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Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Plus
/ Studio 10.5
by Douglas Dixon
Studio MovieBox Plus
Studio Plus Titanium Edition
Capture
Edit
Make Movie
In the Studio
Pinnacle Studio Products: Software, Hardware,
Effects
References
See also:
Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick
Pinnacle is back! Not that
it was ever really gone, but there was something of a hiatus
after Avid acquired Pinnacle in early 2005 and then figured
out how to integrate Pinnacle's professional broadcast
products with Avid's product line (Liquid Edition is now
Avid Liquid). And now Pinnacle is refocused as the consumer
brand, particularly with a strong presence at retail (www.pinnaclesys.com).
There's the flagship
Pinnacle Studio home video editing software,
plus Studio bundled with video capture hardware. And the
affordable Dazzle hardware for easy video
archiving, editing, and TV viewing. Plus the PCTV
line to watch, record and time-shift TV on a PC. Pinnacle
also has added a Mobile Media line for
place-shifting -- managing and moving videos, photos and
music to portable devices, including the Apple iPod, Sony
PSP, and DivX devices.
The Pinnacle Studio
software is available stand-alone, or bundled with video
capture hardware -- both PCI boards and external USB
break-out boxes. The Studio MovieBox is the USB
version -- a palm-sized external device with analog and
digital connectors, easy to connect to a desktop or laptop
PC, especially for analog capture.
Pinnacle Studio Moviebox
The MovieBox has inputs
for composite video (RCA connector), S-Video, and stereo
audio (2 RCA) for NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. There's also a
FireWire in/out connector for hooking up a DV camcorder, and
the USB connector to the PC.
Studio MovieBox
Plus then is the enhanced bundle. This adds video and
audio output connectors on the back side of the box,
especially to connect to a TV for real-time preview of your
edits. It also upgrades the software to support HDV editing
with Studio Plus Titanium Edition.
Moviebox with mic and green screen
Then for studio and
videocast productions, Pinnacle also adds a professional
hand-held microphone with a small table stand for narration
and interviews, plus a 10 by 12 foot green-screen cloth to
use as a chroma-key backdrop for compositing overlay
effects. Pinnacle even includes USB and FireWire cables.
Which brings us to the
Studio software itself. Pinnacle Studio 10 was
released in October 2005, and updated up through version
10.6 in September 2006. The updates included enhanced
support for MPEG-4, presets for export to portable devices
including the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Apple
video iPod, added support for HD editing and recent digital
capture devices, and enhanced stability.
Pinnacle Studio Plus
 to
get Pinnacle Studio software
If you've worked with
previous versions of Studio you should still find it
familiar, with a three-tab Capture, Edit, Make Movie
workflow to help guide novice users through the editing
process. The interface is designed to run full-screen, with
the Album of clips at the top left of the screen, the Player
window at the top right, and tab-specific controls along the
bottom.
Click the Capture tab
to record video clips -- digital video directly from a DV
camcorder, analog from the Studio MovieBox, or from other
Windows capture devices. Studio has extensive options to
select the capture device and format, for example to create
DV files for further editing, or more compressed MPEG-2
files to save space if you're going direct to DVD or a
portable device.
Capture tab
The Diskometer on the
bottom right of the screen graphically displays the
available free space on the disk and the capture format.
Click Settings to change the input device or change the
capture format settings.
For DV camcorders, Studio
displays a virtual Camcorder Controller, so you can control
and play the camcorder by clicking your mouse.
For analog recording, the
Diskometer expands with two fly-out panels to adjust the
video colors and audio levels, even dynamically during
capture.
Then click Start Capture
to begin capturing. You can choose to capture for a specific
length of time, and whether to automatically create an
edited SmartMovie after capture. As Studio captures your
video, it splits it into clips based on the selected scene
detection option, and adds them to the Album at the top of
the screen.
Once you've captured your
clips, move on to the Edit tab to assemble your
movie. The Album at the top of the screen now has additional
tabs to access other editing elements: videos, transitions,
title text, photos and frame grabs, DVD menus, sound
effects, and music.
The Player is expanded
with controls to preview and play back the
currently-selected element, whether from the Album or the
edited movie below.
You then edit your movie
in the Movie Window across the bottom of the screen,
assembling video and audio clips, and applying transitions
and effects. You can select the default Storyboard view for
quickly organizing clips; the Timeline view to synchronize
parallel tracks of video, audio, text overlays, sound
effects, and music; or the Text view to review the clips in
your production with start and stop times.
