XL1 Live Video Recording
 

Hello, I am trying to organize a project with live video switching. I have a person on board who has an XL1, but they maintain that when sending a live signal from the camera, there is no way to remove on-screen info such as timecode etc, which gets recorded onto the external tape (in this case, probably a VHS). Does anyone know of a fix for this? I personally have an XH A1, for which I hit "disp" and the onscreen info goes away. Is there a similar setting for the XL1?

Deadline is approaching....any help will be recieved with upmost gratitude.

Sounds like they don't know their camera very well.
There isn't a button on the body to disable that display,
but there is one on the wireless remote controller that
came with the camera (hopefully they still have it).

From my old XL1 Watchdog website:

If you're recording time code during your shoot, you'll always
see the time code numbers running in the viewfinder, they
can't be switched off. However, you may not want the number
display to go out over your cables (to a remote recording deck
during a multiple-camera shoot, for instance), which they will
unless you've remembered to bring along your XL1's wireless
remote control. Aim it at the back of the camera and press the
"on screen" button. This will toggle off (or on) the display
information going through the video outputs.

Hope this helps,

Thank you!
 

You've been a great help, I appreciate the reply.

An additional word of advice to add to the truth that Mr. Hurd speaks.

Make sure the operator has the remote with him by the camera during the shoot. If the camera powers down or goes into standby mode, (which it will if there is a tape in it and it's not recording,) when the camera comes back up, it will be feeding viewfinder information over the video outs.

If that happens, you, (or the guy punching the show,) will have to tell the XL1 operator to hit the button on the remote because it CANNOT be disabled in the camera viewfinder, (though the information displayed can be changed,) and the camera op won't notice a difference, (and in the rush to get the stuff off the video out, it's easy to double-punch that button.

(can you tell I've played this game myself? Shooting live switched weddings where we were also shooting tape backup. "Standby Mode" was a beautiful thing...MOST of the time.)

Good luck, and all the best!

-D

Thanks Daniel, it's always nice to hear from one of the original crew who
joined this forum in its first months (hard to believe it's been nine years!)

In the immortal words of Ambassador Kosh from Babylon 5, "I have always been here..."

I was an avid reader of the Watchdog before I bought my now retired XL1 too. Nice to see you're still running such a tight ship Chris, (see my NEW "introduce yourself" message from 2 months ago: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/these-pe...ack-again.html)

I promise, I won't be as much of a stranger ;)

All the best!

-D