How to get a good quality in capturing video via a digital camcorder connected to pc via capture card?

Question

Im using a PC with Sony capture card.

My digital camcorder is Sony brand too.

Im using Ulead Video Studio 10 to capture & edit video.

Answer 1

Hey Pr-AK-Ash,

That's the problem with consumer brand software, quality is allows compromise. If you are serious about video editing, I recommend Adobe Premiere, very professional editing software, comes with capture card, the whole bit..

Answer 2

If you want the best available quality, you need to transfer the digital information from the camcorder digitally. The last time I checked, "capture cards" typically use the AV cable connected to the camcorder. When this capture method is used, the yellow lead carrying the video out of the camcorder to the capture card is analog.

You did not tell us which Sony digital camcorder you are using.

If it is miniDV or Digital8 the video import from the camcorder to the computer should be done digitally using firewire/IEEE1394a/DV/i.link (all the same thing).

If it is a hard drive or flash memory digital camcorder, the video data file transfer will be over a USB cable.

If it is a DVD based camcorder, it really does not matter how you transfer the video - You would either rip the video from the DVD using something like HandBrake (presuming your computer has a drawer-loading DVD optical drive) or you would need an analog/digital bridge from Pinnacle (USB) or Canopus (firewire) if your computer's optical drive is a slot loader or reads CDs only. Either way, the video quality will not be very good.

Answer 3

You get what you get.  Likely the camera isn't the highest resolution HD camera on the market.  So what you get is the standard definition 640x480 resolution.  Sometimes when your computer monitor is set to a higher resolution the image will be stretched to that it doesn't look itty bitty and that can cause the image to look really blurry but when it is exported and played on TV it will like slightly better.

But the only thing that might be able to improve the quality is changing the import capture settings to be the highest they can be.  That might be the problem.  But do not expect super hight quality video from anything below high end professional, shoulder mounted cameras.  Sorry

Answer 4

you simply can't