Edit Storyboard: Trim
To build your movie, just
drag and drop clips to the Storyboard. Then to adjust a
specific clip, double-click to display the Modify Clip
Properties Toolbox. Use the tabs along the left side to trim
the ends of the clip, add a title (with motion), edit a disc
menu, grab a frame of video, create an automatic SmartMovie,
add a picture-in-picture or chroma-key overlay (using the
included green screen cloth), or add an effect.
The SmartMovie feature is
a great way to get started with a collection of clips. It
creates a music video or slideshow based on a general style
(i.e., fast-paced, elegant, moody). You can use your own
music, or Studio includes SmartSound to automatically
generate soundtracks based on a specified style and
variation. Studio then takes snippets of your clips and
edits them together to fit the beat of the music. You can
enjoy the result as-is, or edit it further if you desire.
To jazz up your
production, you can add transitions from the tab in the
Album, or double-click a clip in the timeline to add video
effects -- which also can be keyframed to change over time.
Edit Timeline: Audio
Finally, step on the third
Make Movie tab. Here you can export your production
to DVD disc, to a video file, or back to tape. Studio
supports writing to AVI, Windows Media, Real Media, MPEG-1,
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, and iPod- or PSP-compatible formats.
Make MPEG
You also can burn to disc
in DVD, VCD, or S-VCD format. You actually create the menus
under the Edit tab -- there's no separate DVD authoring
module. Menus just work much like titles, and you then set
chapter markers in the Menu track along the top of the
timeline.
Studio provides a friendly
and accessible interface for quick storyboard editing,
especially for novice and occasional users. But you also can
switch to the timeline view and drill down deeper to add
moving transitions, moving titles, dynamic effects, video
overlays, and other enhancements. Studio Plus Titanium
Edition steps up to support HD editing and add keyframeable
real-time effects. And the Studio MovieBox Plus bundle
includes the USB hardware for analog capture and preview,
plus a mic and green-screen. That should be enough to get
anyone started with video editing, and keep them busy for
quite a while!
To check out Pinnacle
Studio, you can download the trial version from the Pinnacle
website, which is a restricted version of the software good
for 30 days after installation.
New - Pinnacle Studio
11
Pinnacle offers Studio as
both stand-alone software and bundled with video hardware (www.pinnaclesys.com).
Studio Software
Pinnacle Studio Plus
The basic
Pinnacle Studio version 10.5 software is focused on
basic home video editing, especially in DV format, with the
Capture / Edit / Share workflow used across the product line
($69, or $49 with limited-time mail-in rebate).
The Studio Plus
Titanium Edition then adds support for HD formats, with
HDV editing and HD pan-and-zoom, plus keyframeable real-time
effects with preview and professional TV style effects ($99
/ $69).
The Studio
MediaSuite Titanium Edition then bundles additional
software for a media editing and burning suite, including
Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album Standard Edition for photo
editing, Steinberg WaveLab Lite for audio editing, plus
additional Pinnacle CD/DVD burning & copying applications
($129 / $99).
Studio Hardware
Pinnacle Studio MovieBox
The hardware bundles
include Pinnacle Studio software with a hardware capture
device complete with analog and digital inputs. The Studio
Plus packages include the Titanium Edition for HDV input and
output, Pinnacle RTFX volume I, plus a microphone and green
screen.
Studio MovieBox
and MovieBox Plus ($99, $149) are external
USB-based devices, while Studio MovieBoard and
MovieBoard Plus ($79, $149) are internal PCI
boards.
Studio Effects
Pinnacle also offers
add-on premium volumes with additional transitions, effects,
and content styles. Studio installs sample versions of these
in the Transitions tab and the plug-in tab under the Video
Toolbox.
- Hollywood FX
is a collection of some 400 advanced transitions, with 25
themes of 16 transitions each ($99 per volume). It also
includes the HFX Creator tool to edit your own transitions.
- RTFX is a
collection of over 20 advanced video effect plug-ins. ($99).
- Premium Pack
is a collection of more than 25 sets of
professionally-designed DVD menus, video titles and dynamic
sound effects ($49).
Pinnacle
www.pinnaclesys.com
Originally published in
Camcorder & Computer Video magazine, 23, 1, February
2007.Manifest
Technology®
Copyright 1999-2007,
Douglas Dixon, All Rights Reserved
Manifest Technology is a registered trademark of
Douglas Dixon
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