The World’s Top Tips for
Pinnacle Studio Video Editing software
(with some Avid Liquid snippets)
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The layout has been changed slightly in various places - the Make Movie mode screens,
for example - here you can see how that display looks now, with the 'Make Disc option
selected.
STUDIO 10 ...
Studio 10 has now been out for some time - and after a serious bout of bad teething
troubles (to put it mildly) has now reached, in Version 10.5.2 (as of this writing)
a pretty stable and solid status. In this overview, Iook at just the Studio 10.5
(Plus) program, to give you an idea of what to expect when (and if) you switch from
another manufacturers non-linear editor.
New Engine, new era
Perhaps the first and foremost thing to be said is that Studio has a new engine under
the bonnet - the very successful Liquid Edition engine. This rather negates most
of the 'will it cure such and such a problem' questions. It is a pruned or limited
version of the Liquid engine, but nevertheless should mean that any problems people
may have encountered with Studio 9 are simply bypassed: Liquid Edition is renowned
for its stability. But ... it is more demanding on the machine specification. So,
if you're upgrading, make sure your machine is up to the requirements.
For a start, Studio 10, like Liquid Edition, is designed to run only on Windows XP.
Some are able to run Liquid Edition on Win2000, so Studio 10 may well run on that
too. Your gamble.
For those moving up from Studio 9, what's no longer available?
Both the basic Studio 10 and Studio 10 Plus will be missing some features compared
with Studio 9/9 Plus. So if you're thinking of upgrading from Studio 9 to Studio
10, here's what you'll lose ...
These aren't in Studio 10 Plus or Studio 10 Standard...
• Preview quality captures
• MMV capture
• Share/Studio Online
• Minimal render for DC10plus
... and these aren't in Studio 10 Standard - the basic starter package...
• Surround sound
• Title rolls and crawls
• Multiple menu DVD authoring
• Studio 10 (basic) only includes the "cleaning" plug ins - Auto Colour Correct,
Stabilize, Video Noise Removal, Audio Noise Removal
Of course, like Studio 9, the basic Studio 10 doesn't have the Overlay track - which
also means, no picture in picture or chroma key functions. In other words, Studio
10 is the 'entry level' editor for real beginners who don't want these somewhat more
advanced features, and therefore don't want to pay for them either, at least until
they know what they're doing.
Interface changes
You're going to be hard pushed to find them. There are one or two cosmetic differences
- for example the 'Toolbox' on the left of the central toolbar now shows both the
Video and Audio icons permanently, instead of having them pop up when the mouse is
hovered over a toolbox icon, which I always thought that was against the Studio 'intuitive'
concept. Now, look carefully at the right side of the timelines and you'll see a
new icon on the video tracks ... an eye. Blissfully, this now allows you to 'switch
off' the video on that track, so that you can, for example, switch off the overlay
track to examine the main track video in isolation. It has been asked for. Now its
here.
And, if you examine that toolbar in the middle again, you'll see another icon has
crept in ... it represents a scrubber, and sound waves, and yes, you've guessed it,
it allows you to toggle audio scrubbing on the timeline. This is from Liquid Edition,
of course, and is a subset of the implementation. It is a digital scrub, so can
sound a bit like a machine gun, but nevertheless can be useful for locating sounds
and synching purposes.
So - you could almost be misled into thinking there's nothing very new about Studio
10 Plus ... no extra timelines and so on. But the new features are in there - they
just need winkling out.... Did I say almost? Well, there is one very welcome 'clue'
that you have a new product before you ... and that is the new video that comes with
Studio 10. Bye Bye Photoshoot ... Hallo 'Clowns' - a kind of family movie of kids
etc clowning around. In my opinion, this is far better for beginners for a number
of reasons ... mainly, it offers greater opportunity to practice and experiment with
the many filters and effects built into Plus - such as chroma-keying.
Now lets take a look at what's under the bonnet, or simply tucked away out of sight
...
