Video Quality is horrible. What can I do ?

[Duke]

Hello all,
I am new to the world of video editing. I have a Sony Mini DV camcorder
that I have been using for a while now. When I watch videos directly from
the Mini DV on my TV the video is great. No jaggies or anything. I
captured some video using the DV-AVI (NTSC) settings in WMM. I added a
Title, some scene transitions, and credits. I saved it to my hard drive as
DV-AVI. Now when I watch it in Windows Media Player the video looks
horrible. There are jagged lines all over. Especially when a lighter color
meets with a darker. What am I doing wrong here ? Since these are all
digital files I am working with I don't see how I could lose quality. I
have VHS tapes that look better than what I have as the outcome of capturing
and editing this current video. Am I doing something wrong or is this just
the current state of amateur video editing ? Would I get better quality
results using something like Adobe Premier instead ? I wanted to put this
on a DVD, but the current quality of the video wouldn't be worth it.

Any ideas,

Duke

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Duke,

Try exporting the DV-AVI clip you made back to your camcorder and watching
it on TV. If it's fine, then it's your computer needing more power or a
tune-up.

There are couple utilities you can use for the export so you don't need to
do it again in MM2. See the Camcorders.... General page of www.papajohn.org


PapaJohn

 

[Duke]

Hi Papa John,

I'll try as you suggested and see what happens. Just for the heck of it I
did go ahead and put it on DVD using Nero Vision Express and the quality is
still garbage I guess I was hoping for some type of magic to occur. LOL
!!! I'll let you know what happens with the transfer back to Mini DV.

Thanks,

Duke

 

[Robert M. Lincoln]

I've done the same as you and am also somewhat disappointed. It looks jaggy
on my computer, but looks fairly smooth and acceptable on a TV. I think it
is the state of things now. I'm a little afraid of what it will look like
on an HDTV when that becomes the standard, because I've put so much time
into converting my tapes to DVD's.

I've tried a lot of different settings, and it is never a smooth as watching
the original tape on the camcorder or a TV. I have a fast computer (P4 2.5
with 512 MB RAM and a fast and spacious hard disk). I've come to accept
this. The miniDV's do produce better quality than the Hi8 analog-to-digital
conversions, but the difference doesn't blow you away.

 

[Duke]

Hello all,

I tried putting my finished video back to the Mini DV and the quality is
nowhere near the original DV from which I captured the data to begin with.
I was afraid of what Bob says below being true. If that is the case then it
looks like I will have to wait a little while until things get better on the
consumer end. I don't think my pc is the prob. I have pretty much the
latest and fastest of everything. Just built it about a month ago. The
only thing I can think of is that maybe I need a real capture card. With my
current methods even a normal still photo looks bad after adding to a
timeline and then putting it to DVD. I have a Canon Powershot G2 4.0mp
camera. The pics look incredible on screen and printed, but look like
garbage once put into a video; at least with my current equipment. I am
going to give Adobe Premier a try, but I am afraid I will probably get the
same lackluster results.

Yes Bob I agree with you. If someone were to see this on an HDTV it would
be laughable at best just as it is on a pc monitor.

Thanks for the input from everyone,

Duke

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

You mention a 'real capture card'. If you are not using a firewire
connection, you are not getting the full video quality.

 

[Duke]

Hi Papa,

I have multiple FireWire ports on my PC. The one I am currently using runs
directly onto my Motherboard. I do not have a Capture Card though.

Do you guys know of any good New Groups for Video Editing not having to do
with Windows Movie Maker ?

Duke

 

[Duke]

In a different News Group it was metioned to me that Windows Movie Maker is
just not designed for high quality video editing. This person seemed to
think I would achieve better quality results using something like Adobe
Premiere. I am going to give that a shot.

Fingers crossed,

Duke

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Duke,

I use both Movie Maker and Premiere. The visual quality of saved movies is
the same with each. DV-AVI format is pretty much plain vanilla. In fact
Premiere and MM2 use the same codec to render to movies on my computer.

