Autodesk 64006-051108-9001 User Guide - Page 18

10 Chapter 2: Capture Digital Video Capture The MiniDV and DVCAM (DV25 format) are popular high-quality digital formats that integrate well with computers. The DV format offers higher image quality and resolution than Hi8, S-VHS and VHS. It is a digital format, so DV does not suffer from generation loss - a copy of a DV tape is identical to the original. DV equipment is reasonably priced for its level of quality. These attributes have made DV the new format of choice for many Web and video professionals. Some DV cameras offer a progressive scan feature. This records each frame as a single noninterlaced image instead of two separate interlaced fields. Progressive scan source material may not play as smoothly on a television monitor as interlaced material, but it is superior for streaming because it contains no interlacing artifacts. You should look for this feature when buying a DV camera and use it when creating streaming content. There are a wide range of DV cameras available. Lower-priced cameras generally have lower image quality and fewer features. Higher-quality DV cameras usually have higher-quality optics, image stabilization and many other features to deliver superior image quality. Analog Capture Analog consumer formats (Hi8, S-VHS, and VHS) produce noisier signals and lower-resolution video than DV and the professional formats. Hi8 and S-VHS are superior to VHS. You need either an analog-to-DV converter or an analog-compatible video capture system to work with them on the computer. If you are using an analog video system, you can do several things to improve the quality of the captured video. To get the highest-quality results, capture analog video at full-screen resolution - 640x480 (NTSC) or 720x480 (DV) - depending on the native resolution of the source. Even if you intend to deliver smaller final movies, a full-screen capture generally gives better results for a number of reasons. For example, capturing at full screen and scaling down the image tends to reduce video noise and results in a smoother-looking image, which encodes better. Full-screen capture is required to use Cleaner de-interlacing features. If the original source was shot on film and transferred to video tape, capturing at full-screen resolution and full frame rate is required to use Intelecine, which removes 3:2 pulldown frames and returns the material to its original 24 fps. Most captured video has black edges around the perimeter. This is called overscan or edge blanking. To deliver professional results, you must remove these edges. Starting from a larger image enables you to crop and then scale the image down. If you only capture at the final size that you wish to deliver the video, removing edge noise requires you to crop and then scale up the video, which degrades image quality.