Pinnacle Studio 9
Including Studio SE, Studio QuickStart,
Studio Standard and Studio Plus
Easy, MORE Powerful,
MORE Creative Video Editing
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 property restrictions from Pinnacle Systems’
products or manuals. Pinnacle Systems, Pinnacle Studio Plus,
TitleDeko, RTFx and VST are registered trademarks and/or
trademarks of Pinnacle Systems, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the
United States and other countries.
Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. © 1992-2003
Dolby Laboratories. All rights reserved. Dolby is a trademark of
Dolby Laboratories. mpegable DS 2.2 © 2004 Dicas Digital Image
Coding GmbH. Pentium, Centrino, the Intel Centrino logo and the
Intel Inside logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel
Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other
countries. QDesign MPEG-1 Layer 2 Fast Encoder/Decoder © 19962002 by QDesign Corporation. QuickTime and the QuickTime logo
are trademarks used under license. The QuickTime logo is registered
in the U.S. and other countries. The RealProducer is included under
license from RealNetworks, Inc. Real Producer version 8.0.
copyright 1995-2002, RealNetworks, Inc. “RealProducer",
“RealVideo,” “RealServer,” and “Real” logo are trademarks or
registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. All rights reserved.
SmartSound is a registered trademark of SmartSound Inc.
Windows Media is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
No part of this manual may be copied or distributed, transmitted,
transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human
or computer language, in any form by any means, electronic,
mechanical, magnetic, manual, or otherwise, without the express
written permission of Pinnacle Systems, Inc.
Pinnacle Systems, Inc.
280 North Bernardo Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94943
Printed in the USA.
ii Pinnacle Studio 9
Table of contents
BEFORE YOU START..................................................XI
Equipment requirements......................................................................... xi
Abbreviations and conventions.............................................................xiv
On-line help...........................................................................................xv
CHAPTER 1: USING STUDIO ....................................... 1
Undo, Redo, Help and Unlock.................................................................2
Setting options.........................................................................................3
Edit mode .................................................................................................... 5
The Player................................................................................................ 6
Playback controls..................................................................................... 8
Further editing topics............................................................................. 11
Expanding Studio ..................................................................................11
CHAPTER 2: CAPTURING VIDEO.............................. 15
The Capture mode interface.................................................................... 17
The Diskometer ..................................................................................... 19
The Camcorder Controller..................................................................... 20
The capture process..................................................................................21
Capture hardware...................................................................................21
Capture step-by-step..............................................................................23
Scene detection......................................................................................25
Table of contents iii
Digital capture .......................................................................................... 26
SmartCapture: Preview-quality capture................................................. 27
Full-quality capture................................................................................29
Audio and video levels – digital ............................................................31
Analog capture..........................................................................................32
Capture quality options.......................................................................... 32
Audio and video levels – analog............................................................ 33
CHAPTER 3: THE ALBUM .......................................... 35
The Video Scenes section ......................................................................... 38
Opening a captured video file................................................................ 40
Viewing captured video......................................................................... 43
Selecting scenes and files ...................................................................... 44
Displaying scene and file information...................................................45
Comment view.......................................................................................46
Combining and subdividing scenes .......................................................47
Redetecting scenes................................................................................. 49
The Transitions section............................................................................50
The Titles section......................................................................................52
The Still Images section ...........................................................................53
The Sound Effects section........................................................................54
The Disc Menus section............................................................................ 56
CHAPTER 4: THE MOVIE WINDOW........................... 59
Movie Window views................................................................................62
Storyboard view.....................................................................................62
Timeline view........................................................................................63
Text view...............................................................................................67
The toolboxes ............................................................................................ 67
The Video toolbox.................................................................................69
The Audio toolbox................................................................................. 71
iv Pinnacle Studio 9
CHAPTER 5: VIDEO CLIPS ........................................ 73
Video clip basics .......................................................................................74
Adding video clips to your movie .........................................................74
Working with multiple capture files......................................................75
Interface features ...................................................................................76
Trimming video clips................................................................................78
Trimming on the Timeline using handles.............................................. 78
Clip-trimming tips ................................................................................. 82
Trimming with the Clip properties tool................................................. 83
Resetting trimmed clips.........................................................................85
Splitting and combining clips .................................................................. 86
Advanced Timeline editing ......................................................................87
Insert editing..........................................................................................89
Split editing ...........................................................................................91
Using video effects .................................................................................... 95
Working with the effects list..................................................................96
Changing effect parameters...................................................................98
Fading effects in and out .......................................................................99
Previewing and rendering.................................................................... 100
Video effects – the basic set....................................................................101
Cleaning effects....................................................................................... 103
Auto color correct................................................................................ 103
Noise reduction.................................................................................... 104
Stabilize ............................................................................................... 104
Time effects ............................................................................................. 105
Speed ................................................................................................... 105
Strobe................................................................................................... 106
Color effects ............................................................................................ 107
Black and white ................................................................................... 107
Color correction................................................................................... 108
Posterize ..............................................................................................108
Sepia .................................................................................................... 109
Table of contents v
Fun effects ...............................................................................................109
Lens flare.............................................................................................110
Noise.................................................................................................... 110
Water drop...........................................................................................111
Style effects..............................................................................................112
Blur......................................................................................................112
Emboss ................................................................................................113
Mosaic ................................................................................................. 113
Old film ...............................................................................................114
Stained glass ........................................................................................ 115
The SmartMovie music video tool.........................................................115
CHAPTER 6:
TWO-TRACK EDITING WITH STUDIO PLUS ... 119
Introducing the overlay track............................................................... 119
A/B editing ..........................................................................................121
The Picture-in-picture tool................................................................... 123
The Chroma key tool...........................................................................128
Selecting colors ...................................................................................135
CHAPTER 7: TRANSITIONS..................................... 137
Transition types and their uses ............................................................138
Previewing transitions in your movie..................................................141
Audio transitions .................................................................................142
The Ripple Transition command ......................................................... 143
Trimming transitions ............................................................................. 144
Trimming with the Clip properties tool............................................... 145
CHAPTER 8: STILL IMAGES .................................... 147
Editing still images .................................................................................150
Editing image clip properties............................................................... 150
The Frame Grabber ............................................................................... 158
The Frame grabber tool ....................................................................... 158
vi Pinnacle Studio 9
CHAPTER 9: DISC MENUS....................................... 161
Disc authoring in Studio......................................................................163
Using menus from the Album..............................................................165
The DVD Player Control.....................................................................167
Editing menus on the Timeline............................................................ 168
Editing with the Clip properties tool ................................................... 170
The Disc menu tool.............................................................................. 175
CHAPTER 10: THE TITLE EDITOR .......................... 177
Launching the Title Editor................................................................... 178
The Title Editor controls .......................................................................179
Title-type buttons................................................................................. 179
Object toolbox ..................................................................................... 180
Editing-mode selection buttons ........................................................... 183
Object layout buttons........................................................................... 185
Clipboard and delete buttons ............................................................... 187
Text-styling controls............................................................................ 187
The Title Editor Album .........................................................................189
The Looks Browser .............................................................................189
The Backgrounds section..................................................................... 191
The Pictures section............................................................................. 192
The Buttons section ............................................................................. 193
CHAPTER 11: SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC........ 197
The Timeline audio tracks ...................................................................199
The CD audio tool...............................................................................201
The SmartSound tool ........................................................................... 203
The Voice-over tool ............................................................................. 205
Trimming audio clips ............................................................................. 208
Trimming with the Clip properties tool............................................... 208
Audio volume and mixing...................................................................... 210
Anatomy of an audio clip .................................................................... 211
Adjusting audio on the Timeline ......................................................... 213
The Volume and balance tool..............................................................215
Table of contents vii
Audio effects............................................................................................220
Noise reduction.................................................................................... 221
Equalizer.............................................................................................. 223
Grungelizer..........................................................................................224
Karaoke ...............................................................................................225
Leveler.................................................................................................226
Reverb .................................................................................................226
CHAPTER 12: MAKING YOUR MOVIE..................... 229
Outputting to a camera or video recorder... .........................................231
Output your movie to videotape ..........................................................232
Save your movie as an AVI file........................................................... 234
Save your movie as an MPEG file....................................................... 237
Save as RealVideo or Windows Media ...............................................239
Share your movie via the Internet........................................................ 240
Output your movie to DVD, VCD or S-VCD...................................... 242
Copying an AVI file to tape.................................................................245
APPENDIX A: SETUP OPTIONS .............................. 247
Capture source settings........................................................................248
Capture format settings........................................................................ 252
Edit settings ......................................................................................... 256
CD and voice-over settings.................................................................. 260
Make tape settings ............................................................................... 262
Make AVI file settings ........................................................................264
Make MPEG file settings ....................................................................266
Make RealVideo file settings...............................................................268
Make Windows Media file settings ..................................................... 271
Make disc settings ...............................................................................272
APPENDIX B: TIPS AND TRICKS ............................ 277
Hardware ............................................................................................. 277
Software............................................................................................... 279
Increasing the frame rate ..................................................................... 281
Studio and computer animation...........................................................282
Smart Capture Tips (DV only) ............................................................282
viii Pinnacle Studio 9
APPENDIX C: TROUBLESHOOTING ....................... 285
Technical help on-line ............................................................................ 286
Studio crashes in Edit mode ................................................................ 289
Capture error occurs on starting capture.............................................. 294
Studio hangs when rendering...............................................................297
CD or DVD burner is not detected ......................................................299
Studio hangs on launch or does not launch..........................................300
HollywoodFX transitions are still watermarked after upgrading......... 302
“Cannot initialize the DV capture device” error appears in Capture mode
............................................................................................................. 302
Installation problems .............................................................................306
Operation problems ...............................................................................308
APPENDIX D: VIDEOGRAPHY TIPS ........................ 315
Creating a shooting plan......................................................................316
Editing ................................................................................................. 317
Rules of thumb for video editing.........................................................320
Soundtrack production......................................................................... 322
Title .....................................................................................................323
APPENDIX E: GLOSSARY........................................ 325
APPENDIX F: LICENSE AGREEMENT .................... 341
APPENDIX G: KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS................ 345
INDEX ........................................................................ 349
Table of contents ix
Before you start
Thank you for purchasing Pinnacle Studio. We hope
you enjoy using the software.
