Capturing TV shots with Nikon D70

I want to take pics of menu displays (from DVD player or digital receiver)
on my TV using my Nikon D70. Not having too much success so far. Can
anyone advise with regard to correct settings? Based in UK, by the way.

Video capture hardware will give substantially better results

To get half decent images of a TV screen with a digital or film camera
you want to use a longish time exposure and if possible at a multiple
of the 50Hz frame rate (US 60HZ). To get a complete image you need at
least a 40ms or 1/25s exposure, but a 1/5s exposure will look better
provided the image is static. A tripod is essential for good results.

Whenever there is a partial scan overlap some parts will be brighter -
this is better disguised in a longer exposure. LCD screens are slower
to respond somewhat more forgiving. In a moving TV image it is always a
difficult compromise between motion blur and scan artefacts. Frame
grabbers are very much better for this.

Regards,
Martin Brown

|||newspam...wrote:

To get half decent images of a TV screen with a digital or film camera
you want to use a longish time exposure and if possible at a multiple
of the 50Hz frame rate (US 60HZ). To get a complete image you need at
least a 40ms or 1/25s exposure, but a 1/5s exposure will look better
provided the image is static. A tripod is essential for good results.

I don't know about PAL in the UK, but with NTSC in the US, the frame
rate is 30Hz. Two half-frames are interlaced each second (one with the
odd lines, one with the even). An exposure at 1/60th will get a frame
that has half the lines blank.

I don't know off my head how this might have changed with HDTV.

Austin