Need Help With Canon XL-H1 Setup

[michaeltobias]

Hi to all.

Is there anyone out there who regularly shoots HD on the Canon XL-H1, edits the HD and then outputs back to the XL-H1 in HD? If so, could you please supply me with your workflow from the project settings, camera settings and output process that you are using. I have a local producer who shoots HD with this camera and is asking me to edit for him but everytime I try I can't get the footage in (will only ingest 4-5 seconds and then capture quits). Maybe you know how to handle the 4 seperate audio channels too? If you routinely use this camera, hopefully your workflow will work for me too. I will be working with a laptop considerably faster than my primary system listed. Thanks.

[Bluetongue]

Michael
I use an A1 the only difference is the 4 channel Audio
Firstly your capture problem is your CPU a P3 is completely inadequate.
The absolute minimum in intel is a 3.4Ghz P4 and in AMD an XP3000+
Any of the 64 bit or dual core processors will cope
Workflow
Project settings (providing processor meets min requirements)
HDV (PAL / NTSC) 1440x1080 50/60i 48khz 2 channel Rendering Format Canopus HQ AVI
Under Settings Application Settings set Auto divide files
At timecode break
When recording time changes
This will automatically break the files up into individual clips
Edit program
Select Print to file F11
Select HDV speed encoder and follow the prompts or
Select use procoder Express
Select Procoder Express Wizard
Select Target HDV 1080 lines (HD2 Mode)
Select the appropeiate TV Standard at the next window
Enter the Directory to save to and file name
In Job Summary click convert
After file has been written to disk
On EDIUS Menu select Capture
Select MPEG TS Writer
Click the + button to add the file to te list
Click the left bottom button and if the camera is connected the file will be written to tape.
NOTE 2 Ch stereo only
approx 1 sec at the beginning will be lost so allow for that
If you have problems capturing to Canopus HQ because the processor is too slow or HQ is greyed out, usually denoting not enogh processing power,there is a workaround
Select MPEG(HDV) in the rendering format
every thing else the same except after capture set up a "Watch folder" for Procoder Express and drag all the files into this folder and after some time all files will be converted to HQ AVI which takes the load off the processor and makes life a breeze.
Change the project settings to Render format to Canopus HQ import the files into the BIN and you should be away
Your P3 will be strugling though veerry sus
Regards Barry

[Bluetongue]

One other thing Michael I did not see you had a storm card, first you will need a standard IEEE input to your computer, not through the storm card, you will have to bypass this in the Capture settings and somehow select Generic OHCI input.
Not using a capture card I am not sure what will be presented in the capture settings, someone else may be able to help here but from there you can select Canopus HQ 1440x1080 or MPEGTS 1440x1080. in the Generic HDV Input settings
The Storm card I believe will not handle he HDV Stream
Regards Barry

[GrassValley_BH]

Bluetongue is correct. DVStorm's FireWire port is not OHCI-compliant and therefore will only accept DV/DVCAM, not HDV.
Same goes for EDIUS NX if you only have the single PCI or PCIe board (ie you do not have the HD Expansion board with the component output).

EDIUS NX Express and EDIUS NX with the HD expansion board will accept HDV, as the HD Expansion makes the NX FireWire ports OHCI-compliant.

[michaeltobias]

Thanks greatly Bluetongue. I'm going to try out your workflow as soon as I get to work! I appreciate all the time you've taken to help me out. It looks like a very indepth piece of work - a real GPS to guide me thru all the settings options. Thanks again to this forum and all its members. It's a continual reference and learning experience for me!

[michaeltobias]

Followup

Just wanted to followup to let you know I had success with the MPEG workaround solution to ingesting HD footage from the XL-H1.

One more question, if the MPEG files play well on my timeline, do I even need to convert them to Canoupus HQ to edit?

Output back to the XL-H1 worked well too. As far as I can tell it looks like I'm ready for HD projects now. Thanks Forum!

Michael

[tingsern]

I believe that MPEG encodes using long GOP - which makes it hard to get at individual frames (if you edit down to that level). Canopus HQ is intraframe compression - so you can get individuall frames.

[michaeltobias]

I apologize if I'm asking a stupid question here, but, if I do convert from MPEG to Canopus HQ, am I still in High Definition? Or will I really be downconverting to SD? Again I apologize for my HDV confusion.

Michael

[pjsssss]

Still HD...

[tingsern]

Micheal,

I looked at your signature ... Pentium 3 1Ghz .... I have doubts you can get EDIUS to edit in HD realtime ... processor is slow.

[michaeltobias]

You're right about my primary system being too slow for HD editing. At the bottom of my first message I mentioned that I'd be doing the HD editing on a latop that is considerably faster than my primary system. On the laptop I am able to ingest via Bluetongue's MPEG workaround, edit the HQ converts of the MPEG, and output back to the XL-H1. So, I'm pretty happy with the outcome of my situation.

Just for fun I did try doing some work with my primary. I was able to do the MPEG ingest, convert, edit on the timeline (not in realtime - using the "L" key scrub speed). I haven't gotten around to seeing if I could output yet.

I've been doing my best to talk the producer I'm editing with into getting a Grass Valley turnkey system with the NX bells and whistles so I'll get to see the editing in HD as we work instead of just watching the player monitor in the workspace. It may happen in two or three months.

I've said it before but I'll say it again ... I couldn't have gotten this far without the folks in this forum. THANKS yet again.

Michael

[tingsern]

Micheal,

No problems ... you are welcome.