Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

Maurice, the G10 and XA-10 are widely reported to have the same sensor, e.g:

Canon Unveils New Professional Camcorder: the XA10 - CamcorderInfo.com
Notes On Video: Canon VIXIA HF G10 and "Pro" XA10 cameras

Admittedly that doesn't mean they do. But just because the material looks different doesn't mean the sensors are different. E.g, the T2i and 7D still cameras are sometimes described as having the "same sensor", but the output looks different. In this case the sensor is probably similar technology but number of readout channels and camera firmware (which affects image) is different.

Yes, distribution is the problem for HD. Above HD, the problem is worse. The original Blu Ray spec didn't support 1080p/60, so just distributing that in a typical TV-playable format is difficult. The G10 doesn't do 60p, but lots of cameras do.

Something may have gone wrong during the transcode phase. A DVD will never equal the best HD, but high bitrate DVD can look very good. My work usually combines HD and SD material intended for SD viewing, so I usually use a non-HD project. This obscures the potential quality from the HD material.

I'll try burning some G10 material in an HD project and let you know. I use Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.

The XA-10 & G10 are really good cameras, I think you made the right decision. A less expensive way to add shallow DOF video is getting a lower-end video DSLR and putting a 50mm f/1.8 lens on it. A T2i body is about $500, and a Canon EF 50mm 1.8 lens is about $100. Despite being "lower end" products, these produce excellent imagery.

Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

A poster in the XA10 forum has reported that he was told by a Canon rep the sensors in the G10 and XA10 are different.

We have discussed this topic ad nauseum in that forum.

The differences in low-light performance seem to be dramatic enough that I believe this is true, but I don't care enough to go to any effort to confirm it. Camcorderinfo is not my idea of a reliable source of info about any camera, IMO, FWIW.

Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

An authorative source for detailed information about Canon products no doubt. A bit like taking Ford's word about Chevys - or Newt's word about Mitt.

Back in the XL1 days Canon did use the same sensor as Panasonic on some camcorders.

In any case DSP programming will make a differnce in the output.

A big differnce in how DVD looks is the system used for display. Playing DVD on a good up-scaling BD player to a HD set over HDMI will look much better that a DVD played to the same set on an average DVD player with 480i output, especially if connected by s-video or composite.

IMHO, for the same source material on a good playback/display system, most viewers at a normal viewind distances (where they cannot resolve the individual pixels in the display) will not find a noticeable difference between a commercial DVD and the same material on a commercial BD unless they are primed or trained to look for it or doing a side-by-side comparison.

Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

Sorry, meant Canon. Corrected post. Don, I thought you were in on the discussion I'm thinking of, guess not.

The poster specifically called Canon about this issue and was reportedly told about the specific differences, but again I'm not holding this information out as proof of anything.

I know the complaints about low light of the G10 vs the XA10 seem pretty dramatic to me. Many of us, including me, had seemed to assume the differences were due to different circuitry or whatever, but the report I allude to above seemed to explain things pretty well.

Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

Attached are cropped frame grabs from Windows Media Player of 24 mbps 1080p/30 material, and that same material burned to a DVD at 9.4 mbps and played in WMP.

The DVD looks pretty good when viewed full frame, 16:9 and in motion. It's not equal to 1080p/30, but lots of people wouldn't notice the difference unless given an A/B test.

Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

I can personally confirm that, in my conversation with Canon's technical support, the XA-10 and the HF-G10 don't have the same sensor. I actually have some footage from both cameras. Unfortunately, at the time,the conditions did not allow me to test in low light conditions typical of say a church. That being said, you can see it on Vinson. Just type in my name and it should come up.

Regarding the frame taken from the DVD; I am doin.g something seriously wrong. I export using H.264 and usually widescreen 1080i. I have never tweaked the other settings because I really don'tknow how they work. Any help and/or suggestions would be great.

Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

I'm not a codec expert, so I am partially speculating here...

I think video DVD uses MPEG-2. Whether explicitly or implicitly, a transcode to MPEG-2 at 720x480 must happen before burning. At each transcode stage there are bitrate and various quality options (some not obvious).

Therefore if you are transcoding from the camera's AVCHD to H.264, it is probably being transcoded again to MPEG-2 before burning, whether you see this or not. You might be losing quality at each stage, especially if the highest quality and bitrate settings are not used.

If your software allows burning in a more direct path without going to H.264, try that. If you must render to an output file first, then burn it, pick "MPEG-2 DVD" if that's available, and make sure the export settings are all at the highest quality and bitrate. Before burning, play the file and inspect the quality. Then burn that using your DVD authoring software.

I just exported the previous test video to what CS5 calls "MPEG-2 DVD" which is 720x480, 29.97 fps, at 9 mbps, using 2-pass bitrate encoding and max render quality. It looks about like the previously-posted DVD still frame.

Re: Is The HF-G10 vs. Canon 60D
 

I tried using the MPEG-2 DVD setting in Adobe and it was a SUCCESS!!!! Thank you for the direction. I just feel bad for my past clients that got a quality less than what I was actually capable of delivering. I actually maxed out a lot of the settings that made sense in an effort to get the best results. I took about 25 minutes for a 40 second clip.

I was only using the H.264 because it was the only format that seemed to work well with IMovie and IDVD. Out with the old and in with the new!!

Thanks again.