Different DV capture paks yield different quality outputs

[slacker]

I captured DV footage from my camcorder to my PC with three difference software packages, i.e. Intervideo WinDVD Creator 2.5, Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6.0, and Ulead VideoStudio 9.0. They all produced slightly differing results in color and sharpness. Now I thought these were strictly digital DATA "transfers" and therefore would yield the same results. I am confused!

[junkmalle]

Are you looking at the results with the same viewer? The different programs may be using different DV decoders to view the images. Some may adjust the display for the fact that computer monitors have different gamma curves than televisions. Some may deinterlace on the fly (for display on the monitor) because interlaced video freaks people out.

Make sure the fourcc code is the same for all. A different fourcc code may end up using a different DV decoder.

[slacker]

I would think that as well. BUT I'm looking at all three AVIs in VirtualdubMPEG latest version. There are slight color variations. Weird. I'm going to go back and do one more transfer and see what happens.

[grill1968]

I would think that as well. BUT I'm looking at all three AVIs in VirtualdubMPEG latest version. There are slight color variations. Weird. I'm going to go back and do one more transfer and see what happens.

Check the colours out again using other video player/editor. I got artificially differently coloured mpeg2 images snapshot with VirtualdubMod. For mpeg2 Cuttermaran works well. I've got no experiences in checking differently captured DV footages in Virtualdub though...

[junkmalle]

There are many different fourcc codes for DV. Different fourcc codes could lead to different DV codecs used for playback.

One other possibility: using Windows' video overlay feature could be the problem. Video overlay can be set up to automatically adjust the colors of any video played. But only one program at a time can use video overlay. If you open the same video in two instances of Windows Media Player (or any progam that uses overlay), the first one will be using overlay, the second won't. If overlay is set to adjust the colors, the two displays will differ.