This manual covers all versions of Studio, including
Studio Plus. Differences between versions will be
noted as applicable. Most of the time, the word
“Studio” will be used generically to refer to all versions.
If you have not used Studio before, we recommend that
you keep the manual handy for reference even if you
don’t actually read it all the way through.
In order to ensure that your Studio experience gets off
on the right foot, please review the three topics below
before continuing to Chapter 1: Using Studio.
Equipment requirements
In addition to your Studio software, here is what you
need to make a Studio editing system.
Computer
• Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 800 MHz or higher
(1.5 GHz or higher recommended)
Before you start xi
• Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Windows “Millennium”,
Windows 2000 or Windows XP (recommended).
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 Dolby Pro Logic compatibility if
previewing surround-sound mixes is required
• 256 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended)
• CD-ROM drive
• DVD drive for installing the bonus DVD containing
tutorial, electronic manual and bonus content. The
same content is available free on CD-ROMs from
the Pinnacle e-store (shipping cost not included).
• Speakers
• Mouse
• A microphone, if you want to record voice-overs
• 500 MB of free hard drive space to install software
• Optional CD burner for creating VideoCDs (VCDs)
or Super-VideoCDs (S-VCDs)
• Optional DVD burner for creating DVDs
The hard drive
Your hard drive must be capable of sustained reading
and writing at 4 MB/sec. Most drives are capable of
this. The first time you capture at full quality, Studio
will test your drive to make sure it is fast enough.
Video in the DV format occupies 3.6 MB of hard drive
space per second, so just four and a half minutes of DV
video will consume a full gigabyte on the drive.
xii Pinnacle Studio 9
If disk space is a concern with your DV captures, use
SmartCapture to capture your video at preview quality
(see “SmartCapture: Preview-quality capture” on 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 drive
dedicated to video capture. This avoids competition
between Studio and other software, including
Windows, for use of the drive during capture.
Video capture hardware
Studio can capture video from a variety of digital and
analog sources. Please see “Capture hardware” on page
21.
Video output hardware
Studio can output video to:
• Any DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR. This
requires an OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 (FireWire)
port (as provided by Pinnacle Studio DV). The
camcorder must be set up to record from DV Input.
• Any analog (8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or
SVHS-C) camcorder or VCR. This requires Pinnacle
Studio DC10plus, Studio AV, or another Pinnacle
card with analog outputs. Output to analog
camcorders or VCRs is also possible using a
Pinnacle Studio DV or other OHCI-compliant 1394
port if your DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR can
pass a DV signal through to its analog outputs (see
your camcorder manual and Chapter 12: Making
your movie, for more information).
Before you start xiii
Abbreviations and conventions
This guide uses the following conventions to help
organize the material.
Terminology
Studio: “Studio” and “Studio Plus” refer to the 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, FireWire, DV or i.LINK interfaces, ports
and cables.
Analog: The term “analog” refers to 8mm, Hi8, VHS,
SVHS, VHS-C or SVHS-C camcorders, VCRs and
tapes, and to Composite/RCA and S-Video cables and
connectors.
Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows
Names of buttons, menus and related items are written
in italics to distinguish them from the surrounding text,
whereas window and dialog names are written with
initial capital letters. For example:
Click the Edit menu button to open your menu in the
Title Editor.
Choosing menu commands
The right arrowhead symbol (¾) denotes the path for
hierarchical menu items. For example:
Select Toolbox ¾ Generate Background Music.
xiv Pinnacle Studio 9
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 on the Timeline.
Mouse clicks
When a mouse click is required, the default is always a
left-click unless otherwise specified:
Right-click and select Go to Title/Menu Editor.
On-line help
Two kinds of immediate help are always available
while you are working in Studio:
• On-line help: Click the help button in the Studio
main menu bar, or select the Help ¾ Help topics
menu, or press F1 to open Studio’s on-line help file.
• Tool tips: To find out what a button or other Studio
control does, pause your mouse pointer over it. A
“tool tip” appears explaining its function.
Before you start xv
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 (8mm, VHS etc.), digital
videotape (DV, Digital8), and live video from a video
camera, camcorder or webcam.
Capture mode is covered in Chapter 2: Capturing
video.
2. Edit: Arrange your video material as desired by
reordering scenes and discarding unwanted footage.
Add visuals, such as transitions, titles and graphics, and
supplementary audio, such as sound effects and
background music. For DVD and VCD authoring,
create interactive menus that give your audience a
customized viewing experience.
Edit mode is the arena for most of your work in Studio.
See “Edit mode” later in this chapter (page 5) for a
fuller introduction.
3. Make movie: When your project is complete,
generate a finished movie in your choice of format and
storage medium: tape, VCD, S-VCD, DVD, AVI,
MPEG, RealVideo or Windows Media.
Make Movie mode is covered in Chapter 12: Making
your movie.
Chapter 1: Using Studio 1
Setting the mode
Select which step of the 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 needed for the new mode.
Undo, Redo, Help and Unlock
The Undo, Redo, Help and
Unlock buttons are always to be
found in the top right corner of the Studio window, no
matter which of the three modes you are currently
working in.
• Undo allows you to back out of any changes you
have made to your project during the current session,
one step at a time.
• Redo reinstates the changes one by one if you undo
too far.
• The Help button launches Studio’s on-line help
system.
• The Unlock button lets you expand Studio by
purchasing and installing premium content. (See
page 11 for details.)
All other controls on the Studio screen are dedicated
to tasks within the current mode.
2 Pinnacle Studio 9
Chapter 1: Using Studio 3
Setting options
Most options in Studio are set using two tabbed dialog
boxes.
The first lets you control options 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 dialog boxes can be opened
individually with a corresponding command on the
Setup menu (e.g. Setup ¾ Capture Source). Once either
dialog box is open, however, all of its panels are
available through the tabs.
For simplicity, we generally refer to the different
options panels independently, as in “the Capture
source options panel”.
Detailed explanations of the options in both dialog
boxes are contained in Appendix A: Setup Options.
4 Pinnacle Studio 9
EDIT MODE
Studio opens in Edit mode each time it is launched,
because that is the mode you use most often. The 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 video and sound clips, and by
applying transitions and effects.
The Player provides playback and previewing for
whichever item is currently selected in Studio. That
may be an Album resource – such as a video scene,
title or sound effect – or your edited movie, complete
with transitions, titles, effects and several audio tracks.
The Player is covered below.
Chapter 1: Using Studio 5
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 selected in the Album.
It consists of two main areas: a preview window and
playback controls. The preview window displays video
images. The playback controls allow you to play the
video, or go to an exact position within it. These
controls come in two formats: standard and DVD.
Standard mode
The standard playback controls are similar to those on a
camcorder or VCR. They are used for viewing ordinary
video.
DVD mode
The DVD playback controls emulate the navigation
controls on a DVD player or remote control. Use them
6 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 previewing your movie. It can also
be used to display:
• Any type of Album content.
• Still images or titles from your movie.
• Changes to video effects in real time while you
adjust the parameter controls for the effects.
• Still frames from your video.
While viewing a still frame, you can step by as little
as a single frame in either direction with the “jog”
controls.
Note: The illustrations in this documentation use 16:9
(widescreen) video. When 4:3 (standard) video is
previewed, the Player is proportioned somewhat
differently than shown here, but its general appearance
is the same.
Chapter 1: Using Studio 7
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 contains at least one menu.
Playback controls
The Player presents either of two sets of playback
controls depending on the playback mode you choose.
When you play your movie back as ordinary video, you
will be using the standard playback controls. If your
movie uses disc menu navigation, you can play it back
as an optical disc with interactive on-screen menus by
using the DVD playback controls. Both groups of
controls are covered below.
The full-screen preview button: This button, just
below the bottom right-hand corner of the
preview window, switches to a full-screen preview. It
is available in both playback modes. The full-screen
display ends when your movie ends, or you doubleclick the screen or press the Esc key.
Standard playback controls
These buttons control playback in the Player.
Play / Pause: The Play button previews the
movie from the current position. Once preview
begins, Play becomes Pause. When playback is
paused, the Album scene or Movie Window clip
at which previewing stopped remains selected. The
[Space
8 Pinnacle Studio 9
] key can also be used to start and stop playback.
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 piece 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 back to the first frame of the material being
previewed.
Jog buttons: This pair of controls normally steps
your movie forward and backward by one frame
at a time. To step by seconds, minutes or hours instead
of frames, select the corresponding field in the counter
(see below), then use the jog buttons to modify it.
The Player scrubber
Use the Player scrubber to quickly traverse your
captured video or edited movie in either direction. The
scrubber position corresponds to the position of the
current frame in the captured video file (not just the
current scene) or in the edited movie (not just the
current clip). Thus the scrubber bar always represents
the entire length of the content being viewed.
