S-Video vs Firewire from Camcorder

[rkelley]

Hello all,

Last year, the firewire port on my Sony TRV-310 camcorder stopped working (for no reason). I suspect the port has died (as I have replaced all the Firewire hardware in my PC).

At any rate, I have a bunch of home movies that I am transferring to my PC to burn to DVD (MPEG2). I am using my Sony TRV-310-->S_Video-->DAC100-->Firewire-->PC.

My question is how much degredation am I getting using S-Video instead of Firewire? If I am loosing a lot of detail, perhaps I should rent/buy another camcorder so I can transfer my footage via firewire.

I *know* DV/Firewire is better than S-Video, I just don't know how much better it is.

Any help?

Thanks,

-Ron

[mightyquinn]

My experience says you will lose some or significant level of quality using S-video vs. DV.

As everyone knows, consumer camcorders are horrible in recording low light conditions. With this said... The playback in low light recordings is very grainy or snowy. Therefore when you capture using the S-video your converting a digital to analog and back to digital. This method created a more grainy or snowy picture than the originals. You will not see such a degradation if your original tapes had adequete lighting and clear crisp playback.

To achieve the highest level of recording and minimal loss, I would highly recommend you acquire a Firewire/DV camcorder to record your movies.

[vhelp]

Hi rkelley,

I'm a sort of DV CAM junky - - I've lots of experience on this issue. Well,
I'm not guru, but I've ben their. Anyways...

First, if you can't get a hold of another cam or buy a cheap'ly uesd one, for
less than $300 (or for whatever the reason) then because of your
unique situation, and because you can no longer use your
FW port of your DV cam. . .
.
.
The best method of obtaining best quality (color is more likely) is to go w/
the S-Video route. The short reason why is.. Because you will gain whatever
the quality level of the source is at the time of Capture w/ S-Video. BUT,
if you opt to use another compression source ie, your DAC-100, you
will then be re-encoding (to DV) again, your source, of which has ben encoded
to DV already (but is on miniDV tapes) The DAC-100 will be re-converting
while the S-Video will not be. However, in the S-Video route, you have to
make sure you are using the optimum codec possibe for the least loss in
quality.. ie, Huffy Codec. Better yet, is to use (Capture) in un-compressed
form, (though requires double hd space) but you'll gain the closest match
to the DV source left on your miniDV tapes. The DAC-100 will only be doing
another (2nd DV) conversion.

The confusion lies where poeople see DV as the ultimate in quality, and I
can't argue that, but it does have it's limits too, but confusion is that DV is
the best in your case, when it's actually not.

Yeah, so go w/ the S-Video route. However, if you are not an experienced
Analog Capture person, either A) expect issues ie, framedrops; audio sync
or B) forget the S-Video route and just go for the DAC-100 re-DV'ing and
live w/ the slighte quality hit you'll get. But, worth it in the end, if you are
faint at heart to deal w/ the possible issues that go w/ Analog Capturing

So, it all depends on how you look at it, as to which is the better quality:

A) Expect issues ie, framedrops; audio sync from Ananlog Captures, or

B) Go for the DAC-100 re-DV'ing and live w/ the slight quality hit you'll get
.....But, worth it in the end w/ NO ISSUES.

Hope that the above made some sense and good luck,

-vhelp 2056

[rkelley]

As a follow-up...

Borrowed a friends camcorder similar to mine and determined my firewire port on my TRV-310 was bad.

I captured the same footage (60sec of son playing soccer outside) using the firewire port and S-Video port of my friend's camera (one file named "firewire.avi" and the other file named "svideo.avi"). I converted each file into the MP2 format using Main Concepts MPEG Encoder 1.4 (max quality settings, VBR of 8K, 6K, 4K) and burned the resulting footage onto a DVD disc using Vegas DVD Architect (using highest quality settings).

To my amazement, the S-video and firewire footage looks extremely similar. The only thing I noted was a slightly darker picture from the S-Video file (slightly more red) than the firewire file. I was expecting to see a much cleaner picture on the firewire file, but that did not happen.

Thus, I have to surmise the S-video footage looks as clean as the firewire footage using the same conversion utility (with same settings). Looks like I don't need to run out and purchase a new camera just to get firewire support. I just need to be a better camera man to get better footage

-Ron

[trevlac]

Here is a (more scientific) test of what you are talking about.

http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/copy/copy.html

If you went to a capture card the picture may not loose as much color. I'm not sure if that is the 'darker' you are seeing. You may also be able to brighten up the picture and find detail.

I have not really done this, so please read the link to draw your own conclusions.