download from panasonic - result horrible - pixated

[petrea]

A friend of mine wanted me to download a short video & burn to disc. I have used my camera & downloaded with no problem (canon dv)
I used the USB connection & downloaded to video studio 9 - the preview shows bad pixation (sp?) and the DVD was terrible. Her camera is a Panasonic digital video camcorder (model PV-DV102).
There is a possibity that her tape was damaged (it was loose and she manually rewound) or am I doing something dum???
Appreciate advise - at least what to look at
Thanks
Petrea

[AnimeChick]

What is the resolution and format of what you are capturing?

Also, use the DV (firewire) port to download. That should be better quality than USB.

[petrea]

i did use firewire
Downloaded directly from the panasonic. according to my friend it played fine direct to the tv.
I have the book but can't tell what the resolution is?
any place i should look - haven't done much with camcorder except my own and never had any problem with that
thanks
petrea

[bop]

in your original post you said you connected via usb in your anwer to animechick you wrote firewire which one was it did you capture to avi or mpeg

[ruggy1]

In my experience, DV needs a high bitrate and a quality setting up near 100 to avoid motion pixellation. Before you render to disk, click on File- Project Properties - Edit - Compression and customise the MPEG2 conversion. Set the quality slide to 100% and the bitrate up around 9000. This will put a considerable load on your computer and take quite a while, depending on the length of your clip. Hope this helps.

[THoff]

Not all camcorders support the full NTSC or PAL DV resolution (720x480 and 720x536, respectively) when using a USB connection -- many only support webcam resolutions like 320x240 using this interface, or still image transfers.

The fact that the camcorder video plays fine when connected using a composite or S-Video connection is irrelevant.

[petrea]

Well I now took the tape and played it in my canon ruling out software problems & connections. (Sometimes I'm really slow on the uptake - thought this would elimate some gray areas - both cameras use mini dv tapes and played fine in mine) Unfortunately still get pixels
It seems to be associated with rapid camera movement by the filmer - especially when in zoom mode. I can try to edit - however little problem as the audio is pretty important on this so can't loose key spots.
Any other ideas?
I tried changing the compression & quality but seemed to have no effect.
thanks
Petrea

[Trevor Andrew]

What is the resolution and format of what you are capturing?

Also, use the DV (firewire) port to download. That should be better quality than USB.

This was asked earlier inthe post.

Right click on a clip in the timeline select properties.

What are they

Trevor

[petrea]

Sorry
here they are:
File:
format MPEG-2
file size: 138,118KB
Duration: 608208 sec

VideoType: MPEG-2 video lower field first
Total frames: 18,228
Attributes: 24bits, 720x480 4:3
Frame rate 29,970 frames/sec
Data Rate: variable bit rate max 1800 kbs

Audeo- Mpeg audio layer 2 files
tot samples: 26,821,982
Attributes: 44100Hz, 16 bit stereo
Layer: 2
Bit rate: 224 kbps

Thx

[AnimeChick]

Data Rate: variable bit rate max 1800 kbs

There's your problem. Most DVDs are at least 6000kbps. Raise your capture rate or capture it in DV instead of mpeg 2.

[Trevor Andrew]

Ok
Your data rate at 1800 is way, way low and audio attributes appear incorrect.

Use the standard NTSC DVD template

I am in pal country and am unsure of the exact settings you should use.
But using the ‘make movie manager’ I would use the following:-

MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 6000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

OR for US the audio may need to be Lpcm.

MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 6000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo

Can someone comment on these settings. Thanks

Hope this helps

Trevor

[petrea]

I went into capture at new rates or dv
I changed the data rate to 8000 (actually was already at that) Below on information it still says variable rate 1800??
How can I get it to change to DV or change the rate - I know it is probably really simple

THX
Petrea

[petrea]

I reset (finally figured it out - real newby with this!)
set to DVD & then raised rates to 8000 - problem was I wasn't resetting for new project so it hadn't changed before.
One other quick question - one of you mentioned audio - should I have a different setting for audio? currently at LPCM, 48000 Hz, 16bit stereo.
Again thank you soooo much.
Petrea

[maddrummer3301]

I like those settings and you can even use Dolby 2/0 now using VideoStudio 9.


MD

[DVDDoug]

Petra,

maddrummer is right. LPCM audio eats-up lots of space. If your DVD is over an hour long, you should use Dolby AC3 or MPEG depending on if you live in an NTSC country, or a PAL country.

In a 90 minute program, LPCM will use-up about 1/3rd of a single-layer DVD. AC3 will use-up less than 1/10th of the space. This leaves more room for higher quality (higher bitrate) video.

All DVD players are required to play LPCM. NTSC players must also play AC3 (MPEG is optional). All PAL players must play MPEG audio (AC3 is optional).