The World’s Top Tips for
Pinnacle Studio Video Editing software
(with some Avid Liquid snippets)
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NOTE: Studio 9 and Studio 9 Plus are no longer supported by Pinnacle, in that
there will be no further development work or bug fixes. The latest version is 9.4,
but the version many find works best is 9.3.15
It has been long awaited (by me, anyway), and now has been announced. Shipments should
start in February, but in the meantime I was lucky enough to get my hands on a review
copy at the UK Press launch. I'm not going to list all of the new features - you
can find those by reading the Press Releases, Features and Spec sheets on the Pinnacle
site. I'm going to tell you my views on some of these features - bearing in mind
that I have switched to Liquid Edition for the major part of my editing. Can Studio
9 lure me back into the Studio fold, for at least some of my editing? Read on...
Perhaps one of the most important changes is that Studio 9 has, for the first time,
been 'opened up' to other developers with both video and audio plug-in facilities.
Some plug-ins come with Studio, and others, I'm sure, are in the pipeline. The important
thing here is, the SDKs for these plug-ins are available to anyone (I guess, within
reason!), and that means that now, anyone can add features to Studio, independently
to a large degree of Pinnacle. It seems that Studio has become the de facto standard
for home-brew video editing, and this step by Pinnacle really throws open the potential
- virtually future-proofing it. From my point of view as a user, it is exactly the
way I like it - you buy or download the parts that you want, and ignore the rest.
So you don't have to pay for things you don't want. Now that's my kind of product!
Before I discuss the plug-ins that do come with the package, lets have a general
look at some of the other changes you can expect to see....
New(ish) - the Interface
There have been one or two changes to the interface, though nothing drastic. The
timelines seem to have changed colour slightly - for the better, in my opinion, and
the 'Capture, Edit, Make Movie' buttons have changed shape. The timeline controls
have been moved over to the right hand side - as shown in the screen dump to the
right here - and you'll see that now, as well as being able to lock the audio tracks,
you can also mute them. That's handy for listening to one track in isolation, and
is something I use a lot when editing with Edition, so for me, this is a welcome
addition to Studio. The icons on the left side of the time line are simply descriptor
symbols.
The extra timeline many have been asking for isn't there. It seems Pinnacle did a
lot of research all round the world among potential new users for home video editing,
and a second timeline was way down the list. Far enough down for it not to make it
into this version. I guess yet-to-be users wouldn't know what they would want a second
timeline for anyway, until they had started editing. But - and I have to say this,
I also believe that it's not a second timeline that existing users really want, but
rather what that extra timeline would offer - mainly, picture-in-picture facilities
and chroma keying, plus effects or filter capabilities. Well, the effects and filter
capabilities are now well and truly provided for with the new plug-in capability
- some excellent examples are included with the package - and perhaps, even overlay
video capabilities will be on the cards. And I've said before, on the web boards,
that I think making the current 'title' overlay line capable of carrying video as
well as stills could solve the problem and save squeezing the height of other tracks. That
solution would probably mean you can't directly have overlay video and titles mixed
directly within the same time segment, but that can be worked around easily. In any
event, as far as I can see, the title overlay line can already, in effect, carry
video through the DVD menu buttons. Anyway, whether the overlay becomes dynamic or
an extra timeline is added is something we'll have to wait for at this time. A disappointment
for some, maybe, but there's plenty of exciting new things in Studio 9 to get the
creative juices flowing and bring a happy smile back to the face.
New - 16:9 Format
Yes - I believe it was asked for by quite a few people, and it's here. Personally,
I don't use that format (yet). Our TV is 4:3, and that's the way I like it. But Studio
now has the 16:9 format on board.
Of course, you can't mix 4:3 and 16:9 formats on the timeline (well, you didn't expect
to be able to, did you?), but you can change the overall format for everything, from
one size to the other by right clicking on the album and selecting from the options
list. So everything in the album - and hence dragged to the timeline - will then
be in the chosen format. Of course, changing the original format distorts things
- but in my ignorance, half the TVs I see with 16:9 look as if the pictures have
been distorted anyway. But that's me. Old fashioned and squinty eyed. Sorry! The
beauty of it is, it all works a treat - the transitions, overlays, titler, all take
on the new format shape without a problem. And switching from one shape to the other
is quite literally a right click away. Almost makes me want to make movies in the
16:9 format, for the fun of it. If you're a 16:9 person, this is what you've been
waiting for.
