Capture quality problem w/pinnacle

[shagman]

I've been capturing and editing video with pinnacle studio 9 for a while now and I haven't been very happy with the video quality that I get. When I hook my camera (Pana PV-GS120) up to a TV with an S-video cable I'm very pleased with the picture and color, but Even at all the highest quality settings I cannot get this quality for captured video. Is this a common problem? if so is there another program that I can use that would improve this? Any input is appreciated.

[LFADAM]

shagman, I have the exact same program. Not familiar with your camera. Is it digital or analog? If its digital definetly use a USB cable or best; firewire. I have an analog so the best I can use is S-video. Make sure that it is on "best" quality. I think there is a "good", "better", "best", and "custom" Use best, that should work pretty well.

[DC]

I'm not familar with studio 9, but I can tell you this much. PV-GS120 is a miniDVcam so it will have firewire. ONLY USE FIREWIRE to capture your video as this will not degrade the image since you are moving 1's and 0's...

[pants]

DC's right. I've used Studio8 for a couple of years and so long as you use the firewire cable, you shouldn't have any loss of quality.

You should know if the cables are right as you'll be able to control your camera from the computer using the screen icons

I've played around with sruff for hours and still had DVD quality at the end of it. Just don't be put off by the quality you see on the screen, Make a DVD or play it back to tape and watch it all back, you should have the original quality

[shagman]

I was only using the s-video cable to play back on the TV, I use firewire for all capturing. I've played around and figured some things out since I posted, and now I'm happy with the results. Thanks for the help guys.