XL2 have TC in or out?

[rbilsbor]

I'm trying to convince my boss to buy an XL2 instead of a PD170 here at work. Obviously this is not a hard choice for any of us who actually know anything about video, but all he sees is one camera costing $1500 more than the other. Jeez.

Does anyone know if you can jam-sync the XL2 to other cameras as either a Timecode master or slave? We have a DSR-500 that we often sync up with other Sony DVCAMs, and if we can sync the XL2 with it then that'd convince him. Anyone know if you can hook it up with a BNC, or do you just have to use free run and try to start them at the same time?

[Gary_McClurg]

Call Jim Martin at Birns and Sawyer to get the real low down. I think you can not really jam sync them in what we think is jam sync.

But I think through the fireware and through software you can start both cameras at the same time code and have them set at the same detail levels, etc.

But check with Jim for sure.

[DVX100percent]

As somebody mentioned before, you can always record LTC timecode to one of the audio channels. Then all you need is the NLE that can decode it. Of course you would also need timecode generator.

Since Canon has 4 audio channels you can use this logic to convince your boss. You would be able to use one channel for the timecode and still have three channels left for stereo or whatever else you might need.

Vlad

[Barry_Green]

Except that in 4-channel mode, don't forget that you have to use 12-bit 32khz recording. It's extremely cool that Canon offers the feature, I wish the DVX did too, but it's not "free" -- you do pay a price for it, and that's lower-quality audio recording when in 4-channel mode.

[rbilsbor]

I convinced him anyway. I'm like, 24p 16X9 is an ability we're going to want, especially with all the DVDs we make. Considering this money was going to disappear this week if we didn't use it (gotta love corporations), and we had to buy something below $5k (4999.95... perfect), he went for it. I'll post once I can compare it to the DVX...

[Kidster]

Barry,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that when using channels 3 & 4, that only the later two are 12 bit. Channel 1 & 2 are still 16 bit. Or am I not reading the specs correctly.

[Jean-P_Archibald]

You are wrong. If you use four channels, all the channels become 12 bits. It's in the DV25 specifications. But keep in mind that for most applications, 12 bits is fine. You still get a CD quality sound, I personnally never been able to hear the difference between 12 bits recording and 16 bits. As Barry said, it's a cool feature to have, you try to avoid it when you only need to have 1 stereo track or 2 mono channels, but when a situation occur when you have to use more audio feeds, it become really handy.