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Canon Xh-A1(s) and Real-time Live Video
I’m posting this here because it might save some users the trouble. If anyone has had different experiences with the same equipment, please chime in.
I’ve been doing video operation for theatre shows for the past year and a half. The company I’m working with made the decision to buy three Xh-A1s for some scenes where the director wants whatever’s happening on stage to be filmed and shown in real time on a couple of screens placed in the background.
I have discovered that using the composite video out from these cameras is not reliable for this kind of task since it adds noticeable delay to the video signal. I’m going to take a guess here and blame this on crappy HD-SD conversion. I did seem to notice that the delay was less noticeable when outputting 16:9 (closer to native hd aspect) than 4:3.
I tried different projectors, Sanyo and Panasonic, all displayed this problem. I am using a video mixer that adds one or two frames of delay to the chain obviously, but if I use a Sony SD consumer camcorder the delay is gone, so it’s not hard to pinpoint the origin of the delay.
This has been a cause of stress in the productions that involved this set-up and I figured that I would spare some of you the headaches. These cameras were picked up because they provided good low-light capabilities for the money, and to be honest I don’t know if any alternatives in the same price range would behave any better, so if anyone has some advice to share please do.
Best regards,
José C.
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1 Reply
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Prosumer equipment in a pro environment is never a good idea..
Andy Stinton
Corporate Video
Live & Stage Events
Business Practices
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