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Tape to DVD to Computer
Hi. I’ve been editing a project for a professor for a while now. I just noticed that all of our video footage looks a tad pixilated. This is upsetting to me and I’m kind of mad at myself I didn’t think of the reason before.
He always brings me DVDs of the footage that they tape, which the video guy at the college must burn from the tape. I’m not sure how he gets the footage from the tape onto the DVD or what program he uses to burn it, but this is how I’ve been getting the footage, by extracting it from the DVD. I just thought it was supposed to look a little pixilated because of the camera or something. My question is, is this a valid reason why the image would look pixilated? Because it’s going from tape to DVD to computer?
I won’t be able to compare the real taped footage with the DVD-extracted footage for a few days now. So mad at myself!
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17 Replies
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Answer to your question = Yes
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://philming.com.au
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
DVDs are compressed at a ratio of approximately 25 to 1, so if your video looks like it has a &$@/ load of compression artifacts, that’s because it does.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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[zeke meginsky] “by extracting it from the DVD.”
We don’t really know whether the pixilation is on the original tape, or from the m2v compression on the DVD source.
So where/how are you extracting the media, and viewing this pixilation, in FCP on computer, external monitor? (or on DVD where you yourself may have created those compression artifacts)
Download MPEG Streamclip and extract the original DVD media to ProRes codec, re-edit in FCP.
What is your final destination media?Cheers
Alexander -
The pixillation and weirdness are visible when looking at the footage on the computer and even more visible once it gets burned onto DVD (though I don’t know if that’s just because it’s on a big screen and more noticeable).
The project will eventually be a DVD.
I get the footage from the DVDs he gives me, using MPEG Streamclip. I use the DV setting and select de-interlace video. I looked up that there’s better quality ways to extract the DVD footage than that, but I’m still thinking it looks so bad because it was put onto a DVD in the first place. Could I be wrong?
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I read that some people swear by MPEG Streamclip and exporting using the DV setting. So that can’t be the problem, right? A person at the local television station told me to do it this way..
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You are ripping DVD footage, you are starting @ the bottom of the food/quality chain already.
Rip the DVD’s to DV50 files for starters. You’ll be working in a better color space. Anything above that is wasted coming from a DVD.
DV is the worst.
Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
[zeke meginsky] ” I use the DV setting and select de-interlace video.”
Ah, why are you de-interlacing? This will definitely downgrade your resolution,
Cheers
Alexander -
Someone told me to de-interlace. Then I asked about it and they said it would never change the quality of the footage. Why shouldn’t it be de-interlaced?
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Take your awesome Monet painting, start it on fire, attempt to put out with a rake. Then drive over it a couple times. That is what dumping video to DVD does to the quality of the original. If the original is bad, it makes it logarithmically worse. If its awesome looking footage, it makes it worse. Using DVD’s for a source is the last resort. That being said, don’t ever de-interlace unless you have to. Sounds like you have some work ahead of you if you want to make this right, as long as you have the time.
+1 on the DV50 file idea.
Matt
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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[zeke meginsky] “Someone told me to de-interlace. Then I asked about it and they said it would never change the quality of the footage. Why shouldn’t it be de-interlaced?”
Deinterlacing cuts the resolution of your video by 50%, so whoever the mysterious someone was who told you it would never change the quality of the footage is obviously blind or mistaken or both.
And BTW, for the record, if you are exporting for the Web at 50% or less of the size (i.e. pixel dimension) of the original video you need not deinterlace, as that essentially squeezes the scan lines into half the space, thus eliminating them.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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