As you move the scrubber, the preview window shows
the current frame.
The ability of the preview to keep up with the scrubber
depends on the speed of your computer. If you move
the Player scrubber slowly, the preview display
responds smoothly. As you increase the rate at which
you move the scrubber, the preview will jump frames.
The point at which it does so depends on your
hardware. The smoothness of the preview also
diminishes as the overall length of the material being
scrubbed increases.
Chapter 1: Using 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 Left and Right arrow keys.
You can also modify the value in a selected field by
using the jog buttons beside the counter or the Up and
Down arrow keys.
The master volume slider
This control sets the overall audio volume during
preview playback. It is equivalent to turning up the
master volume on your sound card using the system
volume tool. It does not affect the volume of the final
movie Studio creates in Make Movie mode.
The small loudspeaker icon at the right of the control
serves as a master mute button during playback.
DVD playback controls
These controls include the four
standard transport buttons
detailed above (Play/Pause, Fast
reverse, Fast forward, Go to
beginning) plus the DVD Player
Control, which is described under “The DVD Player
Control” on page 167.
10 Pinnacle Studio 9
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
Expanding Studio
One way to add pizzazz to your productions is to use a
variety of video and audio filters, animated transitions,
VCD and DVD menus, and sound effects.
Studio comes with comprehensive collections in all
these areas, but it’s also designed to grow along with
your needs. When you want a particular filter,
transition, menu or effect that isn’t part of the basic set,
an easy-to-use upgrade mechanism lets you find,
purchase and install the materials you need without
even leaving the program.
Some of the premium content available for
Studio does not even require downloading.
Studio’s Bonus Content DVD includes
numerous items, like the disc menu at left, that
initially appear as “locked” content in Studio,
Chapter 1: Using Studio 11
symbolized by a small padlock symbol in the top-left
corner of the icon. Such items 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 items can
sampled and purchased within Studio using the same
activation method as for the premium content included
with the program installation.
New tools, new media, new frontiers
You can purchase additional media and filters in any of
three ways from within Studio:
• With the Help ¾ Purchase activation keys
menu command (or the unlock shortcut
button at the top right of the Studio screen).
This opens a special browser window in which you
can access a catalog page for any type of premium
content that interests you.
• With the Album commands More transitions, More
sound effects and More menus.
These commands are found on the dropdown lists in
the corresponding sections of the Album. They will
enable you to download, try out and purchase
additional premium content that was not included
with the program installation.
• By clicking the unlock theme pack buttons found in
some parts of Studio.
These buttons can be found whenever premium
content is on display within Studio. The one above,
12 Pinnacle Studio 9
when seen in the Audio effects tool and the Video
effects tool, would let you unlock 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 set.
Similar buttons in the Album let you purchase all the
media on a particular Album page as a theme pack.
The Transitions section of the Album, open to the
“HFX Family Fun 1” theme pack of Hollywood FX
transitions. Click anywhere in the unlock panel on
the right-hand page to unlock this set of transitions.
How unlocking works
“Unlocking” premium content for Studio means to
obtain a license allowing you unrestricted use of the
content on the single machine where Studio is installed.
Chapter 1: Using Studio 13
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 Passport is specific to one computer, you
will need to obtain new activation keys if you install
Studio on a different machine. These will be provided
at no charge, but your user licenses for both Studio and
any premium content you have obtained then apply to
the new machine only.
Note: Although your Passport is specific to an
individual computer, it is not affected by ordinary
hardware modifications such as adding or removing
expansion cards, drives or memory.
If you don’t have an Internet connection...
You can purchase and apply premium content
activation keys even if you don’t have an Internet
connection on the computer where Studio is installed.
When you click one of the unlock links within Studio, a
dialog will be displayed showing information needed
for ordering the specific content you want, including:
• An Internet URL where you can activate the content
• Numeric identifiers for the Studio program and the
item you want to activate
• Your Passport and your Serial Number
Navigate to the given URL from another computer,
enter the information, and complete the purchase as
directed.
14 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 Chapter 3: The Album).
Capture is the first step in using your video footage.
Studio is able to capture from both digital (DV,
MicroMV) and analog video sources. See “Capture
hardware” on page 21 for details on configuring Studio
to capture from your equipment.
Availability: Capturing video from MicroMV camcorders is supported
only under Windows XP.
Switching to Capture mode
The very first step in capturing is to switch into
Studio’s Capture mode by clicking the Capture button
at the top of the screen.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 15
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.
• “The Capture Process” (page 21) covers setting up
for your hardware, gives step-by-step capturing
instructions, and describes the automatic scene
detection feature.
• “Digital capture” (page 26) and “Analog capture”
(page 32) cover topics specific to each type of source.
16 Pinnacle Studio 9
THE CAPTURE 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 digital, your Capture mode
screen will look like this:
The Album, at the top left of the screen, displays icons
representing the video scenes as they are captured. The
Player, at top right, lets you view the incoming video
while cueing for capture, and monitor the capture itself.
Readouts on the Player tell you the exact length of the
captured video, and the number of frames dropped
during the capture (normally zero).
Chapter 2: Capturing video 17
The Camcorder Controller, at bottom left, provides a
tape counter display and a set of transport controls for
operating the playback device. Finally, the Diskometer,
at bottom right, displays the capture space remaining
on the drive. It also provides the Start Capture button
and buttons for setting capture options.
The Diskometer and the Camcorder Controller are
described in detail beginning on page 19.
Analog capture
Both the Album and the Player are used in analog as
well as digital captures, so when you capture from an
analog source the top half of the screen is the same as
shown and described above for digital sources.
Not the bottom half of the screen, however. It now
features a second version of the Diskometer, with two
fly-out panels for adjusting audio and video levels
during capture. (The panels are described under “Audio
and video levels – analog” on page 33.)
Digital vs. analog
To summarize, the digital and analog setups reflect two
major differences in capability:
• The digital setup lets you control the tape transport
of the camcorder or VCR using the Camcorder
Controller.
• The analog setup lets you modify audio and video
levels dynamically during capture.
18 Pinnacle Studio 9
The Diskometer
The Diskometer displays, both numerically and
graphically, the amount of space available on your
capture drive. It also indicates the approximate duration
of video that can be accommodated, which depends on
both the available space and the configured capture
quality. Capture quality settings are selected using the
preset buttons that are displayed on the Diskometer for
some capture devices, or by entering custom settings.
See “Capture source settings” (page 248) and “Capture
format settings” (page 252) for information on capture
settings.
The Diskometer when capturing from a digital
source (L) and an analog source (R). Click the side
tabs on the analog version to open fly-out panels for
adjusting video and audio levels during capture.
The Start capture button on the Diskometer begins and
ends the capture process. The caption changes to Stop
capture while the operation is in progress.
The default save location for captured video is your
system’s Shared video directory.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 19
Setting the capture directory: To save captured video
to a different location, click the file folder button .
This displays the Select Folder And Default Name For
Captured Video dialog. The folder you assign will be
used to store captured video during this and future
sessions. The file name you enter will be offered as the
default file name on your next capture.
The Camcorder Controller
This panel of transport controls is shown in Capture
mode if you are capturing from a digital video source.
(Analog devices must be cued and operated manually.)
The Camcorder Controller and a close-up view of
the transport controls. The counter window above
the control buttons displays the current position of
the source tape, along with the current transport
mode of the camcorder.
From left to right, the transport control buttons are:
Stop, Rewind / Review, Play, Fast forward / Cue and
Pause.
The Frame reverse and Frame forward buttons (second
row) let you locate the exact frame you want. These
two buttons are available only when the device is in
pause mode.
20 Pinnacle Studio 9
THE 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 information.
Performing the actual capture is a straightforward stepby-step procedure (see page 23). As the capture
proceeds, Studio automatically detects the natural
breaks in the incoming video and divides the material
into “scenes”. Upon detection, each scene is added to
the Album, where it is represented by an icon of its first
frame. Automatic scene detection is described starting
on page 25.
Some capture options apply to digital captures only or
to analog captures only. These are covered in their own
sections, “Digital capture” (page 26) and “Analog
capture” (page 32).
Capture hardware
Studio can capture digital and analog video from the
following sources, depending on your hardware:
• Digital: A DV, MicroMV or Digital8 camcorder
connected to an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) port.
• Analog: A camcorder or VCR with analog outputs
connected to a DirectShow-compatible capture board
or external device.
• Analog: A USB video camera or webcam.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 21
Availability: Capturing video from MicroMV camcorders is supported
only under Windows XP.
Pinnacle Systems offers a complete line of DV, analog,
and combination capture boards and devices. For more
information see your dealer or visit our web-site:
www.pinnaclesys.com
To select a capture device:
1. Click the Setup ¾ Capture Source menu command.
The Capture source options panel appears.
2. Select the devices you want to use from the Video
and Audio dropdown lists in the Capture devices
area, and click OK.
See “Capture source settings” on page 248 for
detailed information about the Capture source
options panel.
Standard vs. widescreen capture
Studio can capture in both the standard (4:3) and the
widescreen (16:9) frame aspect ratios. With digital
hardware, the frame format is detected automatically.
With analog hardware, you use the Aspect ratio
dropdown on the Capture source options panel to
select the format that matches the source material. You
can’t use this setting to change one format to another: it
simply lets Studio know how to display the video at the
correct aspect ratio.
22 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 descriptions of
the Capture source and Capture format options panels.
To capture video:
1. Verify that your equipment is properly connected.
For a digital (DV or MicroMV) capture, your
camcorder or VCR must be connected to your PC’s
1394 port.
