HDMI out live feed?

[Jeff Harper]

Client wants to use an XA-10 to project event as it happens. Will the HDMI output do this?

Thanks in advance.

[Jeff Harper]

No one has tried this?

[Don Palomaki]

Tested this AM.

My XA10 sends a live HDMI signal, with audio, to my Hitachi TV set - no problem.
As does the VIXIA HV40.

Note that there is some latency. The image (and sound) I see on my TV lags the actual event by 7 frames give or take. The amount will depend on the overall signal processing time (encoding and decoding) in the camcorder and viewing device. (And it is easy to get audio feedback if you are not careful with your audio settings.)

[Jeff Harper]

Don, it was most kind of you to test this! I have no mini HDMI cables and have no idea what will be needed on other end, so before buying cables wanted to make sure it was worth trying, as cable store is pretty far!

Any settings I need to check on camera before attempting?

[Don Palomaki]

In my test both cameras talked to the TV when connected and powered.in camera mode. I didn't have to do any special settings first.

Some general settings to check include any sleep mode where in the camcorder might power down after a period of time if in record pause (common on tape-based camcorders) and audio settings including the possibility of feedback. Your best bet to retain sound sync with external audio sources (e.g., a podium microphone) is to fed them to the camcorder audio input. Otherwise lip sync will be off for sure.

And test the setup well in advance before a "money shoot" to be sure it works and have time to recover if something is not quite right. The latency I mentioned in the earlier post above is probably the biggest issue I see, and it can scramble a speakers brain if they are not expecting it at the podium.. .