Why is the colour much darker after capturing?

[JumpinJackFlash]

Technically I'm not capturing I guess, as I'm using the Canopus ADVC, so shouldn't the colours and everything be the same as the original signal?

When I was first testing it out, I noticed no probs when I authored the capture to SVCD. Skintones etc looked virtually the same as the original TV pic (perhaps a little darker, but really not noticeable). Now however the difference is so marked I'm having to put filters on to reduce the saturation else I have people looking as if they have a bad tan.

I've been capping a BBC2 broadcast (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (shut up) and while parts of it look gorgeous, much of it is extremely dark and colour rich. Turned the colour down on the telly, but that's a pain in the arse to have to do that every time I want to watch a captured programme, so I'm using filters in Media Studio Pro. I'd much rather do what I did initially though and just convert the DV to SVCD with no messing.

So I guess I want to know if this is a common problem with capturing or if something has gone awry in my system?

Surely as the Canopus is merely transferring a signal it shouldn't end up darker? Is it a codec prob ya think?

[vhelp]

NTSC or PAL .. anyways..

buffy is mostly dark scene savey. It's most likely that tv show that is giving
you the problem. Perhaps other cards (previous ones you used) were better
at this tv show than your advc is at present time.

If you are in NTSC land, than make sure your dip switch is set to IRE.0
(not 7.5, as it is very dark indeed)

Other than that, by any chance, are you using an amplified video switching
box in your setup ??
If so, this could also be your cause for poor output quality. It was in my
a very long time ago. I was using a radio shack 4 video amp distribution
box (but no longer in use today)

-vhelp

[JumpinJackFlash]

NTSC or PAL .. anyways..

BBC=PAL

buffy is mostly dark scene savey. It's most likely that tv show that is giving you the problem. Perhaps other cards (previous ones you used) were better at this tv show than your advc is at present time.

Haven't used any cards before so can't compare. I did try a snatch from other programmes and they are also darker too. If I just left the DV as it was, converted it to SVCD, then I'd have to alter the colour settings on my TV. That didn't happen with my original tests, the colours were fine.

Other than that, by any chance, are you using an amplified video switching box in your setup ?? If so, this could also be your cause for poor output quality. It was in my a very long time ago. I was using a radio shack 4 video amp distribution box (but no longer in use today)

Nope. Just got the box attached to the TV via scart and composite leads, and thence to the firewire card on the comp, nothing in between. It's not that the quality is poor exactly; audio is synced, no dropped frames, colour is rich. But it's too rich if you know what I mean. Buffy can be quite dark, but the output is much darker than the original (not just on the comp) and hence I'm having to use filters. As the Canopus is an analogue>digital converter it's merely transferring the signal so even though it may look dark on the comp surely it shouldn't retain the darkness when it ends up back on the TV? I'm pretty positive it didn't in my initial tests.

I've tried capturing via MM, Premiere, and MSP with the same results. I'm thinking maybe some setting on the comp got changed but I'm buggered if I know where.