Yep... that's MiniDV gold all right. I can still vividly remember those days of immersing myself into making videos in whatever ways I could think of. What fun it was to then connect my own Panasonic camcorder to either my Pentium 4 rig or one of the Macs I had and let it run through the whole tape, and come back with some ultra clear footage. For added fun, I even got to watch everything I just recorded as it was being captured. iMovie HD 6 galore! Unfortunately, limited disk capacities, small upload size caps, and a lack of abundant tapes to work with are a few factors that have lead to some of my end products either being in bad quality or outright deleted. I hadn't yet fully grasped the foresight to understand the importance of preserving all of my raw materials no matter what.
Obsolete tech 2020 definitely. But at the time, late 90's MiniDv was a true game changer. The format, that broad broadcast quality on reach of amateur videographers at the time when TV-broadcast was still analog and low-res.
I really like these old cameras and my aunt has a mini DV camera I think because that’s what my dad said, it might be hi8 but I think I might be able to get it.
Wow, I haven't made a video in a long time! I've just been trying to concentrate more on my school efforts and finishing this year strong. As for this video and why it even exists, I first started working on this particular video about 5 months ago using my borrowed Panasonic AG-DVC30 to shoot video. I really just wanted a feel of how videos were done back in the early 2000s even using a fairly prosumer-grade camcorder. This also goes to show that people don't need brand-new super expensive cameras to make cool videos, I used a very old camera from 2004 (probably slightly earlier) and still managed to get some great shots! If you know what you're doing, video equipment doesn't really matter. And that's the inlying message of this, admittingly strange, video...
how you get this footage so clean? im trying to find the right vhs to buy and thiss looks perfect but other videos on youtube with this camera dont look near as good as this?
It was all digitally captured (480i60) through FireWire instead of something like analog composite, as well as being upscaled to 1080p to allow for a higher bitrate for playback on UA-cam. Most cheap ADC (analog-to-digital) capture devices will capture just the analog video output and automatically deinterlace it in real time which makes for some awful horizontal banding and soft image quality. If you want to get clean video from MiniDV, you really need an old computer that has FireWire 400 (preferably a MacBook since it comes with iMovie for capture) or even a DVD-RAM recorder that also has a FireWire or DV input.
Probably footage taken with an older or lower-end camera. Mini-DV has been around since 1995 and I imagine some of those old first-gen camera look horrible, especially if the video was transferred poorly. I just capped a couple tapes from a Sony TRV11 through S-video and it looks fine
@@ngaswithadditude I've always used Yadif with the Bob preset since it's the best easy-to-use deinterlacer, especially in HandBrake. Others have commented on this video with supposedly better ones, but I think Yadif is the best for double frame rate.
Ah yeah, that would’ve fit the era better but not really the ethereal chill vibe of the actual video in my 6-years-ago opinion. Plus, I’m not too big of a fan of rock in the first place (besides live events).
@@baaelectronicsI think The Cranberries - Dreams would work. Could use the vocal or instrumental version Actually anything from The Cranberries would work. Give it a try
nice , i got my first miniDV cam recorder(JVC grdv1 ) back in '96. my question is ...i allready have tons of minidv tapes on my harddrive(exact dv copies through firewire...1 hour equalls about 12 gig)...what kind of program do i need to edit them without recoding them. I used Videoproc 1.9 but even copying the file to DV it changed the size and thus recoding it somehow.
What’s the file extension? .dv or .mov or something else? Most editors these days will only work with the most common extensions like .mov; Premiere used to do .dv but no longer :( There’s really no way to get around re-encoding DV, especially since it’s 480i and most editors are all progressive these days, so I’d recommend HandBrake for encoding and I may be able to share some good settings for HandBrake if you choose to go that route.
@@baaelectronics thanx for replying so fast. extension is .dv i experimented with as i said before with videoproc 1.9 by just encoding it from dv to dv , but the end result is still smaller in size. Some programs have the option "same as original".proc does not...maybe i have to fiddle with the settings to get the exact same size. Then and only then i dare to edit things out of my precious DV videos. For capturing the tapes through firewire i used AVS Video ReMaker 6.4 1 hour video takes realtime 1 hour to capture. i tries the editing tool of the same program i capture it with but it is not supported. Only Videoproc recognises DV
Hello It looks really nice! How is the video 1080 60p if it was shot on miniDV? I want to learn. I bought a Panasonic HVX200, the p2 cards are expensive. I want to play with the MiniDv tape.
