ESP and ELP mode on Canon camcorders

[tadao]

Do any of the third-party DV codecs available allow capture and editing of Canon "extended standard play" and "extended long play" mode recordings? As far as I know, these modes use "2x DV compression", i.e. DV encoding at half the usual bitrate, and are only available on some Canon machines.

[choirislife923]

i don't know, but if all else fails, you can capture it by analog using a capture card and running through RCA jacks and SVideo.

[tadao]

Thanks, but I'd have to transfer to another DV camera with analog leads, then via firewire to PC, as I don't have an analog capture card. Was hoping I wouldn't need to take this step. Maybe I'll do some experimenting first with various codecs, but it doesn't look hopeful.

[MpegEncoder]

Doesn't the camcorder do the conversion on the fly when transferring? Have you had problems with DV downloads?

[tadao]

No, it simply transfers the data raw via firewire. Connecting the Canon to another camcorder via firewire gives a garbled image and sound, and connecting to PC refuses to capture at all (I guess the signal is unrecognisable to the capture program). Presumably one could firewire two ESP/ELP equipped Canon decks together to dub digitally in ESP/ELP, but it seems the only way to get it to a non ESP/ELP deck or computer is via analog leads.

[beingfunny]

I've got a Canon Zr20 MiniDV and I've done some LP (90 min) transfers to my PC directly. I'm using Studio 8, DVD quality... via Firewire. I guess this is not one of the cameras that has "Extended" LP mode. I'm not quite sure what that is.

[tadao]

No, LP and ESP/ELP are quite different. LP writes normal, compatible DV format data on the tape at a slower tape speed - fitting 90min recording on a 60min tape. ESP and ELP compress the data 2x as much as SP and LP mode - which fits 120min on a 60min tape in ESP and 180min on a 60min tape in ELP. The feature is only available on certain Canon cams, from 2000-2001 and seems to have been removed on more recent models. The footage is compressed to half the normal bitrate - and it seems that no current DV codecs can read this half-bitrate version of DV.

US models seem to refer to the feature as 2xSP and 3xSP. It seems to be present on Canon model Zr30/FV20/MV450 and model Elura20MC/IXYDV2/MV4iMC (which I have):

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/dv/data/2001_fv20.html

Canon's new FV20 utilizes a new data-compression format that enables the high-density compression of recorded images to make possible 3x extended recording. When using an 80-minute DV tape, for example, the feature permits users to record and play back four hours of footage, realizing extended carefree shooting without having to worry about running out of video tape.

from the Elura 20MC/ MV4iMC page:
http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/dv/data/2001_ixydv2_s.html

Tape speed SP: 3/4 ips (18.81 mm/sec.)
LP: 1/2 ips (12.56 mm/sec.)
2x SP: 3/8 ips (9.41 mm/sec.)
3x SP: 1/4 ips (6.28 mm/sec.)

Maximum recording time (with an 80-min. cassette)
SP: 80 min.
LP: 120 min.
2x SP: 160 min.
3x SP: 240 min.

[Lord Stinkfoot]

Sorry to dig up such an ancient thread, but i just ran into this same problem.

Does anybody know if there was ever solution found to capture ELP video?

If not, would something like the ION VIDEO2PC Analog to Digital Video Converter be the way to go?

I was thinking about playing it on my big screen TV and recording it from a tripod with my HD cam, but thats a last ghetto resort.

Thanks