For an analog capture, connect the source video to
the Composite or S-Video input of your capture
hardware. Connect your source audio to the audio
input of the capture hardware, if there is one;
otherwise, connect the audio to the audio input of
your PC’s sound card.
2. Click the Capture button at the top of the screen if
you are not already in Capture mode. The Capture
mode interface is displayed (see page 17).
3. Click the desired capture setting on the Diskometer.
If you need to make detailed adjustments, click the
Diskometer’s Settings button, which opens the
Capture format options panel (page 252).
For a DV capture, keep in mind that full-quality
capture uses much more disk space than does
preview quality. If you are planning to output your
finished movie to disc (VCD, S-VCD or DVD),
Chapter 2: Capturing video 23
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 larger will be your captured
video file. See “Digital capture” (page 26) and
“Analog capture” (page 32) for further explanation
of these options.
4. Click the Start capture button on the Diskometer.
The Capture Video dialog box is displayed.
5. Type in a name for the video capture file you are
about to create, or accept the default name. You can
optionally also enter a limiting duration for the
capture.
If you are making multiple DV captures in preview
quality from the same tape, use the file naming
convention described on page 28. It will help
streamline the Make Movie process later on.
Note: Windows 98 and Millennium have file size
limitations. For FAT16 disks the limit is 2 GB. For
FAT32 disks the limit is 4GB. Studio estimates
how much video of the desired quality the largest
allowable file can accommodate, and displays this
as the maximum duration for the capture.
6. If you are capturing from an analog camcorder or
VCR, start playback now. This step is unnecessary
with a digital-source capture, as Studio will control
the playback equipment automatically when needed.
7. Click the Start capture button in the Capture Video
dialog box. The button caption changes to Stop
capture.
Capture begins. The Player displays the incoming
digitized video that is being saved to your hard
24 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 if your hard
drive fills up or the maximum duration you entered
is reached.
Scene detection
Automatic scene detection is a key feature of Studio.
As video capture proceeds, Studio detects natural
breaks in the video and divides it up into scenes. A new
icon is created in the Video Scenes section of the
Album for each scene detected.
Depending on which capture device you are using,
automatic scene detection is carried out either in real
time during capture, or as a separate step immediately
after capture is completed.
You can configure scene detection using the options
under Scene detection during video capture on the
Capture source options panel (Setup ¾ Capture
Source). Not all scene detection options are available
with every type of video source. Options that do not
apply to your setup are disabled in the dialog.
The four possible options are:
• Automatic based on shooting time and date: This
option is available only when you are capturing from
Chapter 2: Capturing video 25
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 lighting is not
stable. To take an extreme example, a video shot in a
nightclub with a strobe light would produce a scene
each time the strobe flashed.
• Create new scene every X seconds: Studio creates
new scenes at an interval you choose. This can be
useful for breaking up footage that contains long
continuous shots.
• No automatic scene detection: Select this option if
you want to monitor the entire capture process and
decide for yourself where scene breaks should occur.
Press the [Space] key each time you want to insert a
scene break during capture.
DIGITAL CAPTURE
This section covers aspects of capturing from a DV
source deck (camcorder or VCR) and a 1394 port. To
read about capturing from analog hardware, please see
“Analog capture” on page 32.
Preview quality and full quality
When capturing in DV format from a DV device,
Studio offers the choices of preview quality (Smart-
26 Pinnacle Studio 9
Capture) and full quality. At full quality, two types of
encoding are available: 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 (page 31).
Note: If you are using a MicroMV camcorder connected to a 1394 port, the user interface in Capture
mode is almost identical to that for DV equipment.
However, most DV capture options and features are
not available with MicroMV captures, including
preview-quality capture and DV encoding. Captures
from MicroMV are always encoded as MPEG-2.
MicroMV is supported only under Windows XP.
SmartCapture: Preview-quality capture
SmartCapture is a unique feature of Studio. It allows
you to capture from DV videotape to a file of reducedquality video using minimal hard drive space. With
SmartCapture, you can capture an entire tape onto your
hard drive rather than having to pick and choose which
portions to capture. You can work with this “previewquality” material throughout the editing of your movie.
When your movie is finished and ready for output,
Studio will recapture any preview-quality clips at full
Chapter 2: Capturing video 27
quality, automatically controlling your source deck to
locate and capture the footage. The reduced quality of
the preview video therefore has no impact on the
quality of your finished movie. Scenes captured at
preview quality are denoted in the Album by a dotted
border.
Continuous timecode
For the greatest convenience in using SmartCapture,
your digital tape must have continuous DV timecode.
Studio cannot capture in preview quality through
breaks in the timecode. If your camcorder has a
timecode-striping feature, stripe your tape before
shooting. If it does not, the simplest way to avoid
timecode gaps is to overlap your shots if you start and
stop the camcorder during shooting. Before beginning a
new shot, rewind a few frames so that there will not be
a blank spot.
SmartCapture can still be used with tapes that do not
have continuous timecode throughout, but a separate
capture file must be created for each segment of the
tape. SmartCapture will stop capturing when a break in
timecode is detected. To continue capturing, cue the
tape to the start of the next video segment and click
Start Capture again.
Naming convention
If you capture multiple segments from the same tape,
we strongly recommend the following naming
convention: For each capture file that originates from
the same tape, use a name that starts with the same
word.
For example, if you have a tape that contains three
different activities from your vacation, you might call
28 Pinnacle Studio 9
the captures “vacation-picnic”, “vacation-sailing” and
“vacation-soccer”. Because Studio processes the files
in alphabetical order when recapturing, following this
convention will greatly reduce the number of times you
have to switch tapes during the Make Tape process.
Analog tapes and Digital8 camcorders
SmartCapture requires DV timecode. Analog tapes
(Hi8 and 8mm) do not have DV timecode even when
played in a Digital8 camcorder. As a result, it is not
possible to use SmartCapture with analog tapes played
in a Digital8 camcorder. To use your analog tapes with
Studio, either capture them at full quality, or copy them
to DV tape.
Full-quality capture
You have two choices for the way the video data is
encoded and compressed in full-quality captures. For
most purposes, DV format is the logical choice, but if
you are planning to output your finished movie to disc
(VCD, S-VCD or DVD), you may prefer the MPEG-1
or MPEG-2 format instead.
Because of the intensive computation required for
MPEG-2 encoding, older computers may not be fast
enough to achieve a satisfactory MPEG-2 capture. The
type of capture hardware you have and the capture
quality you choose also help determine the minimum
CPU speed needed. In cases where Studio is able to
estimate that your computer is not fast enough to carry
out a particular capture, it will advise you of the
problem and give you a chance to cancel the operation.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 29
An MPEG movie requires much less disk space than
the equivalent full-quality DV movie, although thanks
to SmartCapture this is not generally a concern.
DV
DV is a high-resolution format with correspondingly
high storage requirements.
Your camcorder compresses and stores video on the
tape at 3.6 MB/s, at a quality equivalent to broadcast
video. With full-quality capture, the video data is
transferred directly from the camcorder tape to your PC
hard drive with no changes or additional compression.
Because the video quality is high, capturing at this
setting does consume a lot of disk space, so you may
want to pick and choose small segments to capture
instead of the entire tape.
You can calculate the amount of disk space you will
need by multiplying the length of your video in seconds
by 3.6, which gives the number of megabytes required.
For example:
1 hour of video = 3600 seconds (60 x 60)
3600 seconds x 3.6 MB/s = 12,960 MB (12.7 GB)
Hence 1 hour of video uses 12.7 GB of storage.
To capture at full quality, your hard drive must be
capable of sustained reading and writing at 4 MB per
second. All SCSI and most UDMA drives are capable
of this. The first time you initiate a full-quality capture,
Studio will test your drive to make sure it is fast
enough.
MPEG
DVD and S-VCD discs both use files in MPEG-2
format, an extension of the MPEG-1 format used for
30 Pinnacle Studio 9
VCDs. MPEGs intended for use on the Internet will be
at lower resolutions and in MPEG-1 format.
The Capture format options panel (Setup ¾ Capture
Format) includes a variety of options to control the
quality of MPEG captures. Refer to “Capture format
settings” on page 252 for detailed information about
MPEG quality options.
Audio and video levels – digital
With DV and MicroMV captures, you are using audio
and video that have been encoded digitally during
recording, right in the camera. When you transfer the
footage through a 1394 port to your computer, the data
remains in the compressed digital format throughout,
so you cannot adjust the audio or video levels during
the capture. This is in contrast to analog captures,
where the audio and video can be adjusted as capturing
takes place.
With digital captures, you defer any needed adjustment
of audio and video levels until Edit mode, where Studio
provides plug-in video effects for adjusting the visual
balance of a clip, and audio effects to enhance the
sound. These effects allow you to adjust individual
clips rather than having to make global adjustments
affecting all the video in a capture file.
For more information see “Analog capture” (below),
“Using video effects” (page 95), and “Audio effects”
(page 220).
Chapter 2: Capturing video 31
ANALOG CAPTURE
The topics in this section relate to capture with analog
equipment, such as:
• A camcorder or VCR with analog outputs connected
to a DirectShow-compatible 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 port, please
refer instead to “DV capture” on page 26.
Capture quality options
With most analog capture hardware, Studio offers three
preset quality choices – Good, Better and Best – plus a
Custom option. Your hardware’s capabilities determine
how the presets translate into particular settings for
picture size, frame rate, compression characteristics
and quality. Keep in mind that the higher the quality,
the more disk space is required. Choose the Custom
preset to configure your own video capture settings.
