL as continuous text on a single line): VIA: www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2 Intel: appsr.intel.com/scripts-df/filter_results.asp? strOSs=19&strTypes =DRV &ProductID=182& OSFullName=Windows*+ 2000&submit=Go%21[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 315 APPENDIX D: Videography tips To shoot good video, then crea te from it an interesting, exciting or informative movie, is som ething anyone with a little basic knowledge can achieve. Starting from a rough script or shooting plan, the first step is to shoot your raw video. Even at that stage, you should be looking ah[...]

316 Pinnacle Studio 9 Creating a shooting plan It is not always necessary to have a shooting plan, but it can be very helpful for large video projects. The plan can be as simple or as complex as you like. A simple list of planned scenes might be enough, or you might also want to include some notes regarding detailed camera directions or prep ared d[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 317 Editing Using varying perspectives An important event should always be shot from varying perspectives and camera positions. Later, during editing, you can use the best camera angles alone or in combination. Make a conscious effort to tape events from more than one cam era angle (first the clown in the circus ring, [...]

318 Pinnacle Studio 9 Transitions Cinematic timing requires som e practice. It is not always possible to film long events in their entirety, and in movies they often ha ve to be represented in severely abbreviated form. Nonetheless, the plot should remain logical and cuts shou ld almost never call attention to themselves. This is where the transiti[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 319 Logical sequence of action The shots strung together dur ing editing must interact appropriately in relation to the action. Viewers will be unable to follow the events unless the story line is logical. Capture viewer interest from the very beginning with a fast-paced or spectacular start and maintain that interest [...]

320 Pinnacle Studio 9 half of the frame one moment and in the right half of the frame the next, or may appear first with and then without eyeglasses. Do not string together pan shots Pan shots should not be st rung together unless they have the same direction and tempo. Rules of thumb for video editing Here are some guidelines that may be helpful w[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 321 • The less motion there is in a shot, the shorter it should be. Shots with fast movements can be longer. • Long shots have more content, so they should also be shown longer. Ordering your video sequen ces in a deliberate manner not only permits you to produc e certain effects, but even enables you to convey mes[...]

322 Pinnacle Studio 9 Cause and effect cuts Shots are related by virtue of cause and effect: without the first shot, the second would be incomprehensible. Example: A man fights with his wife and, in the very next shot, winds up sleeping under a bridge. Formal cuts Shots that vary in content can be strung together if they have something in common ?[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 323 of your video footage and should not be cut away altogether if at all possi ble, because video without natural sound can easily seem sterile and lacking in authenticity. Frequently, however, the recording equipment captures noises from aircraft and cars that do not appear in the scene later. Sounds such as these, o[...]

324 Pinnacle Studio 9 titles on a very black background. Some video systems are unable to handle contrast ratios in excess of 1:40 and are unable to reproduce such titles in detail. Time on screen As a rule of thumb, a title should be displayed long enough to be read twice. Allow about three seconds for a title with ten le tters. Allow an a ddition[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 325 APPENDIX E: Glossary Multimedia terminology contains co mputer and video terminology. The most important term s are defined below. Cross-references are indicated by  . ActiveMovie: Software interface by Microsoft for the control of multimedia devices under Windows.  DirectShow, DirectMedia ADPCM: Acronym for Adaptive[...]

326 Pinnacle Studio 9 by shading the edges with pixels intermediate in color between the edge and the background, making the transition less apparent. Another method of anti- aliasing involves using highe r resolution output devices. Aspect ratio: The ratio of width to height in a n image or graphic. Keeping the aspect ratio fixed means that any ch[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 327 Bitmap: An image format m ade up of a collection of dots or “pixels” arranged in rows.  Pixel Blacking: The process of preparing a videotape for insert editing by recording video black and continuous control track on the entire tape. If the recording deck supports timecode, continuous timecode will be recorded simul[...]

