Picture quality terrible - Is it my hardware?

[Diamond Jones]

Hi,

I use a Panasonic DV NV DS65. When I record and playback on the camera or
linked up to the TV the picture quality is perfect but when I use Windows
Movie Maker to capture the video the quality of the picture is very jerky
and pixalated.

I use a Compaq Laptop with AMD Athlon 2400 chip with 500+ mb RAM.

A salesboy at Camera House said I need a Firewire card. I don't think so. A
salesman at Dick Smith Electronics said I need a better program than Movie
Maker. I'm not confident these gys know what they're talking about.

Personally, I think its because my laptop doesn't have a dedicated graphics
card.

I've tried capturing it on different screen sizes etc but it doesn't get
much better.

Anyone know the answer?

Thanks
D

 

[Guest]

Hi there....spend some time reading a bunch of the posts on here concerning
your problem and go check out PapaJohn's website...it is the best. The
first guy is correct, you should capture digital video with 'firewire'....if
you have a firewire port on your laptop you just need a cable, otherwise you
need a card as the salesboy said.
The guy who said you need a better program for sure doesnt know a THING
about it.
Did he happen to have a sale on Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere at the time?!!
ha ha

When you capture and use MM, understand that the preview is in low
resolution to save resources and is not indicative of the final quality.
Your DS65 is a Mini DV camcorder and will have very good resolution. When
you get your movie edited in MM; save it in DV-AVI format is you are going to
burn it to DVD. But, as I said, you will learn a lot by visiting PapaJohn's
site and also reading various subjects in the 'help' file. Good luck! Oh,
just so you know, I have a half dozen of those so-called better programs, but
use Movie Maker 2 all the time cept when I need to 'film capture' my screen
or work with gif and flash files. It may be a somewhat less powerful, but
you mainly are only limited by your own ingenuity and invention.

 

[asdfyellow]

I'm new to video capturing/editing/burning. I noticed that there was no
comment on whether it is necessary to have a graphics card as opposed
to "integrated" graphics. What do folks think?

 

[Wojo]

Really doesn't make a difference as far as video capturing/editing goes. If
you have a poor graphics card then your video will simply look better on the
DVD than it does on your computer.
I personally am still getting along just fine with one of my computers which
only has a simple and cheap 16MB graphics card.
-Wojo

 

[LVTravel]

Reply inline

Hi,

I use a Panasonic DV NV DS65. When I record and playback on the camera or
linked up to the TV the picture quality is perfect but when I use Windows
Movie Maker to capture the video the quality of the picture is very jerky
and pixalated.

I use a Compaq Laptop with AMD Athlon 2400 chip with 500+ mb RAM.

A salesboy at Camera House said I need a Firewire card. I don't think so.

Very true. Firewire will transfer data much better than USB. This could
account for the low quality of the picture.

A salesman at Dick Smith Electronics said I need a better program than
Movie Maker. I'm not confident these gys know what they're talking about.

May be true depending on what you are trying to do with your video. I have
used MM successfully to produce commercial quality video for DVD
distribution from weddings and charity events. I also have two other video
editing programs I use if WMM won't do the trick.

Personally, I think its because my laptop doesn't have a dedicated
graphics card.

Not normally an issue for video editing.

 

[Guest]

The other replies hinted at this, but here it is with no beating around the
bush:
With every DV camcorder I have seen, capturing the video via USB causes the
camera to send the video in a converted, low resolution mode. Using a
firewire connection allows the camcorder to send the raw AVI video. This is
the raw video data stored on the camcorder and will be of the highest quality
possible. You can then take this raw AVI data and convert it to any format
you wish, using any program you wish (yes, even Movie Maker is up to the
task).

Save yourself any further headache and buy a firewire card and cable.

 

[Diamond Jones]

WOW, I love newsgroups. You guys (dickmr, wojo, LVTrave, Dan Corban) are
brilliant!

Thanks, I'm off to buy a firewire cable.

 

[LVTravel]

Have a happy time "videoing" (I just love to make up new words).

When you install your new firewire (IEEE1394, AKA iLink) make sure you
follow the written instructions to the letter as to when to install the
drivers and hardware in the box. I don't think Win XP is as sensitive with
Firewire as it is with USB devices but better be safe than sorry.