Ok, this may be an obvious and/or dumb question,
but you guys seem to be pretty patient with these
kinds of questions...

If I shoot in HDV and hit the right settings changes on the A-1
can I digitize that HDV footage into FCP as Standard Definition?

I've read the manual, I've searched on several forums,
just not sure the A-1 can do this...some Sony's can I understand.

Thank you,
(ducking)


David

Yes you can.
The A1 will down-convert from HD to SD on the fly.

However, you won't get a SD picture that fills the frame. Your SD output will either be anamorphic or letterbox. Just wanted to let you know, in case you were equating SD with full frame 4:3.

Thanks guys,
that's what I thought,
and thanks for the reminder about
anamorphic or letter-box too.

All the best,

David

Well what about using Premiere Pro? Can you digitize HDV into a SD 4:3 project?

in Vegas, i take a 1440 m2t and event crop the area of the frame
that i want in 4:3 at 720x480. I'll use track motion if there is movement to follow. Then I will export it as DV and import it into my SD 4:3 timeline.
I could just add that into the SD timeline too...but it gets messy.

The only reason I would ever do this would be to implement HDV b-roll into
an sd project.

Frankly, just work in 16:9 and save yourself the trouble.