Canon XL-H1 Standard Def

Luke Hansen-MacDonald · September 6th, 2009, 03:51 PM

I recently shot some material in SD @ 24 fps on my Canon XL-H1, and have noticed a large different in quality between watching the footage off the camera via component out and watching it once imported through firewire.

When I imported it through firewire with Final Cut it has some pretty bad interlacing, jagged edges, and just in general the quality is reduce quite a bit when exported to DVD.

Am I just imagining that the component out looks better? If not, is there some way to export via component out rather than firewire? Finally, is there anything I could be doing to improve the quality of the firewire imported footage?

Thanks
Luke

Battle Vaughan · September 10th, 2009, 05:41 PM

That doesn't compute; firewire is simply a transfer of digital information from the tape or camera to your computer; the analog outputs are conversions from that info. Might look at how your digital information is being translated to dvd first; if you are taking the hdv signal via firewire there is a compression to dvd, which is (unless Blu-Ray) a sd medium... /B Vaughan

Michael Galvan · September 10th, 2009, 07:13 PM

Yes, it sounds to me like you are capturing with the wrong settings.

Footage from the firewire port is a 1:1 transfer.

Barry Gregg · September 11th, 2009, 09:49 AM

The Firewire signal is HDV 4.2.0 color space. The HD-SDI out is 4.2.2 color space, so if you can capture the HD-SDI it would be a clean signal. It won't have any audio on the H1, not sure about the H1S.

Michael Galvan · September 12th, 2009, 12:45 AM

Well the HD-SDI would only be 4:2:2 if you capture it live. If he is capturing from a tape through HD-SDi, it'll still be 4:2:0 within the 4:2:2 stream.

The H1S does have embedded audio in it's HD-SDI.

Erin Wiedner · January 9th, 2010, 12:33 PM

Luke,

I would really recommend in the future that you capture HDV and then down-convert in post.

I think you would have much better results as the XL H1 was never truly designed to provide decent footage captured in SD.

September 6th, 2009, 03:51 PM	#1
Luke Hansen-MacDonald Tourist Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Nova Scotia, Canada Posts: 1	Canon XL-H1 Standard Def - Component Out vs Firewire I recently shot some material in SD @ 24 fps on my Canon XL-H1, and have noticed a large different in quality between watching the footage off the camera via component out and watching it once imported through firewire. When I imported it through firewire with Final Cut it has some pretty bad interlacing, jagged edges, and just in general the quality is reduce quite a bit when exported to DVD. Am I just imagining that the component out looks better? If not, is there some way to export via component out rather than firewire? Finally, is there anything I could be doing to improve the quality of the firewire imported footage? Thanks Luke

September 10th, 2009, 07:13 PM	#3
Michael Galvan Major Player Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: New York, NY Posts: 775	Yes, it sounds to me like you are capturing with the wrong settings. Footage from the firewire port is a 1:1 transfer. __________________ www.michaelgalvan.com www.screenanthology.com

September 11th, 2009, 09:49 AM	#4
Barry Gregg Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Poulsbo, WA Posts: 104	The Firewire signal is HDV 4.2.0 color space. The HD-SDI out is 4.2.2 color space, so if you can capture the HD-SDI it would be a clean signal. It won't have any audio on the H1, not sure about the H1S. __________________ Walk in the light. www.barrygregg.us

September 12th, 2009, 12:45 AM	#5
Michael Galvan Major Player Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: New York, NY Posts: 775	Well the HD-SDI would only be 4:2:2 if you capture it live. If he is capturing from a tape through HD-SDi, it'll still be 4:2:0 within the 4:2:2 stream. The H1S does have embedded audio in it's HD-SDI. __________________ www.michaelgalvan.com www.screenanthology.com

September 10th, 2009, 05:41 PM	#2
Battle Vaughan Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Miami, FL USA Posts: 1,505	That doesn't compute; firewire is simply a transfer of digital information from the tape or camera to your computer; the analog outputs are conversions from that info. Might look at how your digital information is being translated to dvd first; if you are taking the hdv signal via firewire there is a compression to dvd, which is (unless Blu-Ray) a sd medium... /B Vaughan

January 9th, 2010, 12:33 PM	#6
Erin Wiedner New Boot Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: San Diego, California Posts: 16	Luke, I would really recommend in the future that you capture HDV and then down-convert in post. I think you would have much better results as the XL H1 was never truly designed to provide decent footage captured in SD.