I need more knowledge capturing...

skettalee

skettalee

Well-known member
I kinda was placed in the fighting ring and had to fight in video editing. I never learned that much from anyone official and at technical school for the military in videographer they didn't teach all that much.

I see all kinds of footage posted here using the DVX100a that looks so good its unbelievable. I must be doing something wrong. Now I am only documenting stuff using the 100a so im not making sequences or getting up close and personal on all that much but I would think that my footage would atleast turn out looing a bit better.

Im looking at Avid now while it captures a Military Ceremony and the footage color looks dull and as well as kinda pixilated compared to anything I seen on here.

What am I doing wrong? I set the Scene file to F6 when I shoot something, I make sure the Iris is setup and the WB looks good as well. My Res in the Capture Tool is DV 25 411 and its capturing from a Panasonic AG DV2500 miniDV deck through firewire to the mojo and through firewire to the computer. Its a Dell Machine that this shop bought specificly for video editing but its crap really. The military paid like 8 G's for 2 of these machines and my machine at home which I built in all for less than 1 G runs way faster and better than this one.

But I think thats beside the fact. I am shooting F6 Scene file. When I start a new project I do 29.97 timeline cause i tried the 23 and it made the footage skippy. whats wrong with my footage? Its always been like this. Actually I took the camera home and shot something just around the house and imported into Vegas Video 5 at home and the footage looked 400 times better really. Is it my avid here? Should I change the Res? Can anyone help me? I am the ranking person here at Shaw AFB in video. Meaning im pretty much the only videographer here but I hate the way alot of my stuff turns out. Just dull colors. and not even close to good quality.

Also I need to know what the BEST possible QUICKTIME settings I can setup to export my footage. Like each setting in the export settings, what is it supposed to be set on? HELP!
 
Any help today before works end? I leave in 2 hours. I just would like to get some new information so maybe I can do a better job with atleast todays project! Please reply someone with any kind of help, i see you guys viewing. Im spying on you, im a ninja!
 
You're asking for us to embue you with years (and in some cases decades) of videography experience in the confines of an internet forum. That's no small request and probably why there haven't been a ton of replies. The problem isn't Avid, and it isn't the camera, but it's the use of the camera. The DVX is a marvelous piece of equipment, but just because it has the potential doesn't mean that everything it records is going to look like something Martin Scorsese shot. Case in point:

Im looking at Avid now while it captures a Military Ceremony and the footage color looks dull and as well as kinda pixilated compared to anything I seen on here.
Click to expand...

What kind of lighting was used? I've never been to a miliray ceremony, but I doubt that it was lit for a cinematic film. More likely it was lit for practicality and visibility. Also, what kind of lights were used? Flourescent maybe? How close were you to the ceremony? How much were you zoomed in? Did you have to turn up the gain in order to get an exposed image? All of these things (and many more) are going to affect your footage.

I am shooting F6 Scene file. When I start a new project I do 29.97 timeline cause i tried the 23 and it made the footage skippy.
Click to expand...

If you're using a 29.97 project then you should really be shooting with F5 (I.E. 24pN). 24pA (or F6) is specifically for removing extraneous frames and creating a 23.976 framerate. As far as footage being skippy, you might make sure that Avid is removing Advanced pulldown instead of Normal pulldown (in the "Film and 24p" section of the settings tab). Match apples to apples and you shouldn't have a capturing issue.

Also I need to know what the BEST possible QUICKTIME settings I can setup to export my footage. Like each setting in the export settings, what is it supposed to be set on? HELP!
Click to expand...

This is slightly out of the scope of this post, but realize that encoding video (to Quicktime or any other digital codec) is not just about high quality. You could encode an uncompressed HD sized image with Quicktime from the footage in Avid, but it wouldn't do you any good because you likely wouldn't be able to play it. You need to know what your goal for the footage is. Archive? Web? Transfering to a different NLE? DVD? All of that changes what your settings need to be.

Have you read Barry Green's DVX Book? That would be a good place to start. Also watch that DVD because it has footage samples that demonstrate some basics with shooting with the DVX. Also think about what you're shooting as much as how you're shooting it. Practice with the camera in your down time, not just recording footage, but framing and planning your shots. Look at classic painitngs and see how the light is composed. Read Walter Graff's articles about lighting (search the Lighting forum for them). Take your favorite movie and try to recreate some of the scenes from it. Time and experience will help you become better at your job. Keep at it! :thumbsup:

I hope this post wasn't too negative. :undecided

Chris
 
If you shot in 24pA (I assume that because you choose the scene file F6 instead of F5), then you must create a project in a 23,997 timeline. You said that the footage is skippy in 23,997 mode, it is normal because you shoot in 23,997 frames by seconds. If you want to have a fluid video (like broadcast video or documentary), you select a scene file in 30i mode, not 24p.

Then, when capturing, select the DV 25P 411 OMF res and you should capture the footage in a good quality.

About Quicktime, its depend on which media you want to export. On the web, usually, I use the codec MPEG4. About the size, it's depend on the size you want.

