Flat colours

[stompinne]

Hi, i capture some videos into my PC, which appear of a good quality when i connect my camcorder direct in my television.

I use Sony Vegas for capturing, burning on DVD with Nero 6 (vision express), use this discs:
http://www.imation.com/products/dvd_media/dvdplusrw_discs.html, burned with a Benw DVD-writer 822A.
I play them tru a regular DVD-standalone: Bellagio

The result is not that good: flat colours, not that good contrast. How to solve this, processing with another software, or in vegas (very timeconsuming), or another solution maybe?
greetz

[jtoolman2000]

If I get what you mean.

Your vids look better when direectly viewing on your TV from your Cam but not after converting to DVD.

Sure!!!

Creating a DVD requires you convert to MPG2 which is a compressed video format and complient with DVD specs. I too see a slight degradation before and after. There are those that say they do not loose anything but I also do. I've tried to compensate by increasing whatever aspect I seem to be loosing in the conversion such as a bit of saturation contrast brightness or whatever as an effect to the video.

I would like to hear what others say as well as I often see this happen on my projects.

[edDV]

It should look very close to the original if you follow these basic steps for DV camcorder material.

1. Establish a DV format "new project" PAL DV 720x576, lower field first, 48K audio.

2. "capture" to the computer with a IEEE-1394 connection using WinDV or the Vegas capture program.

3. Edit in DV format

4. Encode "render as" Main Concept MPEG-2
Template "DVD Architect PAL Video Stream"
Select "Custom" then change "Video" settings to Constant bit rate 8,000,000
(maximum CBR 9,500,000 + 224Kb/s compressed audio or CBR 8,200,000 + 1536Kb/s PCM audio) See bitrate calculator https://www.videohelp.com/calc

The MPEG-2 quality should be very good to excellent.
Author without reprocessing.

[jtoolman2000]

I'll definitely give that a try. Thanks. Hope the original poster will too. We'll se what we get.

[edDV]

I'll definitely give that a try. Thanks. Hope the original poster will too. We'll se what we get.

In your case you would use the DV NTSC settings of course.

[stompinne]

Yes, i guess processing will be the only option, i experimented in the past a bit with plugins or internal FX. There are so many things you can change. Maybe someone or you guys, can give me some advice bout good tools to work with. The less the better, don't like to rely on a chain, bunch of FX. What should i use?

[edDV]

I disagree that it should look significantly different than the camcoder plugged into the same display*. If it does, there is something wrong with your process.

* Allowing for normal MPeg2 artifacts. MPeg2 does not cause "flat colours"

[stompinne]

"flat colours"

what do i mean with "flat colours"...a new red t-shirt that has been cleaned several times in a washingmachine begins to look "flat" (english isn't my native...maybe another word could be better)

[edDV]

"flat colours"

what do i mean with "flat colours"...a new red t-shirt that has been cleaned several times in a washingmachine begins to look "flat" (english isn't my native...maybe another word could be better)

Does the finished DVD look different on the TV compared to the camcorder playing directly to the same TV?

[stompinne]

Does the finished DVD look different on the TV compared to the camcorder playing directly to the same TV?

Yes the colours are more "flat" (lol)

[guns1inger]

Can you post a before and after shot ? Perhaps a frame from the DV clip, and the same frame from the created DVD ?

[edDV]

I have an idea what is probably going on.

DV camcorders output zero IRE black on the analog outputs*. Most NTSC TV sets look for black at 7.5 IRE so DV camcoder direct playback often looks darker unless brightness is adjusted +7.5%.

Most NTSC DVD players output with 7.5 IRE black resulting in a brighter luminance image. Saturation shouldn't be any different.

This would affect the way it looks on the NTSC TV but computer frame grabs for DV and MPeg2 should look the same.


*This is a design flaw in most NTSC DV camcorders.
http://pro.jvc.com/pro/attributes/prodv/clips/blacksetup/JVC_DEMO.swf

[stompinne]

Very nice tutorial .
Does this IRE-thing also occurs with PAL-systems?
"washed out" that's what my movie looks.
My camcorder is a ?.....guess only once.

[edDV]

Very nice tutorial .
Does this IRE-thing also occurs with PAL-systems?
"washed out" that's what my movie looks.
My camcorder is a ?.....guess only once.

This is only for NTSC where 7.5 IRE is used (Americas).

PAL and Japan NTSC use zero IRE black.