Real Time effects at full resolution and Background Rendering
Studio's inherited GPU based effects engine means that, for the most part, you get
real time previews - and if you have the necessary Video card (or Pinnacle card)
to output to a TV monitor - you can preview your timeline on that. It means you
don't (shouldn't) have to wait for an effect to render before you can view it - although
to be fair, with a complicated effect or combination of effects, that may not be
entirely the case until rendering has taken place. Let's talk about that rendering
- it is now the Liquid Edition background rendering which is pretty fast. In Studio
9 (and Plus) you had a green bar over a clip to be rendered, with indication that
the rendering was taking place - a lighter green progress bar. Well, you still get
the green bar (the equivalent, I guess, of Liquid Edition's 'yellow slice' in some
respects) - but it no longer indicates progress. I'm emphasising that because it
would be very easy to think that your machine has seized up or that rendering isn't
happening because you can't see it happening. 
It is happening ... and when its finished,
the green bar vanishes completely.
OK. You want to see that rendering is really taking place? Well, here's what may
be an undocumented feature - and which is in the review copy I have (so hopefully,
will be in your copy too)... Hold down the CTRL+SHIFT+HOME keys for about three seconds,
and up will pop the Render Viewer that will be very familiar to Liquid Edition users
... it not only gives you a progress bar, but also shows you each frame as it is
being rendered. If you have several effects being rendered at the same time ...
you'll see that they are virtually rendered simultaneously - the frames jumping from
one effect to the other. You can stop rendering by clicking on the bottom bar ...
(that 'include yellow slices' thing shown at the bottom of the screen dump is in
my Review copy of Studio 10 ... and is a hangover from Liquid Edition. Maybe you'll
see it, maybe you won't...). You can also toggle rendering on or off in the Set-Up
options, of course - if you have a lot of editing going on, you may wish to toggle
it off until all the edits are done. Remember almost all effects and so on can now
be viewed in real time, without the need for rendering first.
A few final points about background rendering When effects have been rendered in
the background, they don't - won't - need rendering again when you come to make
your movie. This again is something inherited from Liquid Edition. OK, hands are
now frantically waving away at the back of the room here ... "But isn't the render
for a DVD going to be different to the render for a file, or tape?" Yes. It is.
And you get to choose whether the rendering is to be in DV format, or MPEG2 format,
ready for burning to DVDs. Of course, you'll know how you're going to make your
epic, and so you'll set the render option up before you start, won't you?
Time Warp - on audio as well as video
Oh, how many times has this been asked for? When you add slow motion to a clip (time-warping),
you want the sound to slow down as well, right? Similarly, if you speed up a clip,
you want the sound to reflect the change. Well, good news. Studio 10 Plus does it
... and even better than just slowing down or speeding up the sound - you can also
opt to retain the pitch! Magic. Furthermore it seems to work well even down to
slo-mos of about 30% (which is more than Liquid Edition can do - that's limited to
50%!)
Instant Save 'stu' and 'stx' project files
A small point but well worth mentioning ... Studio 10 also inherits Liquid Edition's
instant save, which I believe takes place around 30 times a second. So, if you do
get a crash, no problemo. You can go back to the exact point you left off. 
I say
'can' because, if Studio closes unexpectedly now, as all programs do from time to
time, when you open Studio again you get a dialog offering you a choice... you can
Continue exactly where you left off (not where you were several minutes earlier,
but where you left off), or you can Start a new project or Open an existing project.
This is an excellent move and better than the previous way where Studio opened up
the very first time after a close down with the project loaded up, and if it failed
again ... it was lost. Of course, you can - and should - still save your project
from time to time. Now, you can have several goes at trying to use an instantly
saved project even if it has developed a crash-causing problem, before switching
to a previous save of your own.
Also, now, in the Set-Up you can choose to have Studio open up with the last project
automatically loaded up. This may be only a minor improvement, but it 'feels' a lot
better to open Studio up and simply carry on where you left off.
Incidentally, project files are now quite different. Out goes the ',stu' extension,
in comes a new '.stx' extension - and the project file structure is also totally
different. Instead of one file, there seems to be two tons of individual files (the
Liquid Edition way, of course!) which are totally locked from your prying eyes!
(I see the hands waving at the back again ... "what about your 'stu' projects?"
No problem, just load them in. But when you save next time, they'll go into the '.stx'
format. I believe (but haven't checked ... must remember to do that!) these stx files
are more compatible with Liquid Edition.
Capturing your video... straight into a SmartMovie if you wish!
