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Poor capturing quality please help

Discussion in 'Digital camcorders' started by simferop, Sep 5, 2003.

  1. simferop

    simferop Member

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    I’m capturing from Canon GL2 using firewire. Tried different software. My guess is that I need a new computer, cause mine is DELL P3 450Mh 512RAM.
     
  2. tigre

    tigre Moderator Staff Member

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    What does the poor capturing quality exactly look like? You might want to read some old threads about the same topic, often the reason is interlacing visible (+ugly) on PC screen while fine on TV.
     
  3. simferop

    simferop Member

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    If I use Sonic MyDVD, the captured video is skipping frames; if I use Ulead software the edges of some objects have a zebra pattern(INTERLACING).Is that possible that my computer is not powerful enough?

     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2003
  4. tigre

    tigre Moderator Staff Member

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    Unless you have one of the few cams with progressive mode (= not interlacing), the captured video will be interlaced (-> zebra pattern) unless it is processed on the fly which is probably done by Sonic MyDVD. If the PC is too slow for this processing in realtime the result is skipped frames. So you should capture with Ulead (= 1:1 transfer cam -> HDD) and then process the captured video to get rid of zebra pattern, e.g. using some of the smart deinterlace filters for VirtualDub. I don't know Sonic MyDVD, maybe you can use it to process video that is already stored on your HDD.
     
  5. simferop

    simferop Member

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    Thanx a lot for info. I'm going to order a new computer, it should fix a skipping frames problem. Thanks again!!!
     
  6. Fibre

    Fibre Guest

    Have you tried different software? I use Premiere 6.5. It captures flawlessly. You can download a demo at www.adobe.com.

    My set up.
    Camera JVC GR4000RU MiniDV

    Adaptec Firewire Card
    30 GIG HD
    866 mhz processor
    32 MB Video Card
    Windows 2000

     
  7. tigre

    tigre Moderator Staff Member

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    Hi Fibre!

    That's interesting. I have (almost) the same Camera (GR-DV4000E) and use Premiere 6.0 .

    Does this mean you don't get any signs of interlacing (= horizontal lines at fast moving parts of the image)? If so, can you please tell me, what settings you use?

    The footage I get with Premiere is always interlaced (most clearly visible at 720x576 resolution) and I deinterlace it usually using some smart deinterlace filter for VirtualDub.

    There are some rumors that the GR-DV3000 (which has the same chip as the 4000 IIRC) is capable of progressive mode if set do "digital wide mode". I tested this with my DV4000E and it's still interlaced, but maybe your RU version does progressive mode (Is it PAL or NTSC)?
     
  8. Fibre

    Fibre Guest

    I'm in North America so I use NTSC. Yes I do get the lines.

    But the only time I notice the interlacing is when I playback on my computer. It disappears on the TV. I never deinterlace. Have you tried recording in SP Mode instead of LP? I notice the lines alot more with LP.

    Oh ya how are you capturing? USB or Firewire?


    No I don't think my camera can do progressive. Don't all MiniDv cams use interlacing? Is'nt that the whole point? 525 lines of reselution.



     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 12, 2003
  9. tigre

    tigre Moderator Staff Member

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    I need to deinterlace because PC screen is used as TV here. Playing back interlaced video with PC looks really ugly. Of course deinterlacing is useless if you use TV for playback. From what you wrote I thought Premiere 6.5 had an option to deinterlace on the fly while capturing - this is why I asked. Everything else is fine, capturing via firewire...

    Progressive is also 525 lines (I think 576 here - PAL). It's just that there are not 2 frames with 1/2 of the lines time-shifted by 1/60 second.
    720x525 x 30/second = progressive
    720x263 + 720x262 (time-shifted by 1/60s) x 30/second = interlaced_X_X_X_X_X_[small]AFTERDAWN FORUM RULES: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487[/small]
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2003
  10. Fibre

    Fibre Guest

    From what I remember you can't de-interlace when capturing Unless your cam is progressive. When you export you can. Using the Adobe mpeg encoder.

     
  11. dRD

    dRD I hate titles Staff Member

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    simferop, some tips:

    -make one of your HDD partitions empty. I mean totally, absolutely empty. Use this for capturing, DV data is 20Mbps, so 5mins == 1.1GB, which means that your HDD has to manage the load.

    -make sure, doublecheck, triple-check and check even after that that your HDD is using DMA mode. Without this, you end up having problems.

    -try using DVIO for capturing -- 34kb tool, free. http://www.carr-engineering.com/dvio.htm

    ...using Canon MVX150i and Asus' on-board IEEE1394/FW (omg, Canon seems to have dominant position on this forum :)._X_X_X_X_X_[small]Petteri Pyyny
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    http://AfterDawn.com/

    Please read our guides before posting questions! Guides are available here:
    http://www.afterdawn.com/articles/[/small]
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2003
  12. MacFreak

    MacFreak Member

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    I know a few others have mentioned this, but a common problem I noticed wtih low video quality was only evident on the computer. Once I exported my edited footage back to the camera and then to VHS the DV quality was restored.
     
  13. dRD

    dRD I hate titles Staff Member

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    MacFreak is sorta right and sorta wrong. Quality doesn't drop when you transfer it to PC, unless you have some serious issues, and can't "become better" after it is transferred back to cam. This simply is impossible.

    But the typical explanation for such effect/illusion is due the fact that computer monitors beat TVs hands down in terms of quality and resolution -- and I mean all monitors, even your 15" SVGA monitor most likely beats your shining brand new 36" Sony Wega that costs $2000, in terms of video resolution. TVs have poor resolution and they do "fuzz" the pixel edges, which makes the picture "smoother" and this doesn't happen on computer screen -- on computer screen, you see all the rough edges, errors, etc and you also watch monitor much, much closer than your TV.

    Only technical reasoning for actual bad quality playback on PC would be that the PC's DV codec somehow "sucked", but AFAIK, they don't.
     
  14. Oriphus

    Oriphus Senior member

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    Its exactly as dRD says. The difference of quality is due to the television you view it on. My monitor is set at 1280x1024 and will show most digital camcordered video as pretty perfect. However, since the average TV only has 500 lines (differs to pixels, but the same sort of principle) then there will be a reduction in quality (even on high quality televisions). Philips have addressed this to a certain extent with their pixel plus range of TV's, but really a plasma (with XGA) or LCD TV would be needed.
     
  15. venprods

    venprods Member

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    You should use a TV monitor the check out the video. Computer monitor is used to display the graphic and text. Video monitor / TV is used to display the video sources. I don't remember exactly, but the pixel on computer monitor is different than the video monitor TV.
     

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