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Canon XL H Series HDV Camcorders
Canon XL H1S (with SDI), Canon XL H1A (without SDI). Also XL H1.

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Old January 3rd, 2010, 12:13 AM   #1
Tourist
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Fallbrook, CA
Posts: 3
New to XL H1s Questions

I had to jump into a new project and had to upgrade to HD. I went from an XL2 with a small 3CCD Panasonic for b-roll to a XL H1s and an XH A1s. I had wanted to use the HS-SDI output on the XL H1s for my first big project, but ran into problems.

I only had a few days to check things out at the office before going on the shoot - but once I was set up, I could not get the SDI to work properly. I was going into a Blackmagic-Designs Studio card in a major Dell system with 1.5 TB RAID. The picture kept flickering to black with static sound when it flickered. It happened every 5 or 10 seconds - totally unusable.

I thought it might be the cable, and changed it out - no difference. I thought it might be that the Dell couldn't keep up with the capture, but it happened even when I wasn't recording.

Any ideas?

I was still able to get the footage - as I just used miniDV tapes on both cameras.

Now for some questions about importing the footage:

If I use firewire out from my camera to my CS2 software, it will capture as .AVI - but if I use firewire to CS4 it captures as an .MPEG file. Am I right in assuming that the .MPEG is compressed and the .AVI is as good as the tape?

I think I found on this board that the firewire and SDI output from the tape is the same quality. Right?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jon Monday is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 3rd, 2010, 12:21 PM   #2
Major Player
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 775
I know you said you changed out the cable, but it sounds like a cable problem to me. Did you try it out with a more "industrial strength" cable?

I've recorded plenty of times out of my XL H1S through the HD-SDI port, and the times I've had issues like this, it was always the cable.

I also suggest turning on the camera first and have the cable connected to the camera before starting up the capture system.

Quality from the HD-SDI will be much higher only if you are capturing it live to a higher codec. If you are using it to capture HDV tapes, you will not gain anything.

Hope that helps.
Michael Galvan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 3rd, 2010, 05:34 PM   #3
Tourist
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Fallbrook, CA
Posts: 3
Thanks for the info...

The shortest cable I have is 50' - so maybe I should buy a short, heavy duty cable.

Do you use Abobe Creative Suite?

I need to know about the .MPEG vs. .DVI import.

Jon
Jon Monday is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 4th, 2010, 01:54 PM   #4
Obstreperous Rex
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: San Marcos, TX
Posts: 27,368
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The SDI cable needs to be at least an 18 guage RG-6 type such as the Canare brand L-5CFB.

See http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xl...onitoring.html for more info.
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