Help – Capture Quality Troubleshooting Vegas Pro 8.0

[John Rofrano]

If you are capturing via firewire, DV capture is just a file copy. Bit-for-bit it is exactly what was on your camera. Is your LCD calibrated correctly? Have you set the Vegas preview window to Best (Full) when evaluating quality? Vegas has an extremely good DV codec so you should not be seeing any difference in quality because of something Vegas has done (at least I have never experienced this).

How to the files look outside of Vegas on your PC? How about if you drop one into DVD Architect and burn a DVD directly from the AVI file? Does that look bad on your TV? I doubt the problem is with capture but you could always try a different capture program like Scenalizer and see if it makes any difference.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[David Maynard]

“If you are capturing via firewire, DV capture is just a file copy. Bit-for-bit it is exactly what was on your camera.”

This is what I would expect.

“Is your LCD calibrated correctly?”

I have no idea, so probably not, I worked on CRTs before and haven’t a clue how to calibrate a monitor of any kind.

“Have you set the Vegas preview window to Best (Full) when evaluating quality?”

Yes

“Vegas has an extremely good DV codec so you should not be seeing any difference in quality because of something Vegas has done (at least I have never experienced this).”

Again, this is what I would expect

“How to the files look outside of Vegas on your PC?”

The same, not so good. I’ve tried several render types and viewed on several computers

“How about if you drop one into DVD Architect and burn a DVD directly from the AVI file? Does that look bad on your TV?”

I don’t own a TV and the videos are intended for the web

———————————-

I came across something that may very well be related since I posted.

In Sony Video Capture 6.0 (ow I’m capturing) under the “Video” tab, it shows “Camtasia Studio Capture Driver” and “Camtasia Studio Capture Driver Properties”.

Would this mean that Vegas is using Camtasia somehow in the process?

I do have Camtasia installed on this machine, but haven’t a clue why Camtasia would show up in Vegas, I certainly didn’t set it that way, and don’t know how I would change that.

[David Maynard]

Seems Camtasia has hijacked me. In Video Capture Screen, under Options-Preferences-Disk Manager it says “current selected – camtasia blah blah blah”.

I can’t find a way to get rid of this or go to the Vegas factory default.

[Steve Rhoden]

Just uninstall Camtasia thoroughly and see.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Creative Arts Director and Film Maker.
Portfolio at:
http://www.youtube.com/hentys

[John Rofrano]

LCD’s usually have several color temperature settings that they can use and they have settings for movies and internet and other things so it’s quite possible that the LCD is affecting how you see things. It’s just something to be aware of. Some graphics cards come with calibration software that simply use your eyes to determine levels. At a minimum I would look to see if your graphics card has one and use it just to be sure.

I’m not sure why you said you rendered several different types. You should not be rendering at all. Aren’t we talking about the DV AVI file from your camera? Isn’t that what looks bad?

As for Camtasia, it has a video capture component and Vegas is just saying that it can see it. If you had a web cam, that would be listed too. If you’re not seeing your DV device then it must not be plugged in properly. Vegas is just enumerating all of the capture devices it finds.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[David Maynard]

I’ve been playing around with the LCD settings and it looks somewhat better. Considerably darker than the on camera screen though.

Quite possibly it looks bad on other systems because I was overcorrecting, if my LCD is actually that far off.

As for renders, I was just trying anything to see if I could narrow down where the issue lies.

Thanks for the note on Camtasia, I’ve confirmed that that doesn’t seem to be the trouble.

I guess I need to brush up on trying to get an accurate picture from my monitor.

Is the LCD on my monitor and on my camera so very different that I may never get the two to match? (or even close?) the cam lcd is set to a medium brightness. I suppose a direct analog output from the camera to a tv could be revealing.

[John Rofrano]

Having the LCD calibrated makes a big difference. You can get a hardware LCD calibrator for as little as $69. The ones in the $100 range are even better. I use a Spyder3Elite ($220) but I probably could have gotten away with a Spyder3Pro ($149).

The small LCD on a camera will usually look better and brighter. It is important to calibrate that little LCD as well. If the camera can generate color bars I would use that. If not, you can use Vegas to generate color bars and print them to tape. Then play the tape in your camera and adjust the brightness of the LCD. You want to use the three bars in the lower right (called the pluge) to set the brightness (which is probably the only thing you can change on a camcorder LCD). When the brightness is all the way up you should see three distinct bars, the left one will be 3.5 IRE, the one to the right next to it will be 7.5 IRE, and the one on the right will be 11.5 IRE which looks more like a lighter gray.

Adjust the brightness control until the middle (7.5) pluge bar is not quite visible (i.e., the two left bars are indistinguishable from each other). The lightest bar on the right (11.5) should be barely visible. If it’s not visible, turn the brightness up until it becomes visible. This will at least set the brightness of the camcorder LCD to the proper level.

You are correct that connecting the camera directly to a TV and comparing that with the LCD is another good way to judge the footage.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Stephen Mann]

“I’ve been playing around with the LCD settings and it looks somewhat better. Considerably darker than the on camera screen though.

…..

Is the LCD on my monitor and on my camera so very different that I may never get the two to match? (or even close?) the cam lcd is set to a medium brightness. I suppose a direct analog output from the camera to a tv could be revealing.”

————————————-

You absolutely cannot depend on the camera LCD for exposure and color evaluation. If you don’t have a calibrated CRT then you have to trust your scopes.

No consumer LCD can be calibrated to NTSC accuracy for several reasons. The gamut is very different. The LCD color depends on the color of the backlight – and it’s not white. Black is impossible on an LCD panel with a fluorescent backlight. Contrast is dependent on viewing angle. Studio LCDs (prices start at $4000) have an LED backlight (One each RGB for each pixel), so white is possible and black can be achieved by turning off the backlight LEDs for the black LCD pixels.

LCD HD televisions are much worse. They come screwed up from the factory.

You can calibrate your desktop LCD with an external device like the Spyder, but that doesn’t “calibrate” the LCD, it sets it to match the color profile of your printer for still photographers. But it’s better than nothing for video monitoring.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com