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Capturing Video
Golfister246 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2010 11:43 Messages: 28 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 11:34
I've just bought a Panasonic HS900 digital video camera and are very pleased with the picture quality of the original film. However I've just tried to edit the first section of film in PD10, via the Panasonic writer supplied with the camera to upload the video, and the picture quality is degraded terribly eg., in some scenes railings, roofs and timber decking pictures are all wavery.

Is there no way video can be captured directly into PD10, as I used to do with my previous digital camcorder, or does anyone have any advice or experience of this problem please? I've tried checking all the settings on all software/devices and haven't done anything wrong that I can see.

I don't think it's PD 10 as I've used it for a while and never had this degradation of picture quality before. Just not sure why I can't capture directly from my new camera - the option to capture directly from camcorder is greyed out if I hit the"capture" option.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
stevek
Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 11:43
Film ? What film?

The HS 900 is a hard disk camera; don't capture. Connect it via a good USB port and COPY the disc to your computer.

Make sure you read the manual to make sure that the disc doesn't need to be finalized before copying it to your computer.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jul 14. 2012 11:46

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Golfister246 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2010 11:43 Messages: 28 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 11:48
Ah yes, I've used a USB cable and I did indeed use a Firewire from my other camera. Thanks for your speedy reply. I'm gonna give that a try.
stevek
Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 11:54
Oops, I edited my post. That is a hard disk camcorder as I corrected myself- The "film" confused me.

Use the USB port and copy, not capture. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.
Golfister246 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2010 11:43 Messages: 28 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 11:57
OK sorry I got my terminology wrong, I know it's not film and it's stored on disk. The writer software supplied with the camera does indeed COPY the video from the camera to the PC and that's what I've done. It's just that the quality is rubbish when I've done it and I was wondering if there was a way around having to use the supplied writer to import the video into PD10.

I thought there was a reply suggesting the use of a firewire cable just now but that seems to have gone? I've used the cable supplied with the camera but perhaps that's not of sufficient quality?

Do you mean the disk on the camera might need to be finalised before uploading? Don't think it says anything about that in the manual?
stevek
Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 12:15
Yes, I changed the part about the firewire because the "film" threw me off. I thought originally that it was a DV (cassette) camcorder.

If you have copied to video to your computer, what are the properties - resolution and format? From what I read, it is AVCHD format at 1080/60 frames per second.

Have you added that to the timeline in Power Director? Are you saying the preview is not good quality? That is probably correct because it is a preview. If you select the correct output it will be high definition. Get a coupel of RW discs to play with.

Are you trying to make a AVCHD or blu-ray disc (720 or 1080)? If not, then your output will be standard definition (480). Those are the only choices if you are going to burn to a DVD.

What type of burner and player do you have - blu-ray or not?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jul 14. 2012 12:16

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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.
Golfister246 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2010 11:43 Messages: 28 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 12:46
Hi again. Thanks for your help: Yes, it's a 1080/60. I've been back to the preview screen in PD10 and changed it to full HD preview quality but the same wavery unstable problems are there. I must say that the DVD I've produced I used an ordinary DVD which I now realise doesn't support HD in PD10 so would understand if that made a difference to the DVD quality.

Is the preview screen in PD10 not brilliant HD quality even on HD? I guess I will have to get some Blu Ray DVDs and try to output the video again. We have two players, one Blu Ray and one not and the quality is equally as poor on both.




stevek
Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline
[Post New] Jul 14, 2012 13:00
Don't buy blu-ray discs unles you have a blu-ray burner

You talk about players but if you want high definition blu-ray, you need a blu-ray burner; not just a player.

Try making an AVCHD disc - standard DVD but played on a compatible blu-ray DVD player. The quality will still be high definition but you would be able to get only about 40 minutes of video on an AVCHD disc.

The preview quality might depend somewhat on you computer. I never trust previews to see the final output. That is why I suggested DVD-RW and AVCHD.

Please post the dxdig evaluation of your computer. Follow these instructions. Part B

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7958.page

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jul 14. 2012 13:03

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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.
Golfister246 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Oct 23, 2010 11:43 Messages: 28 Offline
[Post New] Jul 15, 2012 05:55
We've done an experiment and copied the video from the camera to the PC via Windows Explorer, not using the Panasonic Writer and the resulting picture is fine and much more stable! I've imported a few clips into PD10 and made an AVCHD HD dvd which plays fine on our BluRay player. So it would seem that the fault lies with the writer. We'll continue to pursue this to see if we can improve it somehow.
stevek
Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline
[Post New] Jul 15, 2012 07:56
Great! Looks like you are making progress !

It is great to see all those memories in HD ! .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.
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