Recording a 2 hour event with XL1s

[Frank Daghigh]

I have read about doing this with a FS-3 but it is out my price range.

Has anyone tried recording onto a DVR from Xl1?
I know that I can record my 2 hour footage onto the VCR but would rather keep my footage in the digital format and not go back to analog.

Any feedback in this area will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Frank

[Henry Cho]

do you have access to a laptop? i'm assuming a laptop wouldn't be too bulky for your purposes since you mentioned a dvr.

[Chris Hurd]

Another option is to use an 80 minute cassette and set the camera's recording mode to long play (LP). This will give you 120 minutes, or two hours, on that 80 minute cassette.

[Frank Daghigh]

Henry,

How would you connect the XL-1 to a laptop? Don't you need special software to control the Fire wire?


Chris,

Thanks for the Reply. I was hoping not to go with a slower speed recording format due to degradation in quality. I did find out since the original post that there is a FS-4 that is more reasonable in price than the FS-3.

Regards,
Frank

[Henry Cho]

dvrack comes immediately to mind. for around $300, it allows preview and direct capture to disk via firewire. i would think there would be cheaper alternatives floating around out there on the web.

also, don't most nle's support direct capture as well? i believe fcp and premiere both do...

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Frank Daghigh

I was hoping not to go with a slower speed recording format due to degradation in quality.

It's important to understand that with digital formats such as DV, there is no degradation of image quality at all with the slower LP recording speed like there was with analog formats such as Hi-8 and S-VHS. The drawbacks to LP recording with a DV camcorder are first, a greater probability of drop-out unless you're using the best quality 80 minute tapes, and second, usually a tape recorded in LP will play back properly only on the camera that recorded it. If you're using that camera as a playback deck for capture then this shouldn't be a problem.

[Don Palomaki]

Chris' point in LP playback may be a bit too harsh. LP playback works OK on many systems, but it is equipment specific. The issue is whether or not the specific camcorder and playback machine being used have nearly identical alignment. This is not always the case.

Test before you shoot, and be sure to capture immediately after the shoot because equipment alignment can change over time with use, wear, environmental effects, etc.

[Frank Daghigh]

Chris & Don,

I learned something new with recording in LP. I normally record & play back with the same camera.

How bad of drop out rate have you seen in your LP setting? Is it more that 1% of the time?

Frank

[Chris Hurd]

On the few occasions that I've used 80 minute cassettes recorded in LP, I've never had a dropout. Neither will you if you avoid cheap tape.

[Don Palomaki]

I rarely shoot at LP, the few times I did it worked OK, shooting on an XL1 and a older Sony, and capturing from a Sony DHR-1000. The only way to find out for sure is to try it with your gear and lot of MiniDV tape.

Note that analog playnback may look OK thanks to error correction, but digital capture might fail upon a read error if your capture system is setup to stop capture on any error.

[Frank Daghigh]

Thanks everyone for your help. Please close this thread.

Frank