IMPORT

• IEEE1394 (Firewire) capture - from DV and HDV camcorders
• USB 2.0 Capture - from external capture devices: Pinnacle (700/710-USB, 500/510-USB, 700-USB, 500-USB, MovieBax Deluxe) Dazzle (DVC-90, DVC-100, DVC101, DVC-103, DVC-107, DVC-130 [no 64-bit drivers], DVC170 [no 64-bit drivers]). Digital file transfer from SD and HD hard-disk camcorders. Also, webcams are supported if based on DirectShow technology. Note that webcams can be used for stop-motion animation, and there is a special capture mode available to achieve this.
• PCI-Based Capture - Pinnacle (700-PCI aka Pinnacle Studio Deluxe 2, 500-PCI aka Pinnacle AV/DV - note that neither of these boards are suitable for 64-bit Windows) Any IEEE1394 (Firewire) board may be used.
• Disc-Based Capture - Titles from DVD and Blu-Ray discs.
• File-Based Video - Formats supported are: AVI files(.avi), MPEG-1/2 ( .mpg,.mpeg, .mod, .m1v, .m2v, .mp2), MPEG-4 (.mp4), AVCHD/HDV/MT2 (.m2t, .m2ts, .mts), TOD (.tod), FLASH Video (.flv), WMV (.wmv), MOV (.mov), 3GP (.3gp, .3g2, skm), Digital Video (.dv, .dvsd), DivX (.divx),  iTunes (.m4v), YUV (.yuv, .2vuy), ASF (.asf), Internal Video Files (.dif, ts2), Matroska DivX-Plus (.mkv), Other files (.dvd).
• File-Based Audio - Formats supported are: AC3 (.ac3), M4A (.m4a), MP2 (.mp2), MP3 (.mp3), MPA (.mpa), Wave (.wav), WMA (.wma), Vorbis (.ogg).
• File-Based Image - Formats supported are: Bitmap (.bmp), GIF (.gif), Paintbrush (.pcx), PNG (.png), Photoshop (.psd), Targa (.tga), TIFF (.tif), Windows metafiles (.wmf), 3D (.mpo, .jps), JPEG (.jpg, .j2k).

EXPORT

• To Disc
• DVD - MPEG-2 (various qualities), AVCHD (for playing on Blu-Ray players)
• BD - MPEG-2, H264 (DVD Resolution, HD 1280x720p, HD 1440x1080i, HD 1440x1080/24p, HD 1920x1080i, HD 1920x1080/24p)
• To File
• Audio only - WAV/MP2/MP3
• Video - AVCHD (full-size, HD 720p, HD 1080p), AVI (DV, MJPEG - various resolutions), DivX (MPEG4 - various resolutions), DivX-Plus-HD (H264 - various resolutions), FLASH - Version7 (.flv - various resolutions), MOV video (full-screen-DV, HD720p, HD1080p, very small), MPEG-1 (Video-cd compat. , VHS quality, small, custom), MPEG-2 (DVD compat, SVCD compat, HD720p, HD1080p, HD1080i, HDV2-1080i, HD1080/24p), MPEG-4 (QCIF/QSIF/CIF/SIF, Full-size/best/good, HD720p, HD1080p), Real Media (various resolutions), Windows Media (.wmv - various resolutions), 3GP (MPEG-4, H263, Small - 176x144, very small - 128x96), Wii (AVI (SD), FLV), PSP (MPEG4 - 320x240), PS3 (DivX - 720x400, HD1080i) X-Box (DivX-SD MPEG-4, WMV-HD), iPod/iPhone (MPEG-4 - 320x240), iPad/AppleTV (H264 - 960x540 or 720p).
• Graphics/Images - Video Frame (JPG, TIF), Image Sequence (TIF, JPG, TGA, BMP - various resolutions, 25-60 frames/sec-of-video)
• To Web
• Cloud - Box (360p, 480p, HD720p, HD1080p) - 50GB is available free.
• FaceBook
• Vimeo (SD, HD)
• YouTube (360p, 480p,HD720p, HD1080p)   

FEATURES

• The Library is a cataloguing and management tool for all the file-based resources (assets) that you have on your system such as movie, image, sound, and music files. It is also where specialised resources such as Transitions, Effects, Titles, Disk Menus, Montages, Sound Effects, and Music can be accessed. The Library is constantly maintained by the monitoring of watch-folders - chosen locations on your hard drive where various types of assets are stored. Watch folders are accessed and edited by selecting ‘SetUp’ in the main menu bar. Scene-Detection can be performed on a movie file, and can be based on Date and Time (Timecode), Content, or time-interval.

