Problems with Sound on Pinnacle

[Alwyn Anne]

Hi all,

I am running Pinnacle Studio 14 for my edit programme. I have recently had my computer away to the man who built it for me to give it a health check and tidy up a few things. On return, I cannot get any sound from Pinnacle at all. Music does not play, videos run ok but no sound comes from them. The sound for my computer is fine. Windows Media plays and stuff on the internet plays so the problem is just with Pinnacle! I uninstalled Pinnacle and reinstalled but it made no difference, have checked all the audio devices but cannot find out what the problem is..........any ideas please

The computer engineer does not have a clue either as he has never used an editing programme before.

[col lamb]

Not knowing precisely what the PC guy did means that it will be difficult to give any precise advice but we will have a go.

If you go into Control Panel and then navigate to Device Manager, then look at audio devices.

You are looking for what driver the PC's sound card has, it may be that a generic sound driver has been installed, what this means is that Windows own "best guess" sound driver has been installed and not one specific to the sound card. If you do find a Windows sound driver then you will need to download and install a driver from the motherboard's web site and install that

Another thing to try is this: -

If you have no sound while in your Pinnacle 14, click on the windows speaker icon on the lower right corner of your screen. Then click on the word "mixer." If you have a Pinnacle program open, you will see a volume bar associated with it. In my case, that volume was turned all the way down. Turn it up by clicking on it and sliding it upwards....presto - sound

[Dave Watterson]

Trust Col to get in with good advice before the rest of us have had breakfast!

Anne, you do not tell us which version of Windows you are using, but as Colin suggested they all have two types of sound control. Near the bottom right of the screen you should find a symbol for a loudspeaker. (If it is not immediately visible, click around the task bar down there to see if more icons appear. Sometimes Windows tidies them away - like our family used to do with toys when the vicar came calling.) Left-clicking on that loudspeaker icon shows the simple slider volume control and a tick-box to mute the sound. But right-clicking on it gives you a little menu. What is on the menu depends on the version of Windows and what hardware is inside your computer.

I would start with what Windows XP calls "Open Volume Controls" and Windows 7 calls "Open Volume Mixer" ... they display two or more sliders and mute boxes for all the various things that generate sound. Make sure none of the mute boxes is ticked and that each slider is up at least half way.

We know at least some of your sound system works because Media Player is working.

I do not have Pinnacle, though plenty readers will have. Most video editing programs have ways to turn off sound while you are using them. Sometimes it is an option you get when you left-click or right-click on the sound timeline. Sometimes it is in a menu or a properties panel. You have probably tried everything you can think of.

Another foum came up with this advice, which is pretty much what Col said:
"If you have no sound while in your Pinnacle 14, click on the windows speaker icon on the lower right corner of your screen. Then click on the word "mixer." If you have a Pinnacle program open, you will see a volume bar asociated with it. In my case, that volume was turned all the way down. Turn it up by clicking on it and sliding it upwards....presto - sound."

Let us know what happens.

Dave

[Alwyn Anne]

Thank you both, I will give your suggestions a go and get back.

Dave, I am running Vista!

Thanks

[Alwyn Anne]

Thank you so much you two, it is sorted. Your second suggestion Col Lamb worked ie. clicking on the windows speaker icon on the lower right corner of my screen. I believe myself and the engineer both tried that but we were not in Pinnacle so the sound problem did not show up. Anyway it was turned right down and as you say "Presto" I now have sound.

Thank you so much, you are both wonderful!!

[col lamb]

So many problems can be solved with a couple of minutes search on Google which is just what I did and found the same solution on two different forums

[tom hardwick]

Ah, but for most of us it's quicker to post our questions here than on google, after all, we've got a col.