Export and Preview settings in the Control Panel
These settings affect the representation/display of video.
Quality: These options control the quality of video previewing throughout the application.
• Best Quality: Provides previewing at full resolution – the resolution at which the project will ultimately be exported. Under this option there may be dropped frames during playback on slower systems.
• Balanced: At this setting, the recommended one for ordinary use, some quality optimizations are omitted for the sake of a faster preview. In most cases the difference is barely noticeable.
• Fastest Playback: The preview is optimized in favor of processing efficiency, which may be helpful on a slower system.
Show full-screen preview on: Select the computer monitor (if more than one is available) on which you want the full-screen preview to be displayed.
Show external preview on: Select from a list of available devices and signal outputs (if any).
External preview standard: Select the TV standard of the connected video monitor.
* Playback Optimization
Optimization threshold: The optimization threshold determines how much rendering is done when you preview your project. It can be set anywhere from Off (0) to Aggressive (100). Whether a particular timeline ‘slice’ will be rendered depends on the amount of computation needed to prepare the effects and transitions that are used, and on the value of the optimization threshold. If this value is set all the way to Aggressive, Pinnacle Studio will pre-render all transitions, titles, disc menus and effects even when the output would have been previewable; this can considerably delay playback.
If optimization threshold is set to Off (zero), on the other hand, the yellow and green markings that indicate rendering progress are not displayed; instead, all effects are played back in real time. However, this can result in reduced playback quality (lost frames, ‘jerky’ playback) if the number and complexity of effects outstrips the available processing capacity of the system.
Render while play: When the Automatic setting is used, the application decides on the basis of system information whether real- time rendering can be done during playback. If the Off setting is used, rendering is disabled during playback but resumes when playback is stopped.
Third-party Codecs: Lets Pinnacle Studio use third-party codecs that are installed on your computer so you can work with additional video formats. Note: Some third-party codec packs might cause crashes or errors in Pinnacle Studio.
* Hardware Acceleration
When activated, this feature shifts part of the processing load from the CPU to auxiliary hardware, such as the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) of your graphics card. The level of support for hardware acceleration depends on the type of CPU and graphics card on your computer.
• Most NVidia cards support the CUDA architecture. When this is accessible, the GPU is used to assist with H.264 decoding.
• Machines equipped with a recent Intel CPU having the Intel Quick Sync Video feature can use it for rapid decoding and encoding of H.264 and H.264 MVC material.
* To choose Hardware Acceleration type
1 From the Pinnacle Studio main menu, choose Control Panel >Export and Preview.
2 In the Hardware Acceleration area, choose an option from the Type dropdown.
* Stereoscopic
Default 3D Viewing Mode: This setting selects the default for stereoscopic 3D content throughout Pinnacle Studio. See 3D viewing mode switcher for more information. Please see Choosing what to display in the Library for more information.
• Left eye or Right eye: The preview for stereoscopic content can be set to show only its left or right eye view.
• Side By Side: In Side By Side preview mode, you can monitor the individual 2D images for both sides at the same time.
• Differential: Rather than the image content itself, the differences between the left and right frames are displayed. Identical areas show as neutral gray.
• Checkerboard: Right and left eye views alternate in adjacent cells of a 16x9 grid.
• Anaglyph: An Anaglyph stereoscopic preview is suitable for viewing with red-cyan stereoscopic glasses.
• 3D TV (Side by Side): This mode is to be used with a 3D – capable second monitor or projector.
• 3D Vision If your system is 3D Vision capable and stereoscopic 3D is turned on in your driver settings, any stereoscopic content will be previewed in 3D Vision by default.
No stop when activating 3D Vision: This setting is available when Studio is run on a PC with a 3D Vision- capable system which has stereoscopic 3D turned on in the driver setting. By default, the No stop when activating 3D Vision setting is set to off. When turned on, playback will automatically stop wherever a 3D Vision preview is being activated or deactivated during playback.