Hi folks,

I have a brand-new XL1S, with a vexing imaging problem. I wonder if anyone with the same camera has the same, or similar problem, and if you've found a fix (other than, of course, sending it back to Canon)??

When viewing on a PC, e.g. in Premiere, there's a horizontal black bar at the bottom of the picture, 4 pixels tall. The viewing window is 720x480, so the XL1S is cutting off lines 477,478, 479 and 480. The window ISN'T 780x486, so this isn't a D1 versus DV issue (I think).

Above the black line is a 1 pixel bright bar, i.e. it brightens the bottom 1 pixel of the picture. There's also a light colored vertical line, 1 pixel wide, at the left of the picture. These problems appear
on two completely different systems that I use for capture: IBM
ThinkPad A30p with built-in 1394 interface, and a desktop P4 PC with a Pinnacle Studio DV card. All apps show the same effect: Windows Movie Maker, Premiere 6.0, Pinnacle Studio 7.

A tape recorded on my XL1S, but played back on a consumer Sony TRV10 camera shows the same problem, although footage recorded on the same tape on the TRV10 is perfect. A tape recorded on the TRV10 captures
perfectly, i.e. the whole 720x480, when played in the XL1S. This leads to the conclusion that it's something in the XL1s' imaging path or the recorder that's at fault.

Windows Movie Maker allows LIVE capture through the 1394 port. That clinched it: with NO tape in the XL1S, to ensure that I'm really seeing the live feed, the black bar (and the bright bars) are there in the live Movie Maker preview. Fiddling with image stab, iris, clearscan, AE adjust and shutter speed has no effect. Changing lenses to the wide angle zoom, and a couple of EF lenses with the EF adapter, has no effect.

So, my guess is that the CCD array is misaligned: it's about 5 pixels high and one pixel to the right of where it should be.

These imaging faults are outside the TV Safe area. But, as I watch videos on my PC, that's no consolation. Even for viewing on a TV, these faults are a pain when doing, for example, PIP or many transitions/wipes. It's possible to crop them out, but it's a lot of work.

Thanks in advance! Alex Osadzinski.

Alex,

This is a serious issue that has appeared on many XL1Ss (though I never had this problem with my old XL1). We've already discussed this here (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1482).

Please call Canon Customer Service at 1-800-828-4040 and complain. Loudly. Don't let them convince you that this is not really a problem because it will never show up on your TV screen. And if you talk to somebody who has never heard of this issue before, ask to talk to Chris.

If you get anywhere with them, post back to this forum. I'd like to see this issue resolved as much as you would, and I will be sending my XL1 back in for repair, because this is NOT a "feature," this is a defect.

Thanks, Robert. The thread that you pointed me to somehow managed to omit all of the search terms that I used, so thanks for the pointer.

I called Canon customer service a couple of days ago, and that was not a good use of time: I got the "if it doesn't show on a TV it's not a problem" response. Attempts to discuss PIP, transitions, etc fell on deaf ears. Then, I called the XL1 hotline, and that yielded a completely different response: "it sounds like a fault, take it back to the store for an exchange or send it to us". As I bought the camera locally, at Keeble and Shuchat in Palo Alto, I called them and they said that they'd exchange it this week, as soon as they received a shipment of new cameras. I visited K&S yesterday, and captured video from their display XL1S onto my laptop, and it shows PRECISELY the same fault. In other words, it doesn't seem like a random mispositioning of the CCD array, but a systemic fault.

I'll try a brand new XL1S on Friday at the store and will let you know the results. My expectation is that it'll show the same problem. In browsing this (very useful) board last night, I found some pictures posted of XL1S stills from the NY Natural History Museum. You can't see the black bar, because the background is black, but the single-pixel horizontal and vertical lines are clearly there, too.

So, here's a newbie question (sorry): assuming that we have to live with the black bar, what's the best way to deal with it, especially with respect to compression to MPEG-2 for DVD burning? For picture-in-picture, this is very simple: you just crop the picture-in-the-picture, and all is well. For the main image, to remove artifacts when playing on a PC screen, it's easy to clip or crop the 720x480 image down to 719x475, at least in Premiere. So, the resulting movie is 719x475. When rendered out to a DV AVI file, though, won't Premiere stretch that back out to 720x480, with possible weirdness resulting from the stretch? Or do you think that it's better to retain the original 720x480 size, but put, say, a 5-pixel black border around it? Won't this possibly cause compression problems when rendering to MPEG-2? If it doesn't then it's a clean workaround, because the black border won't show up on a TV, and will disappear into most players' black backgrounds on a PC.

