Hey everyone, I've been working on a short film and we have already started shooting on a DVX100a in 24pA letterboxed. The director decided, after the fact, that he wants to upconvert to 720p24 in 16:9 using Instant HD. We did a few tests and I have to admit, the results look pretty good (granted most of the shots were static and locked down...).

My workflow question is this:

What are the disadvantages to upconverting 24pA 4:3 SD to 720p24 16:9 HDV for the edit and then burning an SD DVD in 16:9?

It seems to me that the only advantage of this workflow is gaining the 16:9 aspect ratio. I am VERY concerned over the upconvert, especially with all the handheld shots and camera movement that is yet to coming in shooting. I think the director might be falsely sold on the results based only on the static shots.

And considering we will be delivering on an SD DVD, we'd only have to downconvert the upconverted HDV anyways!

What do you guys think? Should I recommend a workflow change before we get too far into the edit? We've barely started shooting, and even then, any workflow changes would only affect the post process.

thanks guys,
-=adam=-

It's worth uprezzing in InstantHD for the faux increase in colour space - especially when originating from the appalling NTSC DV 4:1:1 colour space.
No more giant blocks and jaggies of primary colours!

Also the superior true 16:9 will future-proof your project, even in SD.
Why anyone would shoot 4:3 letterboxed is beyond me.
Deliver on 16:9 DVD - let the DVD player do the letterboxing for those unfortunate souls stuck with 4:3 CRT televisions, and allow the rest of the human race to enjoy proper widescreen on native displays.