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Captured video footage looks worse than in camera

L

ljCharlie

I have read from a couple of forums and people seems to agree that capturing using FireWire will make an exact copy of the video from the tape to my hard drive. However, in my experience that is not the case. Even when playing the footage from my Sony HVR-Z1 to the computer through FireWire, it shows up worse than what is displaying on the little LCD monitor on the camera. The footage lost its saturation, contrast, and sharpness. The captured footage file shows the same problem. Why is it the captured copy lose so much of its quality during transfering from a tape to computer? How do I minimize this problem? Your help is much appreciated.
 
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What are your computer configurations?

Are you capturing to a 2nd drive that's spinning at 7200 RPM or more?

What application are you using to capture?

Are you ONLY running the capturing software and NOT running anything else?
 
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Are you viewing the footage on a production monitor? If not the footage will almost certainly look poor on a computer monitor as they have quite different gamma characteristics.

For example, I have some footage that shows up nearly dark on my monitor yet it looks great on the production monitor. Trust the PM not the computer screen (unless you are distributing only on computer... in which case just make the necessary adjustments to optimize the footage for computer play back).
 
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Many thanks for the responses.

Machine specs.

Dell Precision 670
OS Hard drive: 80GB 72rpm
Capture Drive: 320G 72rpm
RAM: 3GB
CPU: 3.6Ghz Xeon
Video Card: Quadro FX 4400
Software: Avid Xpress Pro HD

And yes, I only run Avid to capture footage. And no, I do not have a production monitor. But even if I don't have a production monitor, the quality should not be that difference from the tape when I author the footage into a DVD and play it on my HDTV. I can see that the quality from the DVD compare to the tape is certainly a big difference. I seem to lose a lot of contrast, and saturation.
 
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Yes, it is set to down-convert to output...but still I don't it shouldn't be that much of a difference though. When it is playing directly to the TV, is it still down-convert you think? The picture looks much better on the TV than pass through my computer and play on the TV as a DVD.
 
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To test out my theory of problems when capturing in computer, I use my old sony camera that is not a HdV and the footage wasn't taken in HDV and still the picture playing from the tape to the TV as well as through the little LCD monitor on the camera is better than what is showing on the computer monitor and after the footage has been capture and author to a DVD and play back on the TV. I couldn't figure out what the problem is.
 
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Going firewire into Avid Xpress Pro should not cause a loss in quality. Questions:

1. How are you exporting your clips from the Avid to make your DVD?
2. What are using to make your DVD? iDVD?
3. With your z-1, what format are you recording -- DV, DVCAM or HDV?

Also, the LCD monitor on your camera is going to be very misleading. The colors will likely appear more constrasty and saturated on the LCD than on a computer or even a production monitor.
 
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