• Movie Editor - Screen comprising compact view of the Library, movie Preview Player(s), and Movie Window containing the Timeline. The number of A/V tracks may be 6, 24, or unlimited - depending on version. There is also the option to view and edit individual movie tracks in Story-Board style. There are two editing modes - Insert, which moves clips to the right as new ones are added, and Overwrite, which maintains clips in a static position on the timeline (useful for track synchronisation). Tracks, and each A/V part of a track, may be locked to prevent disturbance during editing. The Speed of a clip may be adjusted from the timeline by right-clicking on it and selecting speed.

• Media Editors - There are media editors for each of the three main media types: video, images, and audio. Normally, access to one of these editors is by double-clicking either a media asset in the Library or a media clip on the project’s timeline. Media Editors can apply Corrections or Effects, and in/out transitions. The editors have an optional ‘solo’ mode of operation, which removes the influence of other timeline tracks on the current one being observed. Many operations support the use of Keyframes.
• Video
• Corrections - Enhance ( Brightness, Contrast, Temperature, Saturation, Clarity, Haze, White-Balance), Adjustments (Aspect-Ratio, Interlacing, 3D), Snapshot ( grab all or part of chosen frame to Library), Stabilise (reduce camera shake).
• Effects - 2D-3D (23 categories incl. HFX, PIP, PageCurl, etc.), Camera (18 categories incl. Old Film, Pan and Zoom, Rotate, etc.), Colour (12 categories), Keyers (Luma, Chroma, Transparency), Artistic (20 categories), Stereoscopic (3 categories), Add-ons ( RedGiant plugins - depending on version)
• Images
• Corrections - Enhance ( Brightness, Contrast, Temperature, Saturation, Clarity, Haze, White-Balance), Adjustments (Interlacing, 3D), Crop, Straighten, Red-eye.
• Pan and Zoom (Static, Animated - with keyframes).
• Effects - 2D-3D (23 categories incl. HFX, PIP, PageCurl, etc.), Camera (18 categories incl. Old Film, Pan and Zoom, Rotate, etc.), Colour (12 categories), Keyers (Luma, Chroma, Transparency), Artistic (20 categories), Stereoscopic (3 categories), Add-ons ( RedGiant plugins - depending on version).
• Audio
• Corrections - Equalise (Adjust gain over frequency range), Compressor (reduce dynamic range), Expander (increase dynamic range), De-esser (reduce sibilance), Noise- Reduction (reduce background noise and wind noise).
• Effects - 9 effects (including Band-Equaliser, Echo, Reverb, Leveller)

• Title Editor - This works on the ‘layer’ principle, where each element in the title occupies a different layer. The ordering of the layers may be adjusted, and each may be optionally hidden. There is an optional ‘solo’ mode of operation, which removes the influence of other timeline tracks on the current title being observed.
• Looks - An enormous combination of looks for text. Choose fonts, sizes, colours, glows, shadows, outlines, bevels, etc. Any custom look that you have designed may be saved.
• Motions - Entry/Exit (43 different text animations can be applied, based on characters, words, or lines), Emphasis ( 20 different animations can be applied to text over the life-span of the title and, in addition, text can be made to scroll up/down or crawl/roll across (L-R or R-L).

• Disc Menu Editor -The Menu Editor shares most of its controls and usage with the Title Editor. Any visual element in the menu area can be designated as a ‘button’, which gives the audience the means to navigate to any part of the movie. There are special ‘Previous’, ‘Next’, and ‘Main’ buttons to navigate menus with multiple pages. The visual appearance of buttons can be set to show their condition - ‘Normal’, ‘Selected’ or ‘Active’.

  

• Montage Editor - A montage is a method of supplementing movies with off-the-shelf slide-show, animation and multi-track editing effects. They may be thought of as highly stylised forms of titles and transitions. The editor gives the facility of adding clips or stills from the movie, and entering relevant text. The background may be set to ‘transparent’, allowing the montage to overlay a still or movie sequence.

