Quality loss in captured HDV m2t files with respect to HDMI

[kassim]

I have an old Sony HCR-HC3 camcorder and plenty of tapes recorded in HDV (1440x1080i). It has always puzzled me that if I watch the tapes in my HD TV directly from the camera through HDMI the image is great and crispy. However, if I capture the video through FireWire using Sony Vegas Pro, the resulting m2t video file which I play with MPC-HC or VLC looses all the crisp, even though the HDV capture process seems to work fine and the m2t file is properly recognized as 1440x1080 video. Supposedly, the m2t file has all the information available in the tape bit by bit, so I don't understand why it does not play exactly the same as when the tape is played directly from the camera through HDMI.

After hours of web searching trying to find an explanation, the only thing I've read that could explain something is that HDMI carries more colour information than HDV. However, if the source is the same HDV tape I don't understand why there is a difference. Naturally, I would love to get the video files with the quality I see when playing the tapes through HDMI, so any help in this respect would be greatly appreciated.

[poisondeathray]

Can you describe in more detail what you mean by "great and crispy" ? Did you mean more in terms of motion characteristics ? Did you activate deinterlacer in VLC (bob or yadif2x ) ? Or did you mean in terms of levels, contrast, color ?

You are using different display setups, so that could explain differences. There can be major differences in color, levels, quality , or maybe monitor display isn't calibrated properly, or graphics card isn't set up properly for PC levels

[kassim]

Hi poisondeathray, thanks for your reply. What I mean is that the image quality seems better through HDMI. Apart from better contrast, the images from the camera seem to have greater detail, while the images from the m2t files seem a little blured or dull, as if there is some 'averaging' between pixels or some added noise. I am even wondering if I have the correct IEEE 1394 cable since I have read that only the 4 pin cable works with i-Link. So far, I have discarded this as a possible problem because the video capture from Sony Vegas did not complain and fully supported the control of the camera.

I have played the m2t files in the HD TV (using a laptop) and the comparison remains the same, so I'd say the monitor display is not the problem. Certainly motion improves in VLC when activating deinterlacer as you suggest, but that is not really the problem. As for the graphics card I have a GeForce GTX 970, and the PC monitor is a Dell U2515H.