How do I determine the video quality of my camcorder

[nav]

I have a Sony TRV-18 mini-DV camcorder. I have made a few video clips using the firewire connection (raw video with sound, transitions, titling etc) using Microsoft's Windows movie Maker and a demo from puremotion. Both attempts created a video that had some blurriness and pixelization. The pixelization was minor to moderate (especially for fast moving objects close to the camera like my dog's wagging tail). As this camera is new, I still have the option to return it to the store or upgrade to a better one if needed.
Under the attage "crap in crap out" how do I determine that my degraded playback quality is a function of the camcorder and not the fault of my capture/edit/playback software, monitor resolution or some other factor? My ultimate goal is to be able to create DVDs. Can I expect to create DVDs with similar quality to commercial DVDs? As it is now, connecting the camcorder to the TV or even recording to VHS produces better quality than my digital creations. This is my first attempt at digital video editing.

[alucard2050]

my opinion would be to scrap micro$ movie maker and go for something else...next, what capture settings are you useing? as to your question of camcorder quality. i am sure it is fine or better.. i think its just a matter of quality settings for capture...

[yg1968]

There is nothing wrong with Microsoft Windows Movie Maker for capturing DV but if you prefer you can use DVapp or DVIO.

Anyways, what you are probably seing is called interlacing. This makes DV not look as good on a computer as it does on a TV. I would not worry about it too much, the video will look good on a TV. One way to test this is to export back your DV to your camcorder and play it back on your TV. You will not see any of the artifacts that you were discussing. You can use DVapp, DVIO or Windows Movie Maker to do this.

[troyvcd1]

I dont know what you paid for the trv18 but I got the trv25 and it takes excellent videos if you got good light. Inside you can not use it and I believe this is true of most camcorders in this class.

[vv]

Thats exactly what I went thru when I made my first VCD from my TRV20 Camcorder. Rest assured, the quality of your camcorder is very good.

I have not used MS Movie Maker as it works only on XP. I use Windows 2000 Pro. You will definetly be able to make good DVDs from your camcorder if you follow these proven steps.

1. Capture video to your computer in AVI-DV format. ( DIVO, or software from your firewire card can do it).

2. Use TMPGEnc Plus to Encode AVI to MPEG2.

3. Use any DVD authoring (depending on your dvd likings) to auther and burn DVD.