For more information on video capture settings, see
Appendix A: Setup Options (page 252).
32 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 you can also adjust these levels with the
appropriate Video effects in Edit mode, setting them
correctly for capture can save you from having to
worry about color correction later on.
Setting your audio options correctly as you capture will
help in achieving consistent volume levels and quality.
Particular capture devices may offer fewer options than
are shown and discussed here. For instance, with
hardware that doesn’t support audio captures in stereo,
a balance control will not appear on the audio panel.
Video
Choose the type of video you are going to digitize by
clicking the appropriate Source button (Composite or
S-Video). The five sliders allow you to control the
Chapter 2: Capturing video 33
brightness (video gain), contrast (black level),
sharpness, hue and color saturation of the incoming
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 is video only. The
sliders on the tray let you control the input level and
stereo balance of the incoming audio.
34 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 need for making a movie are
stored in the various sections of the Album, each of
which is accessed by its own tab as follows:
Video Scenes: This section contains your
captured video footage. You can access and
preview the capture files directly, or you can load one
into the Album, where its scenes are represented by
thumbnail icons. To use some of the scenes in your
movie, just drag their icons into the Movie Window.
See “The Video Scenes section”, page 38.
Transitions: This Album section contains fades,
dissolves, slides, and other transition types,
Chapter 3: The Album 35
including the elaborate Hollywood FX transitions. To
use a transition, position it next to or between video
clips and graphics in the 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 titles from scratch,
or use or adapt the supplied ones. Studio supports rolls,
crawls, and many typographical effects. See “The
Titles section”, page 52.
Still Images: This is a section of photographs,
bitmaps and grabbed video frames. You can use
these images full-screen or as overlays on the main
video. Most standard image file formats are supported.
See “The Still Images section”, page 53.
Sound effects: Studio comes ready with a wide
range of high-quality sound effects. You can also
use wav, mp3 and avi files that you have recorded
yourself or obtained from other sources. See “The
Sound Effects section”, page 54.
Disc Menus: Studo has an extensive collection
of chapter menus to use in DVD, VCD and
S-VCD authoring. You can use these as they are,
modify them, or create your own. See “The Disc
Menus section”, page 56.
Using the Album
Each section of the Album contains as many pages as
are necessary to hold the icons representing the items in
that section. At the top right of each Album page,
Studio shows the current page number and the total
page count for the section. Click the arrows to move
forward or back through the pages.
36 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 allimportant Video Scenes section. Actually using the
contents of the Album to create your edited movie will
be the subject of chapters 4 through 11.
Source folders for Album content
The scene icons in the Video Scenes section come from
a captured video file, while the Transitions section is
filled from resource files associated with the Studio
program.
The icons in each of the other four Album sections are
different: they represent the files contained in a
particular disk folder. Each of these sections – Titles,
Images, Sound Effects and Disc Menus – has a default
folder assigned to it, but you can select a different
folder if desired.
The icons in the Titles section represent files stored
in a selected source folder on your hard drive. The
dropdown list at the top of the Album page lets you
select either “Standard Titles” or “My Titles” from
the installed “Titles” folder. The folder button beside
the list lets you look elsewhere on your hard drive.
The Disc Menus section works similarly.
Chapter 3: The Album 37
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 another folder on your system,
and select any file. The file you select will be
highlighted in the repopulated Album section.
Some Album sections also provide a Parent folder
button to facilitate moving around within a group of
folders containing appropriate media.
THE VIDEO SCENES SECTION
This is where the editing process really begins –
in the Video Scenes section of the Album with
your captured raw footage. In a typical production,
your first step will probably be to drag some scenes
from the Album down into the Movie Window (see
Chapter 5: Video Clips).
In the Album, scenes are displayed in the order in
which they were captured. This order cannot be
changed, since it is determined by the underlying
capture file, but scenes can be added to your movie in
any order you choose. Similarly, while you can’t trim
(edit) Album scenes, you can use any desired portion of
a scene when it appears as a clip in your movie.
Interface features
The Video Scenes section offers several special
interface features:
• The icons of scenes captured at preview quality are
drawn with a dotted outline in the Album. Scenes
captured at full quality do not have this outline.
38 Pinnacle Studio 9
• 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 originates with that scene.
• To see how a particular Album scene is used in your
current project, use the Album ¾ Find Scene in
Project menu command. Studio highlights any clips
in the Movie Window that originate in the selected
scene (or scenes). To go the other way, use the Find
Scene in Album command, which is on the rightclick menu for Movie Window clips.
• Nearly all menu commands that apply to scenes are
available both on the main Album menu, and on the
pop-up menu that appears when you right-click a
selected scene. When this documentation calls for a
menu command like Album ¾ Combine Scenes,
remember that an equivalent command is usually
available on the pop-up “context” menu as well.
Summary of operations
Because of its central role, the Video Scenes section of
the Album provides an extensive set of operations.
These are covered below in the following topics:
• Opening a captured video file
• Viewing captured video
• Selecting scenes and files
• Displaying scene and file information
• Comment view
• Combining and subdividing scenes
• Redetecting scenes
Chapter 3: The Album 39
Opening a captured video file
The default locations for your video files are the
Windows default capture folder and the My videos
folder. When you are viewing the folder contents 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 drive folders to access
stored video files. Both the current and previous folders
are also listed, if they are different from the two
standard locations, making four different folders that
may appear in the list at any one time.
Under Windows XP, the system capture folder is
located in the Windows’ “all users” documents folder.
The capture folder’s real name is My videos, but
Windows Explorer and Studio customarily call it by an
alias, Shared videos. This distinguishes it from My
videos in the user’s personal documents folder.
Under versions of Windows with no special shared
video folder, the default capture folder is called:
C:\My Documents\Pinnacle Studio\Captured Video
Under Windows 98, the full pathname of the My
Videos folder is:
C:\My Documents\My Videos
40 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 you 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 contents page.
• Click the parent folder button
.
Opening a file
When you open a video file, the file contents page is
displayed, showing icons that represent the scenes in
the file:
Three ways to open a digital video file:
• Select the file name on the dropdown list on the file
contents page.
• Double-click a file listed on the folder contents page.
• Click the browse for file button and use the Open
dialog to locate an avi, mpg or mp2 file on your
hard drive.
Chapter 3: The Album 41
Scene detection and thumbnails
The Album now fills with the detected scenes from
your captured video (see “Scene detection” on page 25).
Each scene is denoted by a thumbnail frame – an icon
of the scene’s first frame. It may be that the first frame
doesn’t make a good icon for the scene, so Studio lets
you pick a different one if desired.
To change thumbnails in the Album:
1. Select the scene to be changed.
2. Use the Player to find the frame you want used for
the thumbnail.
3. Click the Album ¾ Set Thumbnail menu command.
Video aspect ratios
Most digital video files provide format information that
allows Studio to detect the frame aspect ratio of 4:3 or
16:9 automatically. If the file does not provide aspect
ratio information, Studio defaults to the standard 4:3
format.
The Aspect Ratio 4:3 and Aspect Ratio 16:9 commands
on the Album menu let you manually set whichever
ratio you need. These commands also appear on the
right-button context menu for video scenes in the
Album.
Studio does not allow you to mix footage of different
aspect ratios in the same movie. If you want to add
16:9 footage to a 4:3 movie, or 4:3 footage to a 16:9
movie, you must first use whichever Aspect Ratio
command is needed to bring the Album scenes into
conformity with the movie. The new clips will be
squeezed or stretched as needed to match the movie.
42 Pinnacle Studio 9
Viewing captured video
Individual or multiple scenes in the open captured
video file can be viewed at any time.
To view captured video starting at a selected scene:
1. Click on the scene’s icon in the Album.
The Player displays the first frame of the selected
scene.
2. Click the Play button in the Player.
The Player now plays the selected scenes and any
subsequent ones. Progress is indicated in three
ways.
• The scenes highlight successively as they are
played.
• The Player scrubber shows the current point of
play relative to the entire movie.
• Scene thumbnails display a progress bar during
preview. As you continue to view your captured
video, the progress bar moves from one
thumbnail to the next.
Previewing digital video files
When a folder is open in the Album and the name of a
digital video file is selected, you can use the Player to
Chapter 3: The Album 43
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 ways to select scenes and
other items in the Video Scenes section of the Album.
Selected video scenes are indicated by a highlighted
border. Selected folders and video files are shown with
text highlighting.
Selected scenes have a highlighted border (center).
Selection techniques follow standard Windows
conventions. Use any of the following, separately or in
combination:
• Choose the Edit ¾ Select All menu command or
press Ctrl+A
to select all the scenes (or files and
folders) currently displaying in the Album, including
those on other pages.
• Shift-click to select a range of neighboring items.
44 Pinnacle Studio 9
• Ctrl-click to add or remove individual items from the
selection.
• Starting with the mouse pointer over a blank area of
the Album page, click and drag to “marquee” an area,
selecting all the items that intersect the area.
• Use the arrow keys to navigate the Album grid. Use
the arrows in combination with Shift
to select items
as you go.
Selected folders and video files have highlighted text.
Displaying scene and file information
As you move the mouse pointer over video
scenes, the pointer changes to a grabber symbol.
If you pause momentarily on the scene, the start
time and length is displayed in a pop-up box. If
you leave the grabber on the scene, the display
persists for several seconds. The start time shown is the
timecode from the original source video, in minutes,
seconds, and frames.