New - Album layout
This is quite a small change, but in my opinion, a huge improvement. Basically the
Studio 9 album can now show, in effect, one level up - so you can see all of the
folders - or all your captured AVI files, for example, without having to click on
a drop down list. As I say, it sounds like a small improvement, but once you start
using it, you realise just how much better it is. The screen dumps below show how
it looks. On the left, the Sound Effect category folders, and on the right, the
video album - here, I have just two videos are in the selected folder. But notice
the icons - you can tell at a glance which is MPEG and which is pure AVI. If you
want all of the captured clips on the timeline, simply drag the icon down. The album
view doesn't change. So - you can then select another capture to add to the timeline
in its entirety by just dragging that down too.
Placing everything on the timeline, then shifting required scenes to the left in
the desired order is quite a common way for many to edit - it makes sure you don't
inadvertently miss out a scene, though of course, the album picon 'ticks' will also
show that. One trick, when using this technique, is to put a dummy title on the timeline
between the edit and the 'dragged-down-capture', to act as a marker. By using coloured
backgrounds, you can have as many different markers like that as you want. But I
digress ... To open up a capture and populate the album, in the familiar Studio 8
way, you simply have to double click it's icon. And of course, there's the usual
little arrow icon to take you back up the folder tree.
New - background rendering options
With Studio 8, you had background rendering on, or off. With 9, you get another
option. You can have it off (maybe I should rephrase that), or you can have rendering
optimized for preview (faster - but means everything must be re-rendered when Make
Movie time
comes round), or you can have background rendering optimized for Make Tape (slower,
but can save time if, indeed, it is a tape you're going to make when the editing
is done). Of course, if you're going to create a DVD (or VCD), then it's all going
to have to be re-rendered anyway. I couldn't see much difference in the quality
at the preview screen size, but I'm sure there is if I'd started with a better quality
video than the sample supplied. As an aside, the new PAL version of the Photoshoot
sample has some bad frames in it in my copy, and the ends of the clips include frames
from the next clip. I must remember to email Pinnacle about that ... but I strongly
suspect it's because I'm in PAL land, and the video must have started life as NTSC.
Anyway, it's there just for playing around with, so in my book it is not even problem.
It doesn't happen with captured files.
New - full screen preview
Now this I do like. A lot. If you look closely at the player controls for the viewer,
you'll see to the right of the counter and frame advance/retard buttons a small icon
or button with an arrow pointing diagonally upwards in it. Now what does that do?
Click it, and you can preview your movie - from wherever the scrubber is on the timeline
... in full screen mode. Completely fills the screen - even on my 1200x1028 display.
(That's something I should mention too - Studio 9 now fills the screen rather than
becomes a window in, I believe, up to 1600x displays. But check that out in the spec.).
Back to the full screen preview - the quality is pretty good - I wouldn't say it
is tops, but it is pretty sharp and sure good enough to get an idea of what your
movie will look like. This is a mega step forward, I think - and in fact, even Edition
doesn't have a preview this large when only one monitor is being used. Speaking
of a second monitor (was I?), at the launch, the preview screen was shown on a separate
monitor, achieved by using a Radeon card with, presumably, the facility to reproduce
the preview window overlay on a separate monitor. So for those of you wanting the
joys of a second monitor - it is possible. It may also have been possible with Studio
8, of course. I never explored the possibility.
New - automatic movie-making
To be quite honest, I really and truly thought this was a bit of a gimmick at first.
You place a series of clips on the timeline. You then select a piece of music - Pinnacle
recommends that the clips used represent at least double the time of the music length.
Next, you type in a title for your movie, add some closing credits - then you select
a style - romantic, fast and furious, and so on, from a drop down list ... then press
'Create SmartMovie'. Within a very short period of time, Studio creates an edit on
the timeline cut to the music. It isn't so much a story movie, as a music video
based on your video and music selections. If you don't like it, click on the Create
button again - or reset and reselect your clips first if you want. I tell you what
... I played with that for ages. It is truly amazing, and it is not a gimmick. It
works. For first-timers, who have never made a movie before, it will be an absolute
winner. It will be a time-saving winner for hardened movie makers too - in particular
for providing a great resume of the movie over which to run the credits. I sure wish
I had it available for some of the wedding movies I've created, where the humorous
out-takes were few and far between, leaving me with a difficult edit to get a background
suitable for the credit run. I promise you, you will be astounded at just how effective
this is.
