Looking bad on television

[Merlin90]

As a beginner with a DVX, I amlooking for some expert advice to get me going. I recently purchased my DVX100, looked through the manual for some basic operational guidance then went to shoot a youth football game.

I shot at 30fps because the manual said the images would be the sharpest. While shooting, the 1/8 flashed on my screen so I put the filter on 1/8 the it flashed 1/64 so I hit that switch and it stopped flashing. No problemas the sun was setting. I shot on auto everything and finished the game.

I did a basic capture with iMovie and burnt the DVD for the coaches with iDVD (I actually use Final Cut Studio Suite to edit). I then played it on a normal tv and the quality and sharpness was horrible! The sidelines and endzones looked like I zoomed in on a photo too much if you know what I mean (jagged edges). Anyway, a little push in the right direction while I educate myself would be appreciated.

[Fliques Osman]

Can you post up some screen grabs or footage.

I think your problem is that you shot with 30p. For me the best frame rate is either 24p or 60i.

If you notice jaggy edges then I think you didn't encode properly.

[cheezweezl]

the problem is iDVD. it's encoding sucks. for that matter, dvd studio pro's encoding sucks. a program such as compressor must be used to encode in high quality for dvd.

try viewing the footage thru the tv directly from the cam. huge difference.

[Merlin90]

Thanks for the quick replies. You already have me thinking.

So when capturing the video off tape in Final Cut Pro I used normal capturing procedures. But when encoding it to DVD then I mess with Compressor to make the image look the sharpest? Any tips on making it look like HD quality like changing something to 1080 when I capture off tape or compress it for DVD?

By the way Galvin, nice 2008 Reel on Vimeo!

[Richard J. Johnson]

You are not going to make SD look Like HD. THe DVX is still a great cam though. I use it and when I export I use compressor.

[Fliques Osman]

Hey Fisher nice demo, I saw in your demo that you worked with Valy! Was that all shot on a dvx100? (sorry to hijack the thread). Back to the question.

Merlin if you want the DVX to look at little more like HD look at the software by Red Giant called Instant HD it does a pretty good job of up converting your footage. You won't get the results your after in Compressor.

[Jim Simon]

I then played it on a normal tv and the quality and sharpness was horrible!

Define "normal TV". I find that trying to watch SD video from these cameras played back on an HDTV (which many people are using these days as their "normal" TV) just does not look nearly as good as it will on a good SD CRT set.

[Jim Simon]

I think your problem is that you shot with 30p. For me the best frame rate is either 24p or 60i.

This brings up another issue. You say you shot at 30 fps, but was it 30i, or 30p? For sports, I'd recommend sticking with 30i.

[cheezweezl]

Hey Fisher nice demo, I saw in your demo that you worked with Valy! Was that all shot on a dvx100?

you know valy? ya i shot 3 videos for him. all shot on hvx200 with the redrock. i heard he sold out the kodak theater recently. crazy. i never heard of him.....

[Merlin90]

Checked out Instant HD and it looks pretty nice. It's good someone has tried it out and liked it. Thanks for the tip.