Disaster burning to DVD using Pinnacle Studio

C

chithanh119

Member
I have been using Pinnacle Studio 9.0.0 and have had disastrous results. I am not alone as Pinnacle's own message board is full of a variety of issues.

I do not purport to be an expert. More like a struggling newbie. But I have about 150 hours trying to learn the software. Does anyone on this message board have any experience with that software?

The major issue is that the latest version 9.4.3 when rendering hangs up.
The second issue is that if a DVD is actually burned, it will not play on my three year old player. DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW are probably my problem. I understand the RWs are not widely accepted, where -R and+R are. Any comments? Confused
 
All my experience has been with Adobe Encore and Apple's DVD Studio Pro, so I can't help with the nuances of Pinnacle's software. However, there are a couple things that might help your situation. First, in my experiences, I've run into a lot more problems using DVD+R discs than DVD-R discs. I don't completely understand the differences, but DVD-R discs are more likely to work more often in more different kinds of players.

The next thing to try is adjusting your write speed. Just because your disc and burner might be rated to burn at 8x doesn't mean its the best way to go. The faster your write speed, the higher your chance of errors. Try creating your master disc at the slowest speed possible. If that works out for you, then try the next increment.

DVD Player compatibility has been a small but frustrating issue with me, especially with older players. I've found that its basically a crap-shoot.Anytime you burn a disc in your DVD writer, you're taking a chance that it won't play in some stand-alone players. The only way to all but guarantee disc playback is to have your discs replicated- but that's costly and typically not worth the trouble if you're distributing less than several hundred discs! Surprisingly, I've had the best compatibility with the cheapest and most obscure DVD players out there. A $30 player from Wal-Mart can play back more discs than my $75 Sony DVD player.

So, give those things a try, and the worst case scenario has you dropping $30 on a Carnivale or Panaphonics DVD player. Hope this helps!
 
Chugach3DGuy said:
The next thing to try is adjusting your write speed. Just because your disc and burner might be rated to burn at 8x doesn't mean its the best way to go. The faster your write speed, the higher your chance of errors. Try creating your master disc at the slowest speed possible.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with Chugach on that one. Burn them at 1X and use -R. Less coasters and greater compatibility with older players.

Another gotcha is to watch the data rate in your VBR settings. You have to keep it low enough so that older players can handle it. You can't just use the max data rate and have it work on all players. And that's total data rate, not just the video, but the audio as well.

cm
 
Pinnacle User

I have used Pinnacle for several years to make 30 - 50 minute home movies. I have lost alot of hair because I've pulled it out using this program. However, this is a decent editor for the money.

Speaking of money, you can upgrade to the newest version, Pinnacle Studio 12, for free or almost free. You can usually find offers at Best Buy, Office Max, Fry's, ect.... that have rebates for the purchase price of Pinnacle. AVID makes their money on this program by selling add on effects packs.

The new versions are much better than the old versions. Studio 9 was a very unstable version. Make sure you do not upgrade through the Pinnacle site. They do not offer rebates on-line.

A few things might help you burn a successful DVD. Do not insert your DVD until you have your setting selected in the "Make Movie" tab. Once you've selected the "Make Movie" tab, select best quality under the "Video quality" section, Dolby 2-channel for the "Audio compression," Low for the "Write Speed" and make only one copy. Once you have made these selection, click the "create a disc" button. Pinnacle will then ask you to insert a blank DVD.

I have found this is the best combination to use to get a good DVD from Pinnacle. I also agree, DVD-R is the best DVD format to use. I believe I read some place the DVD+R disc is best for data, but I'm not sure about that. If you need multiple copies of a project, use a secondary program like Roxio to copy the original DVD you made in Pinnacle. I have never successfully made multiple copies in Pinnacle.

Is this program a pain in the ..., yes. It is a decent program if you don't have the dough for a real editor like Final Cut, Media Composer or Premiere. ( I can't justify spending the money after being laid off.)

I hope this helps.
 
Pinnacle Studio DVDs won't play!

Jim Schettler: I cannot thank you enough for your three suggestions:
Video Quality Best
Audio Compression Dolby 2-Channel
Write Speed Low

I was ready to pull my hair out on a project. The DVDs kept getting "stuck" whenever I tried to watch one that I burned. Changing these three options worked for me. I can now show and "sell" the DVDs of photos of an entire year's events at a boat club. I'll use the money to pay for my investment in Pinnacle Studio Ultimate software.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you!
 
I'm glad these suggestions helped. I have switched to Premiere because I'm doing more graphics work now. Premiere works well with After Effects. I haven't used the new versions of Pinnacle but I liked it when I was using it.
 
The best thing you can do with Pinnacle is to uninstall it.

I was given a copy of Version 12 a while ago to review for a magazine, and I had to ring the editor as I could not find anything good about it.

crashes, hangs, burn errors..... I was so relieved when I deleted it off my drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top