If you mean editing features, yes Premiere has much more than MM2. That's a
different story than pixel dimensions and colors.

Depending on what I want to do, I'll move a video clip back and forth
between Premiere and Movie Maker - using DV-AVI format.

PapaJohn

 

[Vince S]

Hello all,
I am new to the world of video editing. I have a Sony Mini DV camcorder
that I have been using for a while now. When I watch videos directly from
the Mini DV on my TV the video is great. No jaggies or anything. I
captured some video using the DV-AVI (NTSC) settings in WMM. I added a
Title, some scene transitions, and credits. I saved it to my hard drive as
DV-AVI. Now when I watch it in Windows Media Player the video looks
horrible. There are jagged lines all over. Especially when a lighter color
meets with a darker. What am I doing wrong here ? Since these are all
digital files I am working with I don't see how I could lose quality. I
have VHS tapes that look better than what I have as the outcome of capturing
and editing this current video. Am I doing something wrong or is this just
the current state of amateur video editing ? Would I get better quality
results using something like Adobe Premier instead ? I wanted to put this
on a DVD, but the current quality of the video wouldn't be worth it.

Any ideas,

Duke

Are you SURE you captured and exported with DV-AVI and not one of the low
quality WMV settings? You shouldn't see any quality loss when capturing and
exporting with DV. The only difference would be the way it looks on your
monitor compared to your TV. Do you have a decent monitor and graphics
card? DV-AVI video looks beautiful on my computer. I wish I could leave
all my vids in DV-AVI but they just take up too much space. Take a look at
the video just after capturing, does it look bad then?

 

[Robert M. Lincoln]

I should clarify one thing. DV-AVI looks fine on my computer. It's when
you convert it to a DVD using the highest quality possible that it looks
jaggy if you don't sweep or pan very slowly. But who is going to store in
AVI format? 90 minutes takes up about 18 GB in DV-AVI format, which is what
I use to capture my tapes to hard disk. If you were to store your tapes in
AVI format, you would have to buy multiple huge hard disks. That's not
practical. I just store my tapes in MPEG for the DVD's in case the tapes
get damaged and for convenience, and tolerate the less-than-tape quality,
and wait for something better in the future.

 

[Duke]

Are you SURE you captured and exported with DV-AVI and not one of the low
quality WMV settings? You shouldn't see any quality loss when capturing and
exporting with DV. The only difference would be the way it looks on your
monitor compared to your TV. Do you have a decent monitor and graphics
card? DV-AVI video looks beautiful on my computer. I wish I could leave
all my vids in DV-AVI but they just take up too much space. Take a look at
the video just after capturing, does it look bad then?

Hi Vince,

I definitely chose to capture in DV-AVI (NTSC). My monitor is a ViewSonic
P95f+ PerfectFlat and my Video Card is a Hercules ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. Yes,
the video looks horrible just after capturing. Well, it looks fine if you
leave it in the small editing window, but forget it if you go fullscreen.
It's like watching something that was rendered at 640x480 or less The video
looks better on my TV when watching directly from the Mini-DV than it does
when I capture and watch on my monitor. I would think it would be the other
way around. I am just totally confused on this whole thing right now.

Thanks for the help,

Duke

 

[Cari MS-MVP]

Just one additional thing to check... you are shooting the MiniDV in SP and
not LP aren't you?

Cari
www.coribright.com

 

[Duke]

Hi Cari,

Yes, I shoot everything in SP. I am going to try Premiere tonight to see
what happens.

Duke

 

[Jacky Lu]

I don't think it will make any difference. I tried Premiere too, it looks
same.
My computer is P2.4, with 2G RAM. It just didn't help. My guess somehow the
1394 convert to DV will lost quality. I got exactly same problem as you got:
the movie looks great when watched on tv directly from camcoder, but looks
horrible after captured.
Now I just keep the type is safe place and wait the technology will improve.
Unless someone can found the solution.
Or btw, Duke, could you give some news group address about those movie
capture?

Thanks,
Jacky