For information regarding video files
when the Video Scenes section is in
folder view mode, select Details view
in the Album’s right button context
menu. The file name, resolution, aspect ratio, duration
and frame rate are displayed. Switch back to a more
compact listing with Icon view.
Chapter 3: The Album 45
Comment view
In the default view for the Video Scenes section,
known as Scene view, each scene is represented by a
thumbnail frame icon. To see more 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 these captions is up to you:
they might be search keywords, or scene names, or text
comments describing the scene content. The default
caption is generated from the scene’s sequence number
and duration (e.g. “Scene 3, 7:21”).
If you click on a video scene, an in-place text field
appears, allowing you to enter the custom name or
comment.
Selecting scenes by name
A related option lets you select video scenes by
scanning for keywords in the comments. Use Album ¾
Select By Name to open this dialog box:
46 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 scenes, you might want to
combine or subdivide some into larger or smaller units.
Such adjustments are easily made.
To combine scenes in the Album:
1. Select the scenes to be combined.
2. Select Album ¾ Combine Scenes.
The selected scenes are combined into one.
Only selected adjacent scenes can be combined.
Furthermore, they are joined in the order in which
they appear in the Album, regardless of the order in
which they were selected. (Album order proceeds
across rows and then down the page.) To revert,
press Ctrl+Z, or click the undo button.
If the scenes you selected were not all neighbors,
each set of adjacent scenes is combined, but the
different sets are not combined with each other.
Chapter 3: The Album 47
Several selected scenes (black) 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 Scenes dialog box appears.
3. Choose the length of the subdivided scenes by
typing in a value.
The smallest allowed subdivision is one second.
Any video remaining after subdivision is added to
the last scene.
4. Click OK.
A progress bar appears, the scene is subdivided,
and new scenes are added to the Album. To revert,
press Ctrl+Z
48 Pinnacle Studio 9
, or click the undo button.
You can subdivide these scenes still further, if
desired, down to the minimum duration of one
second.
Three selected scenes are subdivided to a duration
of five seconds. The vertical stripes indicate fivesecond divisions within each scene. The uneven clip
timings at right occur because time left after
subdivision is added to the final divided scene; that
is also why scene 2 is ultimately unaffected by the
subdivision operation.
Redetecting scenes
If you combine or subdivide scenes and later decide
that you’d prefer to restore them to their original state,
you may redetect any scene or selection of scenes. The
detection results are identical to those obtained after
capturing, provided the same scene detection technique
is used.
If you have subdivided scenes, you must first
recombine them. Even if you cannot exactly recall the
initial state and so recombine more than is necessary,
the detection process will restore the original scene
sequence.
Chapter 3: The Album 49
To redetect scenes:
If you need to recombine any 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 as Studio detects the
scenes and repopulates the Album.
THE TRANSITIONS SECTION
The Transitions section of the Album provides a
large set of drag-and-drop clip transitions. To
keep things manageable, the transitions are divided into
groups. Use the dropdown list to select which group of
transitions you want to view. All the transitions in the
group are displayed, using as many Album pages as
necessary.
To learn about transitions, and how you can use them
in your movies, see Chapter 7: Transitions.
50 Pinnacle Studio 9
Studio’s transitions collection includes 74 standard
transitions, 52 Alpha Magic transitions, 16 unrestricted
Hollywood FX 3-D transitions, and many more
“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 freely available for you to
try, but a Studio 9 “watermark” will be superimposed
on part of the video frame during playback. To make
use of these transitions in an actual production, simply
open the Album to the desired transition, then click in
the unlock panel on the same Album page. You can
purchase an activation key in just a few minutes, with
no need to exit Studio.
The Transitions section of the Album, open to the
“HFX Family Fun 1” theme pack of Hollywood FX
transitions. Click anywhere in the unlock panel on
the right-hand page to unlock this set of transitions.
For more information about purchasing premium
content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
Displaying the transition name
As you move the mouse pointer over the transition
icons in the Album, the pointer changes to a grabber
Chapter 3: The Album 51
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 transition is displayed.
The display persists for several seconds or until
your mouse pointer moves off the transition.
Previewing transition effects
When you click on a transition icon, the Player
demonstrates the transition using the convention that
“A” represents the original clip and “B” the new clip.
The demonstration cycles for as long as the icon
remains selected.
To see a detailed view, stop the Player and use the jog
buttons (Frame reverse and Frame forward) to step
through the transition one frame at a time.
THE TITLES SECTION
This section of the Album contains a collection
of text titles in a variety of styles. They can be
used in your movie as either full-screen or overlay titles.
The difference is that in an overlay title the transparent
background is replaced by other material (usually a
video clip), whereas in a full-screen title, the
background is replaced with black.
52 Pinnacle Studio 9
In the Album, a gray checkerboard is used
to indicate the portion of a title that will be
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, you can
readily create your own titles when needed. However,
you may find it easier still to start with one of the
supplied titles and customize it in the Title Editor.
The Titles folder: The icons in the Titles section
represent files in the folder named at the top of each
left-hand page in the section. Titles that you have
created or modified can be added to the section by
saving them into this folder from the Title Editor. You
can also select a different folder to be the source of the
section (see “Source folders for Album content” on
page 37).
For information on using titles in your movie, see
Chapter 8: Still images.
THE STILL IMAGES SECTION
This section of the Album displays thumbnail
icons of image files, which may include grabbed
video frames, photographs and bitmapped drawings.
Most standard image file formats are supported. As
with video scenes, images that are in use in your
current movie are indicated by a green checkmark
symbol.
Chapter 3: The Album 53
The Still Images folder: The icons in the Still Images
section represent files in the folder named 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 from
the Title Editor. You can also select a different folder
to be the source of the section (see “Source folders for
Album content” on page 37).
For information on using still images in your movie,
see Chapter 8: Still images.
THE SOUND EFFECTS SECTION
Studio comes with a wide range of ready-to-use
sound effects. These wav files are installed into a
number of folders, covering categories such as
“animals”, “bells” and “cartoons”.
The Sound Effects folder: This section of the Album
displays the sound files contained in one disk folder,
named at the top of each left-hand page in the section.
You can display the sounds in a different folder – not
necessarily one of those installed by Studio – by
selecting a different folder to be the source for the
section (see “Source folders for Album content” on
page 37).
Besides wav (Windows “wave”) files, music files in
mp3 format and avi animation files are also displayed
in this section of the Album, and may be drawn upon
for supplemental audio in your productions.
54 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 unrestricted sound effects that
come with Studio, you will also find several folders of
effects in the UFX, or “Ultimate FX” series. These
effects are “locked” (indicated by a padlock symbol
beside the sound effect name in the Album).
Using the locked sound effects
These demo effects are freely available for you to try,
but a Studio 9 “watermark” will be superimposed on
part of the video frame whenever the sound is playing,
and an intermittent beep will be added to the
soundtrack. To make use of the effects in an actual
production, simply open the Album to the desired
effect, then click in the unlock panel on the same
Album page. You can purchase an activation key in just
a few minutes, with no need to exit Studio.
The Sound Effects section of the Album, open to the
“UFX House 2” theme pack of Ultimate FX sound
effects. Click anywhere in the unlock panel on the
right-hand page to unlock this set of effects.
For more information about purchasing premium
content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
Chapter 3: The Album 55
THE DISC MENUS SECTION
This section of the Album contains a collection of
artist-designed menus for VCD, S-VCD and
DVD authoring. Menus in Studio are really specialized
titles: they can be created and edited in the Title Editor,
and either saved from the editor into a disk folder or
incorporated directly into your movie.
As with video scenes and other visual resources, disc
menus that are in use in your movie are distinguished
in the Album by a green checkmark symbol.
For information on using disc menus in your movie,
see Chapter 9: Disc menus.
The Disc Menus folder: The icons in the Disc Menus
section represent files in the folder named at the top of
each left-hand page in the section. Menus can be added
to the section by storing them in this folder. You can
also select a different folder to be the source of the
section (see “Source folders for Album content” on
page 37).
The motion background symbol: Some of the menus
supplied with Studio incorporate a background of
moving video rather than a static picture, and you can
also create such menus yourself. This “motion
background” can help give a professional look to your
finished disc.
Menus with motion backgrounds are indicated by a
small symbol
Album icon.
in the bottom right-hand corner of the
Availability: Menus with motion backgrounds are not supported in
the SE and QuickStart versions of Studio.
56 Pinnacle Studio 9
Along with the many standard menus and motion
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 menu
icon.). Many of these professional DVD menus include
looping soundtracks.
Using the locked menus
The demo menus are freely available for you to try, but
a Studio 9 “watermark” will be superimposed on part
of the video frame whenever one is playing. If you
want to use one in an actual production, simply open
the Album to the desired menu, then click in the unlock
panel on the same Album page. You can purchase an
activation key in just a few minutes, with no need to
exit Studio.
The Disc Menus section of the Album, open to the
“Holiday” theme pack of Pinnacle Premium DVD
Menus. Click anywhere in the unlock panel on the
right-hand page to unlock this set of menus.
For more information about purchasing premium
content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
Chapter 3: The Album 57
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 contains several important
controls and displays. The toolbox buttons at the left of
the title bar open the Video toolbox and the Audio
toolbox, which are discussed on page 67.
To the right of the toolbox buttons is a text area where
the project file name is displayed. Status and warning
messages are also displayed in this area when required.
Further still to the right are the Clip Split and Clip
Delete buttons, while at the far right are three view
selection buttons (see “Movie Window views” on page
62).
