ATI clone Tevion USB brightness too high?
 

In virtualdub, the default brightness is like 128, should it be dropped to 100? It does seem rather high.

But you can always tweak brightness later when encoding or during playback with most media players.

What's the most nondestructive thing to-do here?

I noticed the brightness was pretty high even on my DV Hi8 captures I just did straight out of FireWire.
Maybe this is just actually an accurate representation of the source.

This is a meaningless question when we can't see what you're seeing. The optimal Proc Amp values will vary for each playback device and also depends on the actual tape content.

If US NTSC source, Sony Digital8 cams incorrectly use Japanese levels for everything and thus lighten up blacks.

If not, the levels could still be "wrong" since the analog-to-digital converter tries to automatically set the levels, and this process isn't perfect.

It can be a bit high on defaults, something I've often mentioned. Set the levels down to about 116, as 100 is probably much too low. This issue is system-by-system, and I've never been able to figure out why. Some installs are perfect OOB, some need the quick minor levels adjust. OS makes no difference.

Setting this card is not too dissimilar from setting the ATI/Startech audio hack, on those cards. It just needs a bit of tweaking before starting a project. Make yourself a preflight checklist, including VirtualDub settings, VCR settings, cabling/wiring, TBC, card settings, etc. Verify everything, reset anything as needed. Pretty simple stuff.

I probably need to share my checklist, don't think I've ever done it. :hmm:

You can, but best to capture with as correct values as possible.

Sometimes it is. But you can still compensate for hot/dark/etc sources pre-capture. That's the main reason to getting higher-end equipment. Also noting issues cannot be fixed post-capture.

Good points, I think I'll try 116. And the rest at defaults, I've set everything else up well and no other issues.

Just this brightness seemed a bit odd, I'm going to tweak things post-capture if I need. I just wanted good settings for all-round stuff.

At the stock levels for post I've found Tweak(bright=-10) in AviSynth, reduces it to a more realistic level. Stock is way too high on everything I've tested it on, switched to 116 now though.

Unless the tapes had crushed whites, the off-ness is not drastic, correctable in post if needed. Do correct it now, but previous captures are probably fine. If you're already planning to correct in Avisynth/VirtualDub filtering, then it becomes ever more moot.

And if you're tapes were dark/underexposed, the off levels may actually help.

I've found 116 to be accurate to ATI AIW, which normally needs no adjustment.

Well I do plan on keeping the raw footage but I'm going to do some cropping and correction in AviSynth for family I'm sharing it with since transporting these large files isn't ideal. Probably just put it on Plex actually.

But yeah corrected to 116 thanks for that value, I was playing around with it myself and I came out at around there as well. But I don't have a calibrated monitor or anything so it's all a shot in the dark.

This is what histograms, waveform monitor displays, and other measurements are for.

You should also set Sharpness to 0.