Mini shoot-out : DV vs MPEG2

I just took a mini shootout between MiniDV from Panasonic PV-GS70 and MPEG2 from Panasonic SDR-S100. Both are 3CCD (1/6") camcorders.

NTSC
handheld
4:3 ratio
shutter 1/60
aperture f/2.8
no gain
auto white balance
EIS/OIS off
XP quality (10 Mbps) for Panasonic SDR-S100

The new link below is better.

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On PC monitor, file from PV-GS70 is pretty contrasty compared with the one from SDR-S100.

Well, I like the SDR-S150 better, which is good because I have one. I don't say it's better though, just completely different. I suppose that in the final analysis one needs to compare them on a TV screen, and mine's PAL.

I am very much more than happy with the video quality of my SDR-S150, if only I could say the same for my own camerawork. Much room for improvement there, I am afraid. :o

I retook the shoot-out with auto mode. Now the brightness level is comparable, the contrast is still different though.

NTSC
8 seconds
Auto mode
on tripod
4:3 ratio
EIS/OIS off
XP quality (10 Mbps) for Panasonic SDR-S100

File DV_MPEG2_part2.zip - 41.1 MB
http://rapidshare.de/files/35898678/DV_MPEG2_part2.zip.html

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Hi rhubarbe,

Yes. I burned DVD from both of them and watched on TV screen. I feel the contrast from SDR-S100 is decent on TV screen but the encoded files from PV-GS70 is too contrasty. I encourage everyone to view these files on TV screen since video files from camcorder is in YUV color space (for TV) but the PC monitor is in RGB color space.

Moreover, I tried encoding the DV file into MPEG2 using TMPGenc at highest quality at constant 8000kbps (highest quality (very slow) setting, 10-bit precision). I can't see much difference between before and after encoding.

IMO, the details and video quality from SDR-S100 at XP (9.8 Mbps video bitrate) is superb.

Cheers,
G A P

I downloaded the clips and played them both through Quicktime. The MPEG file looks MUCH better on my iMac screen, so I was suddenly very hopeful this might be a solution for me.

I then thought I'd import them to iMovie to see what i can do with them (new to video editing...) so added the AVI file and use MPEG Streamclip to convert the other file.

My question:

What format should I output this file as from Streamclip for the best quality? I tried both an AVI and DV file, and the DV file was better by some margin when viewed in iMovie, but still a noticeable drop from the original file. I was a little baffled by the options on offer so may not have used the optimum output....

What format should i export to, and is this noticeable quality loss to be expected as a byproduct of the conversion?

Many thanks

My question:

What format should I output this file as from Streamclip for the best quality? I tried both an AVI and DV file, and the DV file was better by some margin when viewed in iMovie, but still a noticeable drop from the original file. I was a little baffled by the options on offer so may not have used the optimum output....

What format should i export to, and is this noticeable quality loss to be expected as a byproduct of the conversion?

Many thanks

I have no experience with iMovie. So I'm not sure what the best option for MPEG2 conversion is. Between DV and AVI, I'd recommend to export as DV format (also .AVI file I guess). I'm not sure what the default codec of "AVI" in iMovie is. I guess it should be significantly inferior to DV.

Yes. Re-encoding a DV file into another DV file causes some small losses. It also depends on the performance of DV codec you have.

Is there any way you can encode "DV_Panasonic_PV-GS70_set2.avi" directly into high quality MPEG2 in one conversion? I think that could be better.

Isn't that the format that a .vob file would be in if you converted the dv file into a DVD-Video format?