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 59
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. If 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 Window, it is duplicated
and automatically trimmed to the split point.
The razorblade button can be used in conjunction with
the track-locking buttons in the Movie Window’s
Timeline view to carry out special operations such as
insert editing, and edits in which the audio leads or lags
behind the video. See “Advanced Timeline editing” on
page 87.
Splitting a clip: The placement of the edit line in the
original clip determines the split point. When you
apply the razorblade tool, Studio duplicates the clip
and trims away the portion after the split point in the
first copy and up to the split point in the second.
Delete Clip button – the trashcan
This button deletes the currently-selected content
in any of the Movie Window views. By default,
when video clips on the main video track of your
project are deleted in any view, the gap in your movie
60 Pinnacle Studio 9
that would otherwise be created by the deletion is
automatically closed up, and clips on other tracks are
removed or shortened as required to keep everything in
sync.
If you delete clips on other tracks, the default behavior
is that gaps between them are not automatically
removed, so the timing of other clips is not affected.
If you press the Ctrl key while clicking the delete
button, or pressing the Delete key, the default behavior
for the current track is reversed. That is, on the main
video track, Ctrl+Delete leaves a gap when the clip is
removed, while on the other tracks, the gap on the track
is closed up. In neither case are other tracks affected.
You can also access the delete operations through the
right-button context menu for clips on the Timeline.
The delete options on the right-button menu for
Timeline clips are not the same for clips on the main
video track (L) as for those on other tracks (R). The
menus summarize the context-dependent keyboard
shortcuts.
Positioning: edit line, scrubbers
The current position is the frame showing in the Player
when you are working with a clip in the Movie
Window. In the Timeline view, it is indicated by the
edit line. The current position can be changed by
moving either the Timeline scrubber (to which the edit
line is attached) or the Player scrubber.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 61
When the Clip properties tool is open, a third
scrubber, the trim scrubber, is available for
adjusting the current position within the clip during
trimming.
MOVIE WINDOW VIEWS
The Movie Window provides three different views of
your project: Timeline, Storyboard and Text. Select the
one you want to use by clicking the view selection
buttons in the upper right corner of the Movie Window.
Storyboard view
Storyboard view shows the order
of video scenes and transitions. It
62 Pinnacle Studio 9
uses thumbnail icons for quickly 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 relative to
the Timescale. This view also displays up to eight
tracks on which you can place various types of clip:
• Video, plus full-screen disc menus, titles
and graphics: The video track contains the
primary visual material in your production. See
Chapter 5: Video clips, Chapter 9: Disc menus and
Chapter 8: Still images for more information.
• Original (or “synchronous”) audio: The
original audio track contains the audio that
was captured along with the video from your camera.
You can manipulate the audio clips on this track to
achieve various effects using insert-editing and splitediting techniques. See “Insert editing” (page 89)
and “Split editing” (page 91) for more information.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 63
• 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 Studio Plus at any time if you need its
advanced capabilities. Original audio for overlay
video is stored on the linked audio track. See
Chapter 6: Two-track editing with Studio Plus for
details about the overlay track.
• Title and graphic overlays: Images placed on
the title track will be rendered as overlays
upon the main video, with transparent backgrounds.
See Chapter 8: Still images and Chapter 9: Disc
menus for more information.
• Sound effects and voice-overs: The audio
clips on this track are mixed with the original
audio track and the background music track to create
the final soundtrack for your movie. See Chapter 11:
Sound effects and music for full information.
• Background music: The background music
for your movies can be created to any desired
duration with the SmartSound tool (page 203) or
imported with the CD audio tool (page 201). Your
soundtrack can also make use of mp3 and other
music files (see page 197).
• Disc menus, chapter marks and return-to-
menu links: This is an extra track that appears
above the video track whenever the movie has at
least one disc menu. See Chapter 9: Disc menus for
information.
64 Pinnacle Studio 9
Because many editing operations can be carried out
only in Timeline view, you should choose it whenever
extensive, detailed or advanced editing is required.
Track locking
The video track normally takes precedence over all
other tracks for trimming or deleting. This has several
consequences:
• When you trim a video clip, clips running
simultaneously on other tracks are also trimmed.
• When you delete a video clip, the time segment it
used is also removed from any parallel clips.
• Clips that fall entirely within a deleted video clip’s
span are also deleted.
These behaviors can be bypassed when necessary with
a feature that allows you to “lock” any track independently of the others, thereby excluding it from editing
and playback operations.
The padlock buttons along
the right edge of the Movie
Window, can be clicked to
toggle locking for the
corresponding track. Tracklocking gives Studio insert-
edit and split-edit capability
(see Chapter 5: Video clips).
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 65
Track muting
The audio tracks can be
individually muted 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 you place clips in the Timeline view.
The status line: The status line area on the left of the
Movie Window title bar displays messages as you
place clips and perform other actions.
Placement symbols: While you are dragging a clip
into position on the Timeline, Studio provides feedback
to tell you whether the current placement of the clip is
valid. The mouse pointer shape and the colors of the
vertical placement lines indicate what you can and
cannot do.
For example, if you attempt to drag a sound onto the
video track, the placement guidelines turn from green
to red, the mouse pointer changes from “copy” to
66 Pinnacle Studio 9
“unavailable”, and the status 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
list showing the start and end times
of clips, as well as their duration. In addition, custom
names for clips are visible in this view.
THE TOOLBOXES
The toolboxes provide a convenient point-and-click
interface for editing operations – adding clips to your
movie, modifying existing clips and applying special
effects. Studio provides separate toolboxes for video
and for audio operations.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 67
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 display,
which contains two main areas:
• Tool selector buttons in a panel on the left. Clicking
one of these opens the corresponding tool.
• The currently-selected tool on the right. Double-
clicking a clip in the Movie Window also displays
the corresponding tool (except for title clips, which
are opened directly in the Title Editor when you
double-click).
All the tool-selector buttons, except the top one in each
set, open specialized tools. The top button in both
toolboxes is the Clip properties tool. It displays a tool
appropriate for trimming and otherwise editing the type
of clip currently selected in the Movie Window.
68 Pinnacle Studio 9
The Title Editor
One powerful tool that is not directly accessed through
the toolboxes is the Title Editor, in which you can
combine text, images and other graphic resources to
make titles and disc menus for your Studio productions.
Access the Title Editor through the Title and Disc menu
tools, or with the Go to Title/Menu Editor command
from the right-button context menu in the Movie
Window. See Chapter 10: The Title Editor for full
information.
The Video toolbox
The six tools in this toolbox modify or create visual
clip types, including video clips, titles, still images and
disc menus.
Clip properties: The Clip properties tool
adjusts the start and end times of any type of
clip. This is called “trimming”. The tool also allows
you to type in a descriptive name for the clip. The tool
also presents additional interface components
appropriate to the type of clip being edited.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 69
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 appearance 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
movie called chapter marks, which are represented on
the menu track in the Movie Window. The Edit Menu
button opens the Title Editor, where you can modify
the visual appearance of a menu.
Frame grabber: This tool takes a snapshot of a
single frame from your movie or from your
current video source. You can use it in your movie, or
save it for use in other applications. As with Capture
mode itself, this tool presents a different interface if
your current capture source is DV than if you are using
a non-DV source.
SmartMovie: This tool automatically combines your source footage with the digital song
file of your choice to create a music video in any of a
variety of styles.
Video effects: Studio provides numerous plugin video effects with this tool. Each video clip
or still image in your project can use effects, whether
alone or in combination.
Along with its basic library of useful effects, Studio
provides some “locked” premium effects that you can
try out. For information about purchasing premium
content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
70 Pinnacle Studio 9
The Audio toolbox
The six tools in this set operate on or create audio clips
– “original” audio, voice-overs, 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 can also enter a descriptive name
for the clip to replace the default name if desired. (Clip
names are displayed when the Movie Window is in
Text view.) The tool’s other controls vary depending
on the type of clip.
Volume and balance: This tool gives you
master volume controls for each of the three
audio tracks: original audio (audio captured with
video), sound effects and voice-overs and background
music. It also enables you to mute any or all of the
tracks, and to add real-time volume fades. Use the
balance and surround control to position each track
independently of the other two in a one-dimensional
stereo or two-dimensional surround-sound space.
When the overlay track is open, the tool provides a
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 71
fourth set of controls, which affect the overlay audio
track.
Availability: Surround sound is 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 part, from an audio CD.
Background music: This tool lets you add
background music using SmartSound, Studio’s
powerful music generator. Choose a style, song,
and version. Studio will create a musical soundtrack
that matches the duration of your movie.
Audio effects: This tool lets you apply plug-in
effects to any audio clip. The popular VST
standard for audio plug-ins is supported, enabling you
to augment your library with add-on and third party
effects. Factory-supplied effects include a configurable
noise reduction filter, graphic EQ, reverb and others.
Some “locked” premium effects are also included for
you to try out. For information about purchasing
premium content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio”
on page 11.
72 Pinnacle Studio 9
CHAPTER 5:
Video clips
The cornerstone of most Studio 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”
(start and end) points for each clip. The Movie
Window’s editing interface makes this “trimming”
process simple, rapid and precise. The methods covered
in this chapter for trimming video (“Trimming video
clips”, page 78) can for the most part also be applied to
the other types of clip (such as titles and sound effects)
that are covered in later chapters.
A later section of the chapter covers more advanced
editing techniques, including split edits and insert edits,
that you can use to give your movies a more
professional look. See “Advanced Timeline editing” on
page 87.
