Opening a video file
The default locations for your video files are the Windows public video folder and the matching folder in your user account. When you are viewing the Videos section in Files mode, both of these locations always appear on the dropdown list at the top of the Album.
You can also choose other hard drive folders to access stored video files. Studio lets you navigate to the folder where your files are located by clicking the icons in the Files mode. You can also select a file directly by clicking the Browse for file button in either Files or Scenes mode. Both the current and previous folders are also listed, if they are different from the two standard locations, making four different folders that may appear in the list at any one time.
The final entry on the dropdown list is “My Favorite Folders”. If you are working with several different video folders, Studio’s “favorites” feature makes navigation easy. To designate any folder a favorite, use the right-button menu command Set as Favorite folder. Favorite folders are displayed with a star graphic in the Album. To return to a favorite, select “My Favorite Folders”, and then the particular folder you have in mind.
Selecting ‘My Favorite Folders’. The folder at right has been designated a favorite, as shown by the star.
For details about modes and view options when working with video scenes in the Album, see The Videos Section.
Folder contents are displayed in Files mode. Both the subfolders and the digital video files within the current folder are shown.
Three ways to open a folder:
· With the Videos section in Files mode, select the folder name on the dropdown list, or double-click any listed folder.
· Click the parent folder button 
in either Files or Scenes mode.
· Click the browse for file button 
and use the Open dialog to locate a digital video file in either Files or Scenes mode. When Studio opens the video file, switch to Files mode to display the contents of its parent folder.
When you open a video file, icons are displayed that represent the scenes in the file:
Three ways to open a digital video file:
· Select the file name on the dropdown list when the Videos section is in Scenes mode.
· Double-click a file listed in Files mode.
· Click the browse for file button 
and use the Open dialog to locate a digital video file of any supported type on your hard drive.
Scene detection and thumbnails
When you open a video file, the Album fills with the file’s detected scenes. Each scene is denoted by a thumbnail frame – an icon of the scene’s first frame. It may be that the first frame doesn’t make a good icon for the scene, so Studio lets you pick a different one if desired.
To change thumbnails in the Album:
1. Select the scene to be changed.
2. Use the Player to find the frame you want used for the thumbnail.
3. Click the Album Ø Set Thumbnail menu command.
Most digital video files provide format information that allows Studio to detect the frame aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9 automatically. If the file does not provide aspect ratio information, Studio defaults to the standard 4:3 format.
The Aspect Ratio 4:3 and Aspect Ratio 16:9 commands on the Album menu let you manually set whichever ratio you need. These commands also appear on the right-button context menu for video in the Album. Their method o
f operation is to stretch the original frames to the new frame size. If you set the ratio of a 4:3 movie to 16:9, for example, people and objects will appear widened relative to their height.
This is different from the frame-size conversion that occurs when you add a scene to a movie project with the “opposite” aspect ratio. In that case, the scene is scaled in both dimensions equally to fit within the target frame, and excess area appears as black.
The Aspect Ratio commands become available after the Studio has opened the file for the first time and indexed its scenes. Until then the menu items are disabled.
(L) Original 4:3 frame; (C) Same frame with black sidebars on adding to 16:9 project; (R) Same frame after Aspect ratio 16:9 command is used. Aspect ratio mismatches can also be handled in the Movie Window with the context menu commands ‘Show full picture’ and ‘Zoom picture to fill frame’.
Note: The movie project’s frame format, which cannot be changed after the project is created, can be set for new projects in the Project preferences options panel.