Cannon XL2 Transport cable at DVinfo.net

Greg Jackson · March 25th, 2006, 06:47 AM

What is the reccomended cable to deliver the best (broadcast quaility) signal.
My application is a three camera shot, going into a video mixer, and onto tape.
Will S-video give me the quaility? What other options do I have?

Patrick King · March 25th, 2006, 07:34 AM

Greg,
In order to keep the 'best' output possible from you XL-2 you would have to stay digital and that means Firewire from the camera to the capture device or mixer.

As soon as you come out of the camera through S-video (or composite) you have now changed the output from digital to analog and your signal quality (while still quite good) is now limited by the analog format capabilities. While digital maintains a horizontal color resolution of 720, the S-video horizontal color resolution is 120-140.

Looking at imagery from an XL-2 sent S-video to a monitor, the image looks good, but it won't stand up as weel to many of the post-production things you might want to do with that video, like pan and scan.

Connection preference:
First choice is digital (e.g. DV) at 720 x 480
Second choice is component video (Y/Pb/Pr), or RGB
Third choice is S-video (Y/C)
Distant fourth choice is composite video (yellow video jack)

Patrick King · March 25th, 2006, 07:34 AM

Double-post. Moderator please delete.

Andrew Khalil · March 25th, 2006, 01:26 PM

use BNC - if you use high quality cable, it should be fine for live use and that's what bnc is there for. It's designed for broadcast use and if you're moving the camera around, it won't get yanked out - it's also meant for long runs, which you won't be able to do with any of the others.

Patrick King · March 25th, 2006, 05:34 PM

Andrew,
Actually, the BNC output is Composite and not even S-video or Component. IT is actually the lowest quality, though you are correct in that it is the most secure connector.

What's confusing is that in higher end cams there are BNC connectors also, but they are BNC Component and not like the XL-2 BNC Composite output.

Andrew Khalil · March 25th, 2006, 05:39 PM

I agree, BNC is the lowest quality, however, the problem is that S-video and firewire cannot be run for the same lengths as BNC can. For example, the large church I run video for uses XL2s and we run the cables around 300 feet without any problems. The image at the end looks beautiful and we did try S-video with poorer results. If the distance is shorter, than yes, S-video will be much better.

Patrick King · March 25th, 2006, 05:57 PM

Yep, you're right about the distance thing. We've been toying with changing to Firewire runs to all four of our XL cams and getting a Firewire input mixer, but we are looking at having to add repeaters inline because of the distances we are having to run the wire. And the added expense there isn't so bad, but the repeaters require power, so you have to run that also.

March 25th, 2006, 06:47 AM	#1
Greg Jackson Tourist Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: plano texas Posts: 1	Cannon XL2 Transport cable What is the reccomended cable to deliver the best (broadcast quaility) signal. My application is a three camera shot, going into a video mixer, and onto tape. Will S-video give me the quaility? What other options do I have?

March 25th, 2006, 07:34 AM	#2
Patrick King Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Enterprise, AL Posts: 857	Greg, In order to keep the 'best' output possible from you XL-2 you would have to stay digital and that means Firewire from the camera to the capture device or mixer. As soon as you come out of the camera through S-video (or composite) you have now changed the output from digital to analog and your signal quality (while still quite good) is now limited by the analog format capabilities. While digital maintains a horizontal color resolution of 720, the S-video horizontal color resolution is 120-140. Looking at imagery from an XL-2 sent S-video to a monitor, the image looks good, but it won't stand up as weel to many of the post-production things you might want to do with that video, like pan and scan. Connection preference: First choice is digital (e.g. DV) at 720 x 480 Second choice is component video (Y/Pb/Pr), or RGB Third choice is S-video (Y/C) Distant fourth choice is composite video (yellow video jack) __________________ Fear No Weevil!

March 25th, 2006, 07:34 AM	#3
Patrick King Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Enterprise, AL Posts: 857	Double-post. Moderator please delete. __________________ Fear No Weevil!

March 25th, 2006, 05:34 PM	#5
Patrick King Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Enterprise, AL Posts: 857	Andrew, Actually, the BNC output is Composite and not even S-video or Component. IT is actually the lowest quality, though you are correct in that it is the most secure connector. What's confusing is that in higher end cams there are BNC connectors also, but they are BNC Component and not like the XL-2 BNC Composite output. __________________ Fear No Weevil!

March 25th, 2006, 05:57 PM	#7
Patrick King Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Enterprise, AL Posts: 857	Yep, you're right about the distance thing. We've been toying with changing to Firewire runs to all four of our XL cams and getting a Firewire input mixer, but we are looking at having to add repeaters inline because of the distances we are having to run the wire. And the added expense there isn't so bad, but the repeaters require power, so you have to run that also. __________________ Fear No Weevil!

March 25th, 2006, 01:26 PM	#4
Andrew Khalil Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 424	use BNC - if you use high quality cable, it should be fine for live use and that's what bnc is there for. It's designed for broadcast use and if you're moving the camera around, it won't get yanked out - it's also meant for long runs, which you won't be able to do with any of the others.

March 25th, 2006, 05:39 PM	#6
Andrew Khalil Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 424	I agree, BNC is the lowest quality, however, the problem is that S-video and firewire cannot be run for the same lengths as BNC can. For example, the large church I run video for uses XL2s and we run the cables around 300 feet without any problems. The image at the end looks beautiful and we did try S-video with poorer results. If the distance is shorter, than yes, S-video will be much better.