Widescreen on DVC

Nefarious · 7 Jun 2009 at 13:26

I'm trying to pull a recording from DVC to my computer but the firewire software that I have seems only to pull out 4:3 format - is this a limitation of my firewire or my software?

If it's the software could someone suggest something that would be more suitable and if it's the hardware.... I'm guessing that outputting to S-Video on an external hard disk recorder (e.g. Archos) might be the best way to get decent quality.

Any suggestions?

alexakasloth · 7 Jun 2009 at 14:31

What software are you using and did you film in 4:3 or 16:9? It may well be that it will pull out the ratio at which you filmed, if so then if you want widescreen the option would be to letterbox in edit. I've always been of the impression that firewire would most effecient, the quality is high and you have many options for encoding.

Nefarious · 7 Jun 2009 at 14:42

It was recorded in 16:9 but the recording comes out poor quality and squashed when using IEEE1394 (firewire) as opposed to a straightforward composite out. I suppose it might be possible to digitally restretch the image but it would still be poor quality video. The software used was both WinDV and iScreenRecorder, both with virtually identical results.

I have never had good experiences with the quality received from firewire (even when following the instructions froom Doom9 to the letter) and have always found that going to obtuse lengths with analogue transfer produces far better results.

startrek2 · 8 Jun 2009 at 08:05

taking it from firewire should be the best you can get , without any form of mastering its as the camera native shot it.

there is something wrong if you can see composite as better even using tweaks, try something simple like windows built in movie maker to transfer the video over to pc using firewire. this should also be set at its highest quality.

macfb · 8 Jun 2009 at 15:43

I have this same problem but with a digital video camera. It shoots in 16:9 but shows up on my computer as 4:3. I then have to export it to make it 16:9. I do loose a little bit of quality and it is a pain having to export it all the time. :/

No-One · 8 Jun 2009 at 16:45

I've got a JVD HDD camera and also had this problem. Also, the files were saved in a .mod file which very few apps would recognise. I managed to find a program called sdcopy and would convert them to .mpg and set the 16:9 flag in the file so they would be displayed on the pc properly.

http://www.filmoreha.com/sdcopy/

This might not be much use if your camera uses tape though.

asim18 · 8 Jun 2009 at 16:56

Nefarious said:
It was recorded in 16:9 but the recording comes out poor quality and squashed when using IEEE1394 (firewire) as opposed to a straightforward composite out. I suppose it might be possible to digitally restretch the image but it would still be poor quality video. The software used was both WinDV and iScreenRecorder, both with virtually identical results.

Your camera is not proper 16:9. It's anamorphic 16:9.

This means it is squashing a 16:9 picture onto a 4:3 sensor. You need to manually adjust the Pixel Aspect Ratio in your editing program.

Sirrel Squirrel · 8 Jun 2009 at 19:46

asim18 said:
Your camera is not proper 16:9. It's anamorphic 16:9.

This means it is squashing a 16:9 picture onto a 4:3 sensor. You need to manually adjust the Pixel Aspect Ratio in your editing program.

Ditto

Nefarious · 11 Jun 2009 at 16:35

Thanks for the advice, the camera claims to be an HD widescreen but claims are many....

I have tried a variety of software to import via firewire from WinDV to Windows Movie Maker to Pinnacle Studio etc and have always found the firewire connection to be the poorest means of video extraction. With another camera which IS 4:3 the resolution is still poor no matter what software is used during download. I have been told by repeated sources that firewire is the best method of download and have as of yet found this not to be the case. Clearly either I am doing something wrong or EVERY camera I have ever attempted to download from via firewire is an exception.

The process should be a simple one, plug in the camera, press play then select capture - what is it that I am missing here!?!?!??!?!??!

BTW - the spurious 16:9 camera when outputting via firewire doesn't produced just a simple 4:3 squashed image, oh no, it produces a 720x576 that is both squashed and cropped, what fun!