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Firewire Question
I have footage on mini DV that I captured into my FCP using my video camera and firewire. I was told that firewire would not lose any quality. Well the picture seems somewhat distorted during fast motion. I exported the video I edited as an uncompressed 10-bit quicktime file and on a TV you can really see the digital distortion during movement.
(Take note that I do not get an option to capture uncompressed when using firewire on my FCP.)
I then digitized the original source tape into an Avid through a DVCam deck with cables at 1:1 uncompressed. I didn’t see any digital distortion.
Does firewire lose picture quality? I would hate to have to rent decks for my FCP but I need the best quality. Was hoping my camera and firewire connection would do the job.
Thanks in advance for any help.
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2 Replies
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I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on:
I don’t think you fully understand how DV works. It is not an uncompressed format whatsover. It is compressed inside the camera at 5:1. So when you bring it into FCP it’s 5:1. If you transcode or capture it into an uncompressed codec, it won’t buy you improved quality whatsover, just a larger file size. With FireWire, you’re just copying over the 1’s and 0’s. Digitizing into an Avid at 1:1 won’t buy you squat.
With DV, what you shot is what you got. Likely, you are confused because you are more than likely not monitoring DV properly in FCP as you work and were confused as to what you saw in the Canvas, which is not reality, your video monitor is. In the Avid, likely you saw the higher quality of the DV because you were monitoring properly there because a pro video monitor was likely hooked up to that system. The uncompressed Avid clip probably looks identical to the DV clip you captured in FCP, you just weren’t monitoring FCP properly and were confused.
Evaluating a rendered QT will just confuse you more if you don’t know how to enable the High Quality flag which is disabled in Apple NTSC DV.
So two gotchas going: you are not grokking exactly how DV works and also you were not monitoring properly in FCP to see quality in it’s true state – on a pro video monitor.
Kevin Monahan
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Ok, if that is the case then why when I export from my FCP to a quicktime file and a DVD that both look bad when I view them on the pro video monitor hooked up to my Avid?
I’ve heard people say that firewire is just copying 1’s and 0’s, but doesn’t the video on the mini DV have to go through a process to be converted to a quicktime file? It’s not quicktime files on the tape.
Not trying to debate you, just trying to figure this out.
If it is a settings issue on FCP, what setting do I have wrong? I went through this many times and don’t see what settings could possibly give me a better image. That goes for import, editing on the timeline, and exporting.
Can’t wait till everything goes tapeless so I don’t have to deal with this problem anymore. 🙂
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