Thanks! Alex.

I experience the exact same problem with my XL1s, and have seen it on other brands of vidcams, as well. I have come to just accept it. I use Vegas Video3, which allows me to define the borders of the frame I want to render to 720 x 480. In effect, it's a crop and zoom. Using this, I've been able to remove the black pixels at the bottom of the frame from my rendered video.

I intend to use my XL1s for approx a year then send it to Canon service for a tune up. At that time, I will expect them to re-align the CCD.

Bill,

When you do the crop and zoom, do you get any artifacts as a result? That's a very difficult zoom (about 1%) to pull off without resulting moire patterns?

Thanks, Alex.

none...not a one...the effects filter in VV3 handles the crop and zoom as one operation.

Bill, I don't want to doubt you, but I agree with Alex. In a zoom that isn't a perfect multple of 2 along either of the image dimensions, moire is sure to be the result. Even good antialiasing filters (which introduce blurring distortion of their own) don't do a complete job of eliminating moire.

This isn't a challenge, I'm just curious exactly how (or how well) VV3 deals with this problem. So I don't suppose you have some example screen captures handy for posting?

For Alex, there is no need to test another camera on Friday, I can tell you with all certainty that it will show the exact same properties. At this time Canon USA does not consider it to be a defect, therefore there is no repair or replacement option for it.

I've posted a composite image with two frame grabs from my video clip. The first image shows a frame with the underscanned pixel rows accross the bottom. The second image shows the cropped and zoomed image of the frame. There is no moire that I can detect. Crop and zoom was performed with the Track Effects module from Vegas Video 3.

The link is:
www.geocities.com/ravens202/MV.jpg

Indeed, the crop and zoom looks pretty good. It looks as if you cropped off more than the underscanned pixels: judging by the small gap between the two large rocks in the very bottom left hand corner, you maybe cropped 10 pixels and zoomed. It looks damn good. I'll try this in Premiere and see how well it works.

Indeed, it was a "symetrical" crop. That is to say I cropped the entire perimeter(all four sides) of the frame by the same amount.

1) I've been there!
2) Why are the images 816 x 1056? What happened to good old 720 x 480? The aspect ratio isn't even preserved. Is this some kind of rectangular pixel issue?
3) Chris, whom have you talked to at Canon about this problem? I can think of two arguments against Canon's "there's nothing wrong with it!" position, if that is their position. First, the XL1S claims to be a still image camera, not just a video camera: it has a still image function. The border distortion is a serious issue for still images taken with the camera. Second, the XL1S's advertised resolution isn't being delivered if a fraction of those pixels are bad.

I haven't gotten around to pursuing this further yet, but I want my camera fixed. (On my camera the border appears both on the bottom and on the left of the frame.) This really shouldn't be an issue on a camera this expensive, when cameras a tenth this price have no border distortion and my old XL1 never had this problem.

whoa...slow down robertks. In order to make a composite image, I duped each frame capture into a single composite Photoshop image. I made no attempt to keep anything other than aspect ratio. Also, I should point out that I did an image grab from two separate video files, one that was the master original and one that was cropped. I made no attempt to grab the identical image frame. The sequence was undergoing a zoom operation...the point is while they are within a few frames of one another, if you compare border details, you may not be able to deduce the actual crop size....sorry about that.

Secondly, I agree that it is apalling that a camera as "professional" as the XL1s has this kind of sloppy quality control. However, I will note that my old Sony VX1000 had an identical problem, altho' it was on the left vertical edge of the frame.

Ah, I see now--it's one image file being displayed, not two separate images.

Perhaps Canon's position is that it is a video camera, not a still camera. Therefore image artifacts will into the overscan area are not a defect. If it is the same on all units, it is not a QC issue, it is a design issue.

Don...

I think you may have missed one point. While the still images were used to display the problem, the black bar across the bottom is visible on the video, as well. Most of the video I produce for customers are viewd on a computer display, not a television. The balck bar is ALWAYS visible if I don't crop it out. That's just plain unacceptable. If it's a design flaw, that's worse than if it's a QC problem. In one case it's stupidity, in another case it's only sloppiness. My impression is that some cameras don't display this problem. That makes it a QC issue.

