Picture Quality isnt great.

D

Decks1979

Active member
I was using the DVX100A to shoot a wedding last week. I burned some of the footage on to DVD and played it on a 52" plasma. Got to say the footage quality didn’t exactly blow me away. It seemed to be ever so slightly pixilated. I don’t even think pixilated is the correct word, it was more a tiny bit noisy, even though the light was great. I compared it to the picture quality of our second camera which is a Sony Z1 in the same environment, the footage was much cleaner.

I think i may have messed around too much with the settings on the DVX, which setting would cause the video to be small bit noisy/pixilated? It especially occurs on peoples faces. Cheers.
 
How does it look on your computer monitor? What settings did you change? How did you compress the video for DVD? What type of tapes did you use?
 
Thanks. Doent like as bad on FCP but i suppose the screen is a lot smaller. I used IDVD to burn it and used sony tapes. I dont think its anything to do with compression as the Sony z1 footage looks clean and that was compressed the same way on the same DVD. I tweaked and changed all the settings. im thinking maybe i tweaked something too much.Maybe something like V detail or something?
 
You might want to try compressing the DVX footage through Compressor or Mpeg Stream clip. then using DVD studio pro to create the DVD. I have gotten MUCH better results this way. You could try it and see how it looks but if it was done in camera then another option you may want to look into is neatvideo. Cleans up dvx footage VERY well.
 
Was it shot 60i or 24p????? If your light was good then it's just the way your are editing. The DVX just takes amazing video. How does it look playing on the DVX looking at the camera's flipout screen? That should tell you if the footage is good from the beginning steps of editing.
 
it was shot 50i (PAL) i'll try get something up om vimeo but i doubt you will see the problem, its only really noticeable on a big plasma screen which is where the footage is likely to be shown

It can be seen a bit on this footage, although this was graded so it covered it up a bit - http://vimeo.com/6617335
 
remember to check and make sure that the "detail" or "sharpness" setting is turned off or set to zero on the plasma tv. This artificial enhancement will give you "false noise" that isn't realy there in your image.

First time I hooked up may cam to the HDTV and the noise looked bad, when I turned off the tv's sharpening- 99% if it went away.
 
You also have to realize that you're blowing up (stretching) a small picture (480x640) to a larger picture box (the HDTV - 1080x1920). The DVX shoots standard definition, so if you play it on any HDTV it's not going to look as good as it would on a regular, smaller 4x3 TV. You said the other camera was a Z1. Is that Sony's Z1u - the HD camera. If so that's going to make a difference in the footage as well.

I would also echo what somebody else in this post said about shooting progressive with the DVX - 30p or 24p.
 
Focus on what you have to work with here. Next time doesn't exist in this situation!!!

Was it the wedding video you linked to? If so I could see right away it was blocky and soft. You had great captures with the camera but maybe the slow motion you added needs better settings? You probablly are looking for best output to DVD aren't you???? Maybe someone can tell you how to make it look like HD and export with those kind of settings!

I'm sure it can look better because you did a GREAT job with the DVX!
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. Milo its exactly that blocky look im try to avoid. Final output is going to be DVD so any advise on how to do this without getting that blocky look would be much appreciated. i thought about shooting 30p or even better 24pa but you need plenty of light and thats not something were blessed with here in Ireland.
 
i think its ur dvd encoding (mpeg2). I use encore, so its pretty good. I dont know about the program u are using. maybe someone can help in that regard.
 
You might want to use Compressor to compress your video and then use DVD Studio Pro or Toast (if you have) to burn it. iDVD tends to put some really nasty compression during the encoding process. I would avoid iDVD if possible.

edit:
Just saw the video and I saw a lot of the "pixelation/blocks". How are you exporting the video? Are you using the "Export using Quicktime" function? The problem areas are mostly in the beginning where there seems to be a lot of red and orange in the footage. Maybe try to tone them down a bit? I noticed that my DVX tends to pixel up when my reds are too bright.
 
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I think iDVD greatly enhances the flaws because of its crappy encoding but because I could see the pixelation in the video, I think it might be the export that you might have a problem with.

What were the settings that you used to export? Do you have Final Cut Studio or Express? If you have Final Cut Pro, try this. First go to the beginning of your timeline, then go to View -> Video Playback -> "Digital Cinema Desktop Preview - Main". This will basically turn your video to full screen. You can hit Space Bar to play. Watch the video in full screen. If the video is still pixelated around the face, I think it might be that your reds are too hot. Try doing some color correction in Color or use the Three - Way Color Corrector in Final Cut.

If it looks good in full screen, then we need to play with the settings in the export.
 
Thanks for the help Dangitskang. Im using FCP 6, i did digital cinema preview and it seems ok, although hard to kinda tell on a computer screen. Whats the best settings to use when exporting? Does it make a difference if i make the movie "self contained"?
 
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