DV resolution is what?

[Al Bundy]

I've been using DV for quite a while but never understood a specific thing about the resolution of DV.

I use DV PAL as an example.

Specification say DV PAL is 720x576. When I capture a DV movie using a firewire card it produces an AVI file. Playing this file using Windows Media player (doesn't really matter if it is media player of Windows 9x, ME, 2000 or XP) or any other media playing software it produces a picture that is much smaller than 720x576. I think it is more 360x288 (=50% size) but I am not exactly sure.
I captured with Premiere, ULead and another program which I cannot remember the name anymore. All those programs say that my movie is 720x576, but why do they show it at 360x288. The output size is 100% so it should be 720x576.

Let's say I edited a movie with Premiere or ULead and export the finished movie to a file using Microsoft DV codec. It says 720x576, but when I play the finished product in any media player at 100% size it shows up at 360x288.
Exporting the same edited movie but now using e.g. huffyuv codec at 720x576 it shows a movie at 720x576 (=100% size) when played with the same media players.

The huffyuv file is much larger and the bitrate much higher than with the DV codec, but the end result picture size is what I expected.
I tried this on several Windows OS'es all had the same result.

Currently I use Windows XP.

What is going on?

[Bondiablo]

it's probably just that media player is playing it at half resolution, that's the default setting. not sure how it works in XP but try playing the clip, look for properties, advanced, dv video decoder properties and change the resolution to full. in 98 the only way i could get it to work was save that as the default then close media player and open the clip again.

[Al Bundy]

@Bondiablo

Thanks for your input.

Windows XP media player doesn't have that. Even worse I cannot find any DV codec properties in XP. I found it in Windows 98, but not in XP.
The DV codec must be there, because it works but where are the settings?
Using Power DVD to plat DV AVI files produces the same result, so it must be codec related and not media player related.

The strange thing is that other programs seem to use 720x576. The files created with MS DV codec and huffyuv codec converted to SVCD with TMPGenc produce visually exactly the same MPEG file. I didn't check the MPEG files byte for byte but I do not see any difference.
If one of the sources is 360x288 the produced MPEG file looks different than with a source file that is 720x576.

Where are the DV codec properties in XP?

[medievil]

When you start the avi in WMP, click file then properties. Go to the advanced tab and you should see the DV codec being used. You can double click it to set it's output properties...
FYI main concepts DV codec defaults to half res.

[Al Bundy]

@medievil

Clicked file and then properties while playing a DV AVI. There is no Advanced tab, only General, License Information and Lyrics tabs. Probably you are using not windows XP.

You write "main concepts DV codec defaults to half res", do you mean for displaying? So while editing/converting it is normal size (=720x576 for PAL)?

[sdmoore]

Al, if you have set WMP to 100% then all you need to do is resize the WMP window to show all of it (or switch to full-screen mode)

[Al Bundy]

@sdmoore

Sorry, but that doesn't help.
Resizing WMP - the movie sticks to 360x288 and WMP is as large as you can make it on your screen
Full screen - that makes the movie picture larger, but also distorted because it is stretched. It is more than 720x576 and probably not keeping aspect ratio.

I think medievil is right with his remark "main concepts DV codec defaults to half res" but how do I make it default to 100% using Windows XP?
My question remains: Where are the DV codec properties in XP?

[sdmoore]

Hmm, OK try this ...

On WMP go to Tools->Options->Performance.
In Video ccceleration click Advanced.
In Digital Video drag the slider all the way to Large.
Ok out of the dialogs and try playing the .avi again.

[Al Bundy]

@sdmoore

OK this answers part of my question but I am still a bit confused.

That did the trick for WMP in XP, but not for other media players. It seems that the DV decoder outputs at 360x288 at default and WMP overrules this with the digital video slider.
E.g. Power DVD doesn't have such a slider when a DV AVI is playing.

When I use huffyuv it is not necessary. Maybe I should accept it and continue as it is. I am still puzzled though.

[bartman]

Hi,

I had the same problem. I'd capture in Premiere (or DVD workshop for that matter) straight from my DV camera, yet the AVI resolution looked like 320x288 in media player.

Playing the movie in media player and zooming the video only made it look like a zoomed in video...i.e., the AVI resolution WAS 320x288 despite the advanced properties claiming that my video was 720x576.

After reading this thread I uninstalled the Mainconcept DV codec and now my captures play back at the proper resolution.

The mainconcept DV codec may default to 1/2 resolution for playback however I couldn't find anywhere to change this, hence if I imported my AVI into TMPGEnc, it would think that the avi resolution was 1/2 of what it actually was (I did a test and the filesizes were the same before and after removing the codec. I suspect that the captures were fine....just the playback was the problem)

Hope this helps... (it helped me )

Bartman 8)

edit:
I just went and re-played the "before codec uninstall" AVI's and they still playback at 1/2 res.....seems the mainconcept DV codec limited capture resolution as well...

[donpedro]

I think that it might have something to do with interlacing. They played it at 1/2 resolution to avoid more complicated deinterlation during playback. But this is just my theory and I don't have enough knowledge in this arena.