My Capturing is dark and i don't know why

[milste]

I have all of my families Super 8mm movies on DV tape and I am trying to capture them in premiere. I am using a Sony TVR-33 camcorder and Premiere Pro 7.0 to do this. My computer is a Omnitech 2.4Ghz 512MB 80GB HD, WinXP Pro. Everything is working great except that the capture is a little dark and i can't figure out why. I know that these are 8mm tapes but I thought the capture would look like it does on the camcorder LCD screen. On the LCD it looks just like it did while watching it on the projector but after I capture a scene, everything is a bit darker. I really don't want to have to brighten every scene with Premiere cause this is a pretty long project. Any advice at all would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

[lordsmurf]

Darker on what? Just the computer? Or tv too?

[FulciLives]

Captured analog video (especially NTSC format) looks different on a computer monitor than it will on a regular TV display.

Try this as a test ...

Take a few minutes of your captured footage and convert it to MPEG-2 with CCE or TMPGEnc or whatever converter you will be using. Burn it to a DVD-RW or DVD+RW if you don't want to "waste" a write once DVD-R or DVD+R

Then play it back on your stand alone DVD player hooked up to a TV and compare it to the original footage playing back from the camcorder and hooked up to the same TV

They should look more or the less the same especially in regard to color saturation and brightness/contrast etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[milste]

to lord smurf: yes darker on the computer monitor. I hooked up the camera directly to our big screen TV and it looks perfect but when i capture the video it looks alot darker on the monitor. You can still make out what is going on but its just real dark. I thought it might be the brightness settings on my monitor but its not that. I also burnt my project on a DVD-R and played it on the TV and it looks just like it does on the monitor.

[snafu099]

This was a problem early on with the ADS usb IDVD 1/2 whcih was finally helped by a softwar/firmware upgrade that added ability to adjust input capture settings. On this product line you can only adjust during preview or capture

also remember a post about settings in player s/w (powerdvd) affecting capture brightness, but do not recall if this was confirmed by others

[milste]

ok I did a test. I shot a video using the camera and then captured it with Premiere. Still the picture is way darker on the capture than on the camcorder. I also tried capturing with the software that came with the camera, ImageMixer, and it looks exactly the same. Are there any settings anywhere that could affect the brightness when capturing? Could there be something wrong with my camera (i just bought it), Firewire card, or firewire cable? Please somebody help, this is making my digital camera pretty much pointless. Thanks!!

[FOO]

Michael Jackson had that problem. I think he uses Chlorox or
grease paint.

[milste]

chlorox? hmmmm...ok i'll give it a try and let you know what happens.

[milste]

Could someone please answer this: Should your capture look exactly like it does on the LCD of the camera or your TV (with the camera hooked directly to the TV)? Is it normal for it to be a bit darker? I'm going crazy with this thing

[andie41]

My DV "captures" look darker on my computer monitor - may be my monitor is a bit old and the brightness is diminished, may be the nature of RGB, but when I burn a DVD and play it on my TV from my standalone DVD player, it is brighter - not always the way I want it (I may have to use some software filters to improve it - and deal with the "black" levels), but definitely brighter than my computer monitor. I don't know that the camera LCD is particularly good indicator; it is quite small and bright.

Cables can be problematic. I have recently purchased a used Sony TRV330 from EBay and the Firewire and S-Video ports are a bit worn and I have to wiggle the cables a bit to ensure proper connection. or the colors and/or luma can be significantly distorted.

[lordsmurf]

You need to calibrate everything.

[milste]

Well I did a google search to figure out how to calibrate my monitor but that didn't help much. I have a SyncMaster 750S and it doesn't give me many options to change in the settings. I don't understand if its a monitor problem then why does it still look dark when I burn my project to a DVD and then play it on a standalone DVD player on my TV? If I connect the camcorder directly to the TV it looks fine. Any tips on how to calibrate my monitor would be great. Thanks.

[andie41]

Your experience runs counter to mine. As you are in the US, your DVD player should "kick it up a notch", to display blacks properly on your NTSC TV. I am not familiar with Premiere Pro. How are you encoding to Mpeg and authoring your DVD? Could there be anything bringing the brightness level down? Also, is your TV set properly. As lordsmurf wrote, "you need to calibrate everything". I use colorbars (Premiere is supposed to have the ability to create these) and a blue filter (Wratten 47B or equivalent) to make sure ensure my TV is set properly and everything is consistent - I don't trust my eyes.

You state that the DV is a "little dark". It takes a little time, but is not a big problem to adjust the brightness levels in Premiere or another encoder such as TMPGenc. Most of my home videos need help in some way - video inside with limited lighting, in skating arenas, etc.

[MrMungus]

I have all of my families Super 8mm movies on DV tape and I am trying to capture them in premiere. I am using a Sony TVR-33 camcorder and Premiere Pro 7.0 to do this. My computer is a Omnitech 2.4Ghz 512MB 80GB HD, WinXP Pro. Everything is working great except that the capture is a little dark and i can't figure out why. I know that these are 8mm tapes but I thought the capture would look like it does on the camcorder LCD screen. On the LCD it looks just like it did while watching it on the projector but after I capture a scene, everything is a bit darker. I really don't want to have to brighten every scene with Premiere cause this is a pretty long project. Any advice at all would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

Video captured on a computer will usually look darker than it does on television. I don't know why but that's always been my experience (probably just because of the differences between how monitors and TV's work). If you burn it to DVD and play it on your TV, it will probably look normal. I'd never thought about calibrating the two as someone suggested but I might do that...though I think my monitor is as bright as it will get...

[milste]

thank you everyone for the help. I burnt a DVD of my project and then hooked up the camera directly thru the TV and watch the DVD and the camera copy in Picture in Picture and they looked pretty much the same. I guess it is my monitor which I don't think i can fix. Anyone have any suggestions for a good monitor? I don't want something to expensive but something that i can calibrate and use for video editing.

[FulciLives]

thank you everyone for the help. I burnt a DVD of my project and then hooked up the camera directly thru the TV and watch the DVD and the camera copy in Picture in Picture and they looked pretty much the same. I guess it is my monitor which I don't think i can fix. Anyone have any suggestions for a good monitor? I don't want something to expensive but something that i can calibrate and use for video editing.

I'm somewhat confused and a little bit annoyed.

You said in your second post of this thread that you tried burning to a DVD-R and playing it back on your TV and said that it was still dark.

Now you say you did it and it looks fine.

What gives?

Either you lied the first time or you did SOMETHING different without telling us.

I mean really now.

How annoying.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[milste]

wow i'm sorry. I burnt it to a DVD and played it on another tv because my roomates were using the TV that I had originally hooked the camera up. On this TV my videos still looked dark. I didn't think using a different TV would matter but I was wrong. This time after burning the DVD I used the original TV to compare the two. I'm sorry for any trouble. I do appreciate all the help.