firewire capture

[SexMoron]

What causes the jaggedness around an objects edge when I capture my Hi-8 through the firewire?

[WizyWyg]

Jaggyness? or you mean artifacting? It happens at high motion (that means you're moving the camera to fast or something happening is too fast for the camera to keep up). Or bright colors like red get washed out.

[pacoreguenga]

Jaggies are artifacts caused by many factors. Many consumer camcorders have it because of the ccd's low resolution. Usually turning on gain on a camera amplifies them, as well as using any special digital effect while recording, or having a low light environment, or a wrong shuttle speed. High shuttle speeds cause a jaggie effect because the shutter circuitry often can't manage both fiels in order to give a sharper series of stills.
In the other hand, jaggies are also the result when converting non-interlaced material (8mm, vhs) to interlace. DV video streams are interlaced or progressive by nature to maintain a high quality image. If you use an 8mm tape on a D8 cam/deck and capture to firewire it will convert the signal to interlace, hence having the jagged effect. Same applies when converting regular vhs to miniDV and then burning it as SVCD or as DVD. Has anyone noticed it?
By the way, when recording onto Hi8 analog tape remember to set the "Hi8 mode recording" to on.