People recommend to get that "Film look" in Vegas to go into the effects for each scene and go into "Color Correction" then turn your Gamma down, and your Gain up, and then mess with the saturation levels to adjust color contrast and darkness to your liking. Do a seach in youtube you may be pleasantly surprised.
Dvx100b video quality help
- Thread starter taylorsand
- Start date
I know you guys are dealing with vegas here but i was just about to start a new thread because so far im not happy with my dvx footage, maybe its me but i think its a settings/ export issue.
The very first time i shot with a dvx i used brand new AMQ tapes and shot 30p squeeze i believe and footage was great i thought, just watched the capture scratch footage again and was happy. But lately im not impressed... I use FCP 5.1.4, and have been trying different shooting combos, from 4:3 30p and various shutter speeds, to squeeze, 30P and i dont like what i see. I have not really touched the scene settings at all. But i shoot live concerts.
Also maybe this is one of my issues but since im just going through trial and error i have been re-using tapes to conserve them, so that could play a part in quality perhaps?
? when set to normal shoot mode whats the aspect ratio and pixel ratio or whatever?
The very first time i shot with a dvx i used brand new AMQ tapes and shot 30p squeeze i believe and footage was great i thought, just watched the capture scratch footage again and was happy. But lately im not impressed... I use FCP 5.1.4, and have been trying different shooting combos, from 4:3 30p and various shutter speeds, to squeeze, 30P and i dont like what i see. I have not really touched the scene settings at all. But i shoot live concerts.
Also maybe this is one of my issues but since im just going through trial and error i have been re-using tapes to conserve them, so that could play a part in quality perhaps?
? when set to normal shoot mode whats the aspect ratio and pixel ratio or whatever?
Definitely not a good idea.
Kevmo
Well-known member
Reusing tapes should not be a problem if your sticking to about 2 or 3x (from my experiance and from reading on the board). At less than $3 I just buy new one, but if your just playing with the camera its fine. Also as long as you dont see drop frames and capturing quality is not diminishing.
Anyways, you shoot live concerts? How is the lighting? Your not shooting with any gain are you? Thats just going to add noise and degrade your quality. Share a link of some footage so we can see whats up... or down
Anyways, you shoot live concerts? How is the lighting? Your not shooting with any gain are you? Thats just going to add noise and degrade your quality. Share a link of some footage so we can see whats up... or down
The capstan is hard metal while the tape is obviously soft and pliable. How could this soft smooth tape harm the capstan? Please provide sources.
Allow me to clarify, uh, Mr. Hacker:
Professionals do not reuse mini dv tapes. Among other problems, this can cause the capstan to become shiny. When the shaft becomes worn and polished the slick surface can no longer pull the tape evenly.
Of higher concern—you may get away with it a few times— you won't know you've got a dropped frame until it's too late.
Professionals do not reuse mini dv tapes. Among other problems, this can cause the capstan to become shiny. When the shaft becomes worn and polished the slick surface can no longer pull the tape evenly.
Of higher concern—you may get away with it a few times— you won't know you've got a dropped frame until it's too late.
All my cameras heads were cleaned about a month ago and i have only used the cameras a handful of times since. Also im shooting 30P to just see what turns out best i guess, why do you ask? Is there something i should be shooting???
Thanks
Reusing tapes should not be a problem if your sticking to about 2 or 3x (from my experiance and from reading on the board). At less than $3 I just buy new one, but if your just playing with the camera its fine. Also as long as you dont see drop frames and capturing quality is not diminishing.
Anyways, you shoot live concerts? How is the lighting? Your not shooting with any gain are you? Thats just going to add noise and degrade your quality. Share a link of some footage so we can see whats up... or down
The stuff i have been shooting is for testing out the camera mainly to see what setting work best, and since i use AMQ's 8 bucks a piece and i have a limited number to bring with me on tour this summer i have been reusing. I dont think i have reused more than 2x.
As far as lights go its varies ya know... some venues are great some have very little, which will determine if i decide to film or not. But for the most part id say the venues have good lighting??? This last shoot i used only 3db gain so i did not create to much noise... I will try a youtube or vimeo link here soon, i spent a while last night exporting a short clip through every export method to see what works best and i think i got the footage to look a bit better, except for some faint vertical lines?
Also Whats the difference in ratio and pixels for normal and squeeze? I shot normal which should be 4:3 640x480 right??? but all my clips say 720x whatever... and i captured regular DV NTSC
Also worthy of clarification... tape is anything but soft or smooth. Whether it's miniDV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, BetaSP, DigiBeta, VHS, Hi8, U-Matic, MII, or any other magnetic tape format, adhered to that strip of plastic-like material is a layer of metal particles. This is why head hours matter over time. The more you drag metal particles across the inner workings of the tape transport, the more they grind away. After a several hundred hours (a thousand, maybe more), the tape heads get worn down to the point that they may need to be replaced.