I neglected to respond to this comment earlier… the video is 480i59.94 but UA-cam won’t stream a good quality 60p stream unless it’s FHD or higher, so I upscale 720x480i59.94 to 1440x1080p59.94 to stream online.
Hi! So for the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to capture DV footage that my dad shot around 2004, and it just doesn't look all that great, but yours looks really good. I'm capturing it through firewire (IEEE 1394) into my PC through a PCI card but it still looks like the video has super low bitrate whenever I view it in the AVI file and in Premiere Pro 2020. So I'd like to ask you what kind of software and hardware you used to get it at the quality and frame rate that it is at, and the steps you took to get there. Thanks!
I used Premiere Pro CS6 for capturing straight from my Panasonic AG-DVC30 to my 2009 MacBook via FireWire. It creates a 480i MOV file from Premiere that I then put onto my desktop PC with Premiere Pro 2019 for editing. For the bitrate issue, are you capturing straight DV via Premiere to MOV like I did for this video? As for the 60p framerate, I put the 60i video file into a 1920x1440 59.94fps sequence and set the Field Options to None. This way, both fields are visible as opposed to deinterlacing or discarding. I did do some Lumetri Color correction, but it was very minor. I'm pretty sure Premiere records DV to an MOV file by default, so make sure you're doing that and you should get great results!
@@baaelectronics Thanks for the response I really appreciate it! So, as far as I've seen yesterday when I took a look at the files it was saving to, the videos are being saved as AVI files and there doesn't seem to be any compression issues going on, but the tapes still don't have a lot of detail in them, and I know that might be a limitation of the technology as well as the camera it was recorded on which was a Panasonic PV-GS9, which he brought brand new in may of 2004 so the heads couldn't have been that dirty. So, For now, I'll try all of the settings that you recommended and I'll let you know if there are any problems that I'm having if they do come up. Thanks!
@@growingnebula9469 why save as avi, why not as the original DV format...sure its size is big (1 hour video is around 12 gb, but hey...1on1 copy with no quality loss...exactly as the tape).
Welcome to subsampled, compressed, interlaced, pixel starving, single sensor, standard definition. It simply looks terrible, doesn't it? And, given the premises, how couldn't it?
Actually, no electronic stabilization was used! The camera has optical stabilization (that's why the lens flares moved independently from the image) but it might just be because it's 15 years old and isn't as smooth as it used to be. To my knowledge. cameras of this vintage didn't do anything electronically to the video before put on tape and Premiere didn't do anything during import or export.
For this video, I directly imported the 480i59.94 DV footage into a 1440x1080p59.94 sequence in Premiere. Each field of 60i will be its own frame at 60p. Usually, I'd recommend running it through HandBrake with decomb bob enabled to get rid of the field artifacts, but I wanted the interlaced look for this one.
I used each field of the original 60i video as its own frame in 60p. This sometimes causes flicker on still objects or a loss of detail on fast-moving objects but for this type of footage, it works out nicely. Most cheapo ADCs would combine these fields into 30p and produce undesirable horizontal lines. This is similar to how broadcast TV is displayed with each field being shown separately, just being converted to 60p first.
Hey! I just got this camera and have a question. I keep seeing you say that this was 480p footage? I read online that all mini dv cams capture footage in 720p. Is this not true for this camera? Some of the shots in here definitely look like 720p HD but i’m just confused as to what resolution actually comes out of the DVC-30. If you could respond, it’d help out a bunch! Cheers!
DV native resolution is 720x480 at 4:3 aspect ratio displayed anamorphic. That way, it can be 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio and look good in both modes. The only way to get 60p playback on UA-cam is to upload at 720p60 or higher, that's why mine is 1080p60. Without scaling, UA-cam would crush DV down to 640x480p30 which is lower res and half frame rate, so on mine the video is technically 480p60 but at a 1080p60 bitrate. Hope that kind of explains it!
@@baaelectronics Oh okay, yes thank you! Should we tell the people that do the scan for us to record it in at 1080 60p then? Will be bringing the tape somewhere for the scan since I don’t have any of the gear myself. Or just export the raw footage in premiere at 1080p regardless of what the resolution the scan is?
@@melodymedia466 Capture the original tape at 720x480i59.94 DV if possible. It can always be scaled and deinterlaced later. Premiere captures DV natively to an MOV file and can double frame deinterlace it and scale to 1440x1080p60 when you go to edit. Good quality and you always have the original to go back to.