ElvisNTSC
 
Dude thanks alot for your help so far! I understand a bit more now for sure and thats exactly what I need. I want to buy that book but right now funds are kinda low and the military isnt trying to hear it. (I asked if they could get it for me) lol.

All of my projects are output to DVD so what would you consider the best settings for that? Im asking because I usually just set it to be the default which is like whatever it came in as with Avid DV Codec and it comes out alot crappier than it looked in avid. Oh woah is me!
 
The size id like the biggest thing to come out of Avid that will fit on a DVD. LOL. I want to shot my stuff in 24p for the filmic dreamlike state look of film, I know, I know, im documenting whatever crap people running and shaking hands and talking but I still just rather that look specially cause I want to practice at getting that look to LOOk better cause I want to be a Music Video Director eventually!
 
PS : Im using Avid Xpress Pro 4.3 and I dont see a Film and 24p tab inside of settings. Whats it under?

Ah, made a new project in 23.? and now I see it, BUT, Video Pulldown Cadence is disabled? Is it because I haven't imported any footage? And the first 4 options on the top look like greek settings.

Ink Number Format ?
Ink Numver displayed as?
Auxilary Ink Format ?
and whatever
 
All of my projects are output to DVD so what would you consider the best settings for that? Im asking because I usually just set it to be the default which is like whatever it came in as with Avid DV Codec and it comes out alot crappier than it looked in avid.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see that happening. The process that I use for DVD is to export from Avid as a Quicktime Reference. A QT Ref file actually doesn't encode any video, it just points to the media that Avid has already captured.

What you're currently doing is taking 1st Generation video, and compressing it to a Quicktime which makes it 2nd Generation. Then you're converting that to MPEG-2 for DVD which makes it 3rd Generation. Each generation loses quality. QT Ref allows you to skip one of those generations and retain some of the image. So, export your QT Ref (I find that all not using the Avid DV codec for this step works best for me). And the load that QT Ref into your MPEG-2 Encoder. (Not sure what you're using, maybe Squeeze?) That will give you a cleaner file for DVD.

Also, on your MPEG-2 settings try changing your I-Frame to 6 (most compressors default to 15). That will help with the overall quality of your video.

If any of that doesn't make sense let me know and I'll try to be more specific.

Chris
 
Ah, made a new project in 23.? and now I see it, BUT, Video Pulldown Cadence is disabled? Is it because I haven't imported any footage? And the first 4 options on the top look like greek settings.
Click to expand...

Avid 4.3 only has Advanced pulldown available, so that's why it's grayed out. As long as you're capturing in a 23.967 project it will be advanced pulldown, so that's one less thing you have to worry about.

The first four options are for material originating from 35 or 16 mm film. You can ignore them.

Chris
 
Can you give me a little more details on "skippy"? Do you notice it only on pans or is it something else?
 
Pans right, when moving it looks like the stuff skips like a normal type skipping. Hehe. You know like haha I cant explain too much more, like it jumps tons of frames at a time I guess. If I use a 29.97 timeline it shows smooth movement but on 23 it shows skippy movement.
 
Sounds like strobing, which is a result of 24 frames per second vs. 29.97 frames per second. If you have time you might try a test. Record some footage with fast pans, then record some really slow pans. I mean really slow. Like pick an object and pan slow enough so that it takes 10 - 15 seconds for that object to travel the entire width of the frame. Then capture the footage. If all of it's skippy, then there's another problem that we'll have to work on. If the slow pan is smooth, then that's strobing. Even 35mm suffers from strobing, so it's not exactly a bad thing, just something that you need to be aware of and account for.

Chris
 
I suggest to open a new project, in 23,997 mode, then capture your footage at 29,997, DV 25P 411 and you should fix your problem, because If you import your current footage you do in a 29,997 timeline, you'll import a footage in 29,997 on a 23,997 timeline, so, you can have problem while watching your footage.

When I want to do a master on DVD, I use the same technic as krestofre.

I export the movie in a quicktime reference. Then, I use TmpegEnc (with the quicktime plugin) and I do a mpeg 2 (without sound). Then I use an AC3 encoder to encode the soundtrack and after, I build the DVD.

ElvisNTSC
 
I suggest to open a new project, in 23,997 mode, then capture your footage at 29,997, DV 25P 411 and you should fix your problem,
Click to expand...

ElvisNTSC is right. If you use a different method then that could account for skipping. I thought that you had said that you tried this step, but after rereading your first post it's a little unclear. If you haven't done this, then try ElvisNTSC's suggestion.

Chris
 
Im confused now again, your saying open a new project in 23.997 but doesn't the capture tool import at the fps the timeline is set at? How do I capture footage at 29.997 when my timeline is 23 ? Sorry if im so confused on this.
 
I think that he means when he says 29.97 is referring to the tape that came out of your DVX. Even though it's 24fps video, in order to record on MiniDV it still creates a 29.97 stream by adding 3:2 pulldown.

ElvisNTSC, if that isn't what you mean, sorry. :)

Chris
 
Hehe, so he just said pretty much what I did to get the footage all skippy.

I recorded something to tape using F6 Scene File and then went to import using the 23 timeline setting and thats what caused it to skip. If I use the 29 timeline setting however, it plays just fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top