Capturing & Editing from Hi8

J

James Gerber

Well-known member
Hey all...

Just wondering if someone could help me out, or point me in the right direction on this one.

Source: JVC Hi-8
Capture Setup: JVC -> Pyro DV Bridge -> FireWire Card on PC
Software: VMS Platinum

When I create a new project and say "match video file format", VMS goes to NTSC DV timeline mode:
http://www.creativecola.com/hc1/images/screenshot_q1.jpg
My concern is that it will not show properly when I burn the DVD and show the video on a 4:3 tv screen, as the preview window shows black bars up the sides.

When I change the timeline to NTSC Standard mode, I get black bars/space around the sides and the top/bottom.
http://www.creativecola.com/hc1/images/screenshot_q2.jpg


Was wondering if there is something I can do (other than crop/zoom to fill out the space)... or if when I burn the DVD and play it on the tv, if it will look 'ok'.

The source video is really bad (old tapes, and the camera isn't that great to begin with, etc...) So I just want to make sure I'm at least using the correct settings so that I don't make it even worse.

Going to be outputing it to DVD (4:3 aspect)

any help/direction for info would be greatly appreciated :)

jg
 
Cool... thanks David.

I'm gonna try capturing some video via the ATI-TV card instead of the DV-Bridge to see if it captures any better.

(The original source material seems a bit wonky... and think it may be something to do with taking the Hi8 and having the DV-Bridge making it DV format... or something... either case, it's not a VEGAS issue, so no worries)

thanks again,

jg
 
The black bars may not be avoidable. If they are visible when you play the video files back using another program (such as Windows Media Player), then that is likely how the video was recorded to tape. This would not be uncommon for Hi-8 footage (especially if it was shot using a consumer cam).

At any rate, those bars will not be visible when viewed on a normal (4:3) television as they are outside of the action safe area (the outer dotted line on your video preview).

They will be visible if projected, however, as projectors display the entire frame. The video image could be enlarged using pan/crop or track motion if you want to remove those black bars from the frame entirely (so as not to be visible when projected). This would degrade the image another generation and increase render time tho, so it may not be in your best interests to do if the video is going to be viewed mostly on a regular TV screen.
 
That's a possiblity -- if you capture live TV, it comes out that way.

A crop of the captured file isn't really "another" generation loss, though -- it would be the first one. My guess is that you won't see much of a resolution difference for that very slight crop, though, because it's going to start out low to begin with.
 
David Jimerson said:
A crop of the captured file isn't really "another" generation loss, though -- it would be the first one. My guess is that you won't see much of a resolution difference for that very slight crop, though, because it's going to start out low to begin with.
Click to expand...

I'm just being a stickler for technicalities here, but depending whether the Hi8 tape the footage was captured from was the original tape or not (because if it was a dub, then we'd already be multiple generations down the road), the simple process of digitizing the analog video using lossy compression (such as DV) as well as any signal loss before the analog-digital conversion occurred would technically be a generation and some loss (however imperceivable) would occur. Thus, any post-processing of the digitized footage (such as enlarging a portion of it) would incur generational loss.

This is practically unavoidable however, and even if the video were digitized without any compression (an uncompressed AVI for example), generational loss would occur simply due to signal loss (however infinitesimal) before the analog-digital conversion (even with proc-amps and TBC's). Such is the fate of analog source material :)
 
Just found one more thing while editing off of an old Hi8 device... I'm finding that when I play back a tape on the camcorder, the camcorders display shows things 'bright/clear'. BUT, when I connect the camcorder to a TV and hit play, it appears much darker. (and i've held the camcorder beside the TV screen to compare them).

For example... in a poorly lit room, the Hi8 display shows a dark green colour on the back wall. On the TV screen (or if captured on the Monitor), this dark green would pretty much be black.

Is this just the way things are? or is it possible there is something funny going on with the camcorders output hardware?

thanks,

jg
 
Ooops... sorry. Turns out there was some sorta "Backlit" feature enabled on the display for the Hi8 camcorder. I turned it off, and now the video is much darker.

However, I wonder if since the camera was able to brighten things up.. maybe I can get the same effect within Vegas and just lighten things up.

jg
 
Yeah... there is. Sort of a trade-off... silhouettes or noise. heh.

But I think I'm pretty much doing the best I can... considering the source footage.

I ended up just adding "levels"... and basically adusting the "output start" and the "gamma", and made a huge difference.

I'm previewing everything on a 4:3 TV (via firewire thru my hc1). And as you guys mentioned earlier... my safe area kicks in and everything is Gravy :)

(so I don't have to worry about all that cropping and stuff)
 
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