XL2 24pA capture problems with DSR-25
 

I'm looking for a definitive answer on something. We have a Sony DSR-25 deck that we've used daily for 2-3 years with no problems. That is until we tried to capture footage from an XL2 shot in 24pA. Is it possible that our deck can't support this?

Ultimately we had to capture the footage from the XL2 directly just to get the footage digitized and that's when we hit another probelm. After much firewire plug pulling daisy chaing etc. we finally read a post that stated "the XL2 has to be the ONLY firewire device attached"; no external media drives, etc. Amazingly enough this seems to be true; we tried it on our G4 and G5 with the same issues. That seems like a stupid problem!

Can anyone confirm having similar issues or did we just have a bad luck day? Thanks

That's right. We use the DSR-30, and we've been told that they do not support 24p.

Unfortunately, I can't speak to the second problem. I don't understand "firewire plug pulling daisy chaing etc.".

We simply run one firewire cable from the XL2 into the computer, capture, and we're done.

Jay

That's a big drag! So I guess you have to capture from your camera then when you shoot 24p huh?

We could not capture from the XL2 to our G5 when ANY other firewire device was connected. Like our external firewire media drives which we usually capture to. So we had to capture from the camera to space on an internal drive, and then copy the captured clips back to the external media drive when we were done. It was a silly hassle.

Exactly! And that's why I invested in the DSR-30, to avoid using the camera as a deck. Then again, when I bought the deck, 24p wasn't even being discussed--that was about 4 or 5 years ago.

This, in my opinion, is the down side of technology moving too darned fast!

Jay

No probs here
 

I have noticed tape capture problems with 24p & XL2; But I have not had any problems using the XL2 with my Mac's and other Firewire devices, either daisy-chained or not...don't understand that one...

Hi Michael,

What exactly are you saying: "tape capture problems with 24p and XL2? I'm curious...could you explain and be more specific?

Lucinda

Lucinda, check out my post:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=315683

That should give you an idea of what I am reffering to...

The problem is not with 24P. I have had 3 dozen or so hours of 24P captured with no problems, Sony decks (don't know the model; DSR something). One issue did occur. I was sent a loaner during repair. Only tapes recorded in that camera had to be played back in an XL2 camera for capture. There have always been cameras from every manufacturer of DV format that have had to be used to play back tapes recorded in that specific model. Some only with the camera the tape was recorded in. It is usually a slight tape alignment or speed. Just enough to cause a problem but not enough out of spec to find what needs adjusting. Canon has been terrific with me and I encourage you to talk with them to work through this problem. Best of luck!