XL H1

[Donald Berube]

With the HDV Upgrade for the FireStore FS-4, capturing HDV from the XL H1 via FireWire should not be a problem.

It is inevitable that we will see other capture solutions introduced that will allow for HD-SDI capture in the field.

Iv’e been able to post my first impressions of the XL H1 at
https://www.bosfcpug.org/beta/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&Itemid=58

Best regards,

– don

[Gary Taylor]

Hi Guys,
This camera does look great. The only thing that is missing to make it look almost perfect is progressive but with the other features I have to say it still looks like awesome.
Don, in your summary you mentioned RGB output. Is this like any other pro camera where you would select RGB output from the internal menu? This sounds like the cheapest way to get 4:4:4 high def captures is that is true.
Thanks,
Gary

[Brian Deviteri]

I just read a spec sheet that says “HD video from the Canon XL H1 can be externally recorded in a variety of common HD industry formats including HDCAM, DVCPRO HD, and D5-HD.” Anyone know if this will be over firewire direct to hard drive, or if it will only be available as an HD-SDI output to converter box to hard drive? Does it record to tape then playback an output over HD-SDI (like the Sony FX1 and Z1U)? Does it record to tape only or is this hard drive and/or solid state based at all, even if it’s over firewire to an external hard drive? Any info from users on this forum would be greatly appreciated. I just really want to know the features so I can make my own evaluation and compare costs of all my options.

I still think I’m liking the HVX200 better than this (I’m not really a big fan of HDV and recording MPEG-2 to a tape), but if the camera will record DVCPRO HD and/or HDCAM directly to any old external hard drive without a Firestore style device, then it is something at least worth looking at and exploring.

[Richard Chin]

correct me if I’m wrong… but this is HDV right? (with all the compression issues that go with HDV). Isn’t the upcoming Panasonic true HD and not HDV ? Does this offer 4.2.2 color space like the what is suppose to come in the new Panasonic? (or does that even matter anymore?)

[Barend Onneweer]

The upcoming Panasonic supports DVCProHD @ 100Mbps (I wouldn’t use the term ‘true HD’ since it just screams for discussions) – which is definitely higher quality than 25Mbps HDV.

However the Canon XL H1 seems to output uncompressed 4:2:2 1080i over HD-SDI, which means if you bypass tape and record directly to disk using say a Decklink HD board in a computer, you’ll probably get pretty spectacular images.

Bar3nd

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[Barend Onneweer]

[Steve Freebairn] “I’m glad that it has HD-SDI output on it, but I sure wish that it could output HD over firewire to something like a firestore drive.”

You realize that uncompressed 4:2:2 1080 runs from around 100 MB/s, right? Even FW800 won’t manage those kinds of datarates.

And if it did, you’d need a RAID of at least 4 drives to get reliable performance.

To record uncompressed HD-SDI you’d be best off building a computer with HD-SDI and RAID for now. Not the most convienient or portable solution, but you’re getting uncompressed 4:2:2 in return.

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[Pat Cahill]

Does anyone know if the camera downconverts the HD image to SD via the S video connection?

[Steve Freebairn]

Sorry I didn’t really clarify what I was trying to say, I was just hoping that someone would say that they knew of a device that would transfer the uncompressed hd-sdi signal to something like DVCProHD and then record that 100Mbit stream to a hard drive. I know that no portable HDD could accept the uncompressed stream.

If I were working inside all the time within range of a capture deck I’d prefer to go with the H1, but since I do a lot of events on location, it just wouldn’t be worth having to take an entire system just to capture the stream, but I still love Canon and hope to be able to do some shoots with one in the future. It is a sweet camera, don’t get me wrong, I just wish that it didn’t compress the image down to a 25mbps stream on tape.

[Barend Onneweer]

Ah… I’m getting your point.

I absolutely agree that for field work, the Panasonic HVX 200 seems to have the edge, in terms of DVCProHD to P2 cards. By the end of the year we’ll know how good the Panasonics images look with its fixed lens, compared to the probably better lens on the Canon.

I’m pretty sure the HDV won’t be able to stand up to DVCProHD.

A portable device that does real-time compression to something like Cineform’s HD codec and records to a single disk would seem like a bestseller.

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[Brian Deviteri]

There will be a Firestore drive released for the HVX-200 around March 2006 that will run about $2000 for what most people think is about 80gb or 100gb. It will record DVCPRO HD over firewire to the unit.