How can I increase the frames per second on this camera (if there is a way)?

Question

I have a Sony Handycam Camcorder and it has HORRIBLE frames per second when i save to a memory card (i don't want it on a tape, i want it on my computer), here is an example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGLAsyBx1SI

So i was just wondering, how can i improve this video quality???

Answer 1

Increasing the FPS has nothing to do with the issue you are having. This is all about video compression. And YouTube compresses the the video you upload. I generally use an MP4 wrapper... and let my software pick the best compression method that will fit into a 100 meg file (YouTube size limitation).

Since you use a memory card for your video, it starts its life highly compressed. Then you upload to YouTube, which compresses even more.

Video compression = discarded video data = reduced video quality.

I use a miniDV tape based camcorder and edit video in my computer all the time. So your statement, "i don't want it on a tape, i want it on my computer" is invalid. Since DV (or HDV format video compresses the least, it provides the best available video quality.

You may be able to improve some if you can use a "high quality" video setting on your camera. If you are using "low quality" so you can store more video time on the memory card, then there's your easy answer... you may need to get a bigger memory card, but at "high quality", at least you won't compress as much, which should improve the video quality a little.

And no matter what you do, if you want to watch in full screen, it will look even worse. If you want it to look good, then use a different video site - like Vimeo.com. They do not have a 10 minute limit like YouTube or MySpace - but do have a weekly 500 meg limit (whether 1 file or 5 files, they don't care... but the care if you try to exceed 500 meg per week). Because of this, people are uploading high definition quality video that looks great...