Currently i'm capturing my home videos (from DV camera) using either Windows Movie Maker, or Ulead VideoStudio 9 (demo) with a firewire (ieee 1394) connection.

It works, but the resulting video comes out quite dark. The video as seen on the camera's LCD is great, as is the video when shown directly on a TV (camera --> tv connection). So i'm assuming that it's the capture that is not good. (i even captured the dark video, put it on a DVD and played on the TV... comes out dark. So it really IS dark, it's not a bad monitor!)

In stores and on the web, i see "video capture cards" that say they can capture DV video. What is the benefit of using a video capture card when i can do the same thing via my video camera and firewire?

... would the quality be far greater if i used an actual video capture card?... more specifically, will my videos come out not so dark?

Thanks for the help!

John

Hi John,

I'm not sure a video capture card will improve the video quality, unless you buy a professional one... the programs you are using must have options to set/enhance video exposure, brightness and contrast...

QUOTE

I added two Brightness, Increase effects to a dark clip of my cat, Sammy, playing with a Christmas tree ornament in my sample video

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/m...3january27.mspx

Ironbender,

Yes, i can "improve" the video with filters, but that's not ideal. I really want the video to come to my PC in good condition to begin with. All my video is getting captured far too dark, and it's frustrating. If i lighten up the video with software, that helps, but it's not as good as it "should" be.

The video looks great when viewing it directly on a TV (with camera to tv chord). So it's sooo frustrating to see the quality look bad when capturing it to my pc.

Do you think something is wrong with my ieee 1394 card?

About the ms article you linked to: The author seems to use the term ieee 1394 and video capture card interchangeably. Is that right?

Thanks,

John

Yes, there are video capture cards with firewire 1394...

You can view some at http://www.videoguys.com/vidcap.htm

I've read somewhere that the best results are with s-video input...

Hi John,

I am currently working my way through the capture jungle myself. I have tried two different capture cards with my analog camcorder, and what capture I did get was excellent video, not dark. If you are using your system video card to hook into for capture, I would suspect that is the reason, but at this point I am not experienced enought to know for sure.

What you can do, however, is order one from Newegg.com. If you have problems with it or the result is not satisfactory you can return it for full refund/exchange (of course the shipping will cost you). The problem with the retail stores in my area is that because these cards ship with software, they will exchange but not refund. If you decide to do that, I suggest using a PCI slot card instead of an external, USB port device.

BTW, I understand and agree with you that you must get the capture in good quality, but Studio 9 does have several color correction controls that work quite well. Just thought I would mention it.

There is a real good forum that is entirely dedicated to video capturing HERE. I have picked up some good tips from some of the guys there, and if you cruise the forums there you may get your answer.

QUOTE (ranchhand @ Oct 10 2005, 06:37 AM)

Hi John, I am currently working my way through the capture jungle myself. I have tried two different capture cards with my analog camcorder, and what capture I did get was excellent video, not dark. If you are using your system video card to hook into for capture, I would suspect that is the reason, but at this point I am not experienced enought to know for sure. What you can do, however, is order one from Newegg.com. If you have problems with it or the result is not satisfactory you can return it for full refund/exchange (of course the shipping will cost you). The problem with the retail stores in my area is that because these cards ship with software, they will exchange but not refund. If you decide to do that, I suggest using a PCI slot card instead of an external, USB port device. BTW, I understand and agree with you that you must get the capture in good quality, but Studio 9 does have several color correction controls that work quite well. Just thought I would mention it. There is a real good forum that is entirely dedicated to video capturing HERE. I have picked up some good tips from some of the guys there, and if you cruise the forums there you may get your answer.

I have read that capturing DV video via firewire is "lossless" so the quality will be best when doing it this way.

I an only assume that my DV camera is "displaying" the video way too bright (so it looks good). So it displays it too bright in the lcd sceen, and also when viewing it directly on the TV.

When in fact the video really is too dark, as it shows correctly on my PC (after capture).

That's all i can think of.

Good idea with newegg... maybe i'll give that a try. Possibly by capturing it a totally different way (with capture card) it will show up alot different, i.e. better!

I just got an idea: I have an Archos av480 (portable digital video player/recorder). I'm pretty sure i can capture video from my DV recorder straight on to it; just like how i can record tv to it. If the results come out positive, then i think capturing with a video capture card just might be what i need! I'll post my results later tonight when i try this out!

Also i'll check out that forum you linked to, thanks!