@@baaelectronics hi! thanks again for this answer. did the shoot, and the place transferring the tapes said that they do a 1:1 transfer of all information from the tapes. so during the edit with the full quality dv footage, i should export at 1080 60, correct? also, is it important to deinterlace the footage?
@@melodymedia466 That's great they do one-to-one transfers; that's the best way to maintain quality. Deinterlacing first is a good step; HandBrake does it well, Premiere is alright at it. For internet videos, exporting to 1080p59.94 is ideal since sites usually like progressive video better. For archival, keep it Quicktime DV 480i59.94.
This was recorded as a DV format 480i QuickTime MOV via Premiere Pro CS6. I then put that video into a newer version of Premiere and set the timeline frame rate to 59.94p and set Field Options to None. So, technically not upscaled but does retain all of the detail of the original file.
@@Pasi123 Simply doubling the frame rate so that each field has its own progressive frame. That's why it flickers. I wanted it to look interlaced for the feel of this video, so this isn't the best method out there; the best one I've found is the Yadif deinterlacer in HandBrake set to Bob mode with frame rate doubled.
@@baaelectronics Have you ever tried QTGMC? It's not the easiest to set up and it's slow but it's still the best deinterlacing method as far as I know. Yadif is usually said to be the second best one. And thanks to HandBrake it's definitely easiest one with good quality.
Using 80s music while filming in the 2004 DV format.
Such an eclectic combination!!!!!!
Yep... that's MiniDV gold all right. I can still vividly remember those days of immersing myself into making videos in whatever ways I could think of. What fun it was to then connect my own Panasonic camcorder to either my Pentium 4 rig or one of the Macs I had and let it run through the whole tape, and come back with some ultra clear footage. For added fun, I even got to watch everything I just recorded as it was being captured. iMovie HD 6 galore!
Unfortunately, limited disk capacities, small upload size caps, and a lack of abundant tapes to work with are a few factors that have lead to some of my end products either being in bad quality or outright deleted. I hadn't yet fully grasped the foresight to understand the importance of preserving all of my raw materials no matter what.
I still use iMovie 06 on a 2018 MacBook to import footage from my DVX100, since it keeps more detail than quicktime or Final Cut.
Minidv is a pretty looking format. Reminds me of nature documentaries
Obsolete tech 2020 definitely. But at the time, late 90's MiniDv was a true game changer. The format, that broad broadcast quality on reach of amateur videographers at the time when TV-broadcast was still analog and low-res.
I really like these old cameras and my aunt has a mini DV camera I think because that’s what my dad said, it might be hi8 but I think I might be able to get it.
I like the style for some reason.
Wow, I haven't made a video in a long time! I've just been trying to concentrate more on my school efforts and finishing this year strong.
As for this video and why it even exists, I first started working on this particular video about 5 months ago using my borrowed Panasonic AG-DVC30 to shoot video. I really just wanted a feel of how videos were done back in the early 2000s even using a fairly prosumer-grade camcorder.
This also goes to show that people don't need brand-new super expensive cameras to make cool videos, I used a very old camera from 2004 (probably slightly earlier) and still managed to get some great shots! If you know what you're doing, video equipment doesn't really matter. And that's the inlying message of this, admittingly strange, video...
baaelectronics great video
how you get this footage so clean? im trying to find the right vhs to buy and thiss looks perfect but other videos on youtube with this camera dont look near as good as this?
It was all digitally captured (480i60) through FireWire instead of something like analog composite, as well as being upscaled to 1080p to allow for a higher bitrate for playback on UA-cam. Most cheap ADC (analog-to-digital) capture devices will capture just the analog video output and automatically deinterlace it in real time which makes for some awful horizontal banding and soft image quality. If you want to get clean video from MiniDV, you really need an old computer that has FireWire 400 (preferably a MacBook since it comes with iMovie for capture) or even a DVD-RAM recorder that also has a FireWire or DV input.
Mini Dv cameras look better than VHS or HI8
I assumed "this camera" meant the Panasonic DVX or DVC. Analog video looks worse than this, but honestly not much worse when captured correctly.
Probably footage taken with an older or lower-end camera. Mini-DV has been around since 1995 and I imagine some of those old first-gen camera look horrible, especially if the video was transferred poorly.
I just capped a couple tapes from a Sony TRV11 through S-video and it looks fine
That looks pretty darn good for an ntsc tape. Wondering how rip of my PAL tapes is going to look like...
