DV footage is grainy.

[fossil]

I just bought a new SONY TRV22, and i took some video. but the quality was extremely poor. so disappointed. it appears grainy, actually even the pictures i took were grainy. what's wrong with this POS?

[jtor]

just wondering, where did you find it to be grainy, when you played it
connected to a TV?

Does it have a sharpness setting that you can tweak?

[fossil]

no, it's just grainny when i connect it to the computer and then i converted it to avi and it's very blocky and grainy too.

[justlearning]

You should caputure to the computer as AVI, not as MPEG. Avi will give you full resolution. MPEG is about 1/4 resolution. The stills are not going to be that good, they are only 1 mega pixel. Hope this helps you.

[fossil]

i have usb streaming on. is it good?

[DivXExpert]

USB is not enough. Not convert it. Just transfer it, and keep it in the DV format.

You need a Firewire card, and a capture program.

Justlearning: MPEG does NOT dictate resolution. I have MPEG video at 1080xforgot. And the shots will be no where near 1megapixel. 720x480 is only 345600 pixels. A megapixel is 1 million pixels. 1000000.

[bmiller]

I went through the same problem with my canon.Outdoors it is ok,but indoors without enough lighting,the video is grainy.Lots of light,and it will improve.
Brad

[arcorob]

You know, I am noticing the same thing.

I have 3 digital cams by sony now and given pleanty of light, indoors or outdoors, it is beautiful. But in medium to lower light conditions, there is a grain to the film. They seem to require more light than my sony analog.

Any thoughts folks ? I sometimes use manual exposure and that helps, but if its too dark, grain grain grain

[DivXExpert]

I have to agree. Low light causes grain.

[Luis Neves]

You need to transfer your DV footage to the computer using a firewire card. Using USB its not possible to do it keeping full resolution. You are probably looking at a low resolution file.

[vhelp]

@ all..

yes, low is the caues, due to the way the light hits the CCD and all.

I think that those that have cams have to re-think their way of camm'ing.
I mean, they have to realize that in order to reduce the grain effect, you
have to have PLENTY of light. That means, havieng 100 watt bulds in a
flexible type lamp, and GET USED to the way too bright shooting and the
annoying spots that form in your eyes. This is how it has to be in order
to succesfully produce good quality images. Low light ie, lamps and so on,
are insuffeciant period !!
Start rethinking your lighting when you are camming.

the TRV-22 is an excellent model. It has better light gathering than my
Canon ZR-10. The ZR-10 is pure crap under low light, and up to now, I
didn't realize how pure crap it was, for low light source.
And, to add, the TRV-22 also takes some pretty good PROGRESSIVE shots
(when setup right) w/ plenty of light. A bit on the blurry side, but you can't
go wrong with it, if you want to excape the de-interlacing part in AVIsynth
or vdub or TMPG for that matter. IMO, it's better than all those de-interlacers
quality wise, but nowhere's near film etc.
But, on a different kind of progressive process, I did manage to get full
progressive frames out of this, but I can't remember just how I did it just
yet. I'm re-dugging how I got it. It was late night and my pc had frozen.
And, all my settings were gone. I was plumb mad !! Anyways..
And, the panel buttons are a bonus. Though, at first, ..was cursing them out
(rather, the lack of real button) but I quckly got used to it. Now, I can't
live w/out them (panel that is)
But, do watch out for CC. They lie through their teeth about the lack of a
memory stick. They insist that the unit doe NOT come w/ one, and they
force a 128MB stick on ya. I opt for the 64MB instead. But, found out that
the damn unit comes w/ one !! So, watch out for these and possibly other
store practicing this form of harrasment upon ya. Ask to see a manager if
all all possible. And, be prepare w/ a few articles STATING that it DOES
come w/ a stick.
Anyways.. back to topic..

When you shoot footage, be it actual footage or just sitting your cam on your
PC or next to you for testing or whatever.. keep a 100 watt flexible lamp
next to you. And, when you're ready to shoot, turn it on. I do lots of testing
this way. In fact, I'm doing some more now hehe.. hehe..

Enjoy all.
-vhelp

[vandakeg]

I do multi-cam wedding videos as a weekend job, and use 3 or 4 sony digital cameras (TRV-740s).
I have done a few evening weddings, where the lighting is not quite good enough to get great quality video, however I have found a way to cut down on the graininess in post.
I use premiere (although i'm sure it's just as simple in any other NLE program) and use this technique for each shot from each camera:

1. capture the entire tape and put in the Video 1 track
2. I then use a 'levels' filter to get the lightness up just a little bit.
3. Then make a copy of the clip and paste it into the Video 2 track
4. Move the clip in Video 2 one frame forward or back (doesn't really matter)
5. Apply a gaussian blur to the clip in track 2 (the amount depends on the video) until the graininess is just gone.
6. Change the Opacity Rubberband on Video 2 (again, the amount depends on the video and the amount of blur)

I have been very happy with the results this technique has given me, the only drawback is that it gives the video a 'softer' look, which with wedding videos is absolutely fine... maybe not the greatest for home video, but worth a try.

[SLICK RICK]

USB is terrible, I had my DV Camera for about a year and used the USB cable that came with the camera and got terrible results so I thought it was just my camera. But before I decided to buy a new one, I went and bought a Firewire Card and Cable. The difference in quality is night and day. It is so much better with firewire.Hope this helps.

SLICK RICK