Video quality on a 1080p 63inch plasma

S

strivedi

Member
Hello All,

I just bought an XH A1 this past week.

In the process of checking it out and learning it, I hooked it up to my 63inch 1080p plasma tv.

The picture looks kind of home video-ish. Not bad, but not what I would expect from a high def camera.

I want the look and feel of any of the shorts posted here with XH A1 or even broadcast 1080i content.

I have been voraciously reading up the threads on custom presets, but I am wondering, am I doing something fundamentally wrong?

-- Shailesh Trivedi
 
Define "home video" because you are in fact shooting video. When I had my A1 I tested it on a 1080i tv and it looked amazing. What frame rate are you shooting? How are you connecting it to your t.v? Are you rocking the cinelike modes?
 
Thanks for the prompt replies. It is definitely not professional lighting, since this is my first test run at it.

Per Zerg, he mentioned his first test was amazing. Not mine. I am using 1080 60i, and it definitely has a home video feel.

Specifically, the sharpness is somewhat "harsh" to the eyes instead of the soft cinematic feel you get even on HD broadcasts and definitely on DVDs (not Blu Ray, just std def as well).
 
Well, you're definitely not going to get a cinematic feel with out of the box settings. You not only have to use proper lighting, you have to tweak the presets and try color correction methods. There are a whole bunch of factors that contribute to the cinematic feel.

They're shooting Crank 2 on the A1 and countless, cinematic shorts and features have been shot with the camera. My footage looks great in 1080/24p on my 40" LCD.

You're not going to get a cinematic feel with 60i, that's for sure - its possible, but it is much harder.

-Kegan
 
60i is the devil for "cinematic" look. Learn to love the shooting settings, I would suggest turning down the master pedastal ( I forget what its called on the A1 ) it crushes the black a bit and brings them to a true black close to 0IRE level. I have found boosting the contrast in post helps a lot. You don't need to boost a bunch, but even a slight amount helps a great deal. And as said before, if it's too sharp, turn down the detail and or sharpness level a tad.

As for boosting contrast in post, try using a luma curves adjustment and giving it a little bit of an S curve, I really like the results that gives. Just experiment, shoot and experiment some more. Be sure to post up some of your experiments along the way.
 
Will do. Thanks Zerg. By the way, you had asked me what I am using to connect to the tv. I tried both component as well as stereo video.
 
A Video camera will always give home video look, unless you start and use it like a filmcam.

As a starter, try this

Use Tripod
Film at the sunset or dawn
Film outdoors
Film nature
Use 24F
 
As a new A1 owner myself i must say this is one terrific cam! I love it! The images it produces are just gorgeous in glorious HD. I shot my kids in the part with it as a test. I threw some cinematic music and then threw it in magic bullet looks. Any WOWOWOW i was amazed for the price its an amazing investment. That said i have an HVX and an HPX500.
 
Thank you all. I am continuing to play with the settings this weekend.

And for now I have the low gain setting set to -3DB.

Have not tried 24F. Thats next - along with playing with different presets.
 
The camera looks gorgeous on a plasma. I threw in a tape with some footage on it into my HV20 and hooked it up to my buddies 50in Plasma via HDMI. It was crystal clear and sharp. I loved it :)
 
One thing you really need to look at as well is the settings on the TV itself. We just purchased a Samsung 46 inch 1080p 7 series LCD TV after our Panasonic 50 inch 720p DLP blew it's second $500 bulb in a year. The picture I saw in the store was much better than the picture I initially got at home, but after a few hours of tweaking the image was incredible. I tweaked it while viewing SD and HD cable content. Once I hooked up the A-1 and played back some 24p footage from a recent trip to Australia, I was in absolute awe. It literally made the cable HD content look like SD in comparison.

Also, a few weeks ago I shot a university football game in 60i and was recording the game at home as it was being broadcast live nationally. To say my footage destroyed the broadcast footage would be an understatement. I don't mean content wise of course because they had several rizers and and at least 5 cameras/angles to work with while I am just one guy with one camera. Image quality wise however, my footage was the clear winner. You have to remember though, that television signals are very highly compressed, so I'm sure the footage straight out of their cameras would have been at least as good but more than likely better than my own. But honestly when I look at the A-1 footage on my new TV I have diffulty imagining how it could be any better.(although technically I know it could)

Your best bet is to try some of the popular presets for the camera, learn to manipulate the the non preset manual functions of the camera, and tweak the TV to your liking for both the TV settings and the camcorders component output. Trust me, you won't be dissappointed! Good luck!
 
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