• Creative Elements
• Transitions - There are hundreds of these (2D-3D, HFX Vol 1/2/3, HFX for Studio, Standard - 2D, Studio HD - 10 categories)
• Effects - Many effects, too numerous to list, in 6 categories.
• Plug-Ins - Red Giant Film Maker’s Toolkit (Magic Bullet Cosmo, Looks, Mojo), Red Giant Motion Graphics Toolkit (Knoll Light Factory, Trapcode Particular, Trapcode Shine, Warp).
• Montages - Numerous professionally designed sequences, called templates, are available to give productions instant impact. The templates are grouped into matching themes, so that along with the technical sophistication of the templates, it will be easy to maintain a consistent look.
• Templates - These consist of opening and ending sections, with a number of intervening segues (animated transitions) available in between.
• Themes - There are numerous themes to choose from featuring subjects like photo-albums, baby, sports, and abstract etc.
• Titles - As well as creating custom ones, there are many pre-designed ones available covering a wide range of subjects (Premium Pack1 - 5 categories, Premium Pack2 - 3 categories, Standard - 29 titles, TitleExtreme - 31 titles)
• Disc Menus - As well as creating custom ones, there are many pre-designed ones available covering a wide range of styles (CreativePackV1 - 32 menus, Standard - 18 menus, StandardMenus - 52 menus).
• Sound Effects - There are many of these (Standard - 13 categories, UFX - 19 categories)
• Music - Pinnacle’s Scorefitter1/2 - 9 categories each containing many songs and versions. A plug-in is available for purchase to add SmartSound.

• Movies Within Movies - It is possible to bring back a previously-saved movie project onto the timeline of the current movie project, where it behaves just like a normal clip - it may be trimmed, and have transitions and effects applied. The advantage of doing this, rather than rendering a project to file and bringing this into the current project, is that there is only one rendering process involved when exporting the current movie. The inserted project itself may be adjusted or re-edited by double-clicking on it, whereupon a new edit-window will open.

• Voice-Over -  Narration may be added while the movie is playing in the editor.

• Disc Simulator - When reviewing disc projects, there is a button on the Preview Player which invokes the Disc Simulator. This is a panel which emulates all the normal control functions of a DVD remote control. This enables the navigational aspect of the disc menus to be tested.

• Smart Movie/Smart Slide - These two features will automatically build movies from collections of assets chosen by the user. Although automatic, the user has some control over how it is done - like deciding the relative length of scenes (sets the pace of the movie), whether pan/zoom should be used, media order (chronological or random), and giving the movie a title. When complete, the movie may be fine-tuned like any other movie. These two smart features do not create disc projects, so the adding of menus (if appropriate) will have to be done manually afterwards.

 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.

• Operating System - Win8, Win7, WinVista (SP2), (64-bit systems recommended)
• Processor - Intel Core Duo 1.8 GHz, Core i3 or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 Ghz or higher. (Intel Core2 Duo 2.66 Ghz, Intel Core i5 or i7 1.06 Ghz or higher required for AVCHD, stereoscopic 3D, and Intel QuickSync Video support).
• Graphics Card - DirectX 9 or higher graphics device with PixelShader 3.0 support such as :
• NVIDIA GeForce 6 series or higher (CUDA enabled required for CUDA support)
• ATI X1000 series or higher
• Intel GMA X3000 series or higher.

128 MB VGA VRAM ; 256 MB or higher recommended, required for AVCHD, Stereoscopic 3D, and CUDA.

• Sound Card - Windows compatible (multi-channel O/P required for surround preview).
• Display Resolution - 1024x600 or higher
• Other - 4.5GB HDD space for installation, DVD-ROM for installation (box version only), Internet connection required for on-line activation and Cloud or on-line services.  

A good way to get an overview of a product is to take a look at its specification, with an eye on its features and capabilities. I have compiled the following specification for Studio 16 from information gathered from various Avid/Pinnacle documents and other web-based sources, and by direct observation, and which also reiterates any of the attributes that have been inherited from earlier versions of Studio.

Jeff Naylor has added to his popular books on Studio with a new title ‘Pinnacle Studio 16 (Plus & Ultimate) Revealed’. You can find out more HERE. He also has a website devoted to Studio. Get to it HERE.