On Fri, 22 Mar 2002 04:37:49 GMT, 3in4 wrote:

>I had my first experience with the full spectrum of recording with MiniDV (Canon Optura 100),
>editing on my computer (with Studio 7), recording the edited video back on MiniDV, then outputting
>from the camcorder to a VCR. First of all let me say that MiniDV quality is astounding. When I fed
>the edited tape directly to the TV with an S-video cable it looked extremely crisp and sharp. The
>problem is, I recorded to VHS using S-video as well and I can't beleive how bad it looks. Mini-DV is
>so popular, and the idea of carrying around my miniDV camcorder with edited tape to everyone I might
>want to show a tape to is ridiculous, so what is everyone else outputting to? DVD burners cant be
>that popular yet, is everyone else outputting to VHS as well and seeing their beautiful footage
>reduced to crappy quality? What am I missing?

Not much - VHS is a 240-line-limit medium; Mini-DV is
a 540-line-limit medium (these are maximums, not often
realized in practice...). You can often improve the
transfer by running the signal through a good video EQ
device, and reducing color saturation and increasing
sharpening, but the results will still look worse than the
original. DVD copies will also reduce quality somewhat,
but it looks much better than average VHS copies. BTW,
VHS copies made by good video copy places (like EK Media)
can look quite good (though not like the original...) - I
would like to know how they do it...! ;-)