Hi -
I have recorded mini clips of my son and our new home -

I have bought a Dell, 3GB, and 500GB ram, all good...
Now I have installed Pinnicle studio 10, done the patch to 10.8 done all I have to to get it going...

I have saved a video clip on my hard drive - now when I want to drag and drop it onto the "Story board" it is asking me to get an activation code <Dolby 2CH Encoding/Decoding for Studio 10 Plus instantly by purchasing an activation key>

Now - this hasn't happened before - I noticed the clip is MPEG-2 - the videos that do drop down (samples) are MPEG-1.
Is this the reason why my clip won't load on... Surely one can download a media converter(free) somewhere and make it MPEG-1.

What is the difference between the two formats?
Why is this such a mission?
Why can't it work -

It did when I used clips from my Fuji digital SLR camera which could record small clips of about 3mins...
Is it a Sony thing... or is Pinnacle so programmed so it still wants to make money off it's customers?
I paid a WHOLE lot for this programme - about a quarter of my monthly salary - and I feel I shouldn't have to keep paying for activation keys - or is there something I am missing.
Thanks to anyone who can help me with this..

Okay - I have been advised to answer this myself.. to get it noticed... and hopefully someone can help... :confused:
So I await... and see for some clever person to help me :rolleyes:

I cannot tell you about version 10. But in version 11 Dolby 2CH Encoding needs an activation key. But it is available free through the internet if your product is registered. The 5.1CH encoding requires a fee.

As for your MPEG2 movie - can you tell me how you transferred the video to your hard disk? And what model is your HD camcorder. Pinnacle handles MPEG2. You need not convert them into MPEG1.

Unfortunately Sony HD Camcorders use Advanced Video Codec High definition (AVCHD) FORMAT. This is NOT supported by most video editing softwares. So if you have copied the file from the camera to the PC - PINNACLE may not handle it. You will have to use the software that came with your camcorder.

OR- you can hookup your camcorder to your laptop with a firewire cable an "capture" the video using Pinnacle capture utility and the resultant captured video can be edited.