And of course, the edit is on the timeline - so if you want to tinker with it, fine
tune it, change some of the transitions used maybe, or add them (it is sparing on
transitions), well, do so. It's there waiting for your further editing. I tried
the Old Time Movie option with a bit of imported piano music (an Old Time Movie effect
is a plug-in ... more of that later). The result was magic, considering the process
was automated, and took only seconds to produce. The screen dump alongside here shows
a movie using the Photoshoot sample.
Notice the absence of a hundreds of transitions! There's a lesson to be learned there!
It is fascinating to watch, and to see what it comes up with. It is also interesting
that it tries hard to cut to the beat of the music. Notice too that there's a slider
at the top right of the SmartMovie dialogue - that enables you to adjust the overall
balance between the music volume and the video sound track volume. Of course, you
can adjust, or re-adjust the levels yourself on the timelines, but this control gives
you a quick mix of levels. So, my message is, don't poo poo this innovation too soon.
New - Plug-in video and audio filters
OK. This is the part of Studio that in many ways breaks new ground. It opens up the
Studio environment to anyone who wants to develop a plug-in, and means the potential
for Studio is virtually unleashed. You will recall, if you have used Studio 8, that
it has a number of filters - a kind of colour correction facility (colour changing
is probably a better name for it) mosaic, and so on.
These filters are now provided in a different form in Studio 9, which comes with
a fair selection to get you started. The categories are shown in the left of the
two white panels in the screen dump here. The right panel shows the choices available
in that category. The panel to the left shows the filters that have been attached
to the selected clip. Yes - that's right, you can apply more than one filter to a
clip - though it is important to place them in the right order to get the best results.
All filters need rendering of course. I'm not going to detail all the video or audio
filters available - you can check the list on the Pinnacle site. I will say this
though ... some of them are astounding. When a filter effect is added to a clip,
a small icon indicative of the filter used appears on that clip in the timeline.
The auto colour correction filter really works beautifully in all but a few instances.
It is another pretty astounding addition! On a clip that I had a bit of a problem
correcting - adjusting contrast, brightness and hue, and so on in a never ending
sequence - the auto colour corrector put right instantly and perfectly. Extremely
impressive. It is possible it is the same plug-in as used in Liquid Edition, which
is an equally impressive time-saver. Some of the plug-ins can have properties that
can be controlled - most have at least one controllable feature. The screen dump
alongside shows the Blur filter for example, and you'll notice that with
this one, you can control the rectangular area of the screen that the blur effect
is to be applied to, making it a possible candidate for those occasions when it is
desired to 'hide' a face or person. You'll notice too that at the bottom of the control
dialog for the plug-in, there are fade-in and fade-out controls, so when you apply
an effect to a clip, it needn't just start and finish, but can fade in and out gracefully.
This fade in/fade out control is available for virtually all of the filters. Another
useful plug-in stabilises shaky video - ideal for those with a bit of hand wobble
when they shoot. And there's a filter for reducing the 'noise' on a video - in fact,
Studio is designed to help those who are learning to shoot video and haven't quite
mastered it, to put their material right 'in edit'.
In addition to the video filters, there is an impressive built in selection of VST
audio filters - for Reverb, Equalising, levelling, for example. There's also an effective
'Grungalizer', shown on the left here, for recreating the sound of old 78rpm and
45rpm records from the selected sound track , and a Karaoke effect which removes
the vocals from a song track - MP3 or CD - and it does it very effectively. So, if
you want to create a Karaoke video for the family to sing along to - then Studio
9 is worth the investment just for that alone. 
The video and audio filters are selected
from the toolbox, positioned as in Studio 8, to the left of the central toolbar.
