Thread: poor quality capture

I have a HP1010uk which has a pentium 4R, 2.93 GHz, 1.24 GB Ram (extended from original).

it has windows XP sp2, and I have both windows movie maker and WINDVD creator.

My camera is a sony VCR HC 44 and previous to that HC19. I use a belkin IEEE 1394 firewall cable.

when i play a shop bought dvd movie on the computer the picture quality is fine. when I play the camera through the TV, using the red/yellow/white pinned cable that came with the camera, the picture is fine. HOWEVER, when I play the camera through the computer the picture ( and the subsequent dvd capture) is poor. It has a less sharp colour and the action appears jerky.

I have spent too many £ and hours on this and am tearing my hair out. My old full size camera transferred to video tape was much better quality.

PLEASE does anyone have any suggestions ?

What kind of montor are you using?

Are you using that Firewire connection?

yes, I use the firewall. since posting this I have tried a replacement cable but that makes no difference either.

It is a 17 inch flatscreen. I dont think it is a monitor problem as, if I play a purchased movie dvd in the computer itself, the quality is fine.

Are you capturing and then trying to watch raw footage? Sorry if you seem be be going round in circles but i need to get it straight in my head.

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HOWEVER, when I play the camera through the computer the picture ( and the subsequent dvd capture) is poor. It has a less sharp colour and the action appears jerky.

If you are trying to watch the raw footage it may look crap as your rig will struggle to crunch so much data.

the picture quality is poor as it is viewed through the software whilst being captured. it is the same poor quality when the captured footage is replayed, or burned to a disc and the disc played in the dvd player linked to the TV.

However, the screen on the camcorder itself, which also plays the tape at the same time as it is being transferred to the pc, shows good quality picture.

So, look in the camera monitor it is playing fine, look on the computer monitor, it is poor. there is no change whether you increase the computer monitor view to full screen size, or the small window the softwae offers, it is still poor.

Check the capture settings in the software to see whether you are using .avi, .mpeg or some obscure format and see what the data rate is. It should be 3.6 MB/s for digital video.

sorry for the delay - been away. I cant see the detail you refer to in the software - i have tried windvd 2.5 and windows movie maker and they are both the same poor quality. both are set to the highest quality settings as default. the picture is blurred on the edges and blocky in quick movement.

as previously mentioned, the picture is fine if the camera is played directly to tv and the pc plays dvds fine. I have tried different fire wires but no change. it all seems to point to the conversion of the tape to a format the pc can read, which i assume is down to either rthe software ( but that seems ok) . I am completely lost and frustrated.

How old is that model of Sony camcorder? Did you receive any capture software with it, if you did maybe you have to use it to do your capturing instead of the other softwware you mention. When did you last defragment your hard disk, if it's been a while you should do it soon. And finally are you running any other software such as screensavers, antivirus software or any background utilities, if you are then disable them for the capture period and see if that makes a difference.