I visited Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto today, to try a new XL1S. Their video guy, Fred, was very helpful, and we spent about an hour trying things out. My camera has a PK manufacturing code, their display camera is PJ, and the new camera that we tried is QB. ALL have the identical problem, as Chris has indicated would be the case.

Fred thought that this was a serious problem, so he called Canon tech support, and they suggested sending my camera in. He got the impression that, although they didn't admit to a specific problem, there was a fix available. Note: this was only his impression. There's every chance of getting the camera back unchanged. I'll let y'all know.

Hello, I had posted another thread about this subject before, and I think even this problem isn't normal for a camera so expensive, I can live with it, but there is an issue more annoying that the bottom line one.

It's the red stripes in Frame Mode:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1587

I still don't know if all XL1 have it, but it is so bad, that it is keep me out of filming in frame mode even if I love this feature.
It seams this feature is defective and it's a kind of rip-off from Canon :-(

<<<-- Originally posted by Don Palomaki : If it is the same on all units, it is not a QC issue, it is a design issue. -->>>

ROFL!! It's a "feature"!

Just for the record, guys, I noticed that my XL1s also shows a tiny black bar at the bottom of the frame. It is not visible in the NTSC frame but is noticeable in a digital frame. I'm not really sure whether or not it's worth pursuing (for my purposes) with Canon.

For what it's worth, I've also noticed a black vertical bar on the left side of the raster. In the "old" analog days that would be due to wide vertical blanking. That was enough to have the broadcast technical standards people reject a tape. A few black lines at the bottom or top of the raster is due to wide horizontal blanking - not as common but still grounds for rejection.

As it has already been pointed out, this is a BIG problem when doing any picture in picture effect. It's totally unacceptable and should be no big deal to correct.

I have two XL-1 cameras (a plain 1 and a 1s) - the one with the "wide vertical blanking" is the XL-1s. The plain XL-1 shows a proper raster, so I would suspect this is due to poor QC, or at least, a lack of care in ensuring all cameras conform to industry standards.

I experimented with crop and zoom (actually, resize) in Premiere. It looks truly awful. However, Virtualdub's resize, with the appropriate crop settings, looks just fine. TMPGEnc doesn't seem to care: the resulting MPEG-2 files are about the same size.

So, there's a workaround, but it's a pain, because of the extra rendering steps.

A crop and resize (especially the resize) is unacceptable in
my eyes. I've plonked down enough money to get full
resolution image without any distortion. Resizing only further
degrades your image, so I'm not going to do that. Fortuntely
for me I'm doing my stuff widescreen so I have got no
trouble with this bar at all. I did notice problems with red in
frame mode though, this is even more concerning for me...
Planning to do some more tests with this shortly.

It's quite unacceptable, I agree Rob. There seems to be a consensus that most owners reporting here seem to have this problem. I wonder if anyone does NOT have it, at this point. Perhaps, we, as a group, could approach Canon with a request to fix this once and for all. I'm quite against a service tech's recommendation that we send the camera in and MAYBE, maybe not, it can be fixed. I am also wondering if the problem is a scan (blanking)problem, as suggested by Ozzie or if it's a lens alignment problem. If the lens uses a mask, misalignment(a lens rotation) would not only cause a black bar, but, other optical defects, as well.

If it's a lens misalignment, it's in the mount, and probably not the lens. The problem exists on my camera with the 16x and 3x zoom lenses, with or without the 1.6x extended, and with the EF lenses that I've tried with the EF adaptor.

Since the EF lenses, and a lens with a 1.6x adapter essentially overfill the focal plane, that's a good indication to me that it's a horiz blanking problem. A tweak of the electronics is probably what's needed....provided the ability to tweak is there...quien sabe?

It might be firmware, especially around the automagical "pixel shift" technology. That, of course, would be the ideal situation. Unfortunately, unlike Canon's digital still cameras, which can be flashed by the user, the XL1S doesn't have an obvious way to do this, although flashing by Firewire would be feasible (and fast!).

