is USB killing my video quality? or is it my camera?

T

turndown

New Member
bear with me on this, i hope someone can help.

i use a 300 dollar panasonic mini dv recorder, with some kind of setup ig ot off this guy where i plug my tv cable into my recorder, plug it into this box, and it goes into USB, then i like play my camera and press record/stop on my computer and save clips like that. its in some crappy program called moviestar and i hope someone is familiar with that and can tell me how shitty it really is.

i was wondering, how does firewire plug into your camera, and im pretty sure i need a firewire port on my computer to use it, but what if i do not have one on my computer?


do you think the USB deal im using now is whats killing my quality? all of my videos seem to lose sooo much quality from the camera to production and when i render them in movie star as an mpeg (there are like 30 different mpeg options, or avi but mpeg seems to be the least shitty, and i just choose a random mpeg one they all seem to be real shitty anyways) in moviestar, the audio is always (literally every single movie ive made) 2/3 seconds behind the video, making it sound like shit.

im new to this whole computer video stuff but i have alot of fun filming and love to edit videos so i was hoping someone would have some experience and could help me.

also do you think my camera is decent enough and would have better quality if i used firewire?
 
no. simple answer. usb does not change the QUALITY of whatever is passing through it, all it does is pass the information along(the whole 'usb1.1' and '2.0' is just the speed at wich the usb wire can handle, not quality) . there are many things to think about besides the usb port, like resolution. if your camcorder recordes at 640/480 than blowing it up on a monitor a 1024/768 will make it look like the toilet after your done using it :) jk.
 
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sorry for posting another, but maybe i wasnt clear. usb and firewire differ only in speed. firewire is VERY fast and usb is fast too. but no matter what wire you use, the END PICTURE will be unchanged from when you took it with the camera.
 
lovely? said:
no. simple answer. usb does not change the QUALITY of whatever is passing through it, all it does is pass the information along(the whole 'usb1.1' and '2.0' is just the speed at wich the usb wire can handle, not quality) . there are many things to think about besides the usb port, like resolution. if your camcorder recordes at 640/480 than blowing it up on a monitor a 1024/768 will make it look like the toilet after your done using it :) jk.
Click to expand...

You got it sorta right.

You're using a converter right? You plug your DV camcorder into this little device, which then plugs into the USB port? If so, it's most likely the device which is recording at low resolution.

What you can do is just use the firewire cable (if your computer and camcorder support it), that will give you the best picture quality.
 
[-0MEGA-];496751 said:
You got it sorta right.

You're using a converter right? You plug your DV camcorder into this little device, which then plugs into the USB port? If so, it's most likely the device which is recording at low resolution.

What you can do is just use the firewire cable (if your computer and camcorder support it), that will give you the best picture quality.
Click to expand...

exactly, i didnt have a word earlier for "converter," but thats what it is.


how do i know if my camera and computer supports firewire?

im pretty sure my computer does not have a firewire port, is it possible i can install one?

how do i check my camera?

thanks.
 
turndown said:
exactly, i didnt have a word earlier for "converter," but thats what it is.


how do i know if my camera and computer supports firewire?

im pretty sure my computer does not have a firewire port, is it possible i can install one?

how do i check my camera?

thanks.
Click to expand...

Do you have a model of the camera?

And yes, you can add a firewire port by purchasing a PCI Firewire card.
 
The camera supports USB2.0, so it should give basically equal video as you get with Firewire. However, firewire is still my prefered method of editing. How does the original video look before you render it and chage formats?
 
Firewire on the camcorder will look like this
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/ca/reviews/2005/1108/h4PinFirewireJack.jpg

You will then need to install a PCI firewire card into the computer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815124026

You will then need a firewire 4 pin to 6 pin cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812193017

You will need some editing software, such as pinnacle or adobe premiere.
You can obtain these by your own means, but they are avaliable on newegg.

I hope this helps

Adam
 
The_Other_One said:
The camera supports USB2.0, so it should give basically equal video as you get with Firewire. However, firewire is still my prefered method of editing. How does the original video look before you render it and chage formats?
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its not that great before i change formats, but definetely gets worse.
but looks alot worse than when i watch it on my camera, i was hoping that firewire would bring that quality with the video when i used it.

brinky- thanks for the info!
 
OK ARE YOU GOING FULLSCREEN WITH YOUR COMPUTER WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE STUFF YOU DID ON YOUR CAMERA? IT COULD JUS BE A RESOLUTION PROBLEM oops sorry about the caps didnt notice lol
 
lovely? said:
OK ARE YOU GOING FULLSCREEN WITH YOUR COMPUTER WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE STUFF YOU DID ON YOUR CAMERA? IT COULD JUS BE A RESOLUTION PROBLEM oops sorry about the caps didnt notice lol
Click to expand...

nope, even when i leave it as small as it is default size, it looks like crap.
 
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