audio capture problems
 

I shot a presentation this weekend using 2 rented Canon XL1's. I used a lavalier mic that went into a shure mixer and then sent two XLR outputs to the canon. While we were shooting I monitored the audio via the headphone jack on the XL1 and it sounded great. I also monitored the sound at the shure and it sounded fine.

I own a Panasonic PV-DV351 and when I tried to import the footage that I shot over the weekend I wound up with severe audio glitches. I am wondering if I need to actually use a Canon XL1 to import footage that I shot with an XL1 or if I can use my Panasonic.

I had just assumed that I could use any Mini-DV camera to do the import.

Thanks for your help!

Hmmm...what do you mean by "...severe audio glitches."?

Could the problem be related to the audio settings you used on the XL1 (i.e. the sampling rate being unavailable on your Panasonic)? (I'm not familiar with your PV-DV351.) It might be simplest to take a tape of footage to an XL1 dealer and see if the audio's ok when played back on a demo unit.

Could be the sampling rate I suppose.

Have you ever heard of a situation where footage shot on an XL1 doesn't play back appropriately on a cheaper Mini-DV camera?

Thanks!

<<-- Have you ever heard of a situation where footage shot on an XL1 doesn't play back appropriately on a cheaper Mini-DV camera? -->>

Yes, I have.

If the heads were slightly out of alignment on the rented XL-1 or your camera, you will get exactly the symptom you describe. The easiest way would be to rent the XL-1 again and dub the tape from the XL-1 to your camera. Then you can use your camera to capture the dubbed tape.

I would bet that one of the two cameras is slightly out of alignment. In my experience, it usually shows up on audio first and video second.

I believe this is because audio has less error correction than the video stream. I've had situations where I could not capture via firewire due to errors in the digital stream, but was able to capture analog output signal OK.

A possible cause of audio problems can arise from capturing at a different sampling rate. If you recorded audio at 8 bit, and captured at 32 bit, this might cause anomalies.

Hi Michael,

If you used PAL XL-1's then read on.

I too have experienced audio glitches with the PAL XL-1. The manner in which Canon treats the audio does not follow the standard set by Sony. I think all others use the Sony audio way.

I capture using a DVRaptor card and have had to apply a fix to one of the .ini files used by the DVRaptor software. This fix has sorted out the problem. Drove me nuts until I found it. Please note that this is only applicable to PAL cameras

This phenomena is documented in the XL-1 Watchdog F.A.Q's as well as in the Canopus F.A.Q's. This may be your problem.

Good Luck
Andrew

Thanks!
 

Thanks to all of you for your help!

In this particular case, the problem turned out to be the proprietary nature of the cameras that I am using. For some reason, my Panasonic PV-DV351 will not play the audio of anything shot on an XL1. The video is fine - but the audio is not usable.


Thanks!