Help, I think I'm lost, VideoStudio 10 SE

[notonyourtintype]

Hi folks,

I thought I knew what I was doing. I've been using the various free versions of Movie Maker / Movie Live, Pinnacle Studio 8, 9, etc. for a few years now. Then after two years "off" from video editing, I upgrade my machines to Windows 7 Ultimate, buy a Sabrent USB-AVCPT to finish that box of VHS dubdowns. I install the Sabrent drivers and the Ulead Video Studio SE 10 that it shpped with, seemed to work okay. This is on a Sony Viao, 4GB, dual core machine.

Dubbed down a VHS tape in AVI format. 1hr 40 min of feature & trailers generated 92 GB of file. Hmmm. Wasn't expecting that, but I suppose I could have told it MPEG to capture.

Open up VideoStudio, and when repeatedly it wll say "error in reading information from file", but then it will actually load the file, let me clip it, edit, save different projects that represent different things on it. I want a final DVD with the main feature (with 17 chapters), and two trailers. Note that previewing PROJECT "shows" black screen, audio only; play CLIP gives me the full video and audio. Hmm.

I think I have it all done. So I say "create disk," and it wants to burn 6.8GB or a two-layer disk. But... now the fun. PREVIEW full project will not let me select any submenus like Range, and it will not show video. But if I go in to the Edit panel, PLAY CLIP, the entire movie plays fine. So I try the Create Disk, the feature is there, I drag in the two VSPs for the trailers. Add/Edit Chapters WIPES OUT THE CHAPTER TITLES I have already put in, and no menu comes up that lets me reenter them. NO BUTTONS OR MENU CHOICES to proceed from this point. No way to burn a disk?

Help?

I haven't tried the blindingly obvious of restore to day before yesterday, and try again, but I think after a cuppa coffee in the morning that might be next.

Any help at all greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Mike

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forums!

A couple of thoughts. As you guessed, you probably shouldn't have captured to AVI. It seems that when it said AVI, it meant uncompressed AVI, and the size would be about right for 1 hr 40 mins of video. If the device permits it, you should in future capture to DV/AVI, which is easy to edit and a good deal smaller at about 20 GB for the same project. Or you could as you suggest capture direct to DVD-compatible mpeg-2.

The fact that it is huge and uncompressed AVI probably accounts for it not playing in Project mode or in the Preview of the burning module. VS is trying to throw everything together on the fly, and the size is probably too much for it to handle.

What I would first do is have your edited project in the VS timeline in Edit mode, and choose Share > Create Video File > DVD instead of Create Disc. It will then convert your AVI to a DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which you can playback to see if it is as you wish. And it is OK, the you select Create Disc > DVD. When the burning module opens, you insert your new file, build your menu, and burn.

Inserting Chapters in the Edit mode never works properly to carry over into the burning module. You should insert them in the latter.

Now th missing buttons... VS 10 was written a long time before Windows 7 and is not compatible with it. Nor was version 11 or 12, though Corel brought out a patch for the latter to get it to work with Win 7. It also didn't show the Next button in the burning module. If you didn't patch it, then you could use Alt+N to move to the Next page and finally get to the burning page. That should also work with VS10, though I can't guarantee it.

[notonyourtintype]

Ken, many thanks for the lightning prompt reply!

I had had that same thought last night looking at the Save as Video File option, and I may have to do that. (I do have to say, an uncompressed AVI of Kermit & Co from VHS does look stunning!) And thanks for the warning about the CTRL-N for the next screen.

If that doesn't work either, then, I'll let it run the capture device and then just press on from there.

I'll post an update in a few days. Grading papers and decorating the tree have priority today.

Cheers,
mike

[Ken Berry]

Just note that I said Alt+N and not Ctrl+N...