Philips DVDr75 - firewire copy quality

[AndyWatkins]

Hello,

Apologies if I am in the wrong forum? I have a digital camcorder and have just bought a Phillips DVDr75 cheap in the UK with ilink to firewire copy my minidv tapes to DVD+R.

Done that, no major problems, except one thing..... The quality is rubbish??

At the 1 hour mode it is probably at good VHS quality but still with artifacts. At 2 hour or lower the quality is unwatchable. I have tried the direct TV cable instead of firewire and it is slightly worse.

I bought this machine because I didn't want the effort of getting a DVD writer on pc and converting all my avi files to mpeg 2. It takes hours. I thought the phillips would be great because it does it in real time.

It appears it can do it in real time because it does a rubbish job of it!

Am I doing something wrong, any bright ideas???

[donpedro]

Nothing wrong with what you are doing. I had similar experience. I used 1h mode only for my video. Home video is always trouble when encoding to mpeg2. A lot of movement, shaky camera, zooms in and out. All this together makes it difficult to encode. What you can try though ( I did not ) is plug analog output to recorder and see if there is difference. Some say that it looks better. I would think that reason is that with analog input, some additional circuits “start working” that are designed to clean video if it is poor quality (old VHS). It might look better but you might loose some details.

Please report back with results so we know if it helped. Thanks.

[AndyWatkins]

I tried the analogue input and it was slightly worse, not better. I had a really tough bit of film. A dolphin at seaworld, very sunny day shinning off the water and the dolphin moves a lot, it is also basically a gray colour, but many shades of gray.

It's OK if the dolphin stays still but as soon as moves the whole thing pixelates terribly. as does ripples on the water.

To be honest for this specific bit of film a cheap £50 VHS video recorder does a better job, which is of course pathetic!

Does anyone know if I can fix this by doing the mpeg encoding on a computer??

I should say that I have tried using the DVDR75 as a video recorder to record TV pics from SKY and even on the 2 hour mode the quality is very good. Quality on the TV on the 4 hour or 6 hour mode is about the same as from the camcorder on the 1 hour mode

Nothing wrong with what you are doing. I had similar experience. I used 1h mode only for my video. Home video is always trouble when encoding to mpeg2. A lot of movement, shaky camera, zooms in and out. All this together makes it difficult to encode. What you can try though ( I did not ) is plug analog output to recorder and see if there is difference. Some say that it looks better. I would think that reason is that with analog input, some additional circuits “start working” that are designed to clean video if it is poor quality (old VHS). It might look better but you might loose some details.

Please report back with results so we know if it helped. Thanks.

[donpedro]

Yes. Capturing DV AVI to PC and using some good encoding software (for example TMPGEnc) with tweaked settings and probbably 2 pass should give you better result. Not sure if it will make it great, since source is not great, but it is worth of trying. You can get better help in different section of this forum "Newbie Conversion" or "Advanced Conversion" (just do not double post).

Please post result when you are done. Thanks.

[AndyWatkins]

Hi,

I am a bit confused. I think I have posted in the wrong forum but am not sure which is right now? I posted in authoring but was suggested I try newbie conversion. But the post there has been shut down by Baldric. The post here in authoring says "Moved"

I don't wish to offend anyone but am a little unsure what I have done wrong, therefore may be quilty of doing it again!

Assistance please....

Thanks

Andy
PS If anyone knows how to get better recordings of my home movies that would be even better

[Dannolives]

Hello Andy,
I too have a DVDR75 and been doing a lot of recording from my miniDV camera through the Firewire link. I record in 1hr mode and the picture is as perfect as the tape if play directly on the TV. I use to download to computer and convert to Mpeg 2 and burned XSVCDs onto CDs. I have noticed any scenes with water there is some to a lot of pixilation in the water. Recording with the DVDR75 however, I have not seen any pixilation with these same scenes.
I'm guessing that somethings up with your machine or cable.

[bugster]

Hi,

I am a bit confused. I think I have posted in the wrong forum but am not sure which is right now? I posted in authoring but was suggested I try newbie conversion. But the post there has been shut down by Baldric. The post here in authoring says "Moved"

Hi,

I am a bit confused. I think I have posted in the wrong forum but am not sure which is right now? I posted in authoring but was suggested I try newbie conversion. But the post there has been shut down by Baldric. The post here in authoring says "Moved"

If you want to ask a question regarding the conversion of DV video from your camcorder into DVD compliant mpeg-2, using a PC, use the Advanced conversion forum.

If you want to ask a question on how to take your DVD compliant mpeg-2 and author it to DVD-Video (and burn), use the DVD authoring forum.

If you are still not sure, use the newbie forum

Hope this helps.

[AndyWatkins]

Thanks that is very useful to know. If I know the machine should work fine then it implies that either I am being very fussy or their is something wrong with the cable or DVD recorder.

I don't THINK there is anything wrong with the camera. Picture to TV from camera on ordinary cable is excellent. Picture to computer via firewire is excellent (different firewire cable 6to4 pins as against 4to4 pins)

I will try and find someone who has a working firewire cable, you don't live near reading england or Uxbridge do you!

Andy

[donpedro]

Thanks that is very useful to know. If I know the machine should work fine then it implies that either I am being very fussy or .....

Than there is two of us