Hello

Pinnacle Studio 12 hangs during rendering of AVCHD files, each time in different frame. No msg, just freezes.

Total length of project is 30 min, footage from Sony HDR TG3 (not HD, 1440x1080 m2ts files).
Max length rendered was 8 min, minimal 30 sec.

PC – 2 years old Sony VAIO laptop, Vista Home, 2 G RAM, Dual Processors, 200 G HDD, 25 G free.
Task Manager shows during rendering 100% utilization on both processors and RAM.

Pinnacle site advised uninstall / install, get rid of unnecessary transitions – this did not help.

Pinnacle Studio 12 used to work ok with video captured from old camcorder (lower resolution 640x320 if memory serves me right).


Thanks

This is a real pig of a problem. I used Pinnacle for years and found it trouble free, mostly but just now and then it would just crash, or hang for seemingly no reason.

Things to try:-

1. Make sure you start studio from a fresh boot ie boot the PC and don't open up any other programs first.
2. Switch off any programs running in the background like virus checking etc.
3. Do a full defrag of all hard drives.
4. Check the timeline for any anomaly's it's possible to have little bits of clips less than a second long hiding on the timeline. Even if "you didn't put them there".
5. Make sure your OS is in good working order. Use a registry checker etc.
6. Make sure you have all the up to date patches of Studio 12.
7. free up some room on the Hard drive.
8 Check for corruption of the source material.

These are some of the things that I use to do. I don't know if they will help you.

__________________
Every thing said by me should be taken with a pinch of salt. Unless you have high blood pressure, then I would recommend a salt substitute.

In the ten years i have been doing this one thing I have learned - pinaccle is crap. It appears to be the most buggy editor out there.

I use Pinnacle ultimate V12. The programme is very memory and processor hungry. The longest video I have rendered is 10 minutes. one thing I did find if you overdo the special effects in each frame this will cause the programme to freeze.

You could try rendering 3x 10 minutes worth then join it together as one file in Windows movie maker.

Thanks for your replies. Couple of questions:

1) rendering 3 x 10 minutes – it seems rendering is allowed for the whole project only. I can’t find the option to select start/stop points for rendering within project.
Without this option project has to be split into 3 projects which means some hassle. Is this the only way to do 3 x 10 rendering?

2) Tried Sony Vegas for the same 35 min project – rendered ok (2hrs), but avi takes 9 G ! The objective of this exercise is to burn project onto normal 4.7 G DVD. Looks like avi has to be compressed somehow to fit to DVD?

3) Another problem is that Pinnacle’s titles/transitions seems to be superior to Sony Vegas (or may be its me being new to Vegas?).
Can Pinnacle’s project with titles/transitions be exported to Sony Vegas for rendering?

1. Yes

2. If you are going to make a DVD you can render it to mpeg2 this will make the file size smaller and is needed to make a DVD. It's what Pinnacle does when you ask it to make a disk. It automatically does the conversion to mpeg2 and then makes the DVD folders

3. I would not say this but understand why you might think it at first. I've used both Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas and found some of the FX in pinnacle more instinctive to use thus making them easier to apply but once you get your head round the way the Sony stuff works you will find them much more flexible. Example can you fade to white in Pinnacle I never found this in all the years I used it.

You can't put a Pinnacle project file into Vegas but you can edit anything in Pinnacle and make an .avi file and then put it on the time line in Vegas. So, if there is a must have FX in Pinnacle that you don't have in Sony you can edit render and then put in Sony.

__________________
Every thing said by me should be taken with a pinch of salt. Unless you have high blood pressure, then I would recommend a salt substitute.

Hello

Thanks for your reply.

I’ve used Sony Vegas to edit my 35 min project and rendered it to mpeg2. Now size of file (1.5 G) is ok, but quality has dropped comparing to 9 G avi.

Panning and camera movements are smooth in 9G avi, but jittery in mpeg2.
The objective of this exercise is to burn project onto normal 4.7 G DVD.

Any advise how mpeg2 quality can be improved or may be another format ?

Which template did you use when you rendered the project. Depending on you answer could mean that just increasing the bit rate may solve the problem. After you have selected your template if you click on the custom button, there are some adjustments that can be made to improve the quality of the video. The main one being increase the bit rate to CBR 9000. There are couple of other little tweaks you can do, such as slide the quality slider all the way to the right. Select "Best" on the project tab.

__________________
Every thing said by me should be taken with a pinch of salt. Unless you have high blood pressure, then I would recommend a salt substitute.

Thanks for your advise.
I’ve used DVD PAL template which seems most suitable for me.
Also increased the bit rate from 6000 to 9000, selected Best.
Output file now is 2.5 G (resolution 720x480), quality improved, but panning still not as smooth as in 8G AVI version.

For future shooting – how panning issue can be prevented?
any point to shoot in HD if my laptop is not powerful enough to edit HD? Any resolution higher than say 720x480 seems to be too heavy for editing on my laptop