DV looks surprisingly good for SD video. I bet your PAL tapes will look as good if not better; just make sure to deinterlace to 50p!
@@baaelectronics thanks for advice. Also, what deinterlacing algorithm gets best results?
@@ngaswithadditude I've always used Yadif with the Bob preset since it's the best easy-to-use deinterlacer, especially in HandBrake. Others have commented on this video with supposedly better ones, but I think Yadif is the best for double frame rate.
this is great.
Video is from 2004 but the music was from 1984. To capture the vibe of y2k i would od gone more alternative rock
Ah yeah, that would’ve fit the era better but not really the ethereal chill vibe of the actual video in my 6-years-ago opinion. Plus, I’m not too big of a fan of rock in the first place (besides live events).
@@baaelectronicsI think The Cranberries - Dreams would work. Could use the vocal or instrumental version
Actually anything from The Cranberries would work. Give it a try
Thanks
nice , i got my first miniDV cam recorder(JVC grdv1 ) back in '96.
my question is ...i allready have tons of minidv tapes on my harddrive(exact dv copies through firewire...1 hour equalls about 12 gig)...what kind of program do i need to edit them without recoding them.
I used Videoproc 1.9 but even copying the file to DV it changed the size and thus recoding it somehow.
What’s the file extension? .dv or .mov or something else? Most editors these days will only work with the most common extensions like .mov; Premiere used to do .dv but no longer :( There’s really no way to get around re-encoding DV, especially since it’s 480i and most editors are all progressive these days, so I’d recommend HandBrake for encoding and I may be able to share some good settings for HandBrake if you choose to go that route.
@@baaelectronics
thanx for replying so fast.
extension is .dv
i experimented with as i said before with videoproc 1.9 by just encoding it from dv to dv , but the end result is still smaller in size. Some programs have the option "same as original".proc does not...maybe i have to fiddle with the settings to get the exact same size.
Then and only then i dare to edit things out of my precious DV videos.
For capturing the tapes through firewire i used
AVS Video ReMaker 6.4
1 hour video takes realtime 1 hour to capture.
i tries the editing tool of the same program i capture it with but it is not supported.
Only Videoproc recognises DV
thanks
Hello
It looks really nice! How is the video 1080 60p if it was shot on miniDV? I want to learn. I bought a Panasonic HVX200, the p2 cards are expensive. I want to play with the MiniDv tape.
It was probably upscaled in post production
I neglected to respond to this comment earlier… the video is 480i59.94 but UA-cam won’t stream a good quality 60p stream unless it’s FHD or higher, so I upscale 720x480i59.94 to 1440x1080p59.94 to stream online.
found my dads Panasonic NV-GS30 yesterday =D
Hi!
So for the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to capture DV footage that my dad shot around 2004, and it just doesn't look all that great, but yours looks really good. I'm capturing it through firewire (IEEE 1394) into my PC through a PCI card but it still looks like the video has super low bitrate whenever I view it in the AVI file and in Premiere Pro 2020. So I'd like to ask you what kind of software and hardware you used to get it at the quality and frame rate that it is at, and the steps you took to get there. Thanks!
I used Premiere Pro CS6 for capturing straight from my Panasonic AG-DVC30 to my 2009 MacBook via FireWire. It creates a 480i MOV file from Premiere that I then put onto my desktop PC with Premiere Pro 2019 for editing. For the bitrate issue, are you capturing straight DV via Premiere to MOV like I did for this video? As for the 60p framerate, I put the 60i video file into a 1920x1440 59.94fps sequence and set the Field Options to None. This way, both fields are visible as opposed to deinterlacing or discarding. I did do some Lumetri Color correction, but it was very minor. I'm pretty sure Premiere records DV to an MOV file by default, so make sure you're doing that and you should get great results!
@@baaelectronics Thanks for the response I really appreciate it! So, as far as I've seen yesterday when I took a look at the files it was saving to, the videos are being saved as AVI files and there doesn't seem to be any compression issues going on, but the tapes still don't have a lot of detail in them, and I know that might be a limitation of the technology as well as the camera it was recorded on which was a Panasonic PV-GS9, which he brought brand new in may of 2004 so the heads couldn't have been that dirty. So, For now, I'll try all of the settings that you recommended and I'll let you know if there are any problems that I'm having if they do come up. Thanks!
