Blurring edges on captured video

[saurabh_fzr]

Hi,

I am capturing home video from my mini DV using firewire. A closer look at the captured video reveals that the edges of the oblects are blurred, it gets compounded if the objects are fast moving (e.g. dancing) also the video appears a bit granny ( only if you carefully look at it). Otherwise it ok.
The video quality when played directly from camcoder, on TV, is excellent.

I aim to convert to a good quality VCD.

H/w
p2.4 GZ
256 mb RAM
80 GB HDD
Firewire card

Capturing S/W
1. Sony supplied Image Mixer
2. Windows movie maker
3. Ulead
4. Movie DV ( came with firewire card)


Any help ??

[Will Hay]

Have you burnt to DVD-r and checked it on your standalone DVD player?
If so, was the same problem apparent?
Will

[saurabh_fzr]

Not burnt a DVD yet, but yes a couple of VCDs.
When played on standalone VCD player (SAMSUNG), the limiting factor is the resolution of the TV set. Watched from a distance it looks fine, but when compared with the video output of the camcoder there is huge quality difference ( cam output is much better).

[spectroelectro]

With VCD bitartes you are going to get considerable degradation. That's just life at 1150 kbits/sec. You shouldn't get visisble degradation on your TV set with a decent MPEG-2 bitrate, say min 2000 av 5000 max 8000.
If you do, it might be your capturing s/w. Try Scenalyzer. It's cheap and the best cature software on the planet. Also dump Windows Movie Maker and use something decent, like DVDLab. DVD Author apps often transcode your video (degrading the quality of the video) without telling you. Crap apps like MyDVD love to do this w/o telling you.

[Richard_G]

The blurred edges are almost certainly caused by the video being interlaced. A TV set is designed to accept interlaced video whereas a computer monitor isn't. As transfer by Firewire is a simple file transfer and not capturing as such, the avi file on your hard drive is identical to the file on your MiniDV tape so would look the same played back on a TV.

Once you have burnt to VCD, you have degraded the quality so much that you won't be able to tell if it was bad in the first place or not. As suggested, burn to DVD or, if your system allows it, put the pc output into a TV and you'll see that the quality of the file, while looking poor on your monitor, will look perfect on your TV.

[saurabh_fzr]

The blurring is happening at edges of the objects in the captured video and not the edges of the video screen, moreover it is a direct function of the speed at which the objects move, the faster the movement (eg dancing) more is the blurring.
I do not know whether it is due interlacing of the video.

The captured video looks grany also, could this also be due the interlacing ??

[Richard_G]

The blurred edges of moving objects is definitely due to the interlacing, but it won't be seen on a TV set. The grainy effect may be because the original is grainy (low light shots on MiniDV show up as a grainy effect caused by noise) but you don't notice it on a TV. It might be down to the particular DV codec you have installed. Although the transfer from camcorder to hard drive does not use a codec, you do need one to play it back. Some are better than others.

[saurabh_fzr]

Thanks
How to determine which is the best codec for the particular application, or more fundamental question do one have a control over which codec is to be used ?
If there is a way to determine which is best suited codec and its in your hand to select that particular codec then please help.

[lordsmurf]

Home cameras suck at fast action. I'd bet it's just the camera itself.

[Richard_G]

Thanks
How to determine which is the best codec for the particular application,

Most people seem to think the Panasonic codec is one of the better ones. Download from the Tools section on the left.