If you take a casual look at Pinnacle’s website, it appears that there haven’t been any patches for Studio since version 12.1 – and none for Studio 14 at all. However, if you dig a little deeper into the Knowledge Base and the Forums, you will find that this isn’t the case.
It may well be that Pinnacle have found issuing of a full patch, with the work and testing that involves, is too costly for some problems, particularly if it doesn’t affect the majority of users. Or it may be that the team that would normally develop a new full patch and test it have moved on to develop newer versions of Studio by the time a bug has been identified, so minor issues are given “quick fix” solutions that need less development. S11 was locked off at 11.2, S12 at 12.1 and it is looking increasingly likely that 14.0 will be the final version of S14.
I have listed below all quick fix patch currently known, with their direct download link, so you can benefit from it. It start with S10 patch to S14 patch:
- The disc export patch (S10 and S11)
- The DVD reader patch (S12)
- The YouTube patch (S12 and S14)
- The PAL DV Import patch (S14)
- Further information
The Disc Export patch (S10 and 11):
To my knowledge, this process started after the release of Studio 11.2. This version of Studio has a bug that became known as the “No Sound on DVD” problem. That isn’t a strictly accurate name, as in some circumstances, the sound on the DVD was there, but pitch shifted and distorted so much as to be unrecognisable.
It took Pinnacle a while to acknowledge the existence of the problem, as they thought they had fixed it in an earlier version. Only when using some audio settings, and on some DVD players does the fault show itself. When the patch came, it was for Studio 10.8 and 11.1, and isn’t included in the last full patches for either version.
The S10 patch is here / The S11 patch is there
(they are presented on separated page, although they are the same file Studio_11_10.8_DiscExportPatch.exe)
The DVD reader patch (S12):
The next fix to be produced but not included in a full patch concerned a bug that affected importing DVD titles into Studio 12.1. Sometimes a title would not import, or the result reported the wrong duration, and often there would be long sections which consisted of just a frozen frame. If it seems to be taking longer to import a title than the duration of the title itself you should check an import carefully.
This was tricky to pin down, as in only appeared on certain DVDs. Pinnacle had a number of samples sent to them and produced the DVDReader patch. Full instructions are included in the second section entitled File Replacement in KB226201 (file DVDReader_KB226201.zip)
The fix isn’t publicised on the main download pages, perhaps because the patch requires a little more work to install than normal. The user needs to delve into the file system and rename and replace a .dll file. What is more, it doesn’t solve the issue for some DVD imports. People have found that the DVDReader dll from Studio 11 may give better results in some circumstances that the official patch. Replacing the DLL as instructed in the File Replacement section of the above KB article, but with the dll file from Studio 11, version 2.0.19, cures problem for some people in some circumstances. If you don't have Studio 11, the DVDReader.dll file 2.0.19 is available for download here (file DVDReader.dll).
The YouTube patch (S12 and 14):
Pinnacle could not be held responsible for YouTube changing its upload routines after Studio 14 was launched. The change at YouTube broke both S12 and S14 Upload to Web features. Pinnacle once again released a mini patch, without publicising it fully on the main download pages. Full details are here: KB346323 (file StudioPatch14_0_1_7256.exe)
This time, the patch is fully self-installing, and seems to work for everyone. The KB article says there is no fix for S12. However, users have reported that doing a file replacement of the S12 dll with that from the S14 patch solves the YouTube issue. I can only assume that this hasn’t been made available as a proper patch for S12 because of time and cost restrains to program an installer and test the patch.
If you replace the S12 PinnacleWebPublisher.exe file in S12 (version 1.0.68) with the latest file that Pinnacle are posting as a patch to S14 (1.0.78) it may solve your YouTube upload problems. Please don't do this without backing up the old file first.
For those of you who don't have S14 and therefore can't extract the Pinnacle Webpublisher.exe file, it has been posted here (File PinnacleWebPublisher.exe)
The PAL DV Import patch (S14):
Many people are reporting issues with DV import in Studio 14. Firewire drivers seem to be one issue, but for PAL camera users, Pinnacle have released a beta patch. The full story is currently told in the forum post here.
At the time I am writing this, there appears to be no other publicity for this patch, which as it is still in beta, isn’t that surprising.
Further information:
Does anyone have any further information about other fixes? There is a pinned thread on the Pinnacle forum here. You might also leave a comment in this article, and we will take it into account, as well as replying to you asap.
Even if Pinnacle have decided not to release a full service patch for S14, more fixes may appear in the future. Let’s hope that they can be made more visible, but if you are the first to spot one, please report it to other users! On our side, we will do so as soon as we have update (subscribe to our free newsletter to be informed in real time).