Trying to capture Hi8 video - using a Winfast VC100XP capture card from my Sony.
Quality is pretty poor - nothing like the quality on the tape.
Using ULEAD Videostudio 7.01.0100 SE DVD
Capture settings are:
DVD (720*576) 100% quality Bit rate 8000
But as I say, the quality is very poor.
Also, the software has a problem refreshing on the screen if I swap between applications.....is this my video card not being good enough?
Poor capture
Moderator: Ken Berry
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Ken Berry
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First, as you may be aware, the preview screen in Video Studio leaves something to be desired -- any captured video, even high quality DV digital video, will look relatively bad in the preview screen, but looks very much better in the final burned form on disc.
Second, your capture device does not seem to have a hardware chip on board to allow it to capture mpeg-2 without calling on computer resources. In other words, it appears to rely totally on computer resources. It could be that your computer does not have sufficient resources to give to what is essentially a very demanding process. You tell us you have a P4 processor, but what size? Certainly your RAM seems sufficient though...
Third, if you are using RCA composite cables from the camera to the capture device, this will inevitably give a poorer image than if you connected the S-video cable (if your camera has an S-video plug). You still use the RCA connection for audio, of course, but S-video gives a much better image quality than RCA. Best of all would be to use a digital video camera as pass through. This would allow the image to be captured in high quality DV format. However, I realise that not all digital video cameras allow pass-through. Check your manual on that. What is the exact model of your Sony, by the way? (I bought a Sony DCR-TRV480SE Digital 8 camera precisely to capture my analogue collection. The camera is fully digital, but will play both standard 8mm and Hi8 analogue tapes, yet send the signal over Firewire as high quality DV format. The results are *very* impressive... though I admit it was a relatively costly way to go.)
And finally, this point may or may not be relevant to your immediate problem. But you are capturing at too high a bitrate for analogue video. I know that most people think that the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality. That is true, cetainly, of digital video. But in the case of analogue video, you are simply not going to get any better quality than if you capture at only 6000 kbps (and many people would say 4000 - 4500 kbps is more than enough).
Second, your capture device does not seem to have a hardware chip on board to allow it to capture mpeg-2 without calling on computer resources. In other words, it appears to rely totally on computer resources. It could be that your computer does not have sufficient resources to give to what is essentially a very demanding process. You tell us you have a P4 processor, but what size? Certainly your RAM seems sufficient though...
Third, if you are using RCA composite cables from the camera to the capture device, this will inevitably give a poorer image than if you connected the S-video cable (if your camera has an S-video plug). You still use the RCA connection for audio, of course, but S-video gives a much better image quality than RCA. Best of all would be to use a digital video camera as pass through. This would allow the image to be captured in high quality DV format. However, I realise that not all digital video cameras allow pass-through. Check your manual on that. What is the exact model of your Sony, by the way? (I bought a Sony DCR-TRV480SE Digital 8 camera precisely to capture my analogue collection. The camera is fully digital, but will play both standard 8mm and Hi8 analogue tapes, yet send the signal over Firewire as high quality DV format. The results are *very* impressive... though I admit it was a relatively costly way to go.)
And finally, this point may or may not be relevant to your immediate problem. But you are capturing at too high a bitrate for analogue video. I know that most people think that the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality. That is true, cetainly, of digital video. But in the case of analogue video, you are simply not going to get any better quality than if you capture at only 6000 kbps (and many people would say 4000 - 4500 kbps is more than enough).
Ken Berry
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PHILIPMOOR
Thanks...
for those tips....
I'll order an S-Video cable, and bring the bit-rate down as suggested.
The camera is a Sony ccd-tr717e - I don't have a digital camera to play it through (yet).
The final mpegs I'm burning are poor as well...not just the preview.The quality is nothing compared to the original tapes....
My P4 is a 2.5Ghz model about 3 years old....so I know it's knocking on a bit. But I'm only using version 7.
Also, as I also said - I have problems switching between windows when using the software - ie my pc doesn't seem to redraw the Ulead window properly when I switch back. Is this because I'm using on board VGA? Should I buy a separate VGA card? If so, is there a budget model people recommend?
I'll order an S-Video cable, and bring the bit-rate down as suggested.
The camera is a Sony ccd-tr717e - I don't have a digital camera to play it through (yet).
The final mpegs I'm burning are poor as well...not just the preview.The quality is nothing compared to the original tapes....
My P4 is a 2.5Ghz model about 3 years old....so I know it's knocking on a bit. But I'm only using version 7.
Also, as I also said - I have problems switching between windows when using the software - ie my pc doesn't seem to redraw the Ulead window properly when I switch back. Is this because I'm using on board VGA? Should I buy a separate VGA card? If so, is there a budget model people recommend?