How Can I Improve Video Quality?

[heyjjjaded]

I just transferred my old Hi-8 videos from my camcorder to DVD using the Dazzle DVC 80 connector and the Sonic My DVD program. Everything worked properly, but the video quality on the resulting DVDs could be better in my opinion (a bit pixelated & a bit jerky). In fact, the video quality was better when I transferred the same Hi-8 videos to VHS years ago.

My question is how to improve the video quality for future family videos I take & transfer to DVD? I don't need the very top of the line, but I'd like to end up with DVDs where my videos play back smoothly without the pixelated look. You know ... good 'VHS-quality-video' with the DVD-convenience of the nice menus & chapters. Is the logical step to buy a digital camcorder? If so, will I need new hardware or software to convert to DVD? Should I try something else? I'm thinking for the best solution for the long-run now ... thank you!

[rcb]

Canopus advc 100
ScenalyzerLive
TMPGenc 2.5
TMPGenc DVD Author
Another large hard drive

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks, rcb. For the long-term, would the Canopus advc 100 really be better than if I just buy a digital camcorder? What would be best for future family videos that I will take & transfer to DVD? Thanks again!

[trevlac]

You could get one of these.

A digital 8 camcorder will convert hi-8 to digital for you and record to digital. Probably also do AtoD from another source (like vhs). They are on sale now, because Sony is probably going to discontinue them. $329 to $399. I do not have one, so you should research, but people I know have them and are very happy. Read the customer reviews at the link.

I'd say they are a great deal for people with hi-8.

CircuitCity may also have a 30 no questions return policy. Not sure it includes camcorders, but a free trial would be super.

Here's the manual:
http://media-server.amazon.com/media/mole/MANUAL000043095.pdf

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks, trevlac -
I'm going to check it out right now.

[sacajaweeda]

I would try to sell that DVC 80 to some poor unsuspecting sucker on eBay and use the money towards the purchase of a real capture device. Especially if you are transferring something like home movies. They are good for average to poor VCD quality captures at best. Complete garbage, poorly supported piece of hardware in the minds of many.

MY $.02

[bottle-necked]

You could get one of these.

A digital 8 camcorder will convert hi-8 to digital for you and record to digital. Probably also do AtoD from another source (like vhs). They are on sale now, because Sony is probably going to discontinue them. $329 to $399. I do not have one, so you should research, but people I know have them and are very happy. Read the customer reviews at the link.

I'd say they are a great deal for people with hi-8.

CircuitCity may also have a 30 no questions return policy. Not sure it includes camcorders, but a free trial would be super.

Here's the manual:
http://media-server.amazon.com/media/mole/MANUAL000043095.pdf

What is that like .5 megapixel and 1 small CCD?

[Bstansbury]

Just a couple of simple things to try. "RCB" made a few sugestions. You don't have to do all of them. First take your source and encode it to SVCD in TMPGEn ver 2.5 and then burn to a CD-RW and test in your DVD plaryer. Make sure you get the right Field order in TMPGEn. If you are really getting "Jerky" video, where it looks as if it is jumping or jerking backwards in time,... like one frame, it could be out of order. Do you know what field order your Sonic program created? As far as the Pixelation,... analog data to MEPG will have it unless you used very high bit rates to DVD. Hi 8 is a better resolution than VHS and I can get better quality than you describle in converting VHS to SVCD in several programs.

As far as a Digital Camcorder, IMHO,... Digital 8 is the only way to go if you have a lot of old Hi 8 family videos. It will capture everyone of them using digital firewire to your PC, no frames dropped and good quality. From there it is just a couple of hours hard work to edit them to decent production level and produce a DVD.

Go down to the "Hardware" section of this site and search "Camcorder" forum for info on this subject.

Hope this helps

[proxyx99]

You need something better then DVC80. Going digital is going to improve your picture and workflow (easy to work with). Trevlac's suggestion to think Sony D8 is a good one. If cam size is an issue then go miniDV. Considering D8 quality and price it is "a buy". Better low light perf. then miniDV, better opt. zoom, comparable picture (if not the same), great price, Sony quality, Hi8 compatibility, do you need more...?

[trevlac]

What is that like .5 megapixel and 1 small CCD?

Well, 720x480 is 1/3 megapixel, so .5 requires a crop or a resize to your end result. And for ~$400 you are not going to get a 3 CCD camera.