Mouse-over to the left of the toolbox for the video plug-ins, and to the right of
the toolbox for the audio plug-ins
New - Surround Sound
OK, it's Prologic, where many had hoped for AC3, but nevertheless it is very effective
indeed. You get the option to go for straight stereo or surround sound when you select
the slider controls for the sound track. from the Audio toolbox. Take a look at the
control panel screen dump shown to the right. You have the slider for volume level
at any given point along the associated track (the tracks, incidentally are now properly
logarithmic),
the overall rack control knob at the top, and to the right the diagram that allows
you to spatially position each of the two sound tracks plus the video track. First
select the track - or click on the appropriate controller shown as a circular icon
within the arena, then either drag the icon to its spatial position or use the x
and y pointers along the bottom and side to position the sound track icon vertically
(fade) or horizontally (balance).. Naturally, you need a system capable of representing
this sound. When stereo is selected, you can only adjust the balance of each track,
of course. The sound tracks change colour to indicate what exactly is being represented
You needn't use this display though ... the sound tracks now have one of three displays,
as shown in the screen dump to the left here which shows left/right balance, and
you can control volume (as before in Studio 8), balance or fade by simply clicking
on the line to create a control point, and dragging it to the required position.
I had great fun adding a Gull sound effect, then making it fly round the room. Obviously
this isn't as advanced as the full blown Home Theatre stuff but nevertheless, it
is extremely effective, and hey! this is a low budget video editor for adding a bit
of sparkle to holiday movies and so on. Point is, it is really powerful enough to
do far far more than just that ... gone are the days when a simple cut and maybe
some added music and a crude title or two was all one could do to one's home brewed
movies. Now, they really can be given an edge. Even better - someone will no doubt
come up with a plug-in at some point to provide the desired AC3.
Is it stable?
Here, I have to admit, until I loaded Edition on my system alongside Studio 8, I
didn't have any stability problems with Studio at all. That's not to say some others
haven't suffered. But in all honesty, I didn't. I've played around with Studio 9
now for a couple of days, and it hasn't crashed on me once. I haven't played with
everything yet - there's lots to explore here and plenty of potential for creating
some pretty complex movies. It feels stable, and I believe it is stable, but that's
on my system. Again, I have to state the case here - my video editing computer is
for that, and that alone - the only programs on it are the video editors, a photo
editor and animator (Paint Shop Pro), and a few tools, such as Roxio's Easy Creator
6 and CDex for ripping CDs (I always rip into wav files for inclusion into movies
rather than use CDs direct), and of course, SmartSound.. No virus detector stuff.
No internet. No screen savers. No MS Office. No games. And, for me, no trouble.
But, not everyone has the luxury of a dedicated machine, so on that score, I count
myself very lucky. I read on the web boards that Studio 9 is a mix of the Studio
8 code base and a lot of new, re-written code. It will be interesting to see how
someone who had difficulties with Studio 8 gets on with Studio 9. My feeling is,
they will fare much better.
Would I recommend it? I never recommend anything, because if it doesn't work for
you, we're both pissed off. But I would install it on my best friend's PC without
qualms. I didn't think I'd need to keep it on my machine once I'd finished reviewing
it, as I have Liquid Edition and am (now) very happy using that. But it will stay
on. And it will be used. I didn't think I'd ever say that with another Studio product.
Do I think it is worth the money? Absolutely. Worth every penny - OK, I'm lucky,
I'm sitting here with a review copy. But if they said - OK, now give it back, I'd
go and buy it. Without question. No problemo.
Summing up ... Pinnacle refer to the Studio line as the de facto industry standard
for home video editing. Well, I've been in the business of advertising and marketing,
so I could wave that off as a bit of manufacturer's puffery. But, in this instance,
I think they're right. The inclusion of open architecture plug-ins means anyone and
everyone can - and unquestionably will - add to the effective filter range that comes
with Studio. VST is an industry standard, and so there are already many many audio
plug-ins available that should work with Studio - that's something else I must explore.
I have to admit, I'll be more interested in the video plug-ins - but here's the beauty
of it: I can buy only what I want. I don't have to buy a package that has everything
just to get the few bits I want. That, too, is the way I like it, and for me, it
makes the new Studio a very attractive proposition. OK, it still isn't in the Liquid
Edition league for features or controllability, but Liquid Edition isn't, and never
has been, intended for the home movie dabbler, but rather for the more serious movie
maker, whether for hobby or money. Studio should be more than enough for any home
video maker, with the simplicity of use for the absolute, never-before beginner (remember
that SmartMovie option), and plenty of useful and powerful features for those who
wish to push the boundaries and make some really stunning movies.
