Sony BRC-300 problems/questions

[jmauro]

We currently have two of these.... one with the BRBK301 card in it. We bought them about 2 years ago, but have NEVER been happy with the quality of them. We are just coming out of the cameras with the s-video output and to tell you the truth, the quality is terrible. Not much better than you'd get with a $75 webcam.

Question #1 - How can we utilize the BRBK301 card and get it to go into our computer??(can it be converted to something then to firewire??)

Question #2 - Are any of the other "add-on" cards better quality than the BRBK301??

Question #3 - Right now we are converting the S-video to firewire, then using that firewire to broadcast over the internet. Is this the best(we know it's the cheapest) way??

Thanks so much for your time...

[Brad Weber]

The BRC300 is a 600TV line NTSC camera and you are using Y/C that is then converted to IEEE1394, so if you're expecting a HD quality image you will probably be disappointed.

The BRBK301 card adds analog component/RGB outputs to the composite and Y/C outputs that are on the camera itself, which seem to be what you are using. If you wanted to make use of the component/RGB output on the BRBK301 then an AJA Kona LH, BlackMagic DeckLink Studio or similar capture card might be an option. That should result in a better quality image but it will still be NTSC or essentially 480i (640x480, interlaced) resolution. For a simplified comparison, a typical smartphone has around a 5MP to 8MP camera while the BRC300 uses three 0.69MP sensors, so it can provide a high quality image but of limited resolution.

Of course your lighting and the camera setup will also factor into the image quality, so also consider the impact those may have.

[jmauro]

Well we are running the camera directly into a DVD recorder, THEN out to the firewire converter... so the image going to the DVD is directly from the camera, and it's not very good(IMO)... so there is no way to get a better quality from this camera then??

[petereit]

Originally Posted by jmauro

Well we are running the camera directly into a DVD recorder, THEN out to the firewire converter... so the image going to the DVD is directly from the camera, and it's not very good(IMO)... so there is no way to get a better quality from this camera then??

1. DVD recorders are infamous for employing awful MPEG encoders, with poor single-pass compression. That is particularly true if your DVD recorder does not contain an internal hard drive for initial video capture.

2. FireWire also employs video compression, and depending on the hardware employed, can result in a severe reduction in picture quality.

In short, none of the devices connected to your camera are capturing your camera's actual video quality.

As far as I know, the only way to capture your camera's actual quality would be to run component video out (preferably SDI if an SDI card is available for that camera) into a broadcast quality capture card like a BlackMagic or Aja card.

[petereit]

Oh, and make sure you're NOT trying to view your video on an HDTV -- that will just make the 480i video look even worse.

[jmauro]

Well I would post a link to Sony's site showing that they do indeed have an SDI card, but I can't because I am a n00b!

But I come out of the camera as SDI, then what?

[jmauro]

What I should ask is... then what to allow us to broadcast with a normal PC(and record).

I see Blackmagic has am H.264 USB device(does this allow us to do this??)

I also see they have a USB 3.0 device called UltraStudio SDI.

Do either of these allow us to broadcast a stream out using Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder(which is what we are currently using)??

[petereit]

Run that SDI cable into a BlackMagic Decklink Studio or AJA Kona LHe card.

Capturing uncompressed video takes a TON of hard drive space, so be sure to install an additional, fast, large HD in your PC dedicate solely to video capture. Don't use that drive for anything else, don't let it get more than 75% full, and defrag it weekly.

Trash your DVD recorder and use a good DVD authoring program that uses a high-quality, mufti-pass compression algorithm. Not only will your video look pristine, but you can custom-design your own nice-looking menus.

Actually, you can most likely make due with an older, used card, so long as it still has a working SDI input. The BlackMagic Decklink card we use to capture HD video is an older used HD Extreme board I found on eBay for around $150. It's been working flawlessly in our 8-core Mac Pro for going on 3 years now.

[prochlea]

Do you have any examples of some video from the camera? Can you describe the quality issues in more detail? While it's definitely not HD quality, I've seen this camera produce good video.

[Brad Weber]

Originally Posted by jmauro

Well we are running the camera directly into a DVD recorder, THEN out to the firewire converter... so the image going to the DVD is directly from the camera, and it's not very good(IMO)... so there is no way to get a better quality from this camera then??

How far is the camera from the DVD recorder and what is used for the cabling between them? Have you tried hooking up a monitor to the S-Video output at the camera using just a short cable and seeing how that image looks? That might help confirm whether the issue is actually the image out of camera or something after that.

Has anyone checked the camera's menu settings for exposure, white balance, etc.?

[jmauro]

Run that SDI cable into a BlackMagic Decklink Studio or AJA Kona LHe card.

Capturing uncompressed video takes a TON of hard drive space, so be sure to install an additional, fast, large HD in your PC dedicate solely to video capture. Don't use that drive for anything else, don't let it get more than 75% full, and defrag it weekly.

Trash your DVD recorder and use a good DVD authoring program that uses a high-quality, mufti-pass compression algorithm. Not only will your video look pristine, but you can custom-design your own nice-looking menus.

Actually, you can most likely make due with an older, used card, so long as it still has a working SDI input. The BlackMagic Decklink card we use to capture HD video is an older used HD Extreme board I found on eBay for around $150. It's been working flawlessly in our 8-core Mac Pro for going on 3 years now.

I see the Blackmagic Design BDLKSDI DeckLink SDI PCI Express Card online for about $280, would this be sufficient?

Sorry can't post link yet.

[jmauro]

Originally Posted by Brad Weber

How far is the camera from the DVD recorder and what is used for the cabling between them? Have you tried hooking up a monitor to the S-Video output at the camera using just a short cable and seeing how that image looks? That might help confirm whether the issue is actually the image out of camera or something after that.

Has anyone checked the camera's menu settings for exposure, white balance, etc.?

Had some long cabling, but now I have it run directly from the camera about 6ft into the DVD recorder. So a very short cable and that fixed the quality from the 50ft we had before. But still very poor.