Daniel Andreas Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 (edited) Canon's XL H1 is presumably the first camera that employs HDV2 -- the second gerneration algorithm which promises lower motion artifacts. Flashback: When the Z1 was introduced at NAB last year the Sony booth was buzzing and full of enthusiastic early adapters. I walked into the Sony booth with a client who wanted to see what HDV was all about. The HDV Kiosk featured several large HD Plasma Displays arranged around the booth in a circle. The loop showed nicely composed high-rez images dissolving to classical music. My client was impressed until I poped the question: "you notice anything" and then he did. "Nothing moves". True, in every shot of the demo loop the camera was completely locked down, not pans, no tilts no zooms. I am certain the DP who shot the demo for Sony was instructed to NOT MOVE the camera and have no movement within the frame. You have to wonder how it makes any sense to have a motion picture camera that can't handle motion and why Sony decided to rush to maket with a mediocre camera. I had heard rumors about the motion artifacts that haunted that 60:1 compression method. But over at the Sony booth the world was still at peace: there was no motion and there were no artifacts until.... I found the server and hit the space bar right in the middle of a dissolve.... The compression is at it's weakest when a lot of information changes from one frame to the next -- the result was large digital "blocks" pixelating the entire screen. I went frame-by-frame to show that the ugly artifact was happening throughout the entire dissolve with blocks the size of a postage stamp. Soon an angry Sony sales rep who felt he was caught with his pants down rushed over, pushing me away to hit the space bar and get the loop going again. Back to today: Canon's new HDV camera the XL-H1 is using the improved HDV2 algorithm which has a dynamic compression allocation and supposedly handles motion considerably better. Has anybody seen that being true and can confirm that Sony's Z1 pales in comparison because it is still using the inferior HDV1 method, where as the Canon HD is using HDV2? Has anybody done any comparative tests between those two cameras on motion and digital blocking? Edited January 24, 2006 by Daniel Andreas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Johanson Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Hi Daniel, I have no word on the HDV2 format. However, I must congratulate you on helping to expose one of Sony's many lies! Big time congrats, man!!! I wish more people would stand up for the truth like you did; even in direct conflict with almighty Sony. -Ted Johanson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bryant Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Canon's XL H1 is presumably the first camera that employs HDV2 -- the second gerneration algorithm which promises lower motion artifacts. Back to today: Canon's new HDV camera the XL-H1 is using the improved HDV2 algorithm which has a dynamic compression allocation and supposedly handles motion considerably better. Has anybody seen that being true and can confirm that Sony's Z1 pales in comparison because it is still using the inferior HDV1 method, where as the Canon HD is using HDV2? Has anybody done any comparative tests between those two cameras on motion and digital blocking? HDV1 is JVCs codec of 720p at 19.4mbps HDV2 is Sonys and Canons 1080i codec at 25mbps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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