Picture Quality difference: direct-from-camera vs captured-on-FCP-iMac at DVinfo.net

Adiwinata Liem · February 26th, 2009, 08:57 AM

Hi all,

I'm a newbie here and a rookie in videography. Still have lots to catch up, actually.

Well, I'm confused about something. I'm shooting with Sony FX-1 DV Pal Anamorphic setting. I capture the footage using Final Cut Pro on iMac via the built-in firewire.

Then I connect my FX-1 to my friend's 40" plasma TV to one of the AV port and my iMac to another. This is just to compare the picture quality. It seems that the picture from my iMac (Final Cut Pro) is more blurry than the one directly from FX-1.

Is this to be expected? Is this normal? Is there a way for me to improve the quality of my final render (I plan to make it into a DVD).

Thanks all for helping and replying.

Edward Carlson · February 26th, 2009, 10:14 AM

How are you connecting the camera and iMac? Composite video? If so, the quality loss is to be expected. Computer graphic cards aren't optimized for TVs. Try outputting the video from the iMac to the camera over firewire, then from the camera into the TV. The quality will likely be better.

Mike Barber · February 26th, 2009, 01:27 PM

Courtesy of Shane Ross's Little Frog in High Def: SHANE'S STOCK ANSWERS-THE COMPLETE LIST

Quote:

Shane's Stock Answer #2: Blurry playback

ONLY JUDGE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MATERIAL ON AN EXTERNAL BROADCAST MONITOR, OR AT LEAST A TV.

The Canvas shows you what happens after the codec you are working with has been applied. The Viewer shows you the material in its native format.

1. Disable overlays on the Canvas.

2. Make sure you've rendered everything (no green bars at the top of the timeline).

Video playback requires large amounts of data and many computations. In order to maintain frame rate and be viewable at a normal size, only about one-fourth of the DV data is used in displaying the movie to the screen. However, the DV footage is still at full quality, and is best viewed thru a TV or broadcast monitor routed thru your camera or deck.

This issue comes up very often and what Shane says is true not just for judging the quality, but is even truer for judging colour. The only way to judge colour acuratly is through a calibrated broadcast monitor, a calibrated LCD computer monitor via the MXO or a calibrated LCD TV via the MXO2.

Adiwinata Liem · February 27th, 2009, 04:37 PM

Edward:
I'm connecting my iMac through firewire 400 and my camera FX-1 with the composite video cable.

Mike:
I did make sure everything is rendered and I'm not viewing this through the Canvas, but through external 40" plasma TV. I understand there will be problem with color accuracy, but that's not my goal here (at least not yet). I'm more concern about the sharpness of the video.

The other thing I try also, is to create DVD out of my footage (I used Compressor with the best DVD setting available there). And when I compare the DVD (played on a Samsung DVD player) and the one directly from my FX-1 (through composit video), I got the same result: the DVD quality is more blurry than my FX-1.

I'm more confused than ever. Thanks to Edward and Mike for helping.

William Hohauser · February 28th, 2009, 10:46 PM

You are not comparing the same signals if I interpret the monitor hook-up correctly.

Record the edited footage back to the FX-1 on tape and play the tape on the monitor. That should look exactly the same as the original footage. If it doesn't, you might have FCP set up incorrectly. Is there a bright green line over the video on the timeline? Make sure the sequence is DV-PAL anamorphic.

John C. Plunkett · March 2nd, 2009, 01:48 PM

Does the AV port on an iMac have interlaced output or is it displaying the deinterlaced video from the canvas?

February 26th, 2009, 08:57 AM	#1
Adiwinata Liem Tourist Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Makassar, Indonesia Posts: 4	Picture Quality difference: direct-from-camera vs captured-on-FCP-iMac Hi all, I'm a newbie here and a rookie in videography. Still have lots to catch up, actually. Well, I'm confused about something. I'm shooting with Sony FX-1 DV Pal Anamorphic setting. I capture the footage using Final Cut Pro on iMac via the built-in firewire. Then I connect my FX-1 to my friend's 40" plasma TV to one of the AV port and my iMac to another. This is just to compare the picture quality. It seems that the picture from my iMac (Final Cut Pro) is more blurry than the one directly from FX-1. Is this to be expected? Is this normal? Is there a way for me to improve the quality of my final render (I plan to make it into a DVD). Thanks all for helping and replying. __________________ magnOpus Productions by Pose Portraiture - www.poseportraiture.com

February 27th, 2009, 04:37 PM	#4
Adiwinata Liem Tourist Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Makassar, Indonesia Posts: 4	Edward: I'm connecting my iMac through firewire 400 and my camera FX-1 with the composite video cable. Mike: I did make sure everything is rendered and I'm not viewing this through the Canvas, but through external 40" plasma TV. I understand there will be problem with color accuracy, but that's not my goal here (at least not yet). I'm more concern about the sharpness of the video. The other thing I try also, is to create DVD out of my footage (I used Compressor with the best DVD setting available there). And when I compare the DVD (played on a Samsung DVD player) and the one directly from my FX-1 (through composit video), I got the same result: the DVD quality is more blurry than my FX-1. I'm more confused than ever. Thanks to Edward and Mike for helping. __________________ magnOpus Productions by Pose Portraiture - www.poseportraiture.com

February 28th, 2009, 10:46 PM	#5
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	You are not comparing the same signals if I interpret the monitor hook-up correctly. Record the edited footage back to the FX-1 on tape and play the tape on the monitor. That should look exactly the same as the original footage. If it doesn't, you might have FCP set up incorrectly. Is there a bright green line over the video on the timeline? Make sure the sequence is DV-PAL anamorphic. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

February 26th, 2009, 10:14 AM	#2
Edward Carlson Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: North Hollywood, CA, United States Posts: 807	How are you connecting the camera and iMac? Composite video? If so, the quality loss is to be expected. Computer graphic cards aren't optimized for TVs. Try outputting the video from the iMac to the camera over firewire, then from the camera into the TV. The quality will likely be better.

March 2nd, 2009, 01:48 PM	#6
John C. Plunkett Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jacksonville, Illinois Posts: 130	Does the AV port on an iMac have interlaced output or is it displaying the deinterlaced video from the canvas?