DV Compression playback

[sectionthirty1]

I just bought myself a new digital camcorder, and I have a question for you guys... When I export my footage via ieee1394 and play it back on windows media player it looks terrible yet i can make changes through premiere and export it back to the dv tape and it looks fine...It seems like I have a problem decoding DV compression or something. What do u guys think it is?

[sectionthirty1]

Bump...anyone

[The village idiot]

That's easy...

What you see when you play back in windows is interlaced video. Lots of horizontal lines, right? That's just the way mediaplayer shows interlaced video. Try something like powerDVD to play it. Remember that computers are progressive video display (frames) and TV is interlaced (fields). If you convert the DV to mpeg and burn to disk it will be fine.

[donpedro]

Don't worry about it. If your goal is to put it back to tape after editing, don't convert or do any changes. It is like The village idiot said.

[sectionthirty1]

Thanks for the reply but I don't think thats my problem...I do know when I see interlacing problems and this is not one of them...Seems like I see square pixels and aliasing problems around circular objects...Must be something else..any other ideas...

If u want to see the video...just let me know I'll put some up..but i'll have to convert it to divx...

[donpedro]

As soon as you convert, nobody can see what the problem is. You will introduce new problems like re-compression to file and it will be hard to tell what was reason. Capture or conversion.

[sectionthirty1]

Fine, i included the original version...dvsd compression according to premiere......its only 4 seconds and its 14MB...check it out and let me know what u think it is...

http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~dsalazar/new/test.avi

[donpedro]

Where should I look for problems ?

[sectionthirty1]

don't u see how bad it looks...yet when i export it back to the tape..it looks perfect....

[donpedro]

No. It looks perfect. What do you use to see it ?

[sectionthirty1]

windows media player 8 with on winxp; what are u using

[donpedro]

OK. The what you see is interlaced issue. I used PowerDVD or Ulead VideoStudio6. Again.... Don't worry... Everything is just fine.

[sectionthirty1]

hm..well i have powerdvd 4, just ran it on there..i still see some major pixelation problems...

[donpedro]

Maybe somebody else can take a look but I don't see any problems. I hope you didn't play it at Full screen resolution.

[sectionthirty1]

I did..is that bad...

[donpedro]

Believe me... forget about this and enjoy your editing.

[sectionthirty1]

haha...strange..i thought its supposed to be 720x480...that should be more than enough resolution to be stretched onto the screen without any loss of quality... Well, thanks anyway...I guess I'll mess around with it some more..i haven't put enough time into it...

[donpedro]

I don't have proper knowledge to explain it to you technicly. Maybe if you will do some search around in "Itnerlace" or somthing like that you will find your answer. 720x480 interlaced when playing on PC is not realy 720x480. You can see it when you play file in PowerDVD at normal size. It is not 720x480.

[sectionthirty1]

Yeah, i'm going to do some heavy research and i'll get back to you on all of this...thanks anyway...

[Dodzzz]

I'm currently downloading the avi and excited to see the pixelation thingy. 8)

[Baldrick]

I'm also downloading it now.....is it a fun clip???...

[Baldrick]

Looks good here also...no strange pixelation.

[Dodzzz]

Aaah.. I found what the problem is! 8)

you don't have a DV codec installed
I played the avi but it runs at only 320 x 240 or something, so it will obviously gives the pixelation thingy when I alt-enter (fullscreen) that, but when I right click the properties, it said 720 x 480 (Unknown format) then I remembered .. ah I haven't installed a DV codec yet (I reinstalled my Win98 few weeks ago

you need to install a DV codec to view the movie at full resolution.
(btw I'm still thinking does his camcorder embed "alternative" format in the stream for non-DV-codec people or what?)

[Dodzzz]

I'm also downloading it now.....is it a fun clip???...

just some trees.. I thought I was gonna get some real "excitement"

[Dodzzz]

hmm.. I just tried loading it in TMPGEnc and it loads fine at 720 x 480! how weird is that! I still haven't installed any DV codec yet! all I got in my system is Nero, DVD Workshop Trial, and WinDVD..

[sectionthirty1]

If i didn't have a dv codec installed then how would I be able to play to it...Which dv codec do u recommend..I've read a lot of documentation on dv compression and interlaced and progressive video and still I haven't found a solution. I tried exporting to several compressions, all types of divx, mpeg,mpeg2...and i still can't get it descent looking...

[Dodzzz]

Ohh.. I'm now officially confused!
so I think there is a DV codec installed in my system within directx 8.1
sectionthirty1, in Windows Media Player, go to file -> properties -> then to advanced tab, then doubleclick the "DV Video Decoder" there you can set the decoding options, choose full decoding resolution. save and apply. now it will playback at full resolution and you won't notice those pixelation thingy anymore, very exciting thing indeed!

[Dodzzz]

you can try a mainconcept DV codec demo:
http://www.mainconcept.com/downloads.shtml

I'm no expert about DV thing, so I'd recomend you make a new thread about what's the best DV codec thing

[vhelp]

Hay sectionthirty1,

Sounds like you have an issue or to (ben reading up on this frustration of
yours)

Ah, if you can, please UP/load a smaller sample, say 10 frames (run it
through vdub, and select Direct Stream copy, and then SaveAs..

Shouldn't be more than a few megabytes or less.
I'll have a look at it. You may have a differenct fourCC code (signature)
and the current DV codec you have, was NOT ment for it, hence, you are
experiencing a BAD decompression, hence your poor visibility/quality
on your PC screen. Media is proving NOT to be able to handle it as such.

Just briefly.. if your DV clip is not performing well, as in your case, and
even though you have a DV codec.. just having one is not allways enough.
Some DV apps use a different fourCC signature, and if you'rs is not one
of them, than whatever codec you DO have, will decode the clip to according
to it's design. Anyways..

So, hurry on and up/load another (smaller) clip.
-vhelp

[sectionthirty1]

Sorry I took so long to reply..i was out playing bball....

@Dodzzz
I don't get an advanced tab... look


And i installed that codec u recommended and didn't change a thing...good try though...

@vhelp
grrrh..i pity u people that don't have broadband...well here goes..i've included a capture of rocket arena which again appears almost flawless on TV yet looks terrible on my computer...

For u nonbroadband users like vhelp--------------------
Quake 3 Rocket Arena Capture (1.26MB)

Trees (1.72MB)