How to set video levels?

[dvhtion]

:confused:

How do you go about setting your video levels before capture (ie: brightness, contrast, chroma, hue, etc..) so that the picture will be faithful to the original source? BTW, I am using a Studio DC 10 capture card.



Doug

[Guest]

The capture software allows for that. If using Studio, its right there on the slide-out capture settings drawer. If AVI_IO, look at Video Settings/Source.

[dvhtion]

I understand how to physically set the levels in the capture program, but I would like to know if there is a method to adjusting the settings, other than sliding them up and down untill the picture "looks good". I'm worried that the video will look "okay" on my computer monitor, but then will be too bright/contrasty/saturated/green when I play it on my TV screen from a DVD. So I guess my real question would be, is there a more reliable method to setting your levels than just eyeballing them?


Doug

[Guest]

You know what NTSC stands for, right? Never The Same Color.

My point is that TVs have brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation controls, and PCs also do as well, whether it is done through the graphics adapter settings, DivX player filter, etc. You can't know what you're going to encounter. My advice would be to set the brightness and contrast on your PC as described at Charles Poynton's well-known web site, and then set your capture so it looks good on the PC, i.e., whites don't wash out, and detail is not lost in darker areas. Set the hue and saturation so that they look right, i.e., no color bleeding and nice red reds. If you do that you'll be close enough to a good center area that any reasonable device will have enough adjustment freedom to bring things into an acceptable control set on that device.

Others may have different/better ideas.

[808state]

Dvhtion

I am using “Video Essentials” DVD (Best Buy $30 US). The disc contains a wide selection of test patterns, SMPT Bars and so on...also includes a blue filter to look trough while adjusting the color for your TV monitor.

I have followed the guide on the DVD for setting Video Adjustments on numerous sets (Analog/Digital Tubes/Rear Projection) usually you will see highly noticeable improvements in Contrast, Sharpness, and Color settings.

I have a Pinnacle DV-500 Capture Card that has a Video Monitor out that I connected to my Television. I then used the Video Essentials DVD to adjust my capture settings.

Set your Television first with a standalone DVD player then use the Video Out on your graphics card (if you have one) too set your capture card. This should give the most overall accurate settings for the NTSC never the same color standard.

Here is a link to the DVD http://www.bestbuy.com/search/MandMLookup.asp?m=270&TitleId=4658

Good luck and Happy Tweaking
:D