Playback quality
 

First attempts with the XLs have shown me how difficult it is to make something look easy but I am surprised by the very poor quality on the PC when editing (19" CRT ). When dropping directly on to a TV the picture is dramatically better. Is this a function of the interlacing, or are there other factors involved ?
I was also disappointed with the low light performance until I noticed the ND filter was in.
Does anyone do an Idiots Guide to the XLs ?

The computer monitor works in a different color space and is a progressive scan display. It will never look like a NTSC monitor although you can tweak the video to look good on a computer monitor.

Idiot's guide is usually experience and taking your time. Usually people get too rushed to 'shoot' the scene and don't take time to engage their check list.

To improve your camera work so you don't have problems like ND filters being in (and I've done that one!), make yourself a pocket-card check list.

Keep in mind also that when editing the preview is often that. A
PREVIEW. It is not to be judged on final quality. You can also hook
up a TV or broadcast monitor to your system to have a better
understanding in regards to quality. It can also depend on which
NLE you are using with which settings what the quality of the
preview screen will be. It also depends on the physical size of
this preview window.

Lastly, per default both Windows Media Player and QuickTime
play DV video back at 50% resolution on a PC! This is important
to know. So your video will always look crappier due to this as
well unless you change it to play at 100% resolution.

And as Mike mentioned, you cannot compare a lot of computer
monitors to TV's and broadcast monitors.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : Lastly, per default both Windows Media Player and QuickTime play DV video back at 50% resolution on a PC! This is important to know. So your video will always look crappier due to this as well unless you change it to play at 100% resolution. -->>>

Where is this setting in WMP? I looked at all the menu and couldn't see anything like this.

Dennis Vogel

John, I don't know if you use e-bay but there is a video available on there, called The canon xl-1 made easy, at £9.99 + p&p.

It runs for approx 99 minutes. It covers the XL1 but is quite informative if not perfect quality. There are some features on the XL1s which are obviously not covered, but it is a good basic guide to the camera. If you watch it in full you will learn some things about the camera that you probably didn't already know. Hope it helps, it's quite a good dummies guide.

Thanks for the comments- I'm happy with the direct to TV playback so it's reassuring to know that a poor picture on a PC is normal. I'll look for the XL1 video - having only used the beast a couple of times ( even when retired there doesn't seem to be enough time ), anything that helps will be useful, the XL1 Watchdog plus this forum seem to be the most informative and friendly source at the moment, so I'll keep reading and, hopefully, learning
thanks again

Dennis: it's very hard to find indeed

Tools -> Options -> Performance -> Advanced (under Video
Acceleration): the first slider (under Digital Video) should be
moved all the way to the right to the setting "Large". Then
close all the dialogs with OK.

The Windows Media Player on both my and my girlfriend's computers were already at these settings (best performance) by default. Could it have been caused by Windows updates or changing some other Windows settings?

I don't know Jesse. I've always seen it at one notch below the
maximum. Any chance you are running the new Service Pack 2?
Perhaps that changed it; I haven't tried it yet myself.

Not that any of this is all that important, but no I haven't installed SP2...guess I'll just chalk it up to "PC Voodoo".