So, the question is: how best to address this with Canon? Do we all call individually? Is DVinfo.Net known to Canon as a valuable resource for promoting the use of their products? Would a "petition" signed electronically by a bunch of us have the most effect? The XL1 vertical line issue seems to have been dealt with quite well. This is almost as serious, albeit with a pain-in-the-neck workaround which wasn't possible with the vertical line problem.

Not to bandwagon, but the warranty clearly states "...free of manufacturing defects...". A warranty is basically a thinly-veiled marketing tool. This is Canon's top-of-the-line video camera.

The blanking problem used to be an adjustable one, albeit with a great degree of skill. I have a feeling this is something Canon can still do at the factory or as part of their annual maintenance.

To give a very simple explanation of what the vertical blanking is all about -- the vertical black bar is the nanosecond the scanning beam is tured off and back on while it scans from left to right and back again. If this nanosecond interval is too long the blanking (i.e. the vertical black bar) will be too "thick" and the raster, or frame, will be slightly more square than it should be. Blanking was never a problem with old TV receivers since they always underscanned anyway, but with today's receivers and especially with NLE systems and QT movies, the entire frame is revealed. I suspect Canon has not given this top priority as a problem to be solved.

The horizontal interval is similar but it's based on the common sync between transmitter and receiver (or between recorder and monitor) -- they both need to sync up on the horizontal interval at precisely the same rate - 60cps NTSC and 50cps PAL. Fortunately the horizontal interval has always been a few scanning lines wider than necessary. Because of this, there is room to place time code and other vital information on the "free" lines in the horizontal interval. VITC is a common use of these extra lines. Broadcasters are putting in all kids of other information in this enterval -- time of day, date, reel number, etc.

The vertical and horizontal intervals can be measured with the use of a waveform scope. There are calibrating marks on the scope's screen that tell you when the intervals are too short or long.

All this is true of analog video but I don't see why it would change in the digital domain. Sync is still sync. TV sets and monitors haven't changed a great deal in the last 20 or 30 years.

"Is DVinfo.Net known to Canon as a valuable resource for promoting the use of their products?"

I sent "Chris" at Canon tech support a link to the previous thread on this topic. Who knows whether he actually brought it up with his supervisors.

As for a petition, I think by posting here and expressing your dissastisfaction, you've already signed one.

Alex, thanks for championing this for us. Do let us know what you find out.

I haven't noticed any red lines in Frame Mode. If somebody posts a scientific procedure for reproducing these, I'll check it out.

More data:

In Frame mode, the problem is slightly worse: the black bar is maybe 2 pixels taller.

In 16:9 mode, the black bar is still there, perhaps 1 pixel shorter. This strongly suggests that the problem is nothing to do with the capture side of the CCD: as I stretch the image horizontally when entering 16:9 mode, the black bar covers a totally different part of the image than when in 4:3 mode.

So, this suggests that the problem lies in the processing after the CCD. Per Ozzie's posting, this may be a "simple" horizontal blanking adjustment.

One last variable that I want to eliminate: both my capture systems run Windows XP, and so are using the Windows DV codec. Although I use the MainConcept DV Codec 2.04 for rendering on output, there's no way that I know of to replace the Windows DV codec for capture. Although captures are fine (i.e. full 720x480) with my consumer Sony TRV10, there may still be a strange interaction with the Windows DV codec and the XL1S. Anyone out there seeing this problem with a different capture platform, e.g. a Mac?

Thanks! Alex.

Oh, one last thing that I mentioned before: a tape recorded on my Sony TRV10 plays back perfectly on the XL1S, i.e. no black line. All this data seems to narrow the problem down, although I don't have a block diagram of the XL1S to figure it out myself:

- the lens mount and/or CCD are not misaligned (evidence: 16:9 captures have the black line)
- the physical tape recorder isn't the problem (evidence: direct captures with no tape inserted show the problem)
- the Firewire interface isn't the problem (evidence: tapes recorded on a different camcorder model play back with all 720x480 pixels showing up)

This suggests that there's some alignment/firmware/adjustment problem with how the output of the CCD is converted to a 720x480 image.

Alex....

As it was explained to me, there is no onboard codec involved in DV to avi capture. There is a codec inside the camera that does the initial compression/encoding. During a capture, the digital data is essentially copied across the firewire bus to the hard drive. When that data is view, of course, it runs thru a decompression codec. When it is manipulated in an NLE and re-rendered, it is run thru a compression codec. These are the only times the codec is used....not during capture.