Studio 10 adds DVD camcorders to the possible capture sources, but remember, the
ill-fated mmv camcorder format is out. Studio 10 also accepts Windows Media and DVD
(VOB) formats and, if you want them and buy the 'Advanced Codec Pack', you can also
capture MPEG 4 and DIVX SD. Since I only capture plain old DV, and analog via the
Pinnacle BOB or a Canopus ADVC, I can't tell you anything more about these. Ah well,
every review has to have its limitations ...
One thing I can say though - now you you have an option to go to SmartMovie immediately
after the capture - with all the captured clips going straight to the timeline. For
those who just want a video put together without all the fuss or intermediate steps,
this is (probably) a godsend. And, there are now many more options and ways for a
SmartMovie Music video to be put together - Electra, Fast Paced, Moody, Nostalgia.
Old Movie, Pop Star, Simple & Elegant, Slow & Romantic, Vaudeville, Wild & Crazy,
Elegant. And for those who want to use still graphics to produce a slideshow, there's
Montage, Nostalgia, Presentation, and Swing
Keyframed effects
OK - this is a halfway step to full 'Bezier curve' keyframing, but nevertheless,
to my mind, a really valuable addition to Studio's armoury. Now, all the real time
effects (plug-ins) can be keyframed. What does this mean exactly? Well, In Studio
9 Plus, you could determine how the 'fade in' and 'fade out' timing of many of the
plug-in filter effects. With Keyframing, you can determine how any of the effect
properties will change throughout the progress of the effect. A 'key frame' is, in
fact, a frame in the clip at which a property in an applied effect or filter will
either start to change value, or stop changing value. This considerably increases
the effect's capabilities and potential. Let's look at the example dialogue here
for the Blur effect. Let us say that we want a small blurred area to be over someone's
face - and that person is moving across the screen - how many times have you seen
or heard a request for that being made! So, having applied the Blur plug-in to the
clip, next thing to do is set up the properties that are not going to change throughout
the effect - you might here, for example, select the degree of blur. 
Now, click
the ' 'Use Keyframes box at the bottom left. When you do that, new options open
up - as shown along the bottom of the screen dump above. Two keyframes are added
immediately - one at the very start of the clip, and one at the very end - and both
will have the properties of the initial settings you made. To reach these keyframes,
simply click on the appropriate left or right arrow either side of the keyframe indicator
box in the middle. Now, select the first keyframe and use the Blur Region sliders
to select the area you want to mask. The best way to proceed is then to go to the
end, and reset the Blur Region sliders to cover the target's new position. Then
scrub through the clip, and wherever the target moves away from the blurred area,
click on 'Add' to add another keyframe, then again position the Region sliders appropriately.
When you've finished, no matter how the 'target' moves around the screen, it will
be blurred. Job done. On the timeline, the keyframe points - and the keyframe numbers
- are indicated by vertical yellow lines and identifying numbered boxes. And, because
of the real time viewing, you can play it back to check it out before it has been
rendered in the background. Remember, this background rendering is a once only thing
- provided you choose how the movie is going to be made first, of course!
More Plug-ins, more HFX, and HFX 6...
In the Plus Review version I have, I think I'm right in saying there are more video
and audio plug-ins available, with more still that have to be unlocked. HFX is now
HFX 6, with different Volumes attached to it depending on whether you have (or had)
Mega or Plus before. With the basic Studio 10 you (probably) get all the 'Standard'
transitions shown in the screen dump alongside here (note the new layout for the
list, by the way) - which means you don't just get the 16 Hollywood FX for Studio
effects, but you also get the Flying Windows, Extra Effects, Family Fun 1 and Fun
Pack folders - each with 16 effects in (80 altogether), and all 'unlocked'. (But
don't hold me to that! I had HFX Mega before - and obviously, that has been taken
into account with this installation). The rest would be available, but watermarked
until purchased, I guess. If you had Plus before, when upgrading from Studio 9 to
10 you'll get all the folders in HFX Volume 1, and of course, if you had Mega you'll
get the folders in HFX Volume 2 as well. And as before, there are other 'volumes'
with effects that you can purchase or 'unlock'. A quick look through the folders
showed what I believe are some new effects available - but with so many, its difficult
to know what 's new without doing a detailed comparison.
