capturing video - shadowing problem

[caterpillar]

Hi guys, I'm trying to capture video from my digital camcorder via my pc using MM2. The quality of the captured video is really poor (even when played using software other than MM2). The corners of the video are shadowed and the video is not sharp. I'm using the firewire cable that came with my capture card. Could the cable be the problem? Maybe investing in more expensive one would help? Many thanks for your advice!

[guns1inger]

Capture using WinDV to DV AVI and see what the quality is like. I am betting it will be much better than your current capture. I suspect that you are capturing to highly compressed WMV format at the moment.

Be prepared for the higher disk usage. DV requires 13GB per hour of footage

[caterpillar]

Thanks for taking the time to answer. Sorry, I should have mentioned that I am already capturing to DV-AVI. I don't want to splash out on an expensive new firewire cable if that isn't the problem but I'm at a loss and don't know what to try.

[minidv2dvd]

if it isn't dropping frames, the captured DVavi is exactly the same as what is on the tape. give the free winDV capture program a try and see if it's the same.

a new firewire cable won't make any difference.

[edDV]

What is the capture source? A camcorder? Which one?

Shadow in corners is often due to a lens filter. You don't see this on a TV due to overscan.

[caterpillar]

Hi guys. The camcorder is a Samsung miniDV VP-D70. There wasn't a filter on the lens when the video was shot. I tried WinDV but the problem remains. There is also a line that goes right down the right-hand side of the frame. I've attached a pic so you can see what I mean. I really appreciate the help as I'm a novice.

[guns1inger]

The vignettes are definitely not a capture flaw from what I can see, but something that happened in-camera

[JohnnyMalaria]

What you are seeing is vignetting caused by the zoom being at its widest and picking up the inside of the lens. The line down the side is also quite normal.

When displayed on a TV (directly from the camcorder), you never see these things (nor on the LCD monitor) due to so-called overscanning. Consumer CRT TVs are pretty inaccurate beasts and all of them deliberately magnify the picture slightly to ensure that the edges of the picture aren't within view.

You'll need to experiment with how much to zoom in a little to hide the vignetting. My HDR-HC1 does the same thing when I have a telephoto lens attached and the LCD monitor won't show you the whole image (so-called underscaned) - it's a pain in the proverbial bottom.

Note, if you are ultimately going to DVD and intend to watch it on a regular TV, you can leave it alone since the TV will overscan. Even plasma/LCD TVs do a form of overscanning in order to maintain equivalence with older analog consumer TVs.

WMM isn't doing anything wrong here...

[caterpillar]

Thanks for all your help, especially JohnnyMalaria! I plan to burn to dvd and watch on an LCD screen. I'll give it a go and see what happens. I'll post back here in case this thread has been useful to anyone else. MANY thanks again guys!