Finally, there is much more to a digital camcorder than the CCD. Unless you buy for the 'fun factor', I'd bet that that digital 8 gives a better picture than most any tiny miniDV.

PS: Stills is never a reason to buy a camcorder. Here's what a normal head shot looks like using my wife's Nikon 5700 digital still camera.


No resize, just a crop. Maybe it's just a tad soft, but I doubt he was sitting still when she took the shot. He is only 2 after all.

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks for all the help! If I get a D8 camcorder, then am I right to assume that I will still be recording video to Hi8 tapes? Could someone please clarify for me what makes this a DIGITAL camcorder then & why I would be able to produce better quality final products (DVDs) than with my current Hi8 camcorder (4 year old non-digital Sharp)? By the way, I have no desire to use my camcorder to take still pictures ... I just want to record future family videos & transfer them to DVD on my PC. Thank you!

[trevlac]

I believe Digital8 is DV on a Hi-8 tape. But it also plays analog Hi-8 tapes.

Read all about it....

http://hometheater.about.com/library/weekly/aa020300a.htm

[heyjjjaded]

You're very helpful, trevlac. I just got your pm too ... thank you!

[moraize]

Hi, man, I own a Sony TRV-840, digital camcorder, I was lucky to buy one just a little before Sony has discontinued this model, its a very good gadjet. Mine is 1Megapixel, but I almost dont't use it as a fotografic camera(I have a Sony F717-5m pixels for that). But I can assure you, it will be your option, You'll be able to capture your Hi8 tapes, without spending much money, if your computer don't have firewire concectivity, you can buy a cheap card for that(As I did), and you will capture directly on DV format, edit it and encode and record to DVD/vcd, or anything else. And after that, you'll be able to use the same tape to record on it(the camera uses Hi-8 or 8mm tapes to record, but it only records on Digital 8 format). And I just plug my Vhs on it and It converts to DV, because it has an internal A/D converter, it's great, no more need for Analog capture devices. Your camcorder is a analog capture device already. the tapes as much cheaper than Mini DV tapes...

So IMHO, you should think about it...

[Bstansbury]

Heyjjjaded; I thought I would add a few more bits and pieces to this thread. I have a Sony TRV 740, which is more than a 1 1/2 years old. It has all the features you need to convert your old Hi8 analog video into DV. Since we have no experience with your old Analog camcorder, I don't know how good your orginal quality is.

I've just finished my first 2 hour DVD video production and it turned out terrific. I used about 2 hours of DV from my camcorder that I shot at Pebble Beach playing golf there, plus about 50 still shots from my Digital Camera, plus I downloaded about 4 hours of Satallite video of Pebble Beach PGA tournament. I edited down all of this to 2 hours of DV, added background music, voice over, special effects, fade in/out, produced an Introduction, Title page, Credits, and an ending, and finally burned a DVD. The quality of the entire project was great. Ulead VideoStudio has all the tools, and it came with Cool3D software that I used to produce 3D Introductions, Titles, etc. This was a present to one of my family and they were blown away. No one could figure out how I did it all, with just a little camera.

I has been a lot of work,...especially the editing,...since I first had to spend a lot of time learning the VideoStudio software, but it was well worth the effort. Now that I some experience, the next one will be 10x easier.

The point is that if I was able to take Satallite Video recoder on a low cost VHS tape recorder with composite video input, then play the video back in a different VHS player, feed the signal via Composite cables to the Sony Camcorder, and using the Pass through feature, convert the analog vhs signal into Digital Video, and transfer it all to my PC. After hours and hours of editing out commercials, and muting all the announcers talking, filling in background music, the final DV .AVI was encoded to DVD MPEG video data using medium quality compression. The resulting video quality on the playback of the DVD disk was just as good as the orginal VHS tapes. I'm now in the process of re-doing the Compression using the highest Quality. I'm sure it will come out to be more than 4.7 GB but I have the software to take the results and squeeze it down so it will just fit onto 1 DVD disk. Nice thing about golf is that it doesn't have a lot of action scenes.

Anyway, I hope this give you additional insite in what you will be able to do with a Digital Camcorder. I have over 100 hours of old Hi8 Analog Video that I have to convert to DVD. Now I have the tools to do it. By the way, the Quality of all the still shots I merged into the DVD were excellent, and they look great on a large screen TV. I must say that none of the video really looks like it was made by a novice,... of course I edited out all the bad parts. It is clear that it is not a "Professional" effort because of the way the camera is panned and zoomed, but no one expected it to be anything but a home movie.