How to record high quality videos on nikon D3100?

I'm a beginner in photography. Nikon D3100 captures good images but besides that i want to learn more about recording videos in this camera. Recently, i've heard it records 1080p which is good but when i record it personally the quality seem to be a bit noisy and not so clear. Please help. I tried different kind of settings. I saw on many video samples of Nikon D3100, the quality is excellent. I don't know what i do wrong.
I have tried this:

changing to movie quality to

-1920 x 1080p 24fps
-1280 x 720p 30 fps
- 1280 x 720p 25 fps'
- 1280 x 720p 24fps

turn noise reduction to ON.

Active D-lighting ON.

Any specification should i change? Or did i do something wrong? Please do not answer negative comments or ill delete straight away. I would appreciate so much for helping me.

At 1920 x 1080p 24fps (cine) you are getting Full HD video.

What I suspect is that you are shooting indoors and are not supplying any additional lighting (500 watt and 750 watt incandescent laps as a start)

The camera has to automatically adjust the ISO to get well exposed images indoors or in low light. The higher the ISO it has to use, the more noise is generated.

Here is a video that was shot using additional lighting to emulate the natural occurring light in each scene.

I've got a Nikon D3100 too. I've had it for about half a year, and the one thing I've learned is that it isn't really for video. The quality is really bad, no matter what you change. A lot of those videos are enhanced, but I have seen some where it looked sharper. You can call Nikon and ask them.

I'm not a camera expert, I'm just learning about digital cameras, I'm a audio video specialist.

So with that said, the issue is that its only shooting even at the highest resolution which is full 1080p but only at 24fps. True full 1080p must be shot at 60 frames per second to really get the full benefit of 1080p video.

It is also my understanding that the quality of the sensor will make a huge difference and it sounds like it should be a full frame sensor to capture the full aspect ratio with out croping of the image. The Nikon D3100 is not a full frame camera, so it will crop the image which will distort the image on video to some degree.

That is however taking my knowledge of video to camera technology.

Kevin
40 years high end audio video specialist

Light is the generic answer. You either supply additional light and/or use a faster lens (small f-stop number like 1.8 or 2.8). Trying to shoot in low light will not produce good results on any camera. Also, lighting of the scene is really important and is a life long study.

Other things are having a good tripod with a fluid head (expect to spend a minimum for $200 for reasonably good setup). Shooting fully manual has advantages, but I find this hard to do on a DSLR, as compared with a prosumer video camera.

All you are delving at are camera settings. Those mean nothing if you don't look at the light first. Videos are optical media and depend on light. The better the light, the better the video you can capture. From the quality and quantity of light you are working will you set the camera. It's how one assesses light and how he sets the camera to capture that particular light that makes a good videographer. The worst part is, there's no one particular setting as light changes all the time.

Your need light, light and more light! Your getting poor results because of how your using the camera. Also you need to dig into your user manual a bit more often. The settings your paying with are for photo's and have nothing to do with video.

Active D lighting is for reducing shadows and highlights while keeping detail in those areas.

Noise reduction is for reducing grain caused by images taken at high ISO's or long exposures.

The D3100 has no adjustable settings in video mode other than changing the resolution at which the video is recorded. Aperture can be changed however you need to set the desired aperture before you enter live view mode.

Id also recommend sticking with manual focus while recording video. All DSLR's no matter who makes them have issues with focusing in both live view and while recording video.

Just remember you need light. Brighten up your surroundings and you will see a difference. Poor lighting will just cause the camera to bump up the ISO which will result in grainy videos.