No video or poor quality video in the Capture preview window. Movie Vision Pinnacle Studio 12, MV-DVD-PL3

Tip: While troubleshooting burn or playback issues, using rewritable media will prevent wasting discs.

No video or poor quality video in the Capture preview window

Answer ID 14008

There are several possible causes for video being either absent or of poor quality in the Capture preview window. If you encounter such an issue, work through this list of possible corrective steps until it is solved:

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Minimum requirements: Verify that the computer being used meets the minimum system requirements for Studio as described in the Getting Started section of your user manual. Remember that some features

(such as HD video editing) have more demanding requirements than others.

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Update the Studio software: Check on-line for possible Studio updates by clicking the Help ¾

Software Updates menu from within the program.

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Verify that the capture device is detected: Ensure that your capture device is being properly detected by checking in the Windows Device Manager. If installed correctly, the capture device will be displayed in Device Manager. If it is not displayed there, or if it has an error icon (a yellow exclamation mark), please check Answer ID 13932 in the

Pinnacle on-line knowledge base.

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Capture preview option: Make sure that the Capture

preview option is turned on in the Capture source options panel.

Appendix C: Troubleshooting 345

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VCR input option: If the video displayed in the preview window is of very poor quality when capturing from a Pinnacle device (Studio 500-USB,

Studio 700-USB, or MovieBox Deluxe), it is likely that the VCR Input checkbox has not been checked.

Rectify this in the Capture source options panel.

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Graphics card hardware acceleration: Try lowering the hardware acceleration for the graphics card. After closing the Studio software, open the

Display Settings dialog from the Windows Control

Panel, and click the button to open the Advanced

Settings dialog. On the Troubleshoot tab of that dialog, there is typically a horizontal slider that allows the adjustment of the hardware acceleration setting of the graphics card (not all drivers allow this adjustment). If the setting is available, try adjusting it downward by one level, then restart Studio and see if the performance has improved. If it has not, close

Studio again and move the slider one more notch to the left. Repeat until the problem is solved or all hardware acceleration settings have been tried.

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Update drivers: Make sure that you have obtained the latest drivers for your sound and video cards from their manufacturer’s web-sites. See page 327 for details on how to do this.

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Adjust display settings: Sometimes with higher graphics card display settings selected, the Studio video preview window may not perform as expected.

Close Studio and open the Display Settings dialog from the Windows Control Panel. You can try changing either or both of the Screen Resolution and

Color Quality settings. Try different resolutions, such as 800x600 or 1024x768, with 32-bit color selected. At each setting, start Studio and look for improved performance in the preview window.

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Use a single monitor: If multiple monitors are being used, try using only one monitor and see if performance improves.

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Run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool: Open the

Windows Run dialog (Windows+R), type “dxdiag”, and press Enter. To check for errors in the DirectX

Diagnostic Tool, look at the Notes section in the various tabs of the tool. Any problem found should be referred to the vendor of the device displaying it.

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Background processes: Try reducing the load on your system by ending background processes that are not needed. See page 327 for more information.

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Suspend virus scanners and other continuouslyscanning applications: Although it serves a vital purpose, virus scanner software can hinder performance in computationally intensive video operations. As a test, try disabling the virus scanner and see if it helps. (To ensure the continued wellbeing of your system, Pinnacle recommends disconnecting from the Internet while your virus scanner is off-line.) Other candidates for suspension include popular indexing tools or services such as

Google Desktop Search, Yahoo Desktop Search and

Adobe Photoshop Album Importer.

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Increase the priority of Studio: In some cases it can be helpful to increase the priority of the Studio application in the Windows Task Manager. In the list of processes, right-click Studio.exe and select Set

Priority. Try setting the priority to “AboveNormal” or “High”. Click Yes when Task Manager asks you to confirm the change, then retry capturing in Studio.

If the priority change appears to have any undesirable result, simply it back to “Normal”.

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Reinstall Studio: If none of the previous steps have helped, try uninstalling and reinstalling Studio.

Appendix C: Troubleshooting 347