Just started testing Studio 8 for DVD authoring

[padre]

Folks,

I just got my upgrade to Pinnacle Systems Studio 8 (S8). It's got some nice features for building DVD menus and editing MPEGs.

1) Motion buttons - once you have your chapter points created in the timeline, you can have S8 automatically build the buttons to be in motion. You can vary the length of the clip that plays in the button too.

2) Motion background - I was able to have another section of the movie as a moving background on the main menu.

3) Output to Burner or Image - You can 'Make Movie' to either a directory on the hard disk (It builds the VIDEO_TS folder) or right to the disc itself. Knowing how many problems I had burning directly via Studio 7, I decided to create the image and burn with Prassi.

Bottom line, not bad for $59 upgrade. They really did a nice job of fixing their MPEG2 encoder. It compares directly with TMPGenc encoding. So I can:
- import my DV tape (S8 builds AVI by default)
- layout the movie
- select the menu style
- select the chapter points
- create motion buttons and backgrounds
- create DVD image
- burn

There are some minor bugs, but with any .0 product, you'll have that.

The only major feature I wish it had was to use VBR encoding by default, instead of CBR. But you can't get everything in a single package I guess.

[falco533]

Does it REencode the video ????
If so have they improved on the quality in comparison to V7

[padre]

Yes, the best way I've found to work with it is to capture via AVI, do the layout work, and create the DVD image. When you do that, it encodes the files (AVI to MPEG2) using CBR. It looks great!

They dumped the MPEG2 encoder that they originally pushed out with v7 (thank god!). v7's encoder was crap.

I have a Pentium 4, 1.9ghz and 512mb RAM, and using a 7200rpm drive for the capture, but can't capture directly to MPEG2. It drops too many frames. They say with my hardware I should be able to encode on the fly, but found that's not true. So, I capture in AVI, and let it encode later.

My next test is to take MPEG2 files that I have already encoded (with TMPGenc) and see if I can use them. I've heard S8 will re-encode them, but I found a workaround. Haven't tried it yet.

[auenf]

sounds promising, i might have to look at it...

Enf...

[falco533]

Thats what I meant. Does S8 reencode a Tmpgenc mpg file.
If it does surely its a step backwards.

[padre]

Don't know. That's why I said "My next test is to take MPEG2 files that I have already encoded (with TMPGenc) and see if I can use them. I've heard S8 will re-encode them, but I found a workaround. Haven't tried it yet."

[AzMagician]

Padre,

Were you able to try out your mentioned workaround? Were you able to keep Studio 8 from re-encoding MPEG-2 input files? I'm very interested if you were successful. If so, can you share your workaround (or where to find more info on it)?

Thanks.
Bruce