Problems capturing HDV in Vegas...worse than SD quality at DVinfo.net

Paul Spark · November 10th, 2010, 03:49 PM

I can't seem to get Vegas to capture from my camera properly. I have a bunch of 1080i footage shot by my HVR-A1U, yet when bringing it into Vegas it's very blurry/pixelated, and arguably worse then SD footage.

I'm 99% sure the camera captured in 1080, as every setting I could find has it showing 1080, HD tape, camera itself won't even play back the footage when in SD mode and Vegas won't recgonize it in SD mode either.

Just going to File-->Capture Video--> selecting HDV and importing is what I have been doing, the project properties are for 1080I and I render to a 8MPBS 1080i .wmv as well. It's pretty bad quality pre and post render.

What am I missing here?

Paul Spark · November 10th, 2010, 04:24 PM

Hmm, some more interesting things.

I captured some stuff with HDVclip, and it looked great. Thinking I had found the solution I captured some other clips, and noticed the change in quality based on setting.

Anything we shot in front of the green screen looks great, anything we shot on the convention floor looks awful. I obviously didn't change the HD setting at all between the shots.

Gene Gajewski · November 11th, 2010, 01:55 AM

Something is wrong as at very basic level.

There should be no difference at all when performing an HDV capture regardless of the program used. HDV data is transferred digitally over firewire - there are no analog stages that can distort the video.

I'm not sure how you are getting pixelization in your capture. Usually, the worst you can expect in a digital capture is dropped frames, but pixellization is something altogether different. It is not possible as the capturing program simply stores the digital data as received from the camera without modification.

I have an HDR-HC1, a little brother to the A1U. I've never had a problem capturing from it to Vegas, but I always check that the autoconvert feature is turned off. The autoconvert feature will convert HD video to SD.

Jeff Harper · November 11th, 2010, 06:53 AM

Forget Vegas for a moment. How do the clips look/playback on the camera? How do the raw clips play back...are they fine to begin with.? If you're using Windows 7 the m2t files should play back in WMP. If they play back fine, then the problem is your settings in Vegas. If they don't then the issue is your footage. You need to figure what is happening and clear things up a bit. This is where you need to start, by figuring the source of the issue.

Jim Snow · November 11th, 2010, 10:21 AM

There is a lot of useful information in this thread. http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-hap...d-quality.html Pay particular attention to the comments about Lanczos resizing with VirtualDub. The quality difference is huge when resizing HD to SD.

Gerald Webb · November 11th, 2010, 02:04 PM

I agree with Jim, my workflow now always includes Virtualdub for resizing to DVD, the difference is indeed huge.
When played back on a 50" plasma, the DVD will look, to most average people, to be in HD.
Before using this workflow, the DVD looked washed out and very ordinary when upscaled.

November 10th, 2010, 03:49 PM	#1
Paul Spark Tourist Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: LA Posts: 2	Problems capturing HDV in Vegas...worse than SD quality I can't seem to get Vegas to capture from my camera properly. I have a bunch of 1080i footage shot by my HVR-A1U, yet when bringing it into Vegas it's very blurry/pixelated, and arguably worse then SD footage. I'm 99% sure the camera captured in 1080, as every setting I could find has it showing 1080, HD tape, camera itself won't even play back the footage when in SD mode and Vegas won't recgonize it in SD mode either. Just going to File-->Capture Video--> selecting HDV and importing is what I have been doing, the project properties are for 1080I and I render to a 8MPBS 1080i .wmv as well. It's pretty bad quality pre and post render. What am I missing here?

November 11th, 2010, 06:53 AM	#4
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Forget Vegas for a moment. How do the clips look/playback on the camera? How do the raw clips play back...are they fine to begin with.? If you're using Windows 7 the m2t files should play back in WMP. If they play back fine, then the problem is your settings in Vegas. If they don't then the issue is your footage. You need to figure what is happening and clear things up a bit. This is where you need to start, by figuring the source of the issue. __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

November 11th, 2010, 02:04 PM	#6
Gerald Webb Trustee Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Central Coast Australia Posts: 1,046	I agree with Jim, my workflow now always includes Virtualdub for resizing to DVD, the difference is indeed huge. When played back on a 50" plasma, the DVD will look, to most average people, to be in HD. Before using this workflow, the DVD looked washed out and very ordinary when upscaled. __________________ http://vimeo.com/livewebvideo

November 10th, 2010, 04:24 PM	#2
Paul Spark Tourist Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: LA Posts: 2	Hmm, some more interesting things. I captured some stuff with HDVclip, and it looked great. Thinking I had found the solution I captured some other clips, and noticed the change in quality based on setting. Anything we shot in front of the green screen looks great, anything we shot on the convention floor looks awful. I obviously didn't change the HD setting at all between the shots.

November 11th, 2010, 01:55 AM	#3
Gene Gajewski Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Edgewood, NM Posts: 162	Something is wrong as at very basic level. There should be no difference at all when performing an HDV capture regardless of the program used. HDV data is transferred digitally over firewire - there are no analog stages that can distort the video. I'm not sure how you are getting pixelization in your capture. Usually, the worst you can expect in a digital capture is dropped frames, but pixellization is something altogether different. It is not possible as the capturing program simply stores the digital data as received from the camera without modification. I have an HDR-HC1, a little brother to the A1U. I've never had a problem capturing from it to Vegas, but I always check that the autoconvert feature is turned off. The autoconvert feature will convert HD video to SD.

November 11th, 2010, 10:21 AM	#5
Jim Snow Trustee Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Santa Clara, CA Posts: 1,104	There is a lot of useful information in this thread. http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-hap...d-quality.html Pay particular attention to the comments about Lanczos resizing with VirtualDub. The quality difference is huge when resizing HD to SD.