XH-G1 to Convergent Flash XDR
 

I like to find out if the SDI-HD from the G1 is true HD. From my understanding, the native sensors of the G1 is not 1920x1080, hence the SDI-HD output is sort of interpolated from 1440x1080 to 1920x1080. Is this right?

Reason is a customer asked for 1920x1080 HD and not HDV. Since G1 has a SDI-HD port, logically speaking the output is HD.. or is it still HD wannbie?

Well there is no such thing anymore as HD that isn't "true." This nonsense about some flavors of HD being "true" implies that other flavors of HD are "not true," which is nothing more than pure marketing hype. Don't buy into it. But yes, the HD-SDI output from the Canon XH G1, XL H1S and XL H1 is indeed High Definition.

I would have to say no, that is not right. It is definitely not "sort of interpolated."

The pixel count on the image sensors is only *part* of the equation. You can't fixate just on that one spec if you want to understand what's really happening in the camera. For example, since this is a three-chip camcorder, a major part of the bigger picture as far as resolution goes is H-axis Pixel Shift. Plus, the output of the image sensor block is an *analog* signal which gets converted to digital for recording. Since the sensor block is analog, there doesn't have to be a 1:1 correlation between the number of pixels on the sensors vs. the number of pixels that are recorded... it's just not that simple. Suffice to say that what *really* matters is the output. On tape, it's 1440 anamorphic. Over SDI, it's 1920 square. The human eye can't tell the difference from a normal viewing distance.

Well then, that also rules out HDCAM, the single most widely accepted HD format in the world for broadcast masters -- because it's also 1440 anamorphic, just like HDV.

From your brief description here, it sounds to me like the customer knows just enough to be dangerous. I'm detecting a bit of ignorance about HD formats in general. The reality of the situation is that most likely, 1440 anamorphic recorded to HDV cassette is more than adequate for whatever it is that the customer wants. However, except for a few hoops to jump through, there's no reason why it can't be done over SDI as well. Just keep in mind that the main advantage of SDI isn't that the output is scaled to 1920 square -- the main thing is that it's an uncompressed signal. That's the primary appeal of HD-SDI.

There's no such thing as "HD wannabe," so you're safe. Hope this helps,

It sounds like his customer has been to Best Buy looking at wide screen TVs and came away with a buzzphrase.