Video Render Problems

jwn412 wrote on 11/23/2002, 8:52 PM

I get great rendering of stills from my digital camera. But my video captured from My Sony Hi-8 Digital camera is very bad, what I call pixelated. Close ups aren't bad but distant shots are really rough. I render to Mpeg2 at the best setting. I also capture using the highest quality available.

Any Ideas??

Thanks
Johnnie

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/24/2002, 2:19 AM

You say you capture using the highest quality available. This sounds like you're using an analog capture rather than a DV transfer over firewire. How are you capturing?

jwn412 wrote on 11/24/2002, 2:30 PM

I use a Sony Digital 8 model # dcr-trv340, captured using usb2 connection and the Sony PIXELA ImageMixer Ver.1.0 application set at it's highest capture setting.

Chienworks wrote on 11/24/2002, 4:25 PM

Ahhh. That's your problem there. USB captures aren't really very good. You should get a firewire cable, and put a firewire port in your computer if you don't already have one. Then you'll get broadcast quality captures.

jwn412 wrote on 11/24/2002, 6:15 PM

Thanks a lot. Don't have one but explains it.

If you use the Ilink with a Sony PC, will it better quality or about the same as usb2? Friend use this Camera on his Sony.

Thanx again

p_l wrote on 11/24/2002, 8:04 PM

i.Link is what Sony calls firewire, aka IEEE 1394. They are three names for the same thing. And while USB 2.0 is theoretically slightly faster than firewire, reports have firewire performing better in real-world conditions. Listen to Chienworks; firewire is way better than USB 1.0, for sure.

Chienworks wrote on 11/24/2002, 8:23 PM

I could also add, if this Sony PIXELA software is anything like the PIXELA software my boss got with his Sony still camera, then you're torturing yourself immensely by using it. I'm pretty good at using software; it's my job to make sure people's computers work right and they know how to use them, so i'm proficient at learning most any software package very quickly so i can teach the user how to use it. The PIXELA software (at least the still camera version) is absolutely the WORST interface i've ever seen. After three weeks with it we still have no clue how to save a picture from his camera to a .jpg file on disk. None of the icons have any readily apparent meaning and the context menus are more confusing than the icons. Half of the buttons respond with a message that basically says "you can't do that now", but always different buttons at different times for no apparent reason. The help pages don't seem to have any relation to the software at all. It's definately the most user-hostile piece of software i've ever seen.

If the video camera version is anything at all like that, you'll be an extremely delightedly happy camper to switch to just about anything else! I need to get my boss a USB memory stick reader so we can skip the software completely.

Grazie wrote on 11/25/2002, 12:23 AM

Just my 2 pence worth.

I've got 2 IEEE 1394 firewire external Maxtor hard drives [1 x 60gb; 1 x 80gb] "daisey-chained" to my laptop's PCMCIA port, which in turn uses a Maxtor PCMCIA firewire card. This card comes with a double port entry. No complaints from me - as long as I plug in the drives in their designated drive order ie F: before G:. They are fast and so far reliable. Loads of space to do cammy productions. As soon as the 120gb comes available I'm going to purchase a pair of these too! - Can't have enough GBs!

Grazie