Quality of footage transferred

HDR-HC9 (2008). HDR-HC5, HDR-HC7 (2007). HDR-HC3 (2006). HDR-HC1 / HVR-A1 (2005).
Shoulder-mount HVR-HD1000.
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chrisrr
Posts: 7
Joined: 05 Jun 2010 10:56
Location: Cheshire, England

Quality of footage transferred

Post by chrisrr »

Hi everyone! I was a member of the old place, but nice to see the new accommodation!
I still have my Sony HVR-A1E, and it still provides plenty of frustrations - the main one being its lazy focussing and general picture quality, but that's not why I'm posting.
The cables you get with this cam are not HDMI cables are they? They are component and composite that have quite odd/unique interfaces at the camera end. Now that I have got myself an HD TV, I was very disappointed with the quality of the picture when I connected it up using what I assumed to be the better quality option - the Component cable.

It can't transfer the HD quality from what is on the DV tape can it? Or can it? And if not, how do I transfer HD quality footage from a camera that doesn't appear to have HDMI connectivity?
I hope that makes sense? ;)
Grateful for any guidance.
Cheers
Chris
halfpipe
Posts: 36
Joined: 24 May 2010 18:51
Location: Canada

Re: Quality of footage transferred

Post by halfpipe »

No Hdmi with that camera
Use component video (red green blue) and audio (white and red) from the composite out do not plug in the yellow one.
so you need to plug all cables into the cam and the TV
Go into the menu of the camera and scroll until you find the red toolbox and find component out and select 480/1080
Also in the red toolbox area ensure that you are recording in HDV
When you have the camera hooked up to the TV, leave it in camera/tape mode for a bit to see what the system can produce before taping
Should be gorgeous really!
chrishull3
Posts: 64
Joined: 05 Jun 2010 10:04
Location: Yeovil, UK

Re: Quality of footage transferred

Post by chrishull3 »

To transfer lossless HD video to a pc for editing a firewire lead is needed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394_interface , for watching on hd tvs component should give the same quality as hdmi albeit not in such a convenient single lead way.
steve
Posts: 74
Joined: 28 May 2010 10:04
Location: UK

Re: Quality of footage transferred

Post by steve »

Surely, using the firewire interface will result in HDV MPEG2 artifacts. A better way would be to use a low compression route such as a Blackmagic Intensity but that would increase the cost and inconvenience. Let's face it, 25MB/s MPEG2 is quite a drag on image quality. The 1440 line sample is OK as the lens system on a consumer camcorder will be designed for it, but the compression will be very obvious.

steve
chrishull3
Posts: 64
Joined: 05 Jun 2010 10:04
Location: Yeovil, UK

Re: Quality of footage transferred

Post by chrishull3 »

To transfer HDV lossless to pcs for editing firewire is the way, there are no artifacts this is a known fact,i have edited hundreds of hdv tapes this way.
chrisrr
Posts: 7
Joined: 05 Jun 2010 10:56
Location: Cheshire, England

Re: Quality of footage transferred

Post by chrisrr »

Wow, thanks everyone - very helpful indeed! Thank you.
I checked the settings again as you suggested, and on mine it's Component-1080i/576i. which is what it was already set to. Once I'd set it up with the component lead I noticed a better picture - so I wonder if I'd previously used a Composite cable?
But you've all answered the question I wasn't too sure about which was the quality of 'file' carried by a Component cable versus an HDMI one. I assume therefore, it is as good as that carried via HDMI.

Many thanks chaps.
Best wishes
Chris

[quote="halfpipe"]No Hdmi with that camera
Use component video (red green blue) and audio (white and red) from the composite out do not plug in the yellow one.
so you need to plug all cables into the cam and the TV
Go into the menu of the camera and scroll until you find the red toolbox and find component out and select 480/1080
Also in the red toolbox area ensure that you are recording in HDV
When you have the camera hooked up to the TV, leave it in camera/tape mode for a bit to see what the system can produce before taping
Should be gorgeous really![/quote]
acgold7
Global Moderator
Posts: 400
Joined: 14 May 2010 23:03
Location: Woodinville, WA, USA
Contact:

Re: Quality of footage transferred

Post by acgold7 »

HDMI and Component are both viewing technologies, not meant for transferring (capturing) to PC for editing (if that's an issue). Neither supports timecode so you can't edit in an NLE. The only proper way to do this for HDV is via Firewire, and any artifacts that may arise are on the tape, and are very unlikely to be introduced by the interface (unless it's defective). All the compression is already done when the picture is written to tape, not when it goes out over the Firewire.

For playing back direct to HDTV for viewing, use Component. For transferring to PC for editing, use FW. End of story.
Adam
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