DV capture with on-the-fly brightness/contrast/saturation adjustment

[broaddd]

With analogue-digital firewire capture boxes on the Mac, like the Formac Studio which is similar to the ADVC100, there's a program called Vidi that will capture the DV and allow you to adjust the brightness/contrast/saturation on-the-fly as you do. It also allows you to adjust these settings in other DV capture programs like iMovie.

Are there similar, simple, preferably free apps on the PC; or alternatively will Windows Movie Maker allow you to make those adjustments as you capture, rather than afterwards?

Cheers,
B

[Richard_G]

DV transfer over Firewire is just that, a file transfer it is not a capture. Therefore you can't alter anything on the fly. Some software will allow you to encode to mpeg on the fly so will possibly do other effects as well (assumig the machine is powerful enough). But, if you want decent quality and intend doing any editing, transfer as DV, edit as DV and once you are happy with the end result, then, and only then, encode to mpeg.

[videogirl]

I just started using a program called DV Rack. It lets you monitor, lets you set up color bars and many other options. may want to take a look.

[redwudz]

videogirl, nice, but a little pricey. DV Rack $295.00US. Express version $149.95US.

broaddd, I just posted this in another thread: https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1549543#1549543

That's if your final output is to be DVD. All of the programs I linked are freeware except ConvertXToDVD and the two TMPGEnc encoder and author programs. VDM is a good DV editor and you can adjust the brightness, color, saturation, etc. with it after you transfer it.

You can also use freeware encoders and authoring programs like QuEnc and DVDAuthorGui and have all freeware.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Our Enosoft DV Processor does stuff on-the-fly and can do it from an input device to an output device if needed (you don't even have to capture to disk). Currently in beta, we are adding features. We are trying to prioritise them. One set of features we may add (or it may wait for a later version...) is on-the-fly adjustment of brightness/contrast etc etc. Live. All in the DV domain.

Point of clarification - DVRack doesn't change the incoming DV at all - it's designed to make sure you are set up correctly on location. And it does that very well.

If we get enough demand, we will accelerate incorporation of the signal adjustment. Such adjustment is trivial especially compared to the realtime aspect ratio conversion and logo insertion that are already featured...

We achieve our realtime, on-the-fly processing by rewriting from the ground up many of the video processing algorithms, including the encode/decode functions required for DV. In some cases, we have developed new mathematical procedures and hand-coded them for optimum use of SSE2 instructions and multiple processor systems. Even the program's interface has been heavily optimized to ensure as much of the processor power is available for the important stuff...

Regards,

[broaddd]

I suppose the difference is that the Formac Studio is not just passing through DV from a tape, but converting an analogue source to DV. So perhaps the Vidi software is actually adjusting the conversion, rather than the incoming DV stream?

Doesn't the Canopus ADVC 110 etc have the same issue?

[edDV]

I suppose the difference is that the Formac Studio is not just passing through DV from a tape, but converting an analogue source to DV. So perhaps the Vidi software is actually adjusting the conversion, rather than the incoming DV stream?

Doesn't the Canopus ADVC 110 etc have the same issue?

Vidi is a software control panel for the Formac Studio DV, Studio DV/TV or StudioTVR.
http://www.mitzpettel.com/software/vidi.php

I only used it once but I think the adjustments (brightness, contrast, audio volume, etc.) took place in the analog domain before A/D and DV encoding.

The ADVC-100/110 only has adjustment for setup on/off and audio sample rate. The ADVC-300 has additional proc amp adjustments and noise reduction. Again the proc amp adjustmets are probably done before A/D. Since DV is 8bit (16-235) there is limited quantization depth* for digital adjustments.

*235-16 = 219 levels or ~ 0.5% steps

[JohnnyMalaria]

Please see https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1557613#1557613

Our real time Enosoft DV Processor can do this and has both vectorscope and waveform displays to help adjust the video.

While in the beta phase, it's free and fully functional (no spoilers etc).

[SerbianBoss]

Does with your software is possible to adjust contrast,saturation and brightness on the fly with Canopus 110?

[JohnnyMalaria]

We have no direct experience with the Canopus ADVC110. However, based on the information on the Canopus website at http://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC110/index.php , it should be okay. The easiest way to find out is to test it with the software. If the software recognizes it, it will show up in the list of connected devices. Please let us know if it does work - or not.