I guess that makes sense. So, when capturing directly from a DV camera over Firewire into, say, Windows Movie Maker, choosing the DV codec means that no compression or transcoding takes place?

I wonder if the XL1S problem is with its onboard codec, then?

Capture is actually a bad term with our digital cameras. What
we actually do is a real-time copy. We copy the digital bit stream
DIRECTLY (and 100% the same) off the DV codec inside the
camera or off the tape (on playback). Your computer does not
touch this signal as long as you are storing it as a DV stream
(that is. And the program doesn't do anything stupid).

If you capture directly to mpeg or another AVI codec (like Divx)
you will re-encode. If you save to AVI type 1 or 2 or a native
.DV file (or on the Mac to Quicktime DV) you are NOT altering
the video and audio information and compression in any way.
I especially say video and audio and not stream because it
is possible that the software mixes these two together
differently (Type 1 vs. type 2 AVI files for example). The digital
data will not alter though!

So capture should actually be cald real-time copy or something.

I think the camera's diagram goes something like this
(recording, not playback):

1. lens
2. CCD chips
3. electronics to gather the streams and alter them
(combine colors, frame mode, gain, auto modes etc.)
4. encode the signal to a DV stream
5. output to tape/fireware/viewfinder


Presumably it goes wrong in either step 3 (probably the
most likely part!) or 4.

I believe the encoding and compression is done separately from the viewfinder/output. Am I correct on this? Most DV cameras do it that way, so checking your image on tape is critical.

I'm sure someone smarter than me has some input.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm trying to take advantage of other people's troubles (well, I guess I am!), but this thread is really scary.
I just sold my XL-1 and will be buying an XL-1s next week. Is this a problem in just new units, or has the XL-1s always had a black line at the bottom?
Would it be worth trying to find one manufactured a while back?

Thanks for your indulgence. I guess I'll be joining in you soon.

Steve Siegel
oporornis@yahoo.com

Steve,

They all seem to have this. It depends on your output if you
are going to have troubles with this. Ofcourse it is worying
non-the-less.

Justin... I doubt they will compress the signal and decompress
it again for viewing.. so I think the signal for the viewfinder
and other outputs gets out before the comrpession. This
might be an interesting way to see if the problem is before
or after the DV compression.

Tape does not need to be checked, someone else did already.
I'll hook my XL1S up to an old analog capture board to see
what kind of signal comes of the SVHS and composites ports.
I'll let you all know.

Rob, I meant that the video signal is split, one to the viewfinder/output the other to compression and then tape. By checking our tape, I mean looking at it after you've shot scenes to make sure that you've got the color density you're looking for. Basically checking to see what the compression does at the tape level since you don't see it "live" in the viewfinder or field monitor.

Justin,

I doubt you will see compression in the viewfinder. You might
in the monitor, but I still doubt it.

I checked with my analogue capture card and found there is
at least some distortion. I'm going to check it tomorrow with
moving footage (had no time today). I still think the error is
not in the DV compression but in the previous (electronic?) stage.

This is BAD news for me! After reading through this thread with alarm, I immediately checked my camera and saw the black and white line everyone is talking about.

I am a multimedia developer and have just bought the XL1S specifically for full motion video used in interactive CDROM presentations. I edit the video on Premier and compress it down to an mpeg.

So the fact that you don't see the line on a TV does not apply to me...in my work you see the whole image including the overscan. Also, we have just completed a presentation in which the video was shot with an XL1 and it does not appear there.

This is just not good enough. The XL1S is an expensive piece of equipment and I expect better from Canon. I am going to take this up with them, and I sincerely hope they come up with a fix soon.

I'm really pissed off, because I balanced the purchase of this camera very carefully with the Sony PD150, and decided to go with the XL1S because of the ability to add features.... and I'm beginning to regret my decision.

Ron

If I put footage shot with the XL1s on DVD, and then watched it on a standard TV, would these underscan lines be visible (Im guessing not)?

Dan,

They wouldn't be. They would probably if those people are
watching the DVD on a beamer or projector for example. Best
thing to probably do is just "overwrite" these couple of
lines with black to be sure in any case. This shouldn't be
to hard todo. Ofcourse the whole movie needs to be
re-rendered (in my case this always happens due to color
correction etc.).

