captured video is dark, muddy

[arcticranger]

I'm using a Panasonic PV-GS250. Playing video back on the camera and viewing it through the LCD, it looks crystal clear, great lighting, no blur.

I tried both Motion DV Studio and Windows Movie Maker to capture the taped video. With either, the captured video on my laptop is dark and fuzzy. I tried a different laptop, a Toshiba, brand new, and got the same poor quality.

What represents the real quality of the recording, the LCD or the laptops? Any ideas on a better capture approach? Better video card?

Help!

arc

[SingSing]

Did you use the firewire cable to transfer the DV video ?

[arcticranger]

Yes.

[jagabo]

A video viewed on a 2.5 inch screen will appear sharper than when viewed at at much larger size on a computer monitor.

You also have interlacing/deinterlacing issues which may make the video look fuzzy on the computer.

Computer monitors have different gamma curves than televisions so video usually looks much darker on computers than on TV.

Another possible issue is the use of your graphics card's video overlay feature when playing video files (video editing programs usually don't use this feature). Video overlay usually has its own brightness and contrast settings controlled via the Display configuration applet from the Control Panel.

So what you're seeing is to be expected. Although this doesn't rule out some other problem along the way.

When capturing from a firewire port you want to take the already compressed DV stream from the camera and put it in an AVI file without otherwise converting it. Some programs will allow you to convert to some other format on-the-fly while capturing. Be sure you are capturing as AVI without conversion. Check one of your captured files with GSpot or AVICodec and verify that the video codec is DV.

Another thing you can do is send the AVI back to the camera and verify that it is bright and sharp again once it gets there.

[arcticranger]

Hmm thanks for the response, a lot of good information there.

I know the smaller display produces a sharper image, I was more thrown off by the fact that the LCD showed a very brightly lit subject while playback on the laptop looked as if it were in a dark room.

I'll look into each of your points but let me ask one more thing: do the overlay settings or other graphics display settings affect the quality of the actual file I capture on my laptop, or just playback of the file?


arc

[jagabo]

do the overlay settings or other graphics display settings affect the quality of the actual file I capture on my laptop, or just playback of the file?

Overlay only effects playback on your computer's display.

[SCDVD]

Many display adapters have settings for gamma, brightness and contrast. You might check to see if yours has these. It can make a huge difference.