Firewire transfer of DV tape to laptop

General
1

I notice a definite loss of video quality/resolution after uploading my DV through my firewire card. I’m not sure if the problem is the firewire card, or the capturing process, but the result is quite noticeable. When I play the video directly through my TV, it looks fine; sharp, good color and contrast, but then once it’s onmy laptop, it seems to have lost about 50% of those qualities!

Even my sony mavica (uses a mini cd), which is a still camera but has a video feature, looks crystal clear and sharp after transferring to my 'puter, but no firewire is involved because it’s already in Mpeg format and simply played/saved to the desktop or wherever.

So I’m not sure what I have to do to retain the video quality of my DV recordings, during transfer/capture. I’m wondering if the probelm lies in the firewire card, or the capture process. :thinking:

2

firewire should be higher quality than usb. what are you using to record the footage to the comp? just a straight file upload?

3

I identified the problem; the default capture setting (using movie maker) was on 528kps bit rate, so I changed it to 1.5mb-that made it much better. I could go up to over 2mb, but the 1.5 is ok. Thanks!:slight_smile:

4

if it’s an mpeg you’re better of just copying the file than capturing it, since that involves decoding and recoding it.

5

If you’ve got the space, I’d recommend setting it to “DV-AVI”. That way you won’t have to worry about losing any (or much?) quality at all.

Andrew

6

Wow! I checked that setting; the [same] file would be a whopping 348 mbs! I found a decent setting that gives excellent playback quality very close to the original, yet the file size is about TEN time smaller than what the DV-AVI would be. :slight_smile:

7

if you have the disk space just leave it and compress it later. you’ll get higher quality stuff in the end. espeically if you do much editing.

8

Re: Firewire transfer of DV tape to laptop

This question would have been placed better in Just Conversation, I
think.

9

I think you’re right. Good Point.:slight_smile: Luckily the probelm was solved.