Settings
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Avid Studio’s central configuration window is called the Control Panel. (Note that it is for Avid Studio settings only. The Microsoft Windows Control Panel is unrelated.)
To begin, select Setup Ø Control Panel on the Avid Studio main menu. When the Control Panel appears, choose a page from the directory on the left side of the window.
The Avid Studio Control Panel is a central configuration window for the application.
The seven pages of Control Panel settings are described here in turn.
Watch-folders are folders on a hard drive or other storage medium that are monitored by Avid Studio. When the contents of a watch-folder changes, the Library is automatically updated.
You can create as many watch-folders as you wish and optionally set them up to watch for only one media type (video, image or audio) instead of all three, the default.
To designate a folder on your system as a watch-folder, click the Add folder button below the watch-folders list, and navigate to the folder you wish to add. To cancel watch-folder behavior, select the folder in the list and click the Remove folder button.
Apply Changes directs the Library to update its catalog in light of the watch-folder changes.
This settings page provides the parameters available for recording devices (such as microphones) that are connected to the computer. Click the device name to access the Windows settings dialog for the device.
Messages are logged in this window during certain operations, such as importing a number of files. You can check here for details about any problems that may have occurred during these operations.
The default options for the Avid Studio Importer may be set here; however, you can adjust or override them in the Importer at the time of importing.
Folder options: View or set the default storage locations for imported media that are physically copied during import; unlike linked imports, and the Library’s Quick Import feature, which simply link to the existing media without relocating it. The folder locations are initially set to the user’s directories. for music, video, and images (My Music, and so on).
Selecting a video subfolder type on the Import Settings page.
After locating and selecting the folder you want to serve as the base folder, you can optionally set up a subfolder:
· No subfolder: With this option, the files you import will be stored in the base folder.
· Custom: When you choose this option, the text entered into the Subfolder text box will be used as a folder name for the media type.
· Today: Your imports will go to a subfolder named with the current date, in the format “2011-10-25”.
· Creation date: Each imported file will be stored in a subfolder named with the creation date of the media, in the same format as above. When multiple media items are brought in as part of a single import operation, this may entail creating or updating multiple subfolders.
· Current month: This is the same as the Today option but without the day portion, e.g “2011-10”.
Scene detection: This sets the default detection method for scene detection.
Stop motion: This sets the default import method for the frames you capture with the Stop Motion feature.
These settings affect the representation/display of video.
Quality: These options control the quality of video previewing throughout the application.
· Best 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.
Background playback optimization: If this option is active (the default), Avid Studio renders all real-time effects and transitions. Rendering progress is shown on the time-ruler by yellow (‘to be rendered’) and green (‘now being rendered’) shading. The shading is removed as soon as rendering is complete.
If this option is not active, the yellow and green markings are not displayed; 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, real-time rendering is disabled during playback but resumes when playback is stopped.
Show full-screen preview on: Select the computer monitor (if more than one is available) on which you want to see full-screen displays.
· Show External Preview on: Select from a list of available devices and signal outputs.
· External preview standard: Select the TV standard of the connected video monitor.
On this page of the Avid Studio Control Panel, you can select your default settings for new projects, titles and transitions.
New movie project format: Select a resolution (such as PAL or HD 1920x1080i), as the default for every newly created timeline. Alternatively, let the first clip placed on the timeline define the format for the project with the option Detect format from first clip added to project. The format for the current timeline may be changed at any time while editing, by using the timeline settings located at the upper left of the timeline toolbar.
Default durations: Set the default durations of titles, images, and transitions when they are first brought to the timeline. (Once there, of course, the clip length can be trimmed as required.)
Ruler zooming: When this option is checked, dragging horizontally on the time-ruler zooms the timeline in and out. In this mode, you will need to drag directly on the scrubber handle to scrub or to reposition the play line. When ruler zooming is turned off, you can click anywhere on the ruler to move the play line. In either case, zooming may also be performed by using any of:
· the Plus and Minus keys on the numeric keypad;
· the Navigator at the bottom of the timeline; or,
· the scrollbars under the previews.
This page allows you to set where to save media and projects you create with Avid Studio. You can separately specify locations for each of:
· Movie projects
· Disc projects
· Titles
· Menus
· Render files (temporary files produced while rendering items requiring intensive computation, such as video effects).
Changes apply only to files that are created following your changes to the storage location; existing files remain in their current locations.
Delete render files: You can delete render files to save space without concern over permanently losing data. However, the files will be recreated the next time your project needs to be rendered.