How best to use Pinnacle Studio 8??

[videodummy]

I have captured a movie (from my library) using Lord Smurf's Movie Settings. Can I edit the movie in Pinnacle Studio 8?

I downloaded TMPGenc and the trial version is expired, I did that prior to the holidays and didn't have time to get into it, so that was a mistake. Plus, I've dropped all of the Franklins and other dead presidents into this video hobby that I can for now and save my marriage, so .... I have Pinnacle but have had problems with it. My other authoring tool is Sonic MyDVD. Whooppie! It just doesn't give me the results I want. I'm not hard to please. All I want is to convert my VHS tapes to DVD and be able to create chapters. That's it. What a humble endeavor.

I think it might be my system configuration. Here's the problem: I have captured using ATI presets and tried to edit in Studio 8 but the program crashes at about the 85 minute point. I can drag and combine frames up to that point and once I tried to go past that the program stops responding, seizes and chokes like my Tennessee Vols in the Peach Bowl. What a bummer, the program, not the Vols, that was expected.

So, will using Lord Smurf's settings solve this problem? Or, is there a free tool somewhere that is better?

[ktnwin]

In order to use PS8, you need to have some kind of luck. Many do and many don't.
I am one of the lucky one (follow the manual for capture/edit/make movie). Also learn to avoid things that make this software crashes/hang.
There is no clear instruction on how to avoid crashes or hang with this software.
Sorry , I know this does not help much.

This is the real help: if you want to capture VHS tape and make DVD from it, a very good software I am using is neoDVD - It has never ever crash on me. Do a forum search for neoDVD in DVD authoring section and you will find many posts about it.

[hutchca]

What version of windows are you using and what file system is your disk using?
If you have Win2K or WinXP I reccomend using the NTFS file system.

The FAT32 file system has a file size limit of 2GB. That could be your problem. If you try to access or edit anything in a file past the 2GB mark you'll have probelms on a FAT32 disk.

My DV video capture files usually exceed 20gb. Good thing I have 200GB to play with.

[jtoolman2000]

Agree completely with hutchca I too have had perfect luck with Studio 8 - Make sure you have updated it as far as possible as well.

[donpedro]

Some more info about PS8 in my signature.

[kisrum]

I've only captured and edited and burned DV so far, and I'm a newbie, so I may be talking out of school on VHS, but:

Get the updates; defrag your hard drive before capturing; re-start and shut down all the background junk you can before capturing; ...before you edit; .... before you burn; Keep your DVD menus simple; Use the razor to cut scenes rather than dragging bars to shorten them (a little dragging is okay, but not much!); put transitions in at the very last; check your timeline for gaps that aren't apparent on the storyboard;

I see you've got quite a system but if there's only one 80GB HD it might get a little tight. Maybe burn image to HD before burning DVD. Good luck.