SD recording downconvertor speed
 

I've noticed that when recording in SD that if I have a close up of some ones face which is in sharp focus if they start moving their head that the detail in the face is reduced almost like the focus is hunting but it's set to manual and anything that's not moving stays focused, I think it's because the downconvertor is not keeping up, a bit like a digital TV broadcast with a low bit rate, so I assume that when I get a PC that can handle HD that it will do a better job of downconverting when it doesn't have to do it in real time, am I right?
Mick

When you're shooting SD, it's not downconverting anything, it's already an SD signal. Maybe you have NR1 in your active preset or something?

Hi Mick. This sounds a bit like motion blur to me. What shutter speed are you using? The PAL cameras default to 1/25s in some cases so it's worth checking that.

Richard

Thanks for the replies but if you record SD on a HD camera there has to be a downconversion from the HD CCD's to get SD

I checked my settings both noise reductions are off and the shutter is 1/50
Mick

I understand what you imply, but maybe it's just a play on terms here. "Downconversion" to me means an original hirez signal is converted to a lower rez signal on the fly. That's not really what's happening when you have your camera set to record SD. It's a simple signal switch. That's my point... it's already SD, hence there's nothing to "downconvert". There's no HDV to SD conversion constantly going on.

Anyway, I think there's some other issue going on. Are you referencing the LCD screen while noticing this? It already has a bit of image lag as it is... and/or if you're looking at footage on some other LCD monitor it's possible there's image lag inherent with that monitor as well. Try a CRT if you have one and see if it's the same issue.

You might try recording in HDV and doing the down conversion on capture. This might yield better results.

I have not been impressed by straight SD recording on the XH-A1, and I believe others have made similar comments.