Video quality issues when capturing

Graphics Guru wrote on 7/13/2005, 8:42 AM

When I connect my Sony Mini DV Handycam to my system via USB and start caputing, the picture quality in the preview window is pixelated while on the LCD screen on the camera, the quality is normal. This is only recently happening on my system and I'm not sure if it's some setting within Screenblast Movie Studio I've changed or something else. I have installed the latest video card driver on my system since but it has no effect. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 7/13/2005, 9:22 AM

Don't use USB. Get a firewire cable and capture through the firewire port instead. USB captures are much lower quality.

Graphics Guru wrote on 7/13/2005, 10:16 AM

It is not related to USB. I have done plenty of other captures via USB with perfect quality. This has only recently started happening and only happens on my system here at work.

Chienworks wrote on 7/13/2005, 10:42 AM

All i can say then is that you've been doing something very strange before. No one else ever gets worthwhile captures through USB.

Graphics Guru wrote on 7/13/2005, 1:29 PM

I'm not sure what I would have been doing that was strange. I followed the directions on USB driven capturing to the letter and it has always turned out decent quality MPEG videos.

shmulb wrote on 7/15/2005, 5:54 AM

Decent capturing can ONLY be achieved with firewire. There may be some USB 2 supported here or there but it is not mainstream yet.
Look at these articles
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/t112471.html
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/t30394.html
I dont think you'll find USB mentioned in any of these articles.

Graphics Guru wrote on 7/20/2005, 12:14 PM

I'm going to go ahead and get a video capture card. I'm leaning towards the ATi TV Wonder Pro PCI TV-Tuner and Video Capture Card. What does everyone think? Will this one do the trick?

MAMF wrote on 7/20/2005, 12:39 PM

Don't bother with a capture card unless you plan to capture analog video. The term "capture" is a bit of a misnomer when talking about digital video. All you need is a firewire card to "transfer" the digital files to your hard drive.

Graphics Guru wrote on 7/20/2005, 12:55 PM

I thought the video I'm pulling from my MiniDV Cam is analog video?

Chienworks wrote on 7/20/2005, 1:27 PM

If you use USB then you are most likely getting a digital MPEG file.
If you use firewire then you get a digital AVI file in DV format.
If you use audio/video cables then you get an analog signal.

Firewire is the nicest choice of the above. No actual capturing or processing is necessary. The original digital video signal from the camcorder is simply transferred to the hard drive and saved in a file with no alteration or degredation.

Chienworks wrote on 7/20/2005, 1:28 PM

A firewire card is much cheaper, will result in much better quality video files, and is a lot easier to use.

Graphics Guru wrote on 7/21/2005, 7:43 AM

How much does a firewire card generally run and what brand do you guys recommend?

IanG wrote on 7/21/2005, 8:23 AM

So long as it's OHCI compliant (most are) it doesn't seem to matter what make you get. I'm not in the US, but I'm told they're around $20. You'll need a cable as well, of course!

Ian G.

Graphics Guru wrote on 7/22/2005, 8:05 AM

Thanks everyone. I have ordered the necessary iLINK cable from Sony. My system already has a FireWire card installed so all should be good once the cable comes in. We'll update as soon as I get it.