Not about to sell the HPX, love the footage!

D

Damodt

Active member
Maybe its the 'puter, but no matter what settings the camera is on, when the video is done in FCP we export it either through quicktime, or compressor, and its such a grainy/noisy image.

I cant stand it. My daughters little Canon Vixva HD takes better cleaner images. :huh:

The colors are so overly saturated, highs and lows are extreme. But even when we get good bright footage, and play it on our big screen tv through the component out it looks nice. Then we export it, it looks like a dog breakfast!!??:zombie_smiley:
 
Really?

I can't attest for taste, but one thing it's for sure, both the HPX and HVX have been used for large screen projects (large as in theater size large) with very good results.

So, if I was you I would go back to that book that came if your camera and start reading from page 1.

Just a friendly advice :)
 
You just have to dial in your camera more. There's nothing wrong with the camera itself. You can't expect any camera to magically produce good footage, you have to work for it! Don't sell it, just keep shooting more and more and experiment with different scene files.
 
Thanks DM, like I said, looks fairly good right from the camera plugged into the TV but after it goes through the computer, it looks like crap.?
 
Damodt said:
Thanks DM, like I said, looks fairly good right from the camera plugged into the TV but after it goes through the computer, it looks like crap.?
Click to expand...

"but after it goes through the computer"

Odds are it's your NLE (or lack of experience with it) . . . not trying to be a wise-a** -- just that the other 99% of us have been achieving stellar results with pretty much all the available NLE's.

I'm not overly familiar with the APPLE/MAC side of the equation but I'd almost bet your issues are rooted (somewhere) in the transfer.

Best.
 
Damodt said:
Thanks DM, like I said, looks fairly good right from the camera plugged into the TV but after it goes through the computer, it looks like crap.?
Click to expand...

I agree, you should sell your computer instead of the camera, (A Tip) find someone near to you has the same edit platform and pay them to set it up for you, clearly it's a operator problem not the hardware uyour using.
Your probably not starting out with an "Easy Set-up" project preset, try reading the books is great advice too....

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
 
Has to be, but in our small town I have nowhere to go for help. I spent some time (and $) in a short class in SLC and we do as shown and we just get nasty results.

I've seen such amazing video on this site, so maybe thats why I'm so down on this thing.

I've tried different scene files and modes and they all end up the same.

Funny thing is... my friend who shoots with the EX1 sent me some of his footage shooting on the same project, and his looks nice.:huh:
 
sounds to me like its neither the camera nor the NLE. i use an hpx170 and FCP and have zero problems...
 
Do you have a production monitor? I'd recommend taking your camera to a controlled studio space, having Barry's book open with the description of each setting and what it does, and tweaking the camera. It might take some time, but finding the sweet spot on a camera often does. Panasonic makes some great cameras with great controls, but it does require some patience to find what you are looking for, IMHO.
 
Damodt said:
Maybe its the 'puter, but no matter what settings the camera is on, when the video is done in FCP we export it either through quicktime, or compressor, and its such a grainy/noisy image.
Click to expand...

What format are you viewing this final image? Is it a quicktime file that you are viewing on the computer or have you exported to DVD and are viewing on a TV?

There certainly can be some degradation from less than ideal compression to DVD.
 
Bottom line -- if it looks great when you play it from the camera, then the problem is something you're doing in post.

Are you adding sharpening? Are you brightening the image?
 
If you've got a cheap, uncalibrated computer monitor, or even graphic cards software that tweaks video playback, it might also explain the problem. Some computer monitors are better than others for colors and videos because of their internal components' quality (some even have video chips that help reduce grain in videos like TVs). And many graphics cards installation CDs install softwares along with drivers that allow you to change the sharpness, colors, gammas, etc. while playing video you watch on your computer. I had a PC with an nVidia Geforce 7600GS with video playback software installed, it used to hideously cripple videos on players like VLC or Windows Media Player until I turned it off.

Installing the most recent monitor and graphic card drivers, turning off the graphic cards' video playback options and finding a calibrated ICC profile on the internet for your monitor could help improve overall image quality.
 
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True.

But we are using a fairly new 20" iMac. (MacPro is next!)

In the timeline set to full screen, it looks ok, then after it goes through the quicktime, with the 'current settings' it looks terrible.

I know we loose quality when going to DVD, but I'm not even getting to that point yet before I fell like chucking this camera into the wall.
 
Damodt said:
True.

But we are using a fairly new 20" iMac. (MacPro is next!)

In the timeline set to full screen, it looks ok, then after it goes through the quicktime, with the 'current settings' it looks terrible.

I know we loose quality when going to DVD, but I'm not even getting to that point yet before I fell like chucking this camera into the wall.
Click to expand...


How about you chuck it to the marketplace instead?:thumbup:
 
Damodt said:
True.

But we are using a fairly new 20" iMac. (MacPro is next!)

In the timeline set to full screen, it looks ok, then after it goes through the quicktime, with the 'current settings' it looks terrible.

I know we loose quality when going to DVD, but I'm not even getting to that point yet before I fell like chucking this camera into the wall.
Click to expand...

If it looks bad only after the rendering, it's not the camera.

What exact steps are you taking on the timeline (FX, anything), and what exact steps are you taking to export?
 
Im having near the same problem as of late.. Let me explain:

HVX 200 on FCS always had great results... now it seems every time I export to QT of run off to one of the decks, All my color information is being stripped from the footage. Everything looks washed out and grainy.

I thought it was just the DVCPRO codec, now I see it is with HDV footage, AVCHD footage. I pretty sure the problem is the new QT update.

Im working on it today and hope to have a definitive answer.

Nava
 
I'm betting conversion is not being handled properly as I've had the same problem in the past until using compressor and adjusting to a higher bit rate.
 
When you indicate that the footage "goes through Quicktime" or "goes through the computer" WITHOUT DETAILING WHAT IS OCCURRING, you make it impossible to help.

We've used the HVX200 and now 170 over three years to produce dozens of replicated DVDs for various clients.

But "going through" is as a vague as it gets.
 
Do you have Final Cut Studio (Pro) or FC Express? If you have "Studio" you should be using Compressor for exporting finished movies. In my experience it gets much cleaner results than direct to QT exporting. Also, a calibrated monitor is essential for best results in either case.
 
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