Poor picture quality

[les saisies]

My son has recently purchased a Panasonic digital camcorder NV-GS17 and the final edited results when transfered to DVD and played on the tv is not very good and also when played on computer on media player.

He is uploading to his PC (new dell dimensions 8400) via a USB 2.0 port, using Nero 6 software (using video capture) and philips external 16XDVD+R/R.

Replay direct to tv from camera is excellent but significant deteriation is experienced once video has been captured on the computer.

Would using a firewire port and cable help?

Any ideas to improve situation?

[Ralph]

Capturing the video with firewire will help infinitely. I'll probably get given out to by people who tell me that USB2 has the same or more bandwidth as firewire, and while it's true, USB on a camcorder is usually only implemented to use it as a (very expensive) web cam or to get pictures off it.

Get yourself some proper software as well. I honestly don't know how good a job Nero does, but some dedicated software will not only give good results now, but give creative opportunities for the future. Pinnacle, Ulead and Adobe are good names to keep an eye out for. If you get a copy of Digital Video Made Easy magazine, they have demo versions of all the major players and frequently give away full versions of some software. It may be version 8 instead of the latest version 9 for example, but it'll do! They'll also give you loads of "How To" tips. Regular PC mags also give away video editing software from time to time, so keep an eye out.

[rojash]

The other thing to keep in mind is that DVD uses "lossy" compression (i.e) information is lost for ever when the file is compressed. Most editing programs will allow you to select just how lossy you want it to be. The more lossy, the smaller the resulting file, and the quicker the rendering. On the other hand if you don't mind a large file and a considerable amount of time waiting for it to be rendered, you can get a MUCH better quality result.

[les saisies]

Thanks for the information. We will try what you suggest.