XLH1 does 24 frames to tape, Is this true? at DVinfo.net

Michael Pappas · December 14th, 2005, 03:47 PM

I was told that XLH1 does 24 frames to tape. So just the 24 frames get's all the 25mbs. Is this true?

Pappas

Barry Green · December 14th, 2005, 05:06 PM

That's my understanding, yes. And those 25mbps are used more efficiently because they are encoding progressive, rather than interlaced frames. And it would explain why the XLH1 appears to be more robust against compression artifacts than the Sony is.

It appears that Canon has made their own format, and by doing so, has provided some of the most robust HDV recording yet. The tradeoff is, of course, that no postproduction equipment yet works with the Canon variant. For software (like NLE's) that shouldn't be a complex hurdle to overcome; for hardware it's an issue. No device other than an XLH1 can play 24F or 30F, and since Canon has never made a deck, and Sony is the only 1080 deck manufacturer and they aren't exactly keen on supporting competitor's products, it looks like the XLH1 will probably remain the only device that can play back XLH1 24F or 30F tapes.

A way around it may be to use the FireStore, although I don't know if the FireStore supports 24F or 30F. If it doesn't yet support it, I'd expect that it will soon, since Canon OEM's the FireStore so I'm sure they would have some influence in getting Focus to include that functionality.

Michael Pappas · December 14th, 2005, 05:31 PM

Barry,

<<<no postproduction equipment yet >>>

Yeah that's an issue I have with it too!

Though firestore is a good option.

Barry, I wish you could have been at Laser Pacific last night for the HVX200 film out. Pretty damn amazing stuff on the screen. The SD distraction is now gone... This is only the beginning too, wait tell the work flows get figured out.

Pappas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barry Green

The tradeoff is, of course, that no postproduction equipment yet works with the Canon variant.

A way around it may be to use the FireStore, although I don't know if the FireStore supports 24F or 30F. If it doesn't yet support it, I'd expect that it will soon, since Canon OEM's the FireStore so I'm sure they would have some influence in getting Focus to include that functionality.

Barry Green · December 14th, 2005, 07:16 PM

I am most disappointed too -- I didn't even know it was going on until I'd already left L.A.

There will be more filmouts though -- from what I understand, the Laser Pacific filmout involved 720p source material, transcoded to HDCAM before being transferred. I'm going to send Marcus Van Bavel some direct native DVFilm Maker-extracted 1080/24p clips to have a small (2-min or so) print made. Quite looking forward to it. I've seen some acceptable prints from standard-def DV/24p, and some mediocre ones... so with four times as many pixels or more from 1080/24p and 1080/24f, I think we will do exactly as you suggest -- get past the "distraction" of the standard-def format!

December 14th, 2005, 03:47 PM	#1
Michael Pappas Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: California Posts: 667	XLH1 does 24 frames to tape, Is this true? I was told that XLH1 does 24 frames to tape. So just the 24 frames get's all the 25mbs. Is this true? Pappas

December 14th, 2005, 05:06 PM	#2
Barry Green Barry Wan Kenobi Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 3,863	That's my understanding, yes. And those 25mbps are used more efficiently because they are encoding progressive, rather than interlaced frames. And it would explain why the XLH1 appears to be more robust against compression artifacts than the Sony is. It appears that Canon has made their own format, and by doing so, has provided some of the most robust HDV recording yet. The tradeoff is, of course, that no postproduction equipment yet works with the Canon variant. For software (like NLE's) that shouldn't be a complex hurdle to overcome; for hardware it's an issue. No device other than an XLH1 can play 24F or 30F, and since Canon has never made a deck, and Sony is the only 1080 deck manufacturer and they aren't exactly keen on supporting competitor's products, it looks like the XLH1 will probably remain the only device that can play back XLH1 24F or 30F tapes. A way around it may be to use the FireStore, although I don't know if the FireStore supports 24F or 30F. If it doesn't yet support it, I'd expect that it will soon, since Canon OEM's the FireStore so I'm sure they would have some influence in getting Focus to include that functionality.

December 14th, 2005, 07:16 PM	#4
Barry Green Barry Wan Kenobi Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 3,863	I am most disappointed too -- I didn't even know it was going on until I'd already left L.A. There will be more filmouts though -- from what I understand, the Laser Pacific filmout involved 720p source material, transcoded to HDCAM before being transferred. I'm going to send Marcus Van Bavel some direct native DVFilm Maker-extracted 1080/24p clips to have a small (2-min or so) print made. Quite looking forward to it. I've seen some acceptable prints from standard-def DV/24p, and some mediocre ones... so with four times as many pixels or more from 1080/24p and 1080/24f, I think we will do exactly as you suggest -- get past the "distraction" of the standard-def format!