2 simple (?) problems with DV capturing

[kb1985]

hello,
i've just bought my SONY DCR-30E digital camcorder and have some small problems with capturing analogue video through it. I connect my Sony DCR-30E to my PC via firewire and capture some video. The two main problems are:

1. I can't open the captured stuff in Virtual Dub. I try to capture in Type 1 and in Type 2, both with the same result. Do I need any Sony special codecs? Ane ideas? Any links?

2. Caputuring the analogue material through my digital camcorder results in noise at the top of the screen. I know that at the bottom of the screen there are some noises generated by VCR (i believe they are called overscan?). But what can I do about the noise at the top of the screen? I tried to capture one episode of "The X Files", one episode of "Friends" and one episode of "Lone Gunmen" and one of my home made vhs-c videos. My vhs-c video got captured without any problems. The noise at the top seems to be visible only on the programs recorded from the TV. The same show ("The X Files") captured through my Ati Radeon 9200 seems fine, without any noise at the top. Here is the 4,2 MB sample in DV format:
http://kb.e9.pl/publiczny/pasy.avi

Thanks in advance for any help with solving these problems.

--
s.
www.thexfiles.prv.pl
www.monk.abc.pl
www.xforum.prv.pl

[Baldrick]

1. tried the panasonic dv codec?

[kb1985]

1. tried the panasonic dv codec?

thx... this one problem was solved (however i can still open only type 2 files... in order to open type 1 i have to convert it to type 2 first... is it possible to bypass it?)

any ideas about the second problem? the noise at the top of the video?

[daamon]

any ideas about the second problem? the noise at the top of the video?

How much of the top of the picture is it? If it's only small (a few lines) then chances are you won't need to worry about it. TV's don't display the whole picture - the bit they "chop off" is the overscan area. If your "noisy" picture doesn't go beyond the overscan then you won't see it on TV.

[kb1985]

The noise is quite thin line. As you can in the avi file here: http://kb.e9.pl/publiczny/pasy.avi
The same video captured by my ATI card is without that noise.

[daamon]

Sorry, I don't have the codecs on my PC at work to view it. But, based on what you say, if it's a thin line and the AVI is destined for TV then no need to worry - it'll be outside the safe area and won't be visible.

[kb1985]

I want to watch this avi on my pc.
I think that I have to crop the noise at the top.
But I still don't understand why there is no "top noise" while capturing by my ATI card. It is only when I capture through my digital camcorder and it's only with movies recorded from TV. The noise that is generated by the VCR and is overscaned on TV is visible on both of the captures (ATI card & digital camcorder) but the camcorder addes some extra noise at the top which is not visible while capturing by ATI card.

[Richard_G]

The noise on the top few lines on video captured from UK TV broadcast is quite normal. It is teletext data and is always there. However, as all TVs overscan (cut off a small proportion of the picture all the way round) you never normally see it unless you have a TV where the vertical frame size is adjusted to allow you to see all of the frame. If playing back on a TV it won't be seen, if you want to play it back on your computer you'll need to crop it off.

[bugster]

if it's a thin line and the AVI is destined for TV then no need to worry - it'll be outside the safe area and won't be visible.

Thats quite true. But if encoding to mpeg it is advisable to crop it off or mask it with a black line. The reason being that thie noise will use up valuable bitrate that a solid black bar will not need.

[kb1985]

This noise is solid but blinking white bar, not just distoreteed material.

[bugster]

This noise is solid but blinking white bar, not just distoreteed material.

Still crop/replace with black if encoding to mpeg.

[Richard_G]

If it is a solid but blinking white bar, it is definitely teletext. Crop it or blank it (or just accept that it is actually supposed to be there and leave it alone!).

[kb1985]

Thanks for all the replies. Cropping is what I will do.

[lordsmurf]

Don't crop (and re-stretch the image)
Mask (hide, cover, clip) it.