To interlace or deinterlace that is the question...

Apart from all the other issues the SC-MX20 has, there is the issue of interlacing. If you plug your camera into an "old" style TV (the kind with a tube, which many of us still have) with the supplied cord and play your video directly from the camera, you probably won't notice the interlacing. However, when you transfer your video to your computer (unless you have an "old" style computer monitor) you will see it.

What exactly am I seeing do you ask? What is this interlacing and why is it an issue?

Here's a definition:

Interlacing - Interlacing is a method 'borrowed' from television, for refreshing an image on a computer monitor. Interlacing refreshes an image on the screen by scanning every other line, and alternately scans every opposite line. This allows a faster refresh rate, and less information during each scan. Unfortunately this may cause flickering or noticeable line movements in some situations. - http://www.systemax.co.uk/contentModules/htm/monitors/videoGlossary.htm

In a nutshell, you might see something like this:


Is this bad? Well, no, not really in itself. If you transfer your videos straight to DVD without any editing, and play them on a "tube" TV, then you're OK. But most computers now use a flat screen display and almost all new televisions are flat panel as well. They no longer use the "scan" method to provide your picture and the interlacing will be very noticeable.

So what to do? Here comes my handy dandy tool to the rescue again. The latest version deinterlaces your video, if you choose, allowing for a smoother, sharper image. You can even leave them in MP4 format for working with Cyberlink MediaShow.

You can download the fix here. I'm still trying to come up with a creative name and icon for it, but it does the job. I have given a how-to for it here.

How is it broken?

I've gotten a lot of hits on this blog from people searching for "Samsung SC-MX20 broken" or "how to fix Samsung SC-MX20" and variations on that theme.

The problem is, I don't have an answer to that because it's not a question that can be answered.

I know that the nature of web search kind of forces one to be extremely vague to get an answer that is even in the ballpark of what you are looking for. But those searches led them to this site and I really want to help if I can.

So, is your Samsung SC-MX20 broken? Or are you just experiencing the same defects the rest of us are dealing with? Or is it just something annoying?

If your camera is missing parts, or is in some other way physically damaged, it's broken. Contact Samsung for repair. And if you are searching for someone besides Samsung who can repair it, you won't find anyone. You might find some local guy - a Luis' Fix-It-Shop, that might be willing to give it a try, but there are no "authorized Samsung Repair" places besides Samsung itself.

If you battery is charged and you camera won't turn on, it's broken.

If the battery won't charge, you might try getting another battery. Make sure you get one from Samsung, others aren't designed to be a perfect match.

If your camera starts but the internal software isn't working right, it's broken.

If you camera starts and seems to be working right but no files are saved to the memory card, it might be broken. It's also possible your memory card is defective. (Oh, and you do need a memory card. In spite of some specs you might see around the 'net, the SC-MX20 does not have internal memory. ) Consult the manual to be sure you are properly recording, then try a new memory card. And make sure you have the RIGHT KIND of memory card. You need an SDHC card, not just SD.

If you take the card out of the camera and put it in your computer and the computer won't read the card, make sure your computer has the right kind of card reader. You need an SDHC card for the camer, you need an SDHC reader on your computer. Just because it fits in the slot doesn't mean it's the right kind of reader. Try using the supplied cord that came with your camera and use the camera as the card reader to see if the files are intact.

If your camera does record, but the files are somehow distorted or blank or missing audio or missing video or any other combination of similar problems, there is any combination of things that could be wrong. At this point, it's a matter of going through a long list of trouble shooting steps to rule out a camera problem or a user problem. I don't have the time to post that list here, and whatever I write won't be all inclusive. However, the first step would be to reset your camera to factory settings. Go through your camera settings and you'll find the option to do it. After that, there's too many other things that could be wrong to list any one fix. Try different lighting conditions, try different locations, try and try and try. If you are convinced that there are no environmental conditions that could be causing the problem, then it's probably broken.

However, before you give up, try leaving a message here. If you didn't find what you were looking for in this post or elsewhere on this blog, then leave a comment and ASK. Just because I haven't thought to write about it doesn't mean I don't have an answer. You came to this blog looking for something, what is it?

Now, if we're talking about the widescreen issue or the interlacing or the fact that it records in MP4 files that won't work Movie Maker or other problems like that, then you are dealing with defects, not broken-ness.

Cyberlink MediaShow and Vista - I think I finally got it to work

I've mentioned Cyberlink's Media show, the software bundled with the Samsung SC-MX20, the problems with it, and why I don't use it.

The main problem is that my "good" computer is Vista. Anything I try to do with MediaShow blows up. A small edit to a two minute video clip takes HOURS to re-compile, if it does at all.

I really want it to work. I really do. There are some features that I think would be great as a companion to Windows Movie Maker, such as the "fix shaky video" option. (The Samsung SC-MX20 does do a small amount of stabilization, very small, but if MediaShow can add some more, that would be great.) There's also option for white balance and others that Movie Maker doesn't have. I don't think I would ever use MediaShow as my main editor, it's just too complex, bloated and hard-drive intensive. But, if I can make a couple of quick edits that Movie Maker can't do, then take the tweaked video to Movie Maker, then that would be awesome.

I tried it again today. I have a 7 minute clip of my son's marching band that I did without a tri-pod. To make it worse, it was stinking cold that night, so the camera is REALLY shaky, beyond what the image stabilzation in the camera was capable of. So I imported the clip into MediaShow and gave it another chance.

The only tweak I made was "Fix shaky video". I hit the back button to save it, and let it go. The counter got to about 50% in 5 minutes or so, but then the countdown timer started to go the other way. When it got to 56% it was telling me it had 3 hours left, and it was still climbing. An hour and a half later it was still on 56%, only now the timer was well over 12 hours, and climbing.

Sigh. I really want this to work. I have another computer, a laptop, very old, that has less than a half gig of memory and runs XP. I use it like a netbook, only using it for the Internet, and even then not any video-intensive tasks. But desperate times and all that, so I installed media show on that. Doing the same edit on the same video took 10 minutes. Boom done.

But the hard drive on that laptop is tiny. And slow. I can't depend on it to do a lot of videos.

Vista, like XP has a compatibility mode. What the heck? Let's give it a try. So I found the shortcut, chose properties and set the compatibility to Windows XP.

Restart the program, find the video, choose the fix, hit the back button and....

Well, when I started writing this post it was at 91%. I thought it would be done by the time I got here. 5 minutes later it's at 91% telling me it has 3 minutes left, but the timer is climbing. Now it's at 3:20. Sigh.
Here's another attempt. You can see that 2 hours have elapsed and it says there is 17 minutes left. When 5 minutes had past it said there was 3 minutes left. It was at 87% then too. The video I'm trying to edit is 2:22 long. (That's two minutes).


Has anyone out there had better luck with this program on Vista? Maybe getting it to work on XP was a fluke? What works for you?

Maybe we can learn something here

I stumbled across this blog yesterday. It talks about still photography, but many of the principles apply to videography as well.

Stop Shooting Auto