Pinnacle Problem (Again)

[Peter Stedman]

Several of our local club members use Pinnacle Studio V12. They have the usual grumbles and problems and I constantly wind them up with rude comments about it being a Micky Mouse programme. (I must say it's a jolly sight easier to learn that the programme I use). However . . .

I was at a colleagues home yesterday making a short programme and all was well. He's certainly not inexperienced having well over 100 productions on You Tube. The filming went well and all the shots looked fine on the camera LCD screen. But when captured into Pinnacle the preview screen show the footage very, very, dark. We can find no rhyme or reason for this. Before you ask, I had to come away before he had had the chance to view the footage direct from the camera to his TV.

Any ideas on this one please as my colleague is sorely depressed at the moment?
Pete

[Mike Shaw]

Peter - Pinnacle Studio is a 'starter' programme, albeit one of the (if not 'the') most popular on the market. The latest version is 14 - but 15 is about to be released. 14 was far far superior to any of the earlier versions, so I imagine 15 would be even better. I haven't used Studio now for about 8 years, but I would say that the 'dark picture' on the Studio viewer could possibly be an aberation of the software+graphics card+monitor, rather than a problem with the shoot or the capture. Checking how it plays back on a TV as you suggest will determine whether this is the case, or whether the capture was indeed a 'little dark'.

Regarding the 'Mickey Mouse' comment - compared with the likes of Edius, Premiere, FCP or MC it certainly is lightweight. But the latest versions anyway are extremely capable indeed and can handle 90% of the stuff most home movie makers could want. Its serious limitation is in the number of timeline tracks available for the video (like, just one or two depending on the version, with a title track). I don't think that has changed with version 15 (the first one I wasn't involved in beta testing) - but that is probably because Avid Studio is about to be released, which is a far more capable starter package - with as many timeline tacks as you could want. Strange that Avid should, under its Aegis, produce competing products.

It would be interesting to know the outcome of the 'show on tv' test.

[Peter Stedman]

Hello Mike,
Delay in my reply . . I have managed to bring the original tape to my place and put it on the Premiere CS4 time line. The exposure is about right although just a minute bit dark. It was taken under artificial light and his camera had been left on automatic so it was a tad warm to be honest.

However this doesn't explain why on my colleagues Pinnacle 12 machine it looks so dark as to be virtually unusable.

Very odd I must say. He has never had any problem with his previous films with the same camera.

Pete

[Mike Shaw]

I think what you are saying is that, it is just this one capture that is showing as too dark, and that other captures are OK. It may have something to do with the fact that the exposure wasn't quite correct - though the fact that it isn't too bad on your system suggests that isn't the reason. It is, as you appreciate, very difficult to analyse some problems 'by remote control': I'dreally want to sit at his machine and play around with some of the settings.

Studio does have an automatic 'colour correction' filter - pretty crude but it can be effective if applied. However, that isn't the answer - itr is a possible correction. The real question is whether other captures show the same 'darkening' of the image in the editor's little viewer. If they do, I'd suspect the system: it is difficult to imagine how the Studio software could create a darker image, unless a setting is incorrect somewhwere.

[Peter Stedman]

Thanks Mike. Yes I appreciate that without being in front of his machine it's impossible to give a true answer. However he was so cross about it that he has remade the project and he tells me by phone that it looks OK in Pinnacle this time.

Very odd, so I think we will forget it really. Put it down to 'one of those things'. Thanks again for replying.
Pete