PD170 video playback on computer
 

The footage from my PD170 never looks that great when played back on XP/Vista using Windows Media Player. It just appears really low def. I'm using all the best settings when downloading to the compouter.

Why is that? Do I need to do something special to get footage to look really good on a mere computer monitor? This shouldn't be so hard.

Thanks.

Normal computer monitors will never look as good as a video monitor. Just the nature of the differing display requirements.

Good reference tools are almost a must. Video monitor and near-field speakers usually allow you to make a significant difference in the quality of the final product. Calibrating those tools helps too.

Computer monitors tend to be much higher rez than TV monitors/sets.
If you play video an full screen, you see all the compression issues.

Of course if you're viewing a WMV file and not DV, there may be problems with your compression settings.

Try encoding 2 pass VBR at 640x480 at full frame rate (29.97fps NTSC or 25fps PAL). Use at data rate of around 4000kbps. Increase your keyframe rate if there's lots of action (fast camera motion or fast subject motion).

I've seen WMV HD at 1920x1080p at about 8000kbps that looks spectacular on a computer monitor of the same resolution.

You could see some compression artifacts but mainly what you see are scaling artifacts as the system replicates pixels to fill the screen.

Yes, some of the latest flat displays are finally starting to realize the potential for HD display. Most still don't exhibit the dynamic range and response curve of a good CRT-based video monitor though.

How is this done?

If you're on Windows use the free Windows Media Encoder. On the Mac us Flip4Mac Studio Pro HD or use Telestream/Flip4Mac Episode. Create the settings that will get you there. Keep in mind none of this will make your video look better. DV is DV. BTW if you LOWER your computer monitor resolution (closer to TV resolution) the video will appear to be better. Again, Computer monitor resolution is typically MUCH HIGHER than TV.

Make sure you have your computer set to encode the captured video at the same full bitrate used by DV. In my Windows Movie Maker options, there's a choice between that and a CoDec that uses only about 1/3 as many bits, to reduce its bitsize for Internet transmission. This will reduce the picture quality significantly. I also have a graphics card that sends out the video on component and HDMI (both SD and HD) to my TV sets. This gives me a much better idea about how it looks on a video screen and I view this at the same time I'm monitoring the editing on my computer monitor.