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General discussion

Poor quality video capture from Sony DCR-HC1

Oct 21, 2005 6:04AM PDT

Hi there,

I'm trying to capture some video from my Sony DCR-HC18E. On the viewfinder or directly connected to the TV the quality is great but when captured on my computer it's low resolution and jumpy.

I've used Windows Movie Maker 2 and a small freeware utility called Fx Video Capture. In both cases they're at maximum quality settings, but the resulting video is always the same.

How can I get video captured at top quality?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Adam

P.S. Here are my specs:
Sony DCR-HC18E, Windows XP Home, 2.4 GHz, 480Mb RAM.

Discussion is locked

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Your software, and your machine aren't even close to what
Oct 21, 2005 7:04AM PDT

is needed for HDV. HDV needs something like Sony Vegas, a dual core AMD 64 with good speed, at least 1 gig of memory, and lots of fast harddrive space.

You could try having the camera downsample to SD quality, and, perhaps, your machine will be fast enough for that. It really, really needs more memory, and better software. Freestuff or Windows Movie Maker is really not going to cut it.

On the plus side, you are shooting HDV and will have that available in the future.

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interface
Oct 23, 2005 3:47AM PDT

Are you using USB or firewire(i-Link) interface?
On some models sony specifies that using USB the quality may be worse so its strongly recommended to use firewire.
In addition, check that the driver and the DV codec are installed correctly.
Hope this helps
Sektionschef

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wrong software
Nov 9, 2005 2:16PM PST

you need to use hd software try uplead

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Best Video Software
Jun 4, 2006 4:35AM PDT

Best you can use at home is probably Pinnacle, a little confusing at the outset, but you can get a handle pretty easily.
Also try Nero--VERY EASY to use and great results, but either way get a firewire card for your windows based PC.

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Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum the best
Jun 5, 2006 12:12AM PDT

Try this one: Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum

Has MANY great features and cool effects. ALOT better than Pinnacle, Nero, and others. One thing you will need to do is update your computer to meet its specifications:
2.8GHZ processor(dual core recommended)
1 GB of RAM
PLENTY OF HDD SPACE(very necessary)
7200RPM SATA HDD(recommended for fast data transfer from the HDD to the computer)

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You are probably dropping frames during capture
Nov 9, 2005 11:24PM PST

Adam,

When you capture video via firewire you are probably dropping frames due to your computer not being able to keep up. When you play it back it appears jumpy because it didn't capture every frame. Most video editing/capture software will indicate how many frames you've dropped during the transfer.

Your processor should be sufficient to handle the capture, but you could use more RAM (I would recommend a minimum of 1GB). I would also recommend a fast hard drive. My previous system (Athlon XP 1700+, 1GB RAM, 7200 RPM IDE hard drive) was certainly capable of capturing video via firewire without dropping frames. My current system (Athlon 64 3200+, 2GB RAM, SATA2 RAID 0 hard drives) works excellent.

Finally, make sure you shut down everything besides Windows Movie Maker (i.e. virus protection, etc) when you do your capture. This will help avoid dropping frames.

Good luck!

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enough power
Dec 23, 2005 4:12AM PST

hi, sorry to barge in on someone elses thread, but carrying on from it, i have a sony viao 1.73M 100gb h/d, 512mb ram, nvidia GeForce go 6200 w/turbo cache supp 128MB, will i need to upgrade the memory to 1gb to run the hdr programs/file transfers at a good rate ? and what program would you say is the best to use for video editing ?
thanks
mark

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My P3-600 MHz had the power.
Dec 23, 2005 5:42AM PST

I connected with FIREWIRE and used WINDV. The usual issue in these forums is that many keep trying to use USB.

Bob

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dropping frames
Nov 10, 2005 2:51AM PST

I agree that an upgrade is needed if you are going to be working with video-howerver for now, check and see that the "preview during capture" button is un-checked in movie maker.

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ahh, me too
Dec 26, 2005 7:37AM PST

Hi, I just bought the Sony Handycam DCR-HC32 (mini dv). It's great when I play it back on LCD screen and TV. However, it is horrible when I play it back on VCD. The picture is grainy and even 'jumps' every 6 secs. I think it may be because of using usb instead of Firewire connection. But I don't think my pentium has a firewire capability.

I used the software that came with it.
btw, for my 1 hr video, it took nearly 5 hours to create a vcd (the whole converting process) and the program didn't let me edit it either.

I don't know what to do except change another cam.

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Let me guess.
Dec 26, 2005 12:32PM PST

You used the USB connection and the supplied software?

Ouch.

Bob