Which DV decompressor is the best?
 

When I first got my miniDV camera, the .avi files looked as good as DVD when I played them back on my PC.

However after I installed (and removed) Pinnacle Studio SE, I started having lockups in Premier and it must have done something to my decompressor because the .avi files looked aliased and noisy when played on my PC. But they look normal when captured back to tape.

Now I just downloaded a new codec for media player 9 and the DV .avi files now look absolutely horrible.

I know that the DV decompressor codec usually is installed with capture software. But how do I tell which one I'm using? And are there any codecs on the web that do a good job of decoding DV when watching on the computer?

Does anybody have a favorite?


**UPDATE**

It could also be a directshow filter that is causing my problem. Any information on those would be helpfull as well. Like how do I see what I have?

This is a difficult problem and hard to explain. Get DXMan to see if
that helps you further regarding what you have installed and such.

Windows comes with its own DV codec which is normally being
used (if you haven't installed anything new). This codec is
Directshow only and will only work with programs that support
this interface (Premiere 6.x does for example).

Other NLE applications usually install their own indeed. Some
hardware boards require their own drivers and codecs.

If you are looking for another codec I suggest you do a search
on MainConcept DV Codec. Try that one out.

Other than that it might be that your system is just a mess
after you installed and removed several/the application(s).
A clean install might be the way to go.

What operating system are you using?

I'm using XP and I'm not lacking knowledge of it. Okay I lack the knowledge of seeing which directshow filters I have....but not much else <grin> :)

Every program I have says it's using Microsoft DV but that doesn't tell me which filter that codec is using. I know the video is interlaced in it's native format. The filter it was using from the Dazzle capture card I no longer have was great. It was full resolution and de-interlaced with minimum artifacts. I installed Premier 6.2 and all was well.

However, after I installed Pinnacle and started having problems, the new filter does a terrible job de-interlacing, looks like it's using a lower resolution, and has artifacts galore.

I'll try the codec you specified. I'll probably break down and install Zoombrowser which lets you mix and match codecs and filters.

I just wish the directshow filters and stuff was listed like the installed codecs under multimedia properties.

Thanks for the info though.

**Update**
The DXman software just scans for directx audio effects. I've got those under control as I've had a lot of experience with Acid Pro.

On my system DXman shows both, I see the following list for DV:

DV Muxer - qdv.dll
DV Splitter - qdv.dll
DV Video Decoder - qdv.dll

That is the Microsoft DV Codec (I am on Windows 2000 Prof.).

I'll try it. Thanks again.

You can also try GSPOT or AVICODEC to look at the header info in your AVI file. It will list which codec the file is calling. Mainconcept DV codec is the best software DV codec on the market. Your problems seem to be more than a DV codec problem, tho'. It's possible that they are being imported with a different codec...and the compression is set too high. The DV codec doesn't allow for compression changes.

Michael:

There are some threads on the Pinancle forums that relate to codecs. I've found that if there is some kind of problem with Studio, somebody has posted something by now.

I have Studio 8 and Premiere 6.5 installed on the same system. So far, I haven't noticed any kind of intereference. I've also loaded several other NLE's on the same system and uninstalled them later. Nothing I've done has caused any of the NLE's to use the wrong codec except when I specifically tried it as an experiment.

I wish I knew what I did but it's fixed now, back to how good it used to originally.

The other night when I went to capture some footage windows acted like it detected my DV device for the first time and asked me which program I wanted to use with it. Pinnacle was the only choice but it wouldn't let me select it because I had uninstalled it. I told it to do nothing.

Later after I had captured and edited I played the fullscreen DV avi files and low and behold they looked perfect. Even the ones that looked terrible before played fine now.

I think part of the problem was that I almost never reboot my server (usually once a month) because it is my web server as well and is very stable. So maybe I didn't reboot enough after making changes?