Finally, we’ll look at using visual effects in Studio, and
at some of the effects you can use in your movies - to
correct a flaw, to communicate an idea, or just for fun.
See “Video effects” on page 95.
Chapter 5: Video clips 73
VIDEO CLIP BASICS
The first step in creating a movie is to introduce some
video scenes from the Album into the Movie Window,
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 project.
This section explains how to add scenes to your movie,
and how to work with scenes from multiple capture
files. It also covers some interface features that provide
useful feedback as you work.
Adding video clips to your movie
There are two ways to add a video clip to your movie:
Drag and drop: Drag a scene from the Video Scenes
section of the Album and drop it into the Movie
Window. This is normally the easiest and quickest way
to put together a rough cut of your movie. You can
drag multiple scenes simultaneously if you wish.
The clipboard: The standard clipboard operations (Cut,
Copy and Paste) can be used with video clips in the
Movie Window. The Copy operation works on Album
scenes also.
When a scene or clip is pasted into the Movie Window,
it is inserted at the first clip boundary starting at the
edit line position. You can use the standard keyboard
shortcuts for clipboard operations (Ctrl+X for cut,
74 Pinnacle Studio 9
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 as the background for any overlay video or
titles that on the lower Timeline tracks.
• The overlay track. Video on this track is
superimposed on the contents of the video track. The
picture-in-picture and chroma key effects are used to
make a portion of the overlay frame transparent so
that some of the main video can be seen. Except in
Studio Plus, any clips on the overlay track are
displayed with a “watermark” graphic. If you decide
to use the overlay track in your movies, you can
upgrade to Studio Plus at any time.
• The title track. In Studio Plus, if the overlay track is
hidden, dropping a video clip on the title track cause
the overlay track to open and the clip to be placed
upon it. In other versions of Studio, or when the
overlay track is already displayed, the title does not
accept video clips.
• The sound effects track or the background music
track. Attempting to drop a video clip on either of
these tracks actually drops the clip’s original audio.
Working with multiple capture files
For some projects you may want to incorporate scenes
from multiple source tapes, or from different capture
files made from one tape. To achieve this, load in each
Chapter 5: Video clips 75
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 first capture file into the
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 from
only the current file in the Album. See “Opening a
captured video file” on page 40 for detailed
information on this step.
3. Drag scenes from the second captured file into the
Movie Window. Continue in this manner until you
have gone through all the files.
Because any given movie can be in only one of the
standard 4:3 format and the widescreen 16:9 format,
Studio does not let you mix frame formats in the Movie
Window. The first video clip you add to a movie
determines the movie’s frame format, and later clips
must conform to it. Use the Aspect ratio commands on
the Album menu to convert scenes from one format to
the other. (See “Video aspect ratios” on page 42 for
more information.)
Interface features
Studio provides a variety of visual cues regarding the
video clips in the Movie Window:
• Clips from video that was captured at preview
quality are shown with a white dotted outline. These
clips will be automatically recaptured at full quality
during the Make Movie process.
76 Pinnacle Studio 9
• 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-click menu for Movie Window clips. Studio
highlights the Album scene from which the selected
clip is drawn. To go the other way, use the Album ¾
Find Scene in Project to show how a particular
Album scene is used in your current project.
• When neighboring scenes from the Album are placed
in sequence in the Movie Window, the border
between the clips is displayed as a dotted line. This
is to help you keep track of your clips, and does not
affect how they can be manipulated in the Movie
Window.
• In Timeline mode, any special effects you have
applied to a clip are indicated by small icons along
the bottom of the clip. These correspond to the effect
groups shown on the Video effects tool browser. You
can open the tool for parameter editing by doubleclicking any of the icons.
The star icon below this video clip shows that one or
more of the effects in the “Fun effects” group has
been applied.
Chapter 5: Video clips 77
TRIMMING 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 fundamental editing
operation.
No data is lost by trimming: Studio sets new start and
end points for the clip in the Movie Window, but the
source of the clip - the original Album scene – remains
intact. This means you can always reset clips to their
original state, or select different trim points.
Studio offers two ways to trim any clip (video scenes,
transitions, titles, still images, audio clips and disc
menus):
• Directly on the Timeline (see “Trimming on the
Timeline using handles” below).
• Using the Clip properties tool (see “Trimming with
the Clip properties tool” on page 83).
A video clip can be trimmed to any desired in and out
points within the limits of the original scene.
Trimming on the Timeline using handles
The quickest way to trim is by dragging the edges of
clips directly on the Timeline. Watch the Player as you
trim, so you can find the frame on which you want to
begin or end.
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Let’s first consider the simplest trimming case, in a
movie with only one clip. Then we’ll turn to the more
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 the Album.
2. Expand the Timescale to make fine adjustments
easier.
Position the mouse pointer anywhere on the
Timeline except directly over the edit line. The
pointer becomes a clock symbol. Click-drag it to
the right to expand the Timescale.
This illustration shows maximum expansion, where
each tick mark represents a single frame:
3. Position your mouse pointer over the right edge of
the clip. The pointer becomes a left-pointing arrow.
4. Click-drag to the left while keeping an eye on the
Player, which updates continuously to show the last
frame in the trimmed clip.
As you shorten the clip, the arrow cursor becomes
two-directional, indicating that the clip edge can be
dragged both left and right. You can reduce the clip
Chapter 5: Video clips 79
to as little as a single frame, or increase it up to the
end of the source scene.
5. Release the mouse button. The clip is now trimmed.
Multiple clips
The secret to trimming a clip when multiple clips are
on the Timeline is that you must first select the clip to
be trimmed by clicking on it with the mouse.
To trim with multiple clips on the Timeline:
1. Set up the Timeline with two short clips.
2. Expand the Timescale by right-clicking in the ruler.
Choose 30 seconds from the pop-up menu.
3. Click the second clip. The video track should now
look something like this:
You can trim the right-hand edge of the clip just as
in the single-clip example above. As you do so, the
last frame of the clip is displayed in the Player. As
long as the second clip remains selected, you can
continue to trim more video by dragging the edge to
the left, or restore some of the trimmed video by
dragging the edge to the right.
80 Pinnacle Studio 9
4. With the second clip still 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 the 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 more video by dragging
the edge to the right, or restore some of the trimmed
video by dragging the edge to the left.
6. Release the mouse button. The clip you trimmed
snaps back against the right edge of the first clip.
Gaps and fills: Trimming with the Ctrl key
As we have seen in the example above, when you
shorten a clip on the video track, the clip and any clips
to the right of it move leftwards as necessary so that no
gap is left. At the same time, clips on other tracks are
shortened to keep the whole Timeline in sync. When
you trim a clip on any other track, however, gaps are
not automatically closed up, and no other track is
affected.
Chapter 5: Video clips 81
This default trimming behavior simplifies editing under
most circumstances, but Studio 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 repositioned, and
gaps are not closed up. There is no effect on other
tracks.
Meanwhile, using Ctrl when trimming clips on other
tracks again inverts the normal behavior. The clips on
the track will close in to fill any gap left by the trim.
Clips on tracks besides the one being trimmed are again
unaffected.
Note: See page 60 for a description of the parallel
behavior of Ctrl when deleting clips.
Clip-trimming tips
If you are having difficulty manipulating the edges of
clips during trimming, try the following:
• Verify that the clip you wish to trim is selected, and
that it is the only one selected.
• Expand the Timescale until it is easier to make fine
adjustments.
• Avoid expanding the Timescale too far, which
makes clips appear very long. If that happens, undo
until the scale is the way you want it; or reduce the
scale by dragging it towards the left; or select an
appropriate value from the Timescale’s context
menu.
82 Pinnacle Studio 9
Trimming with the Clip properties tool
Although it is possible to trim video clips
directly on the Timeline 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 want to change, then use the
Toolbox ¾ Modify Clip Properties menu command, or
click one of the toolbox buttons at the top left of the
Movie Window. (Clicking the same button a second
time will close the tool.)
In the case of video clips – in fact, any clips other than
titles – you can also open and close the Clip properties
tool by double-clicking the clip in any Movie Window
view.
The Clip properties tool can be used to modify any
kind of clip. It offers an appropriate set of controls for
each type.
The Name text field: For a video clip, most of the clip
property controls are for trimming. The only exception
is the Name text field, which lets you assign a custom
name to the clip to replace the default one assigned by
Studio.
The Name field is provided on the Clip properties tool
for all clip types. Clip names are used by the Movie
Window’s Text view, and can also be viewed as fly-by
labels when your mouse moves over clips in the
Storyboard view.
Preview areas: Separate preview areas show the in and
out frames of the trimmed clip, together with a counter
Chapter 5: Video clips 83
and jog buttons. The layout of each preview area is
similar to that of the Player 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. You can also set the playback
position using the counter and jog buttons located
between the two preview areas.
Using the counters: The positions reported by all three
counters are relative to the beginning of the clip, which
is position 0:00:00.0. As with the counter on the Player,
you can adjust the counters in the Clip properties tool
by clicking in one of the four fields (hours, minutes,
seconds, frames) to select it, then using the jog buttons.
When none of the fields is explicitly selected, the jog
buttons apply to the frames field.
Transport controls: While the Clip properties tool is
in use, the transport controls in the center area
substitute for those that normally appear on the Player.
These special transport controls include a Loop
play/Pause button that can be used to cycle
repeatedly through the trimmed portion of the clip
while the trim points are being adjusted.
Setting the trim points: The left bracket
button
beside the counter in the left preview area, and the right
84 Pinnacle Studio 9
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