Being a 1394 issue, I can somewhat understand. But as a brand-specific issue, I don't.

Those pics and video I posted on the first page? Those were captured using my XL1s as the deck!

Jonathan,
Did you have the XL1s on the A/C adapter or battery?

I'm pretty sure it was the adapter.

I take it that is what is meant by "grounding environment"?

Yes...try capturing without the AC adapter...I'm almost willing to bet that the mosaic artifacts will go away....I took a JVC camera (725U) and captured with the AC adapter and got the mosaics....captured the same segment with the camera on battery power....and guess what....:-)

Let me know what you get.....
Mark

I taken my XL1-S from canon service today .
about mosaic artifacts they said me they changed drum head (I don't know if this is the right name in english).
I have not tried it yet so I don't know if they solved that issue.
they did also other things, I had some other tipical XL1-S issues (autofocus and zoom noise), they calibrated both (they did back focus calibration for the first one) and now it seems it goes better then before.