328 Pinnacle Studio 9 Closed GOP:  GOP Codec: Contraction of compressor/decompressor – an algorithm that compresses (packs) and decompresses (unpacks) image data. Codecs can be implemented in either software or hardware. Color depth: Number of bits delivering the color information for each pixel. A 1-bit color dep th allows 2 1 =2 colors, an 8[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 329 image quality is sacrif iced. The loss of quality m ay be negligible or severe depending on the amount of compression. Cropping: Choosing the area of an image to be displayed. Data rate: The quantity of data transmitted per unit time; for example, the num ber of bytes read from or written to a hard drive per second, or the[...]

330 Pinnacle Studio 9 Dithering: Increasing the number of apparent colors in an image by the applicat ion of color patterns. Decibel (dB): A unit of measurem ent of the loudness of sound. An increase of 3 dB doubles the loudness. Digital8: Digital videotape format that records  DV - coded audio and video data on  Hi8 tapes. Currently sold onl[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 331 its data without power s upply. The memory contents can be erased with ultraviolet ligh t and rewritten. Fade to/from black: A digital effect that fades up from black at the beginning of a clip or down to black at the end. Field: A  frame of video consists of horizontal lines and is divided into two fields. The odd line[...]

332 Pinnacle Studio 9 GOP: In  MPEG com pression the data stream is first divided into “Groups Of Pictures” – sections of several frames each. Each GOP contains three types of frames: I-Frames, P-Fram es (pictures) and B-Frames. GOP size: The GOP size defines, how many I-Fram es, B-Frames and P-Frames are includ ed in one  GOP . For exa[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 333 IEEE-1394: Developed by Apple Computers and introduced as FireWire, this is a serial data transmission protocol with rates up to 400 Mbits/sec. Sony offers a slightly modified version for transmitting DV signals named i.LINK, providing transmission speeds up to 100 Mbits/sec. Image: An image is a reproduction, or picture o[...]

334 Pinnacle Studio 9 Kbyte (also KB): One Kbyte (kilobyte) contains 1024  bytes . The “K” here stands for the number 1024 (2 10 ), and not 1000 as in the metric prefix. Key color: A color whose display is suppressed so that a background image can show through. Most commonly used when overlaying one video sequence on top of another, allowing[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 335 Modulation: The encoding of information upon an empty carrier signal. Motion-JPEG (M-JPEG): A  Video for Windows format, specified by Micros oft, for encoding video sequences.  JPEG compression is used to compress each frame individually. MPA: (File extension for) an MPEG file that contains audio data only.  M1V ,[...]

336 Pinnacle Studio 9  byte ) can be transm itted at once. This kind of transmission is much faster than serial transm ission, but is not appropriate fo r long-distance connections. Parallel ports are often named “LPT n ”, where n is a number (e.g. “LPT1”).  Serial port Pixel: The smallest element of a monitor im age. The word is an a[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 337 RGB: Red, Green and Blue: the primary colors in additive color mixing. RGB designates the m ethod used in computer technology of encoding image infor- mation in pixels, each containing som e combination of the three primaries. ROM: Read Only Memory: Memory storage that, having been programmed once, retains its data without[...]

338 Pinnacle Studio 9 Single frame: A single  frame is part of a series or sequence. When this series is viewed at sufficient speed, the illusion of a “movi ng picture” is created. Software codec: Compression method that can create and play back compressed digital video sequences without special hardware. The quality of the sequences depends[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 339 TrueColor: The name indicates an image with enough color resolution to appear “t rue to life”. In practise, TrueColor normally refers to 24-b it RGB color, which allows about 16.7 million com binations of the red, green and blue primary colors.  Bit , HiColor TWAIN driver: TWAIN is a standardized software interface [...]

340 Pinnacle Studio 9 Video scan rate: Frequency with which the video signal is scanned onto an im age display. The higher the video scan rate, the higher the image quality and the less noticeable the flicker. WAV: (File extension for) a popular file format for digitized audio signals. White balance: In an electronic camera, this is the adjustment [...]

