Digital Camcorder Q

Wanton

My uncle has brought me back a samsung digital camcorder from the america.

the quality on the cam's lcd is brilliant, but when i try and take it off the cam via the usb2 cable the quality i get on the pc is pretty bad.

its a nearly new dell so i am certain its usb2 as well.

dont know much bout this stuff

any suggestions plssssssss

SantaHoe

I'm not sure if they do proper DV over USB2 or wheather it's just a crappy mpeg stream, which was certainly the case for USB1 cams.
If it is a crappy mpeg stream, I can't think why, since data transfer rates on USB2 and firewire are pretty much on par by all accounts.
I'm more used to dealing with lossless DV capture over firewire.
You should check out any accompanying documents for what interfaces the camera supports... if there's mention of Firewire/i-link/IEEE1394 then you can get a PCI card to add this connection to your PC and it's happy days with full quality DV footage.
Just how crappy is the footage you're getting from USB2?
Have a look at the captured video, if you're getting full quality/resolution, then you should have an output size of 720x480 (since the camera is most likely NTSC if it's from the USA | 720x576 if PAL/europe)... a framerate in the region of 24-30, and the codec should be something like "Microsoft DV Codec" or a variation there of.
On the other hand, if you're getting some crap like 320x200, 10 frames per second and the codec is mpeg, then I'd suggest getting a firewire card.
How you find out these video stats will vairy depending on what tools you have available, but right-clicking on the video file and going into properties may list the above stats.

Tom Dunne

Wanton wrote:

the quality on the cam's lcd is brilliant, but when i try and take it off the cam via the usb2 cable the quality i get on the pc is pretty bad.

The USB is only a transfer mechanism, it shouldn't alter the video in any way. Bear in mind that if you look at video on a small screen, and then blow it up, it is going to look worse. The resolution on the LCD is probably quite small in comparison to a PC screen, hence why it would look better on the small screen.

Question for you - are you simply transferring the video? i.e. are you copying the file to c:\my documents\my videos\christmas.mpg (or something)? Or are you using the camera to feed a live picture to the PC?

Wanton

tom dunne wrote:

The USB is only a transfer mechanism, it shouldn't alter the video in any way. Bear in mind that if you look at video on a small screen, and then blow it up, it is going to look worse. The resolution on the LCD is probably quite small in comparison to a PC screen, hence why it would look better on the small screen.

the loss in quality is severe. for what should be a crystal clear digital image and i am getting grainy like what you would dl off a dodgey site

tom dunne wrote:

Question for you - are you simply transferring the video? i.e. are you copying the file to c:\my documents\my videos\christmas.mpg (or something)? Or are you using the camera to feed a live picture to the PC?

its live feed off from the camara.

SantaHoe

tom dunne wrote:

The USB is only a transfer mechanism, it shouldn't alter the video in any way.

The thing is... yeah it's just a transfer mechanism, but they insist on transfering the footage in real time, so unless you've got the bandwith along that transfer mechanism to keep up with the full data rate of the cameras footage - you're stuffed.
The 1st generation USB didn't have near enough bandwidth to live stream full quality DV so instead they used a much lower quality video stream... comparable to something you'd get off a dodgy webcam.
Although USB2 should be able to handle a full quality DV stream given its bandwidth, apparently the whole DV transfer from Cam-to-PC was built around firewire, and USB2 isn't used in the same way.

Wanton: If your camera supports Firewire/i-link/IEEE1394 (3 different names for the same thing) get yourself one of these (or similar) >> http://www.peats.ie/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=7966&type=6&path=14x122x5319
Once you install one of these, you'll have a firewire port and can use a firewire cable directly to your camera and get a proper full quality DV stream.
What model camera is it by the way?

Wanton

I alrady have firewire on my pc and laptop, just going to order a 4 to6 and 4 to 4 cables of komplett once i find my credit card :-)

Tom Dunne

Yeah, if firewire is available, it certainly is the way to go.

I have transferred loads from a DV camera over firewire without any loss in quality.

On that, a Firewire 4 to 4 cable is 30 Eurons in PC World in Liffey Valley. Ouch.

Wanton

u got to be crazy, i have picked out a 4 to 4 and 4 to 6 for myslef and a 4 to 4 for a m8 off komplett for that price plus another tenner for postage