John

Actually, you have a good idea there. Since you have a digital camcorder, you are already dealing with digital encoding which is the "language" of a computer. MY problem is that I have the older analog, so it must first be converted to digital, then converted to mpeg2. That's where it gets complicated. But I have always had excellent graphic results when I did get video, so I strongly suspect that it is your capture device that you are using. Also, if you want to burn to DVD, lots of folks really like Nero Vision Express3 to do it rather than the capture software.

Again, I suggest perusing that forum I linked you to. Some of those guys are quite experienced.

Wish you the best, let us know how it turns out.

QUOTE (ranchhand @ Oct 10 2005, 01:08 PM)

Actually, you have a good idea there. Since you have a digital camcorder, you are already dealing with digital encoding which is the "language" of a computer. MY problem is that I have the older analog, so it must first be converted to digital, then converted to mpeg2. That's where it gets complicated. But I have always had excellent graphic results when I did get video, so I strongly suspect that it is your capture device that you are using. Also, if you want to burn to DVD, lots of folks really like Nero Vision Express3 to do it rather than the capture software. Again, I suggest perusing that forum I linked you to. Some of those guys are quite experienced. Wish you the best, let us know how it turns out.

I can't wait to get home and try the DV camcorder --> portable dvr idea. I know when it captures live tv, the quality isn't the best... bright whites tend to get blown out. But it will hopefully give me an idea what i could expect from a video capture card; without first buying one.

I'm going to that forum you suggested right now. If i don't see my question answered already i'll post a question.

Thanks!

John

That's a great forum! Too bad they make new members wait 2 days before posting a message.

... but i may not need to post. I captured some video to my Archos AV480 pvr from my DV camcorder. Here are the results:

The resulting video on the Archos and also on the TV (cable from archos to TV) is alot better than what i captured on the PC via firewire. But still not as good (darker) than how it looks on the camcorders LCD and TV (cable from camcorder to TV).

I copied the AVI file from the Archos to the PC and then viewed it. WOW... it looks even darker than the DV video to PC via firewire! In fact, much darker. Unusable. I can't believe it. What a large difference between what i see on the Archos/TV and what is on the PC.

So in conclusion, it would seem that the LCD display of my Archos and the camcorder are presenting my video much brighter than reality...

... but when i record TV on my PC and transfer it to my Archos, the brightness of the video is pretty consistent between viewing the video on the PC vs on the Archos. I wonder why there is such a huge brightness difference when capturing off of my DV camcorder.

So my final conclusion is... i'm very confused and don't know what's going on! There's so much going on that i'm going to have to sit and think about it for a while....

John

Like on digital cameras, what you view in the LCD display and the reality are two different things... now, on TV...
I think you can take your camcorder to a computer store which sells vc cards and ask them to test some.

Another thing I would try, is to overexpose or use any camcorder built-in filters when filming for DVD purposes and see what happens on the computer (I know, it's a replacement solution, just to see if I can find any setting that matches the difference).

As I said before, I think s-video capture will give you the best results.

QUOTE (Ironbender @ Oct 11 2005, 04:01 AM)

Like on digital cameras, what you view in the LCD display and the reality are two different things... now, on TV... I think you can take your camcorder to a computer store which sells vc cards and ask them to test some. Another thing I would try, is to overexpose or use any camcorder built-in filters when filming for DVD purposes and see what happens on the computer (I know, it's a replacement solution, just to see if I can find any setting that matches the difference). As I said before, I think s-video capture will give you the best results.

[/QUOTE]Like on digital cameras, what you view in the LCD display and the reality are two different things... now, on TV...
I think you can take your camcorder to a computer store which sells vc cards and ask them to test some.[/QUOTE]

Yes, but it's also viewing nicely on the crt TV. Also, other video (tv shows, movies, etc) view about equally between my Archos PVR gadget and my computer CRT monitor. I'm only having a large brightness problem when capturing my DV video and viewing it on my PC. Otherwise, other video and all kinds of grahics, display perfectly on my PC. Strange!

About S-video: I'm assuming you're referring to capturing w/ a vc card, right? A firewire capture wouldn't need s-video. I actually captured the DV video to my Archos gadget via s-video, as that's the only way i could do it. And the results were much worse that my firewire capture.

I'll consider overexposing the video... but i hope indoors it won't cause alot of motion blur. I'm going to have to read up on the manual! I like manually shooting w/ my camera, but manually adjusting a DV camera is new to me! Also, i'd have to remember to change it back when shooting outdoors...

John