Canon should still fix this problem ofcourse.

Incidentally, why do TVs not show these underscan lines?

I have been thinking that it was so that any defects or irregularities at the edge of the picture were not visible.

You really don't want a regular TV set to underscan unless you want to see all the creeping, crawling lines and dots that broadcasters place in the horizontal bar. You'd see them along the top of your frame.

Canon has to fix the problem but I'm not certain Canon is the only company manufacturing prosumer cameras that's guilty of poor tech QC. I believe I've seen the same problem in some Sony camcorders. The problem might even vary from camera to camera.

By the way - the "problem" is only a problem when we see the full frame as in QuickTime movies and other computer based playback software.

Or picture-in-picture, compositing, effects, etc. etc. etc. Which makes the XL1S junk for a lot of what I intended to use it for.

I hope this thread does get some attention from the people at Canon. There is no telling how many potintial, undecided, buyers read this board. I can tell you from personal experience that it comes up quickly when searching for info on xl1s.

Most people coming into this at this level spend a long time before deciding on either an xl1s or a PD-150. Any reports of this problem with the PD-150? Someone mentioned earlier that they had the same problem with their VX-1000.

Chris,

Do you (or anyone else reading this) know someone at Canon tech support who'd read this thread and take note? I suspect that most of us are huge Canon supporters. I know that I spent my very first bonus check ever, around 1978, on a Canon A-1, and over the years have accumulated a lot of Canon gear. Based on the fixes that Canon applied to the EOS-D30 based on user reports of difficulties, I'd like to think that they'll do an update on the XL1S, assuming that it's possible.

It seems that this problem with the XL1S is common, if not actually on every camera. There's one last piece of evidence that'd be really useful to gather: taking the video/S-video output directly into a "real" monitor, i.e. not a TV, but a device that shows the whole display. There wasn't one at Keeble and Shuchat when I was diagnosing my camera, but I'm sure that SOMEONE on this board has one. I used to work at Grass Valley Group, and we had a lot of tasty monitors that would show you the whole picture. Of course, they have black backgrounds, but a little fiddling with contrast and brightness should show if the dreaded black line is there on the analog outputs. That might help Canon narrow down the problem.

I'd be happy to print this thread out and mail it to the right Canon person, if anyone has a pointer. Alternatively, maybe someone at Canon could just browse the thread online :-)

It's in Canon's interests to fix this ASAP; the longer they wait the more cameras are out there needing adjustment or repair.

Alex,

I just finished photography of an educational dramatic feature. I hope to post an article on my trials and tribulations shooting a dramatic feature with the XL-1 and 1s. For the entire shoot we used two hires monitors in underscan, mainly to aid focusing and to reveal any flags or booms dipping in along the edges. I can tell you the blanking problems (or errors as I rather call them since they can be adjusted by Canon) do show up in analog as well.

For what it's worth, and I alluded to this earlier, this is an old problem and it's quite common even with top of the line broadcast cameras. The difference is that with a DigiBeta or BetaSP camcorder, the blanking can be adjusted in the camera with the aid of a waveform monitor. In the case of the XL-1, or any other high end consumer camera, there is no such adjustment available to the user (for good reasons) and any adjustments must be done at the factory or authorized repair shop.

My hope is that Canon will throw in the adjustment gratis when requested as part of our annual checkup. I don't know what's involved adjusting the vertical and horizontal blanking in these cameras but I don't think it's an impossible task. I'm open to being corrected if there are issues specific to the XL-1 or digital camcorders in general that would prevent this from being done.

I have now used four cameras in the last month -- one XL-1s, two XL-1, and a Sony TRV900 -- the blanking varies from camera to camera. The XL-1s I used has wide vertical blanking (black bars on both sides of the frame); while the XL-1 has wide horizontal blanking (a black bar at the bottom of thre frame); the Sony has wide vertical but it shows up on the right side of the frame only. I'll post some frame grabs from the current production once we get it wrapped up.

Very interesting, Ozzie. The vertical black bars on both sides of the frame that you saw on an XL1S are very common in the XL1 (even on frame grabs on the Watchdog site). The horizontal black bar that you saw on the XL1 is the XL1S problem that we've been discussing. Looks like the problems aren't specific to model.

I do hope that it's a simple factory/repair shop adjustment.