Appendix F: License agreement 341 APPENDIX F: License agreement Pinnacle End User License Agreement This End User License Agreement ("License ") is a legal agreement between you and Pinnacle Systems ("Pinnacle ") regarding Pinnacle’s software and the accompanying documentat ion (collectively, the "Software"). CAREFUL[...]

342 Pinnacle Studio 9 2. License Restrictions. You may not, or allow any third party to, (a) rent, lease, sell, loan or otherwise transfer the Software or any of your rights and obligations under this License; (b) install the Software on a network for use by multiple users, unless each user has purc hased a license; (c) reverse-engineer, decompile [...]

Appendix F: License agreement 343 security related updates may i mpair the Software (and any other software on your computer which specif ically depends on the Software) including disabling your ability to copy and/or play "secure" content, i.e. content protected by digital rights management. In such an event, Pinnacle and/or its lice nso[...]

344 Pinnacle Studio 9 AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. LICENSOR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE. 11. LIMITATION OF LIA BILITY. YOU AGREE THAT IN NO EVENT WILL PINNACLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL , SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES WHA[...]

Appendix G: Keyboar d shortcuts 345 APPENDIX G: Keyboard shortcuts The terms Left , Right , Up and Down in this table refer to the arrow (cursor) keys. Main Studio interface Space bar Play and stop J Fast reverse (hit multiple times for faster playback) K Halt playback L Fast forward (hit multiple times for faster playback) X or Ctrl+Up Step forwar[...]

346 Pinnacle Studio 9 Left Select previous clip Right Select next clip Delete Delete selected clip(s) Insert Split clip at scrubber position Page up Go to next page in Movie Window Page down Go to previous page in Movie Windo w Numeric pad + Zoom in the Timeline Numeric pad - Zoom out the Timeline C Set menu chapter V Clear menu chapter M Set retur[...]

Appendix G: Keyboar d shortcuts 347 Ctrl+Left Reduce horizontal scale of, or squeeze (kern), text selection depending on current edit mode (move/scale/rotate or kern/skew/leading) Ctrl+Right Increase horizontal scale of, or stretch (kern), text selection Ctrl+Down Reduce scale or leading of text selection depending on curre nt edit mode Ctrl+Up Inc[...]

[...]

Index 349 Index A A/B editing, 121 Abbreviati ons, xiv Album Clipboard operations, 74 Disc Menus section, 56, 165 Drag-and-drop editing, 74 Filled during capture, 17 Image sections, 148 Interface features, 38 Introduced, 17 Menu usage, 39 Overview, 35 Previewing, 6, 37 Preview-quality scenes, 27 Selecting video scenes, 44 Sound Effects section, 54 [...]

350 Pinnacle Studio 9 Audio clips, 63 Interface details, 211 Trimming, 208 Audio com pression, 26 5 Settings (for AVI output), 265 Audio effects, 220 Basic, 221 Equalizer, 223 Grungelizer, 224 Icons, 221 Karaoke, 225 Leveler, 226 Noise reduction, 221 Reverb, 226 Tool, 220 Unlocking, 97 Audio level s Changing during capture, 18 In analog capture, 34[...]

Index 351 Encoding, 26 File-naming convention, 24 , 28 File-size limitations, 24 Format options, 252 From analog sources, 32 From DV, 26, 29, 31 From MicroMV, 27, 31 Full-quality, 26, 29, 30 Hardware, 21 MPEG options, 256 Preparing hard drive, 278 Preview-quality, 26, 27 Scene detection, 25 Source options, 248 Sources, 21 Step-by-step, 23 To multip[...]