@@growingnebula9469 why save as avi, why not as the original DV format...sure its size is big (1 hour video is around 12 gb, but hey...1on1 copy with no quality loss...exactly as the tape).
Welcome to subsampled, compressed, interlaced, pixel starving, single sensor, standard definition. It simply looks terrible, doesn't it? And, given the premises, how couldn't it?
I’m gonna make a music video with this camera
Yessss, do it!
hmm. Looks a bit like some digital Image stabilization was involved. A bit choppy here and there :o
Actually, no electronic stabilization was used! The camera has optical stabilization (that's why the lens flares moved independently from the image) but it might just be because it's 15 years old and isn't as smooth as it used to be. To my knowledge. cameras of this vintage didn't do anything electronically to the video before put on tape and Premiere didn't do anything during import or export.
How do you convert 60i footage to 60p?
For this video, I directly imported the 480i59.94 DV footage into a 1440x1080p59.94 sequence in Premiere. Each field of 60i will be its own frame at 60p. Usually, I'd recommend running it through HandBrake with decomb bob enabled to get rid of the field artifacts, but I wanted the interlaced look for this one.
How did you import this to PC?
Via FireWire to a 2009 MacBook running Premiere Pro CS6. I've never tried DV capture on a Windows-based machine.
How did you make the video 60fps?
I used each field of the original 60i video as its own frame in 60p. This sometimes causes flicker on still objects or a loss of detail on fast-moving objects but for this type of footage, it works out nicely. Most cheapo ADCs would combine these fields into 30p and produce undesirable horizontal lines. This is similar to how broadcast TV is displayed with each field being shown separately, just being converted to 60p first.
Hey! I just got this camera and have a question. I keep seeing you say that this was 480p footage? I read online that all mini dv cams capture footage in 720p. Is this not true for this camera? Some of the shots in here definitely look like 720p HD but i’m just confused as to what resolution actually comes out of the DVC-30. If you could respond, it’d help out a bunch! Cheers!
DV native resolution is 720x480 at 4:3 aspect ratio displayed anamorphic. That way, it can be 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio and look good in both modes. The only way to get 60p playback on UA-cam is to upload at 720p60 or higher, that's why mine is 1080p60. Without scaling, UA-cam would crush DV down to 640x480p30 which is lower res and half frame rate, so on mine the video is technically 480p60 but at a 1080p60 bitrate. Hope that kind of explains it!
@@baaelectronics Oh okay, yes thank you! Should we tell the people that do the scan for us to record it in at 1080 60p then? Will be bringing the tape somewhere for the scan since I don’t have any of the gear myself. Or just export the raw footage in premiere at 1080p regardless of what the resolution the scan is?
@@melodymedia466 Capture the original tape at 720x480i59.94 DV if possible. It can always be scaled and deinterlaced later. Premiere captures DV natively to an MOV file and can double frame deinterlace it and scale to 1440x1080p60 when you go to edit. Good quality and you always have the original to go back to.
@@baaelectronics hi! thanks again for this answer. did the shoot, and the place transferring the tapes said that they do a 1:1 transfer of all information from the tapes. so during the edit with the full quality dv footage, i should export at 1080 60, correct? also, is it important to deinterlace the footage?
@@melodymedia466 That's great they do one-to-one transfers; that's the best way to maintain quality. Deinterlacing first is a good step; HandBrake does it well, Premiere is alright at it. For internet videos, exporting to 1080p59.94 is ideal since sites usually like progressive video better. For archival, keep it Quicktime DV 480i59.94.
What were your capture setting when transferring to digital? And how did you upres the footage?
This was recorded as a DV format 480i QuickTime MOV via Premiere Pro CS6. I then put that video into a newer version of Premiere and set the timeline frame rate to 59.94p and set Field Options to None. So, technically not upscaled but does retain all of the detail of the original file.
@@baaelectronics great, thank you!
@@baaelectronics What deinterlacing method you used?
@@Pasi123 Simply doubling the frame rate so that each field has its own progressive frame. That's why it flickers. I wanted it to look interlaced for the feel of this video, so this isn't the best method out there; the best one I've found is the Yadif deinterlacer in HandBrake set to Bob mode with frame rate doubled.
@@baaelectronics Have you ever tried QTGMC? It's not the easiest to set up and it's slow but it's still the best deinterlacing method as far as I know.
Yadif is usually said to be the second best one. And thanks to HandBrake it's definitely easiest one with good quality.