GE DV1 1080p HD Digital Video Camera

[RJ Johnston]

I've been using the SteadePod with my PlaySport and that helps. The only time I might see jello is right after I push the button to start the camera. I have been thinking about using the remote control I bought to start and stop it. I haven't felt the need to put any clips through Mercalli except for a few. I mainly trim the beginning and ending off.

Does the jello go away if you turn off image stabilization?

I just bought another camera, the Kodak Zi8 for $79.99 from Office Max. That's being shipped to me. I was reading reviews about the latest model coming out from Kodak and how it's not as good as the PlaySport or Zi8.

[Paul LS]

Does the jello go away if you turn off image stabilization?

The jello effect is certainly reduced with image stabilization turned off but it is then introduced when I use Mercalli (well the video stabilization in Vegas Pro) to steady the now shakier shots. Funnily the jello introduced by the PlaySport image stabilzation is totally removed with Mercalli. So I think I will stick with the PlaySport image stabilization and use Mercalli to clear up the jello and any shake.

[Chuck Engels]

I finally was able to shoot comparison video with the DV1 and my HV40, should have something to post in the next few days

I had the DV1 on a Monopod and the HV40 on a tripod and filmed the same thing at the same time from the same angle, should be a good comparison. The video will be mostly of a little Frisbee Dog Training

Frisbee.gif

[Paul LS]

I'm interested to see the results Chuck.

[Chuck Engels]

So far I have the footage from the HV40 captured, the footage from the DV1 imported and converted to m2t. Used Premiere Elements 9 to do the conversion and all went very well, the quality still looks the same as the original. The original video is 1920 x 1080, (1080p 30), converted to HD MPEG 1920 x 1080 30i.

I am now thinking about how to display the video and I am thinking about doing it a few ways. For uploading purposes I will probably need to do something like 720p to keep the file size a bit smaller but still show HD video.

I want to show the videos side by side and also how they would be used in real life, cutting from one to the next. I will need to take a little more video under some different lighting to get a really good feel for the differences. I did not modify the DV1 settings at all, the video shot is with settings straight out of the box. I am going to take some more video using some different settings too.

For now I am going to finish up what I have and upload that for an initial comparison.
Should be done in the next day or two. Would have been done sooner but I have been in a training class all week for a new database tool we are starting to use at work. It is called Talend if anyone is familiar with it.

[Paul LS]

Thanks for the update Chuck

[Chuck Engels]

Here is my first sample comparison, finally. There were definite struggles with this, mostly around Premiere Elements version 9. Finished it up with version 4 without any issues but had to export one more time and that did degrade the quality slightly. Overall I think you will get the idea of the difference between the two cameras. The video is WMV 720p (1280 x 720) so I added the direct link to the video also. The file is 63mb ...

[wmvvideo]http://www.chuckengels.com/PremierVideo/ChuckE/video/GEDV1Test.wmv[/wmvvideo]

http://www.chuckengels.com/PremierVideo ... V1Test.wmv

[Chuck Engels]

Actually when I double click on the video it goes full screen and looks pretty good

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Would you rate it as a 1080 'b' roll camera then, Chuck?

The weddings that I have done so far have been one camera events (Sony HVR-A1) mainly because there is only me doing the videoing. It would be useful to be able to have a (cheap) static second1080 camera, always assuming that I could colour match in PPro.

Open to suggestions on this point.

[Chuck Engels]

Hi John,
I think it would be a good B Roll camera for some things, especially if there isn't a lot of motion like a wedding. There are still some settings I will need to check out that should make the picture quality better. It does have white balance settings and that may be enough. In even light it works very well and the colors are good. I did try to do some color adjustment in Premiere Elements but was not too successful at matching the HV40.

The DV1 records at 1080p 30, while the HV40 is 1080i 30.
The DV1 will also do 720p 60 or 30.

Overall I think you can get a pretty good idea of the quality by viewing the video full screen

Also, take into consideration that I started the project in Premiere Elements 9. Converted the 3 DV1 AVCHD video files to a single MPEG m2t file and imported that into the Premiere Elements 9 HDV 1080i 30 project I started for the HV40 video, also 3 files. I then ran into the interlacing issue with version 9, it would not deinterlace the footage on export. So I finished the editing in version 9 and exported the timeline as MPEG m2t once more and then opened that in a Premiere Elements version 4 project and exported the WMV 720p video from there perfectly.

So the DV1 video was converted twice, the HV40 video converted only once. Still, the quality of the finished product is very close to the original. I actually think the HV40 footage lost more quality than the DV1 footage did overall.