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Damaged DV footage
I have a project where miniDV footage was shot on some bad tapes. Editing has been done, cutting around the obvious bits of digital noise, and it looks pretty good in Final Cut. But now, burning onto dvd, the re-compression to mpeg2 appears to bring out distortion that wasn’t apparent before in the worse-off sections of tape.
Any suggestions? What if we look at putting the project on tape, in some format that wouldn’t add additional compression of the source? If we put it on MiniDV, might we benefit from having it be the same kind of compression it had in the first place?
Thanks much!
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5 Replies
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I doubt you’ll improve things, but it might be worth a try. It would be much the same exporting a self contained movie then compressing that would be my guess.
If you monitor your video externally on a video monitor during the edit, you might see more of the artifact you don’t want to see and edit around it. The canvas is sort of a proxy of what quality you really have, and shouldn’t be relied on.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
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I don’t know if you tried this, but recapture the tapes from the camera it was aquired on.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Director-At-Large
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Unforutnately, the original camera is unavailable at this point. From the kind of damage there was, I don’t believe that would make a tremendous difference – then again, we’re talking about a much more subtle level of damage anyway…
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[Steve Eisen] “I don’t know if you tried this, but recapture the tapes from the camera it was aquired on.”
This is an excellent suggestion. I once had 2 pd 100’s that wouldn’t play each other’s tapes but if I captured from the original cameras the footage was fine. Mini DV is 10mn track pitch on 1/4″ tape, these are fine tolerances from which manufacturers have been able to give us great results. These issues are even worse with HDV especially from brand to brand.
If the camera is unavailable I would defiately try dubbing from mini dv to another mini dv. Most of these cameras and decks have tbc’s built in and it could make the difference. At this point try everything you can.
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If you’ve got any budget to fix this, you could also try recapturing from a high-end sony DV deck like a DSR 1800 or DSR 2000 these decks have tracking and error control hardware that can save bad recordings, so I’ve heard (sometimes).
LMN
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