specific workflow question

[Glen Irvine]

Good Morning,

I have done a considerable amount of videography and editing ( XL1s and FCP ). A friend gave me a Canon HV20 to take with me on a recent trip to India. I've just reviewed the footage and am quite amazed considering the size and price of the camera ( not an advertisement...just a comment ). I have not edited in HD so here are the specifics...any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.
The footage was shot using the HDV PF24 ( cine mode ) setting on the camera. I am editing using FCP 5.1.4. The delivery will be SD DVD and possibly web.
Should I edit in HD and then do the conversion to SD when I author the DVD or should I capture to SD and keep the workflow all in SD? I've read a few of the previous posts and most users seem to suggest the former.
If I capture and edit in HD which of FCP's audio/video settings should I use: specifically, what sequence preset, capture preset, and device control setting should I use. I'm particularly interested in the sequence preset because I'm not sure if the HDV PF24 setting on the camera truly shoots at 24 frames a second. The two applicable sequence preset choices seem to be HDV 1080p24 or HDV 1080i60
One last point...I'll be using Compressor to convert the footage for DVD or web usage.
Once again, any assistance would be greatly appreciated...thanks in advance. Glen Irvine

[Carl Middleton]

Personally I would edit in HD and then downconvert to SD. To future-proof your work there are two ways to go about it, log and capture as SD, saving the info to go back later and grab as HD, or capture and edit HD and then downconvert to SD, keeping the HD master so you can immediately burn that to a delivery media if it becomes convenient (i.e. if BluRay suddenly bankrupted HD-DVD and everyone bought a player :) ) Either which way, in my personal opinion, HD masters are a wonderful thing!


C