352 Pinnacle Studio 9 Delete clip button, 60 Deleting clips, 60 Deleting scenes, 60 Devices Capture, 22, 248 Dialog boxes Main Options, 247 Make Movie Options, 247 Options, 247 Digital8 No timecode on analog tapes, 29 DirectX, xii Disc MPEG encoding, 29 Previewing, 167 Saving movie to, 242 Disc chapter c ommand, 1 66 Disc menu to ol, 70, 17 5 Disc [...]

Index 353 Effects Audio. See Audio effects Video. See Video effects Emboss (vide o effect), 113 Equalizer (audio effect), 223 Equipment requirements, xi F Fade Adjusting balance on Timeline, 214 Fade (transition), 139 Fades Default duration of, 257 In video effects, 99 File name Project, 59 File types AVI, 54, 229 Image, 53 MP3, 54 MPEG, 229 MPG, 2[...]

354 Pinnacle Studio 9 Insert edit A/B, 121 Insert edi ting, 89 Audio, 90 Introduced, 89 Method, 89 Internet, 240 Sharing movies on, 229, 240 J J-cut A/B, 122 Defined, 91 Explained, 94 Jog buttons, 9 K Karaoke (audio e ffect), 225 Ken Burns, 152 Keyboard conven tions, xv L Layers In Title Editor, 181 L-cut A/B, 122 Defined, 91 Explained, 91 Lens fla[...]

Index 355 Views, 62 MP3 files, 54 MPEG AVI vs. MPEG, 234 Capture options, 256 Captures from DV, 30 Encoding of DV captures, 26, 29 For DVD etc., 29, 30 MPEG-1 vs. MPEG-2, 267 Quality options, 31 Saving movie as, 237 Multiple capture files Using, 75 Multiple selection In Title Editor, 186 Multitrack editing, 119 Music, 197, See Background mus ic Sel[...]

356 Pinnacle Studio 9 Overlays track And still images, 147 P PAL, 249 Pan and zoom Video effect, 156 Pan-and-zoom Animated, 154 Complex animations, 155 Photos, 152 Tool, 151 Parameters for effects Resetting, 99 Parameters for plu g-in effects Presets, 99 Parameters for vide o effects Editing, 98 Passport, 14 Perspectives Varying, 317 Photos Editing[...]

Index 357 S Save as MPEG File, 237 Save as RealVi deo, 239 Save as Windows Media, 239 Save to disc, 242 Scene detection, 25, 42 Menu commands, 50 Options, 250 Scenes. See Video scenes Scenes (videogr aphy tip), 320 Scrubber, 9 SCSI, xii Sepia (video effect), 109 Set Thumbnai l menu comm and, 42 Settings. See Options Setup menu, 4 Setup optio ns, 24[...]

358 Pinnacle Studio 9 Not on analog tapes, 29 Striping, 28 Timeline Adjusting volume on, 213 Audio tracks, 199 Editing disc menus on, 168 Locking tracks, 87 Overla y vide o, 119 Placing disc menus on, 166 Tracks, 63 Trimming clips on, 78 Timeline view, 62, 63 Advanced editing in, 87 Insert editing, 89 Splitting clips in, 86 Timescale, 63 Title Choo[...]

Index 359 Default duration of, 257 Described, 137 Displaying type, 51 Dissolve, 140 Effect on clip duration, 138 Fade, 139 Groups, 51 Hollywood FX, 139, 140 In audio, 142 Looping in preview, 146 Naming, 145 On Timeline, 137 Previewing, 52, 141, 146 Reversing direction, 145 Ripple transition, 143, 149 , 164 Section (of Album), 50 Setting duration of[...]

360 Pinnacle Studio 9 Trimming on the Timeline, 78 Trimming tips, 82 Undoing trim, 85 Using audio portion only, 75 Video effect s, 95 Adding, 102 Adding and deleting, 97 Auto color correct, 103 Basic, 101 Black and white, 107 Blur, 112 Changing parameters, 98 Chroma key, 132 Cleaning effects, 103 Color correction, 108 Color effects, 107 Emboss, 113[...]