Stephen Mann
Forum Replies Created
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The difference is NOT subtle, it is remarkable. When I bought my pair of Dell widescreen monitors, my display adapter card had one VGA and one DVI port. Side-by-side comparisons were remarkable. The DVI was noticeably sharper than the VGA side.
I now have a dual-DVI adapter.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
“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.”
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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 -
Codecs are used for encoding video, not rendering. If you are encoding the video then filesize is determined by the bit rate.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
I don’t think that you can specify file size in an AVI file.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Minor nitpick, but WMV (and MPEG) are encoded, not rendered, despite that Sony put them into the “Render As” menu.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
“Actually, the first time I attempted transfer, I had over 1000 dropped frames over the course of a half hour,”
ONE dropped frame is too many. Normally dropped frames happens because your Hard-Disk can’t keep up with the DV data coming from the camera or deck. This many, however, says that something is drastically wrong. Though I’ve never had one, a bad firewire cable could do this, a dying HDD could do it.
If I understand, you shot the tapes on a Canon ZR900 and are now trying to recapture on another DV camera? Since DV is a standard, it shouldn’t matter. Unless…. You shot in the LP mode. The LP mode is not part of the DV standard. It’s a consumer gimmick that different manufacturers handle differently and if you recorded LP on the Canon and are trying to play it back on a Sony, then you are a proverbial test pilot flying outside the envelope.
Let us know if this is the case.
Steve
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
If it’s USB2, you’re probably OK. Firewire cards are relatively cheap, and if you only have one port, you can get a Firewire Hub/repeater to multiply that. I use a Belkin 6-Port FireWire-400 Hub on my Sony laptop and capture two cameras directly to an external Firewire disk drive.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Did I miss something? How do you buy DVDA Pro without Vegas Pro??
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
“Utilizing a Raid configuration rather than a solo drive can make a difference.”
How? Data delivery from the hard disk is unlikely to be the bottleneck here unless it’s an external drive on a USB1 port.
RAID is overkill for most video editing tasks and the predominate performance bottleneck is usually in the processor horsepower or lack of RAM.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Sony Creative Software does not make the cameras, nor the Vaio computers or Televisions or the Sony movies or music CD’s. They are all separate companies owned by the same corporate conglomerate.
I think that the customer service person was not clear in the reply. The only driver issue is with your computer and the hardware driver for your Firewire interface. There is no user-installable software or drivers for the camera.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com