Very new to all this, so please bear with me! Have taken still digital images and also filmed some footage on the digital card (SANDISK 512MB ULTRA II SD CARD). These were then burned onto a CDRW in VCD format. When I play this back on my Panasonic 28" TV (via DVD box) the photos are crystal clear and sharp, but the film footage seems to have lost it's quality. Seems a bit blurry. I have also used a DV link straight from the camcorder to the TV and the same thing happens. Now I now this could be down a a hundred and one differen things, but any advice greatly received. rgds, Paul.
Your model is a miniDV cam so why don't you record to tape? If you record film to the memory card it IS just limited quality.
Have to agree with the last post. I have the Canon MV850i. I use the card for stills and also taking stills from the recorded video, they are not up to my stills camera but are passable. Recording video onto the card you are compressing it to jpeg straight away in low quality. Using the mini dv tape produces excellent quality digital video which should play though your tv with no loss of quality and can be captured to your pc as an .avi file and edited, once edited it can even be put back to the cam on a fresh tape again with no loss of quality. ellington
Thanks 'TPFKAS' and 'ELLINGTON' for your replies. When I playback the tape footage on my camcorder, the quality is crystal clear and excellent. However, when I playback the film via TV (Panasonic "28") the footage does not seem as sharp. Was wondering if there are any settings that I should adjust on the camcorder. Thanks again for your help, Paul.
How are you connecting to the TV. All I did was use the AV cable and plugged the three plugs into the corresponding sockets on the tv and off you go. The quality is excellent. I set nothing that I can remember to change the picture quality on the cam. ellington
Ellington, The penny has dropped! I've been a bit of a jerk! All I have been viewing on my TV up until now is footage I took on the card and because the quality wasn't upto scratch, I thought the tape would be the same, so never tried it. I have just played back footage on the tape and, wow, it IS excellent as you said. I am just learning all this stuff (first camcorder and all that) and I just assumed the card would be the same quality as the tape. I have learnt a valuable lesson. Thanks for your time. Best regards, Paul.
We all learn by trial and error. Glad you have found the quality. The card is good for taking still shots but is not up to my digi stills camera. It is also good for capturing shots from the tape whilst watching it for those pictures you wouldnever have caught with a still camera but again the quality is slightly less and also for taking clips of movie you may wnt to email. But for the true dv video it has to be the tape. I think it is a great little camera for the money and will do everything I want for some time to come. Happy shooting. ellington
Hi Ellington (or anyone who may care to help), I have two final questions (he says, hopefully!) 1) With the AVI video footage that I have on the card, can this be recoded (I think that is the terminology to use) to a format which reproduces the quality footage you get on MiniDV tapes? 2) Whenever I register the plug-ins in PhotoShop, then go back into the program a bit later, it keeps asking me to register the same plug-ins again. Can this be avoided? I thought the settings would be saved. Regards, Paul.
Hi Unless I'm very mush mistaken, once you have created that clip on the card at that particular quality 320 x 240 or 160 x 120 you are stuck with it at that quality. You have created it compressed (motion jpeg) so do not have access to the original. Its like taking a digi still at 640 x 480 and wishing you had taken it at your normal 2272 x 1704 so you could blow it up and print it. I have never found a way to enhance it. As far as Photoshop goes, can't help as I've never used it. ellington
