The Mode area of the Importer provides a place to adjust the options offered by several import sources.

The options for DV and HDV import are in three groups.

Presets: The Presets group offers two standard configurations for video and audio compression, and a custom setting that lets you fine-tune compression parameters. For more information, see Compression settings for Capture Video.

The fixed presets are:

• DV: This provides full-quality DV capture, using about 200 MB of disk space per minute of video.

• MPEG: MPEG compression produces smaller files than does DV, but requires more computational horsepower to encode and decode. This could result in slower performance on older computers.

Scene detection: When the scene detection feature is enabled, your footage is divided up on import into ‘scenes’ that can be displayed and manipulated separately in the Library. This greatly simplifies the task of locating material of interest during editing. For more information, see Scene detection settings for Capture Video.

Stop at tape end: This option tells Pinnacle Studio whether to automatically stop capturing if a blank area of tape is encountered. A blank area – one without timecode striping – indicates virgin tape. Provided you have avoided leaving any blank spots during shooting (by slightly overlapping neighboring shots), this option allows for unattended capture.

The options for analog import are similar to those just discussed for digital sources.

Import Mode: This option determines whether the media file or project file is physically copied from the source location to the target folder of the local hard drive (as specified on the Import to area.) If Copy is selected, the file is copied. If Link is selected, the file is not copied and a link is created in the Library to the file in its original location.

It is strongly recommended that files on network drives be copied to the local hard drive.

Delete original: When this option is enabled, the original copies of the files you import will be deleted after copying. This option is handy if you are using the Importer to consolidate your assets and don’t want your hard drive cluttered with redundant copies.

Ignore duplicates: This option helps you deal with redundant media files or project files you already have, by telling the Importer not to import extra copies of files that may be differently-named but are apparently identical.

In stop-motion animation, a series of individual frames is captured from a live video source. Depending on your plans for the stop-motion sequence, you can instruct the Importer to integrate the individual frames into a movie (Stop Motion Project), or simply import each frame as a picture (Photo), or both.