Need advice on dealing with grainy video

kufloyd wrote on 1/10/2005, 11:03 AM

Hi,

I am capturing some video from my Canon Optura 20 using a FireWire at 29.97 fps. After editing it in Vegas, I convert it to a .avi and view it in Win media player. It looks good till about the point when I blow up the video to full screen -- that's when it appears slightly grainy.

I think this is to be expected...my question is: is there any way to get around this? Should I be capturing at a different rate/format so as to avoid the graininess?

Another slightly related question: my eventual aim is to output my video in a BetaSP format (as that is what most screenings require). What ways are there to convert Vegas video output to BetaSP.

And, if it is grainy when I watch it full screen on my computer, does that also imply that it will be like that after conversion to BetaSP?

Thanks for helping out a newbie!
Kunal.

Comments

Liam_Vegas wrote on 1/10/2005, 11:16 AM
Windows Media Player is not the best way to view DV video. In fact when I view AVI files in WMP that I have captured from my camera they always look pretty bad in comparison to a) the way Vegas displayes them on the internal preview window and b) the way they look when I have rendered back out to tape or c) when I preview out through my camera to an attached TV monitor.

As for the "graininess" - do you see that on the original tape - or just when you view using Windows Media Player? I suspect the latter - as that is how it looks for me when I view my DV AVI videos using WMP.

The best (and only) way you can see what the resulting video will look like on a TV is by viewing it on a TV.

Have you setup external preview through your camera?

There are several ways to get your video onto BetaSP. It sounds like you do not have this capability yourself (access to a BetaSP deck) so what you will need to do is print-to-tape back to your DV camera and then take that to a company that can dub from DV to BetaSP.

AT times when I have had access to a BetaSP deck I have connected that to the analog ports on my DV camera and just done a print-to-tape through my camera to the BetaSP deck. Works great.
kufloyd wrote on 1/10/2005, 11:44 AM

I haven't viewed it on a TV as of yet. It looks pretty good in the Vegas preview -- no graininess at all.

I'll try viewing on a TV screen and see how it looks.

Since my aim is to convert it to a betaSP, I guess it does not matter if I render it as a .avi or .wmv or .mpg...since eventually it is going to have to be printed to tape and then converted to BetaSP..is that correct?
Trichome wrote on 1/10/2005, 11:48 AM
print to tape requires avi
Liam_Vegas wrote on 1/10/2005, 12:08 PM
To maintain the highest quality you should keep the final rendered video in at least the same quality as it was captured. That means DV AVI. And... as has already been mentioned you can ONLY print-to-tape directly from a DV AVI file.

And... it is good to hear that it looks good in the Vegas preview window. I think that confirms my earlier post and that this "graininess" was as a result of playing the AVI via Windows Media Player.
BillyBoy wrote on 1/10/2005, 1:22 PM
For looking at video material playing OFF your computer, try a different player than Microsoft's media player. One pretty good one is Crystal Player. It comes in both a free and pro version.

Besides presenting media at better quality it has features like zoom and support for sub titles.