If you post some footage, people will be able to give you ideas about what you find dissatisfying in your footage. I was curious why you were shooting live concerts at 30p. I don't shoot concerts so I can't advise on that.
gotcha well here is a little clip on youtube, i mean this looks fair, not as good as most DVX footage i see but i could live with it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTQU9D0de7o
I have noticed that the footage looks the worst in FC once i found an export format that helped a bit the footage got a bit better but i will try and post the capture scratch for comparison...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTQU9D0de7o
I have noticed that the footage looks the worst in FC once i found an export format that helped a bit the footage got a bit better but i will try and post the capture scratch for comparison...
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Mister Stocks
Well-known member
Yeah, I agree, those clips look about right. Color correction usually makes my footage shine a lot more than just out of the camera footage. If you are not happy with it I would take a consumer standard def cam and shoot the same things to show how good the DVX is in context.
Concerts are also really low light, and you would get much better footage in that situation if you could safely make your way to the front of the stage and shoot from there. Close-ups with this cam are gorgeous imo.
Concerts are also really low light, and you would get much better footage in that situation if you could safely make your way to the front of the stage and shoot from there. Close-ups with this cam are gorgeous imo.
here is the deal, like i said once i got it exported and found a conversion/ compression that worked out good, the footage looks pretty good then. The location/ hight/ zoom stuff was kind of an issue.
AT these concerts i have to try and set up where the mosh pit wont crash into my camera, and currently i have no good tripods so im stuck with hight restrictions until i can order better tripods from b&h this week. This is my camera line up, i use 2 DVX100A's and a sony pdx10 i usually set up each DVX on each side of stage and then use the PDX as a close up(this little camera shoots some stunning SD footage WOW)
Also the first time i used the dvx was as a close up/ handheld camera for a concert and that footage was AMAZING.
AS for what i dont like, when viewing that same clip in quicktime i see faint vertical lines in some of the areas where the lights light up, not in all the footage... And i just read through my dvx book again and seen that f stops have a pretty big effect on resolution, most of that was shot at open or 1.7 which is where i probably lost some quality?
What are some setting i should use for lower lighting? what mode? 30p or 60i, what shutter, and f stop? i shoot with zebra on. Also i have gamma set to high and knee auto (might change to mid though?) and some other small tweaks i read i might try...
Thanks guys for the help!!!!!!
AT these concerts i have to try and set up where the mosh pit wont crash into my camera, and currently i have no good tripods so im stuck with hight restrictions until i can order better tripods from b&h this week. This is my camera line up, i use 2 DVX100A's and a sony pdx10 i usually set up each DVX on each side of stage and then use the PDX as a close up(this little camera shoots some stunning SD footage WOW)
Also the first time i used the dvx was as a close up/ handheld camera for a concert and that footage was AMAZING.
AS for what i dont like, when viewing that same clip in quicktime i see faint vertical lines in some of the areas where the lights light up, not in all the footage... And i just read through my dvx book again and seen that f stops have a pretty big effect on resolution, most of that was shot at open or 1.7 which is where i probably lost some quality?
What are some setting i should use for lower lighting? what mode? 30p or 60i, what shutter, and f stop? i shoot with zebra on. Also i have gamma set to high and knee auto (might change to mid though?) and some other small tweaks i read i might try...
Thanks guys for the help!!!!!!
I did not infer that professionals reuse tapes, nor am I advocating that we do so. I am simply finding it hard to believe that a used tape can change a capstan's properties. So yes, please clarify how a used tape that is smooth and pliant can polish a capstan in contrast to a new tape which is also smooth and pliant. I see no difference here. Do you have a source to back up your claim?
QuickTime Player should not be used as a judge of video quality. Not at all. This program, while quite efficient and effective as a platform for Mac-based NLE software, is not on its own an accurate playback system. What you are seeing are artifacts of QT and not of your footage.
The clip you posted on Vimeo looks, for all practical purposes, just fine. Expect a little noise in situations like this where you have lots of blacks and not much light through most of the frame, but QuickTime is not going to show you what's really going on.
To truly see what your footage looks like, use an external production monitor that is fed by your FireWire device (camera or VTR).
Thanks C2V, i guess thats what it boils down to. Judging on my comp in quicktime or FC in not 100% accurate.
I tried to not use more then 3db of gain, but auto gain was on so that could have caused a bit more noise then i would have liked... Thats off now.
Thanks guys i guess i need to get my sony DSR11 and a monitor... Whats a decent yet cheap monitor i can bring with me on the road... Something kind of compact..