Quality Issues

[gcbent]

I have just started capturing DV, I brought a Panasonic NV-DS38 digital video camera it came with the ADS PYRO card and Video Studio SE Basic. I have burnt a VCD using NERO 5.5 and I am not to happy with the quality. I have viewed the .avi file from Video Studio on full screen and it looked almost as bad. Could someone please point me in some direction of where to start fixing the quality problem (capture card, software or what ever?

[TeeeRex]

1. Make sure you are capturing at the maximum resolution and are using a decent capture codec - preferable one that is lossless (such as huffyuv) - you'll need to select to use this codec when you do your capture. MAke sure you have plenty of hard disc space for the capture.
2. Once you have a decent capture (play it using media Player - it probably won;t be able to keep up with reading the AVI but check the quality - that's the important bit at the moment.
3. I'm not sure if yo're using Video Studio SE to do the encoding but I would suggest you try using TMPGenc to do the encoding - for newbies it's easy to use and will give good results. Basically use the above AVI (capture) as the input and just select VCD as the output template.
4. Wait several hours (depending on length of capture obviously..)
5. You should now have a VCD complient MPG file.
6. Drag this into Nero (using the Nero VCD template) and burn - do NOT let Nero re-encode it for you - if it moans about a 'non-standard' MPG then you must be doing something wrong in point 3.
7. For better quality choose a SVCD template in both TMPEnc and obviously Nero (assuming your DVD player will play it ...)

In summary that's about it - sounds easy but lots of pitfalls that I haven't got the time to explain - your best bet is look at the forums for the keywords above - the guides are also a good source of 'step by step' info. Software can be got from www.doom9.org

Good Luck.

TeeeRex

[D_Knife]

TeeeRex
gcbent said he was capturing in DV - he can't change resolution or capture codecs.

gcbent
I haven't used Video Studio SE Basic for DV cap - but as long as it spits out a AVI file that you can feed into a proper MPEG encoder. I can't quickly tell if it's a DV type 1 or 2 file though.
In any case as I said above you would be better to use a dedicated MPEG encoder instead of VideoStudio or Ahhh Nero!! Use a default template at first and if that works then start tweaking it so it looks better.

Of course all this assumes that your input footage looks good. In some cases Media player does not correctly display DV files correctly when using the default MS DV codec. There is a copy of Canopus Codec floating around that is free that gives a good on-screen result. This might help you.

Then feed the good MPEG into Nero or your burning software of choice.

[TeeeRex]

D_Knife,

I'm not sure what you mean by 'gcbent said he was capuring in DV' - he can't change resolution or capture codecs - why not ?

He/she still is using a codec to do the capture so all I'm saying is use a decent one. Both the M$ DV codec (and the Pinnacle DV codec that came with my DV500 for that matter) are lossless/naff compared to Hufyuv - so that's why I suggested he/she use that instead. Again, I can change the capture resolution so if he/she has the option, then use the maximum possible ...

Other than that - you've just repeated what I said ....

?

[gcbent]

The best quality that Unlead Video StudioSE will let me capture is 720x576, 25fps DV PAL is this good or should it be better?

[D_Knife]

DV is fixed in size,framerate and bitrate

[D_Knife]

TeeeRex
Yes - I'm sorry I did just repeat you. I should have written see second half of your post.
But as I just said to gcbent
DV is fixed and you don't actually "capture" it - you just copy it from the camera (or other DV device) onto your computer and "wrap" it in an AVI shell.

[TeeeRex]

D_Knife - OK I accept what you are saying. DV 'standard' is 720x576 but where does the 'codec' bit come in then ? - because I can CHANGE this during my captures from the following (using Adobe 6 to capture) :-

Microsoft DV
Pinnacle DV
Huffuv DV

Is 'uncompressd' AVI the pure DV signal (ie original from the camera). In this case wouldn't Hufyuv be better as it uses compression to save disk space but loses no quality ?

I think; going back to the original post - this guy is capturing at DV resolution - but he is losing quality. This could be because he is using the Unlead StudioSE DV codec or the M$ DV codec - ?

Hmmm Confused ....

My captures using DV in, Huffyuv codec (AVI), Adobe 6 edit, CCE SP or TMPGenc out are fantastic quality (comparable in every way to the original DV footage) - using the M$ or Pinnacle codec I lose quality that is noticeable - that is my experience ....

?

[D_Knife]

because I can CHANGE this during my captures from the following (using Adobe 6 to capture)

Hmm - OK - I can't with Adobe 6 When I capture using DV I get start or stop capture - no codec options.
Mind you I am using a simple DV no name board - but I agree the result is stunning.

DV video IS compressed - it uses a propreitry version of DCT compression and rocks in around 5:1 compression - while Huffy is around 2:1 . DV is called "lossless" because you can copy it multiple times without any change (as oppossed to analogue which suffers from generation loss) When you make a change and recompress it also keeps high quality a number of times. There is a page somewhere that demonstrates DV generation loss.

This could be because he is using the Unlead StudioSE DV codec or the M$ DV codec - ?

Possibly - I have only used Premiere 6 for DV - both on PC and Mac
and the results have been good.

I wonder if he can post a pic pf the DV cap so we can see.