[Tim Kohn]

Lens/Filters are all clean, fixed lens. Since this was a one time stage performance, I can’t duplicate scenerios or troubleshoot.

[Tim Kohn]

Attached is a CLIP from xdcam showing the focus issue.

[Tim Kohn]

This has been an interesting read (the entire thread), so coming into the discussion late in the game. I had posted a related question on the Adobe CS4 forum regarding encoding quality. My specific question was regarding an SD encoding project, but have experienced the same issues with HD encoding to SD. The issue/problem I am having is encoding a high quality DVD video from and source SD video (that is also high quality).

As a bit of background, I’ve got two XHA1’s, and recently added a 7D dslr into the mix, so shooting HD footage and downsampling to SD has always been a challenge with the adobe products. I’m currently using cs4, but have also been a long user of premiere iterations… 6.x, 1.5x, 2.x, 3.x, and now 4.x.

I have noticed that with the cs4.x products using the maximum render quality has a BIG impact on quality when downsampling, at the expense of significantly longer render times, 10x-20x, depending on other timeline effects. However, I am still battling the quality issue even with Maxiumn Render Quality setting enabled (and using high bit rate settings, generally around 7).

To add to my general confusion/frustration, I recently shot an SD event with the XHA1 in SD mode. The resulting AVI (NTSC 16:9) looks great, both viewed in Windows Media Player, and also in the Premiere Timeline. When I export to MPEG2-DVD however the quality is poor, not nearly as good as the source. This really surprised me as I was not expecting to have any quality issues, as no scaling was involved, and also no video effects, just a simple timeline cut project, and then export to MPEG2-DVD for encore to authoring. Note that I have also tried to encode in Encore with the same results.

So this got me thinking a bit, recently I have been experimenting with workflows based on h264 (for HD authoring, not SD), so wondered what the video would look like using a encoding workflow that was not based on an Adobe’s solutions (AME, Premiere/Encore). To verify that my source material was “good”, I first exported a new AVI file from Premiere so that I would have an edited version to work with (I verified after exporting there was no visible difference between my source and new AVI).

I then used Handbrake (free open source h264 encoder) which I had recently discovered (found out about on a different forum), and exported a new h264 mpeg4 file (same resolution, SD 16:9 854×480) and the video looks great (smaller file size than the mpeg2 file as well)! I then compared the encoded DVD version (created using Premiere/Encore) to the h264 version, created using Handbrake (I was able to view the h264 file using Windows Media Center with the XBOX360 being the extender to view the H264 file on my PC) on the same TV (60″-sony HD). The DVD version looked fuzzy, with ghosting, while the h264 version looked extremely good (like HD quality good!), it was very impressive!

So this whole test gets my back to my original question…. why does the adobe MPEG2 version look so bad (relatively speaking), compared to the handbrake H264 version. The H264 workflow does not solve my immediate problem, and that is getting a HIGH quality MPEG2 based DVD to the client. What it did tell me is that the Adobe solution of creating and MPEG2 video file has problems. I like using PPRO for editing, and Encore for authoring, so would like to learn if there are other encoders (free, or commerically available) that others are using that are proven to be better than the Adobe MPEG2 encoding solution.
-tim

[Tim Kohn]

As did I until earlier this year when using two identical CANON XLH1 cameras. I connected the first one to the computer via firewire and the camcorder died. in a state of panic i called the dealer to determine what was wrong with the camera. after smelling what seemed to be burning metal it appeared that the circuit board had fried. I then connected the second camera, and low and behold, the same thing. In base cases the cameras were sent to Canon for service and in both cases the problem was caused by the the voltage being reversed via the firewire cable INTO the camera, frying the boards. I had never, ever heard of this before. To make matters worse I own the little brother XHA1 Canon camera, and now I am really nervous about the sensitivity of the firewire connection. Does any have similar experiences with firewire connections and the canon cameras. This sounds like it could be Canon thing as the dealer has never had issues with other cameras getting fried by the firewire cable.