XLH1 Settings
 

I am new to the XLH1. I have it and an XL1s. My vision is to shoot everything in 16:9 60i HD so that the Tape footage is always there and available to me in the future in HD. But for now, I will capture this and size it to 4:3 and SD, as to continue to use both in SD. If this is possible, are there any particular settings on the XLH1 to accomodate this best?? Be gentle, I am new to HD. Thanks.

Since you want HD archives, you need to shoot in HDV mode obviously. The viewfinder has an aspect framing mode, so you can shoot other aspects like panavision & so on.
I haven't gone deep into the manual on this feature, but you may be able to pull up a 4:3 frame in the viewfinder so you can position your subjects correctly, then its just a matter of cropping in post.

Hope this helps a little.

--edit--
one more thing, while surfing the manual, you can record in HDV, then do a down convert in the camera during capture/playback. This will definately help you in post.

also, after checking the manual, it does have a 4:3 aspect guide. Its in the display setup menu

Brian has answered this pretty much exactly the same way I was going to.

There are two things to do:

First, when shooting, go to the Display Setup menu and choose Aspect Guide, set to 4:3.

Second, when capturing, go to the Signal Setup menu and choose HD Down-Conv, set to On.

That's basically all you need to do.

Thanks!

David