DVR to Mac - DV resolution in qt?

[Huxley]

Hi all
I connected my Pioneer DVR 720H to my mac mini, 10.4.4 via firewire. I pressed play and quicktime sees the native dv pal stream. My question is why at 384*288?

Thanks.

[terryj]

384 x 288 is the equivlent of NTSC MEPG-1,
which is 320 x 240. The video is being seen
as low quality Mpeg-1 stream.

GIF--googling is fundamental

[Frobozz]

Hi all
I connected my Pioneer DVR 720H to my mac mini, 10.4.4 via firewire. I pressed play and quicktime sees the native dv pal stream. My question is why at 384*288?

Thanks.

Your Pioneer recorder has various recording settings. It seems you are using one that allows long recording times to a DVD rather than an hour or two.

[edDV]

For many DVD recorders, 6hr. mode drops to MPeg1.

[AntnyMD]

And that resolution is out of spec for authoring the content to DVD. I'm surprised the Pioneer would do that, since it also writes DVDs (as well as to the hard drive).

[terryj]

Perhaps they are looking at it from the fact of KISS, Ant.

There's no way they can go in and put a menu that would
enable you to pick ( based on a BitRate calc) a sweet spot
to encode more than 4 hours of footage, let alone make
it Simple enough for Aunt Edna to understand,
and then author it to DVD.

They have to make it dumbed down enough that the average guy
taping theWorld Series or the Grandma taping her soaps
weekly, could tape them all ( to HD) and then burn them to
DVD without a lot of "fuzzy math" and "rocket science",
in figuring out how to get them all on 1 DVD-R (DVD-5).

And, pardon me if I'm wrong, but isn't this similar to what
ZeroSix I believe use to say to do in the early days, the
half-dv thing, cutting the resolution size 720 x480 down
to 360 x 240 ( VCD standard size), but keeping the quality?
[sorry if I'm showing my age a bit--or if I'm remembering the
originator of this technique wrongly...]

[ipdave]

PAL

Video:
Up to 9.8 Mbps* (9800 kbps*) MPEG2 video
Up to 1.856 Mbps (1856 kbps) MPEG1 video
720 x 576 pixels MPEG2 (Called Full-D1)
704 x 576 pixels MPEG2
352 x 576 pixels MPEG2 (Called Half-D1, same as the CVD Standard)
352 x 288 pixels MPEG2
352 x 288 pixels MPEG1 (Same as the VCD Standard)
25 fps*
16:9 Anamorphic (only supported by 720x576)

Audio:
48000 Hz
32 - 1536 kbps
Up to 8 audio tracks containing Dolby Digital, DTS, PCM(uncompressed audio), MPEG-1 Layer2. One audio track must have MPEG-1, DD or PCM Audio.

Extras:
Motion menus, still pictures, up to 32 selectable subtitles, seamless branching for multiple storylines, 9 camera angles. And also additional DVD-ROM / data files that only can be read by computer DVD drives.

Total:
Total bitrate including video, audio and subs can be max 10.08 Mbps (10080 kbps)


* Mbps = million bits per second
* kbps = thousand bits per second
* fps = frames per second

For more technical DVD-Video details read the DVDDemystified DVD FAQ section 3.4 or the mpeg.org DVD Technical Notes.


NTSC (NTSC Film)



Video:
Up to 9.8 Mbps* (9800 kbps*) MPEG2 video
Up to 1.856 Mbps (1856 kbps) MPEG1 video
720 x 480 pixels MPEG2 (Called Full-D1)
704 x 480 pixels MPEG2
352 x 480 pixels MPEG2 (Called Half-D1, same as the CVD Standard)
352 x 240 pixels MPEG2
352 x 240 pixels MPEG1 (Same as the VCD Standard)
29,97 fps*
23,976 fps with 3:2 pulldown = 29,97 playback fps (NTSC Film, this is only supported by MPEG2 video)
16:9 Anamorphic (only supported by 720x480)


Audio:
48000 Hz
32 - 1536 kbps
Up to 8 audio tracks containing DD (Dolby Digital/AC3), DTS, PCM(uncompressed audio), MPEG-1 Layer2. One audio track must have DD or PCM Audio.

Extras:
Motion menus, still pictures, up to 32 selectable subtitles, seamless branching for multiple storylines, 9 camera angles. And also additional DVD-ROM / data files that only can be read by computer DVD drives.

Total:
Total bitrate including video, audio and subs can be max 10.08 Mbps (10080 kbps)


* Mbps = million bits per second
* kbps = thousand bits per second
* fps = frames per second

For more technical DVD-Video details read the DVDDemystified DVD FAQ section 3.4 or the mpeg.org DVD Technical Notes.

[Huxley]

Thanks for all the fast help.

So all is working well and the dv output res is ok.

Just I was expecting full pal dv from Fine recordings -the top quality setting as it was exported via fw.

[Frobozz]

I'm sorry but I misread your original post. You should be getting full 720x576 PAL DV resolution from the Pioneer's Firewire link. In fact, it can't be anything else. What application did you use for the capture? I know it works with iMovie and Vidi with my Pioneer 510. I presume it works with QuickTime Pro but haven't tried it. I can't export directly to Toast, however.

The only thing that makes sense is that Quicktime did not report the size correctly.

[Huxley]

Quicktime.
Imovie see the dvr but will not import. No camera error.

[Huxley]

Vidi displays 16:9 dv and saves as 720*576 61 mbits/sec DV
Qt displays 4:3 dv and saves as 384*288 31 mbits/sec DV

Anyone want 2 short clips - under 4 mb?

[Frobozz]

Vidi displays 16:9 dv and saves as 720*576 61 mbits/sec DV
Qt displays 4:3 dv and saves as 384*288 31 mbits/sec DV

Anyone want 2 short clips - under 4 mb?

iMovie 5.0.2 imports from my Pioneer 510. Version 5.0 did not.
Quicktime Pro produces a 640x480 .mov (I'm NTSC)
Vidi produces a 720x480 DV file

I have another option for you. Click on this link http://developer.apple.com/sdk/ and download the Firewire SDK 20. After installing this, open its folder, open the enclosed applications folder and firewire folder and open VirtualDV. In VirtualDV click create New to set a location where the video will be written. Then press the red record button to start recording. This produced a 720x480 DV file for me.