4
Set Up for Seriously Better Video
NOTE:
When you start DV Rack with a live camera, by default, audio pass-through from
the camera to your computer speakers (or other audio output devices) is muted to prevent
feedback. To turn Auto Mute off, click the
Menu
button and set
Auto Mute Camera
to Off.
Step 2 - Set Up to Color Bars
Setting up to DV Rack Color Bars calibrates your computer screen to display lev-
els of brightness, white and color that match what your camera records. This
important step ensures that what you see in DV Rack at the shoot is what you get
later in production. While you’re at the shoot, we recommend setting up to
Color Bars whenever lighting around your computer changes significantly. Also
see Color Bars.
NOTE:
When adjusting settings on the DV Rack Field Monitor such as brightness, you are
changing how the Field Monitor displays the video. You are not changing or adjusting the
video signal itself. DV Rack always records the pure digital signal from your camera to the
hard drive just as it would be recorded to tape in the camera, (less any tape dropouts of
course!)
TIP:
Position your computer screen at an angle which reduces the amount
of glare. When shooting in direct sunlight, you may want to consider using a
computer screen sunshade like this one for better visibility.
1.
To display Color Bars, click the
Bars
button.
2.
Turn the
Chroma
dial to the left
until all of the Color Bars become
black, gray or white.
3.
Turn the
Contrast
dial to the right
until all bars are distinguishable
in 7 different shades of gray. Try
to achieve a consistent gradient of
even steps from bar to bar. The
last bar at the far right should be
very dark gray, but not black. The
first bar should be light gray, not
bright white.
4.
At the bottom of the 6th bar, there
are 3 small bars in varying shades
of dark gray to black. Turn the
Bright
dial until you can barely
see a difference between the mid-
dle bar and the right bar, but can-
not see a difference between the
left bar and the middle bar.
Keep adjusting the
Bright
dial
until the small bars look like this.
NOTE:
Hold down the
CTRL
key
when turning dials to change the
value in smaller steps.