GL2 capture to PC

Newbie to the group asks;
Why does my GL2 video footage look great on TV, but when I attempt to capture the footage to my PC via firewire and Adobe Premiere, it looks either pixelated on elements on a diagonal line or shows offsetted lines (almost a poor fileds interpolation) in thin elements, such as tree limbs.

I've captured DV from other camera manufacturers before and have had no problems like this.

And I gotta say, Canon's suppport (or lack thereof) for transfering video to PC pretty much sucks. (NO DRIVERS!?!)

I'm capturing in Premiere using a DV capture format, in DV playback with lower fields (also tried upper fields and no fields. All with same results)

And before I go any further, my firewire card is OHCI compliant with current drivers.

Shot video on Sony DV tape in SP mode.

Maybe I'm doing something stupid, but have not found a way to get "clean" footage from my GL2 into a PC.

Any ideas?
recommend another program for capture?
Am I shooting in a mode that does not lend itself to fields?

signed
meseanny

[Rob Lohman]

Canon has no drivers since it does not need to. The Canon
cameras are fully firewire and DV compliant and any firewire
compliant card with a DV/firewire compliant NLE should be able
to use it.

Now on to your real question. Keep in mind that if you are looking
in the preview window of Premiere you are not seeing
the full resolution and quality of your images. It just a "rough"
image that will allow you to cut the movie.

What I think the problem is you are having is interlacing. Do you
know anything about this? Did you have your camera in frame
or normal mode? There are some links below about interlacing:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...ght=interlaced
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...ght=interlaced

You can de-interlaced interlaced pictures on a number of ways.
Keep in mind that DV is bottom/lower field first and that
you must import the footage in AE the same way!! Otherwise
you will get field reversal. Be very careful when exporting from
Premiere/AE about this as well!!

Rob,

You are correct in that my problem is with interlacing. I was shooting in NORMAL mode, so I should be seeing fields, right off.

However, when I capture the video using DV (Lower fields) in Premiere, and then render the file as DV, the final product looks identical whether I turn on DEINTERLACE ALWAYS or simply use NONE in Premiere prior to saving.

Also odd is that in After Effects, these two clips, though processed differently, look IDENTICAL, AND both clips look "cleaner" when I turn fields OFF.

Either Premier doesn't do a very good job Deinterlacing the footage, or I'm not De-interlacing in Premiere correctly.

So any video shot for PC or digital display needs to be shot in FRAME mode to gaurantee a "Field-Free" picture?

Seems like an issue, whether it's a Canon or Premiere problem.
(again, user error may be involved, but I've never seen this with any other camera.)

Can you recommend any other program for capturing and deinterlacing DV footage?

[Rob Lohman]

Glad you identified your problem, that always helps you in resolving
it.

I'll try to answer your questions, but since I myself avoid the
hassle of interlaced I haven't got too many experience with it.

However, when I capture the video using DV (Lower fields) in Premiere, and then render the file as DV, the final product looks identical whether I turn on DEINTERLACE ALWAYS or simply use NONE in Premiere prior to saving.

When you import the footage and have it on the timeline, try
right-clicking it there and selecting:
Video Options -> Field Options -> Always Deinterlace

Also under Video effects (Effects -> Video tab -> Video) there
are two filters (Field Interpolate and Reduce Interlace Flicker)
that you might want to try out.

I don't think Premiere has very good de-interlacing software.
But you can do some tricks manually in Premiere and After Effects
that will probably make some very de-interlacing. There is a lot
of information to be found about that on this thread here
and on another site here

So any video shot for PC or digital display needs to be shot in FRAME mode to gaurantee a "Field-Free" picture?

Basically, yes. Unless you find a good way to de-interlace later.
But it all depends on where you want to output to if this is a bad
thing or not. Outputting to:

1. web only -> doesn't matter because you will lower the resolution
and it will removed one of the fields then

2. dvd -> you can use interlaced because all TV's support it. But
if you want people to also watch it nicely on their computers
(you can wath DVD on those too) and on more high-end equipment
you might consider going frame mode/progressive here as well

3. tv/broadcast -> interlaced is the way to go

Seems like an issue, whether it's a Canon or Premiere problem.

It is not. It has nothing todo with the cameras. It has to do with
our television systems and standards that have evolved over
the years! We are still bound to old standards here.

Can you recommend any other program for capturing and deinterlacing DV footage?

Only the links above because I have not done much de-interlacing
myself... Sorry.

Hope this will help you some

Rob,

Thanks for your help. You confirmed my approach to de-interlacing video in Premiere. And as you say, and as I feared, Premiere doesn't do a great job de-interlacing video.

As for the "issue", I was simply referring to the transformation of interlaced video into non-interlaced. In otherwords, it's not a great system that curretly exists within Premiere. The necessity for fields/progressive scan is an understandable requirement.

I did manage to find a plugin for After Effects that does a pretty good job de-interlacing fileds (it also comes with a re-interlacer, pulldown, etc.). It's called REELSMART FIELDKIT. It comes in After Effects, Premiere, and a few other DV edit software formats.

It does a pretty good job without the obvious softening that happens with Premiere. (not quite as evident, anyway.)

So If anyone has this problem, I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks again for all your recommendations.

Sean

[Rob Lohman]

Do you have a link to this product?

[Ken Tanaka]

I think this is it, from the same folks that bring us ReelSmart Twixtor.

Fellas,

For Demo versions,

go here (visionfx's wesite)

http://www.revisionfx.com/rsfk.htm

Go to DOWNLOADS on the tool bar

and you can download the After Effects DEMO versions.
(MAC/PC)

Sean