Using camera/WinDV to digitize old VHS... coming out too dark...?

[garybeck]

I have a basic setup to transfer my old VHS tapes to DVD:

VHS > Canon ZR300 pass thru > Firewire >WinDV > AVI > Sonic MYDVD > DVD

everything is working fine, except the video at the end is "dull" or darker than the original. the strange thing I notice is that there's a preview on the Canon camera, and also on the WinDV application on my computer, both playing at the same time. On the Canon camera, the preview is bright and looks good. But on the WinDV computer screen, it's not nearly as bright. Even my 3 year old was watching it and he said the Canon screen is brighter.

I thought, maybe it's just the settings on my computer, maybe need to turn up the brightness. But it was already set to over 90%. And when I watch the DVD end product, it's not as bright as the original VHS.

Any ideas? If there's nothing I can correct in the capture process, is there a video brightening tool I can use to brighten up the AVI a bit once it's on my computer, before I burn the DVD?

Thanks
Gary in Vermont

[JohnnyMalaria]

You can use our Enosoft DV Processor to increase the brightness while capturing (or with existing DV AVIs). It's free for personal use. And very easy to do - use the "Luma offset" slider in the video proc amp to change the brightness.

[garybeck]

cool, thanks very much, i'll check it out

[JBC]

In order to troubleshoot a problem one must eliminate the possibilities. Is it your Monitor or the process that leads to the dark output?

I've known many posters to USENET that must have their monitor all out of whack or they need some serious glasses, because their product is washed out. (I've adjusted mine)

Luckily a monitor can be adjusted and forgotten as the culprit. There are several methods available: Coloriffic, Adobe Photoshop, some video games, e.g., Riven (Myst) as well as others. This is a step that everyone should take as it allows for a standard of sorts and should especially be done if you’re sharing your work.

Once set only periodic checking is required to compensate for reduced brightness that comes with age (CRT). I'm not sure how other technologies age.

[phugger101]

Is it only necessary to correct the levels of the footage while capturing/transferring dv when the target audience of my video intends to play the video on their computers? I also see that when I am capturing, my windv preview window is very dark compared to my minidv cam's lcd.

[guns1inger]

Your DV camera's LCD is heavily backlit, and will always give your footage a brightness that it does not have.

If you first calibrate your monitor correctly, then you know that any changes you make to your footage will not be too extreme unless you intend them to be.

Personally, I don't believe you should compromise your footage to suit people too lazy or stupid to get their kit right. If your friends complain about the footage being too dark, tell them how to get their own monitor's adjusted correctly.

[jagabo]

there's a preview on the Canon camera, and also on the WinDV application on my computer, both playing at the same time. On the Canon camera, the preview is bright and looks good. But on the WinDV computer screen, it's not nearly as bright.

This is quite normal. Computer monitors have very different gamma curves than televisions. Video will look dark and dingy unless the application is adjusting the video for display on a computer monitor.

If you adjust the brightness of the incoming DV to make it bright on the computer monitor you will get overly bright and washed out video when you put that on DVD.

If you adjust your monitor so that video looks like it does on a TV, your desktop will be overly bright and washed out. The exception to this is if the application is using video overlay and you adjust the video overlay settings.

This doesn't rule out some other problem in your process. You should compare the final DVD with the VHS tapes on your TV with the same cable type, probably composite.