Not much else, as far as I can see, is actually 'new' in HFX 6: some things which
were a bit 'buggy' in HFX 5.5 have been cured in 6 - for example, the 'Live Action'
button which plays the Host Video back instead of a still from the Host Video, now
works. A bit slow/jerky - but at least it works.
Delete Auxiliary Files
A minor thing, maybe, but shows how Studio 10 has had a breath of fresh air blown
through it. Now, when you select to Delete Auxiliary Files, you get options, as the
screen dump here shows. You can delete the auxiliaries for the current project only,
for all projects except the current project, or for all projects. With each option
you get an indication of how much space would be recovered by the deletion. In my
mind, far superior to Studio 9's simple 'Delete Auxiliaries' option, and giving you
far more control over the management of space on your PC.
The Burning Question ... is it good value?
This has been a quick overview of some of the new features in Studio 10 Plus. I
think I have covered the most salient features - though of course, there are other
improvements dotted all through the program that you'll find as you use it. I may
not have answered all (or any, even) of the deeper, more technical questions you
may have. Sorry! In theory, Studio 10 should be far more stable than Studio 9 -
I say 'in theory' because, for me, Studio 9 is stable, and now Studio has the rock
solid Liquid Edition engine. But I can't judge how it will behave on every configuration
out there. I tried it on my bog standard, off the shelf Hewlett Packard Pavilion
- with 3.4ghz cpu, 1meg Ram, ATI Radeon X300 video card and just one 250gig hard
drive - which has absolutely everything crammed on it except my usual video editing
programs. What's more, I ran Studio 10 with a number of other programs running in
the background all the time, including Norton's Internet Explorer and Virus checker.
That's something I definitely do not recommend doing, by the way, but people do,
so I thought I'd try it. It seems pretty solid to me. But I'm wary of saying things
like that, because every configuration and set-up is different and I have considerable
experience now in setting up my machine up for a video edit. Would I upgrade? Yes.
Will I install it on my video editing machine (and remove Studio 9 from there)? Yes.
Why would I do that if I already have - and extensively use - Liquid Edition? Because
Studio 10 Plus has a few filters and features (like slo-mo sound below 50% speeds)
that Liquid Edition doesn't have, as yet (though with the same engines under the
bonnet, it may well be possible to simply 'port' the plug-in filters across ... something
I have yet to try). And, also 'as yet', Liquid Edition doesn't have SmartSound, and
even though I have SonicFire Pro, it can be easier to use the Studio implementation
for simple music tracks.
Remember that Studio comes in two flavours these days - the basic version for beginners
who don't want tons of bells and whistles (two video timelines for example) - and
don't want to pay for what they don't want or need, and the Plus version for those
with a little more experience who want to start pushing the creative envelope. I've
been discussing the Plus version.
There are still one or two things I'd like to have seen - more icons on that centre
toolbar covering, for example, one's favourite or the most commonly used transition
such as a simple dissolve, and for toggling background rendering maybe. I'd like
to have seen a marker capability, for identifying points in an edit, and, with an
In and Out marker option, I'd like to have seen selective movie making so one could
select a part of an edit for making to an AVI, for bringing back in to Studio for
further work. But hey! Without a wish list, there'd probably be no Version 11!
The Plus version I have came with a Pinnacle Media Manager (sorts out all the media
files on your machine); an 'Instant DVD Recorder - go straight from capture to DVD,
great for copying your previous taped movies straight over to DVD - with a menu system;
a Studio 10 tutorial, which seems fairly comprehensive and covers most if not all
of the new features as well as the existing features.
So, we arrive at the burning question. Is it good value? I think it is - the upgrade
price seems reasonable, considering it has the Liquid Edition engine, and the program
has been wound up a notch or two. And compared with the other editors out there,
I believe the price for the 'full' version represents excellent value for money as
well. The upgrade and 'full' versions are identical, of course, except for the installation
stuff. The upgrade will look for a previous installation, and (should) recognise
all the extras - such as HFX Mega - already installed. With the 'full' version, these
extras may have to be re-installed, or their serial numbers re-entered. The two
installations (Studio 9, Studio 10) should be in totally separate folders, by the
way - so they shouldn't interact with each other (though what goes on in the 'shared'
folder is anyone's guess!).
