question for video guys...
 

When I shoot a video in my living room wih my handycam it looks nice and bright and crisp on the tv and on the camera itself when i preview it.

But when I transfer it to my harddrive via firewire, its so dark, and poorly lighted. What gives? Am I missing some step? It's like it needs the brightness and contrast increased.

Any tips?

you need to tweak your video capture settings.

Do you do a "White balance?"

I just noticed the whitebalance is set to auto... maybe i should make it indoor...

white balance won't make it darker or lighter, it will change the color. Auto is fine, but you are always better off setting it with a white card and using the One Push

so how should i tweak my capture settings? i was using the windowd program that pops up... but i could use another capture program... what do you recommend?

set the the brightness and contrast to higher, capture 5 seconds, and check it, re-adjust, capture, etc.

Also check to make sure you are capturing in Millions of Colors.

gotcha.... what proggy do you use to capture?

I use a Mac and Final Cut Pro for my video editing. Not sure what you can use for a PC, Window Movie Maker should capture fine.

What app are you using to view/play the video clips on your hard drive? WMP? Are you sure that your media player is displaying the video correctly? One shouldn't have to change capture apps or adjust any kind of settings to make it display properly. You are capturing standard definition digital video clips? Many video displays on cameras also make the vid clips look brighter than they are.