All captures are dark

[Trentk]

I hope you guys can help me out, I have been battling this problem for quite some time. If this isn't the proper forum for my question please point me in the right direction.

I have been capturing movies from my sony 8mm camera for a while but all the video is dark, it looks perfectly fine on the camera view finder but on the capture screen in adobe premiere or any other software package it is at least 50% darker. Last night I went and bought a different capture card and it is EXACTLY the same. I have tried a Hauphauge WinTV card and an ATI TV tuner card. Both are very cheap. I can artificially brighten the video in premiere but it looks stupid.
I have also tried the same camera, tape and cables on my TV and it looks fine on the TV.

Would it make a difference if I spent some bucks and bought a more expensive capture card???

[MaDmiZe]

This may not be your problem...but all videos look darker on my PC monitor..I have adjusted the brightness and contrast on my monitor to make them better but then everything is too bright in other applications...
I make VCDs out of these same videos and on the TV they all look fine...IE: NOTdark anymore.....so I don't adjust brightness anymore..Your problem may be simular in that thats the way your video card/monitor combination will display it.

[Trentk]

The problem is I am turning these clips into .wmv's to put on the net for others to see. And it looks dark on everyone elses screen too.
And I mean dark, even if I adjust my monitor it still doesn't show the details that are shown on my video camera screen.

Thanks for the idea though.

[snowmoon]

Assuming as above you have your monitor calibrated, you can alwyas adjust the capture card.

What I usually do is go into capture mode in VDub and turn on preview w/histogram. I the go into the video/source and find the analog adjustments for the card WinTV's have them. You can then adjust brightness ( black level ) contrast ( white point ) saturation ( color richness ) and possibly even gamma ( WinTV only when using RGB24 capture ). I use the histogram as a backup to my eyes since their should never be bars crammed up against one side of the histogram or the other.

Cheers

[Trentk]

I forgot to mention that I have run the adobe gamma correction program.
It didnt seem to help.

It is a WinTV card, I can see in adobe premiere where the setting are for brightness and the like, but the settings are grayed out, I can't adjust them. Is there some other place where I can adjust them?

Thanks for the help.

Trent

[jcort]

I believe Madmize is correct. I have a Matrox RT2500 and when I capture with it to Premier, the video is dark on the PC monitor. I have a seperate video monitor hooked up and the video on it is much brighter than on the PC monitor. Its the PC monitor. I did raise the brightness on it but then everthing else is brighter. Did u burn a copy and play on TV yet?

[Trentk]

I have yet to attempt to make a VCD, I am not even sure if my Playstation 2 will even play a VCD.

Besides the intended audience is people on computers since the videos go on the internet. I guess it is just a problem I have to deal with, but at times the night time shots are unwatchable, even if I brigthen everything up!

Thanks,

Trent

[snowmoon]

trent,

You must alter the capture card's settings since as you are finding out there is only so much room ofr adjustment once the video is on the PC.

You can change the device settings in VDub and they carry over to other programs. Adobe Gamma only applies to specific application that might enable that processing and is no substitute for taking and hour to reasearch and then calibrate by eye your monitor for better performace on video. Most video cards also have "overlay" controls that can adjust JUST the video window without ajusting the monitor settings at all.

[Trentk]

Thanks for the help, I will try installing Vdub tonight, changing the settings and then try another capture in premiere.

Thanks again,

Trent

[Trentk]

I just wanted to let everyone know I found a place in win XP that allows you to change the hardware settings for brightness and contrast. It is the windows movie maker.
Go to record, change device, device settings. By messing with these settings I was able to make even the night video look pretty decent.

Thanks,

Trent