Problems with 330 video

[cdbreeze]

I've been playing around with a Sony 330 video camera, eventually planning to take it underwater (in a housing of course!). I created some test clips to see what the finished product would look like and USB'ed them to a PC (using Sony's Image Transfer software). The resulting videos are disappointing to say the least. I'm getting a lot of that digital pixel fuzz, and the images are nowhere near as sharp as what I'd been led to expect. The camera was in all the default options, automatic white balance, focus, etc.
Any advice you'd care to share would be most welcome.

 

[jcclink]

Does your computer have a firewire connection. If so try downloading from camera straight to hard drive via firewire. Do you have any other capture software besides Sony? That may make a difference. I also have a 330, but capture thru Premiere. Video always looks great. I forget if there is a SP/LP setting. If so make sure its set to SP. Also check the digital zoom setting. Make sure its OFF. Its basically worthless in terms of picture quality.

 

[Otter]

I am guessing its more like Sony is downloading it and compressing it into MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 instead of leaving in DV format. Double check the settings in the Sony software or as JCCLINK said try another program...I think Adobe may even have a trial version of Premiere available for download so that you can at least compare the quality. If Premiere is too rich for ya, try Pinnacle ...its reasonably priced.

I also suspect ( I haven't confimed) that you will have better device control with 1394 (e.g. being able to play/rewind/stop via software)...not sure how strong the USB component is. As for speed, Sony says it supports "USB Streaming", but I don't believe thats USB2.0, so stick with the 1394 "i.Link" approach for less (or no ) frames dropped and faster transfer speeds.

Again, I bet your quality issues is with the settings (either camera or transfer software) putting it into MPEG format.

 

[emeyer36]

I just got my Sony PC 330 two months ago. Between Pinnacle Studio 9 which I already had and the firewire which I bought after several "bad" downloads (I also wasn't happy with the results with USB) I can say these make all the difference. I got wonderful video onto my PC. I can say that Studio is very good for a less expensive video edit and I really didn't like ImageMaker (which came with the camera). I knew I probably would feel this way because almost all the research on this camera said it was the one thing user didn't like about the camera and in my experience this was right.