Video noob, I need to get it on my computer and clean it up
 

I have two videos that I want to get onto my computer, I have a Sony TVR-20 video camera and it has the basic 1394 firewire, as well as RGB and S-vid outs.

So I ripped the vid going through the firewire cable using both Windows movie maker, and Adobe Premier. I captured it in best quality on both, (uncompressed DV format), the files came out to 8.7GB for a 40min video so the quality should be good. Both programs gave me a slightly darkened granny picture.

I also have a Hauppauge WinTV capture card, when I hook my video camera up to it’s RBG or S-video port the picture is much better, but when I go to capture the video with the software that came with the card (WINTV2000) I get terrible distortion but not fuzzyness, this time It is distorted horizontal lines during movement. These lines even show on my TV when burned to DVD. WINTV2000 compresses it into mpeg, The quality was the highest where it is 1hr of video per DVD.

Premier and Windows movie maker both won’t recognize my WINTV Capture card, so I am looking for a program that will capture this video for me in very good quality through my capture card. Any suggestions?

One more question, is there an easy to use video editor where I can add more light to a certain dark spot in the video like you can with photo editing?? Is this even possible? Also any recommendations for an easy to use editor that will clean stuff up, I don’t want to add effects, I just want to be able to cut the video and I want to be able to clean it up as much as possible.

Thanks in advanced

-Derek-

The only way to capture DV footage without degradation is through Firewire. It is a lossless transfer.

When you connect the camcorder to your video through S-video, there is a digital-to-analog conversion in the camcorder then an analog-to-digital conversion on your video card. If this is really what looks better to your eye, it's probably just because some overlay settings are different. But you are losing quality.

All NLE applications have ways to control the image brightness. Look for brightness/contrast effects or Levels.

Are their any programs that would clean it up and do the lighting thing I was talking about?

Sony Movie Maker is a good entry-level NLE, but there are several.

And beware judging your footage on your computer monitor. It may look very different when you make a DVD and look at it on a regular TV monitor.

ps. you have a LOT to learn, don't get discouraged.

I did notice that when I made the switch from a CRT to an LCD monitor, flaws were much more apparent in virtually all videos.

Are you guys not familiar with the fuzziness I speak of? Will the program you mentioned clean the video up? My computer has the power to do pretty intense rendering so the only bottleneck is the correct program and my personal abilities.

First off, copying via RGB or Svideo is not better, but it may look better because of things it does to the image. When you capture using firewire, you get a bit for bit copy of the tape. You can always use your NLE to screw up the image the same way that the RGB or s-video does.

If you don't like the image you see after a firewire capture, get over it. That is what it looks like. Learn how to use the various features of your NLE to change it. You can make it softer, fuzzier, un-fuzzy, change the color balance, and a million special effects. And I can't give you a two-year class in how to use an NLE here, you will have to learn the same as the rest of us. Try something, read alot, try something else, read some more.

If you have specific image questions, the best thing you can do is post a sample screen capture. What you call fuzzy someone else may call pixelation, or lack of focus, or something else. Until you learn the lingo, don't rely on words to describe pictures. Just post a sample so we can look at it.

you mention you have Premiere and I would stick with that program - it's commonly used and can do a lot. It can be complicated at first, but once you learn the basics you should pick it up pretty quickly.
Like others said, capturing with firewire will give you the best quality.

I also agree, Premiere is a great piece of software. Someone mentioned Sony Movie Maker... I think this is Vegas? I've also used Vegas. Vegas is easier to learn and very powerful, but if you already have Premiere stick with it as I've made some wonderful edits with Premiere, and all-in-all, I think personally I prefer Premiere over Vegas.

Secondly, it takes time... a lot of time. You can't just expect to "dive in" to editing video, it's a slow process, especially when you're learning the basics of NLE. Also, I agree with everyone else on Firewire. Unless for some reason you didn't have a DV camera and needed to transfer video, the S-Video would be an option, but you still lose quality.

There are a ton of filters and plugins that ship with Premiere, and even more 3rd party add-ons. And though I've had no experience with it, Premiere 2.0 is supposed to have good color correction similar to Vegas...

Good luck!

Movie Maker is the consumer version of Vegas, costs about $70-100 including the DVD piece. And I missed that you already own Prenmiere, if you do you should probably save the money and just use that to get started. Learning to cut takes about 1 minute in Vegas or Movie maker, but learning image correction is a lifetime art with any NLE. I would rather reshoot something if I can rather than fool with too much correction, but I am not an expert at it...