HF100 HDMI Issues
 

Well, I took a leap of faith and sold my HV20 in favor of an HF100, thinking I could leapfrog the whole mts/AVCHD issue by capturing to Cineform via Intensity Pro (HDMI). (I use Premiere Pro CS3. The native MTS playback/editing performance I've seen in Vegas Pro 8 on my dual core machine is unacceptable.) I bought a mini HDMI to HDMI cable at Fry's and can't get a signal on my HDTV or my Benq HDMI monitors. I've tried playback of both 60i and 30p files. Is anyone else having similar issues? In the menu system, HDMI Status shows "DVI". I know what a DVI signal is. But I can't find ANY reference to this status online or in the manual. If, by chance, it's the cable, can anyone recommend a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable brand that works for them? Thanks in advance.

DVi refers to the same interface you find on many digital flat panel computer monitors/video cards - and there must be some compatibilities as I've got a cable with DVi on one end and HDMI onthe other as my TV's don't have HDMI in... but have the DVi... Maybe you need to switch something around on the cam or TV?

Thanks, Dave. I've check the manual over and over. I can't find any reference to "DVI" under HDMI Status. HDMI Status displays just a dashed line when not connected to an HDMI TV or monitor.

Ed, The very first time I hooked up my HF100 to an HD TV using the mini HDMI to HDMI cable it worked perfectly.

My first thought is perhaps a defective HDMI cable. I have encountered a couple of those. If you have a dealer nearby you might take your camcorder and see if they will hook it up with one of their cables and see what happens.

If you get the same result with another cable it is time for a lightning fast trip to Canon for the cam.

Sorry you are having problems with yours. I like most everything about mine except for lack of a viewfinder that one can see in daylight. I use a hood on mine.

Thanks, Bruce. It turns out that it WAS the cable. I went back to Fry's and bought Belkin's mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. It works fine.

Ed, does capturing via HDMI cable deliver a less compressed color/data rate than AVCHD?

I think I remember that post here. I wonder why so many cables are going bad ?

Michael,
Unfortunately I can't actually answer that question right now. I am currently without a desktop machine until I can convince the wife of the need for a new one. :) I am HDMI captureless on my Core 2 Duo laptop. Does no one make a portable/laptop HDMI capture solution? I would think this would be right up Black Magic's or Canopus's alley. I see Black Magic has a new product coming in July, the Blackmagic Video Recorder, which does analog capture through USB. But I couldn't figure out if it does HD capture via component (which would be limted to 1440x1080, no?). With all the AVCHD cameras coming to market, I would think a portable (not-too-costly) HDMI capture solution is a no-brainer.

Brian,
As for the bad cable, it WAS some never heard of brand name for $20. I guess I should have gone with Belkin in the first place ($35).

HF100 via HDMI
 

Just curious, as I am stilll without a desktop: Does anyone here have any experience with capturing clips from the HF100 via HDMI (Intensity Pro)? I am trying to plan for possible hardware/system configuration changes.

Capturing what already was compressed and recorded to tape through HDMI will not give you better results. You already lost data!

But I've seen samples, and some kind of 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 upconversion goes on, and it actually helps some blown out reds and this kind of stuff that can get quite bad in HDV.

But this guy was using a Z1 capturing through Component. So I'm not sure the upconversion was done by the camera or the Intensity card.

However he posted some V1 grabs captured directly to the PC through HDMI, with no compression whatsoever. Nice results, but not much different. Not really worth it unless you are doing VFX stuff.

> Capturing what already was compressed and recorded to tape through HDMI will not give you better results. You already lost data!


since when does hf100 record to tape? And also, this question was not about playing already recorded data from tape [errr, SD card this time] but about capturing live-events directly thru HDMI.

I think that many members here would agree that capturing "live" HDMI output is as pristine as it could get from all these small cams, be it Canon Hf100, hf10, hv20, hv30 or Sony sr11, sr12 etc. You have full color space, 4:2:2, non-compressed at all. I'm also eagerly waiting for some kind of really portable solution, something like ExpressCard Intensity Pro would save my days many times. I don't do professional things and I don't earn money by using camcorder, I'm just amater - but I'm purist and I'd like to shoot tethered to notebook in my backpack capturing to Cineform codecs.

enjoy!

I only saw that it was the AVCHD forum later.
Just replace tape with card/hdd/whatever and it all makes sense.
It's all compressed anyway...

I was just answering the guy I quoted that even already compressed stuff can benefit from HDMI capture.

;)

Thanks, Pietro. I was just curious on whether there is any noticeable loss in quality or any artifacting capturing an already (highly) compressed signal.

Hdmi Audio
 

I have the HF100 hooked up to my tv with HDMI, however no audio comes out the TV....What am I doing wrong? Bad cable?