In searching the forums, I see that many people recommended to capture HDV downconverted but anamorphic (squeezed) instead of letterbox and edit in DV25. Well how about if I am capturing in HDV and editing in HDV with no downconverting? Would you still recommend I capture in anamorphic rather than letterbox? I want to make sure of this before I start capturing 30 hours of video!

My footage is 1080i/59.94  1440x1080.  I'm a little green at this but since my system appears to handle cutting HDV smoothly, this is the workflow I'm thinking of doing and please tell me if this is a good idea:

Capture and edit in HDV and then transcode my finished sequence to DNxHD 145 before exporting a quicktime reference. Encode it with TMPgenc to a high quality HDV format for DVD. My goal is to make a demo video and export it to DVD to give to various people but also for putting on my website and streaming on the net.

Thanks!!

Letterboxing will produce a 4:3 image with black bands top and bottom. This will reduce you vertical resolution.

Anamorphic will capture the complete image without losing any resolution.

I recommend that you do exactly what you are planning - capture HDV, edit HDV, perform a video mixdown to DNxHD 145 and export a QuickTime Ref to TmpGENC. Once in TmpGENC, if you intend to go to DVD, setup your DVD encoding settings and make sure on the source filter settings that you select the best quality scaling algorithm (can't remember its name but it isn't the default so you'll have to change it). I also select a scaling setting that removes boarders (again, not at my machine so I can't remember what it's called but its part of the same scaling filter that TmpGENC uses).

I also highly recommend that you experiment with a couple of short clips going through this workflow to see which settings give you the best results. The only gotcha I've see with this is that the video may look a bit washed-out after transcoding in TmpGEnc and I believe that has something to do with its mis-interpretation of the color space for HDV. You might be able to adjust the gamma of the output or even try to output your QT Ref to 0-255 instead - again, play with this to see what works best for you. Also - make sure you view your final DVD tests using a real DVD player and TV (computer monitors tend to tell a slightly different story).

Good luck.

weekender:

Well how about if I am capturing in HDV and editing in HDV with no downconverting? Would you still recommend I capture in anamorphic rather than letterbox? I want to make sure of this before I start capturing 30 hours of video!

When you capture and edit HDV you don´t need decide about anamorphic or letterbox. HDV format is native 16:9 without any other possibility.

oh, I was talking about the option on the menu on my video camera. It says 'down convert' and when I press it, it gives me the option of squeeze, letterbox, or edge crop. Hmm, is that just the setting for when shooting the video, because I have been thinking it's the output setting and that I need to decide on this before capturing. Hmm, what do you think? It's a Sony HVR-a1U HDV camcorder.

Thanks.

When you have material in HDV and you want edit in HDV you choose no down convert. When you have material in HDV and you would like edit in SD you should set downconvert and squeeze (if you would like have 16:9 SD format). In case of final in 4:3 you can set edge crop on camera, then edit in SD 4:3 format or set squeeze and apply reformat effect to all edited sequence (source 16:9, target 4:3 edge crop).

weekender:

oh, I was talking about the option on the menu on my video camera. It says 'down convert' and when I press it, it gives me the option of squeeze, letterbox, or edge crop.

Weekender,

Even though you are working in SD just now, At some time in the future you will decide that you really wanted that footage in HD.
So you will have to go back and recapture as HDV.

I would still suggest that you capture from your camera to your computer in HDV.
Work with it in Avid and then when you come to export after editing look at the various possibilities for downconverting.

In my own workflow, I work in HDV all the time.
I even export my projects as Quicktime reference files (same as source) and import into AvidDVD.
I author the sequences there - still in HD.
Burn a Blu-Ray at the end.

BUT if I wanted a DVD, I would choose that option there, at the very end of my workflow..... and Avid DVD will do the necessary converting of the HD material on my authored project and transcode it to the correct format for the DVD.

Regards,
Douglas

Douglas is right. But if you need digital cut in SD at the end (and save hdd space and of course you are sure in SD) I think it is better use hardware downconveter in tape desk or in camera with squeeze setting. I do this when I make reportage for TV (they need tape in SD). I am not sure if downconverting (transcoding) in Avid before digital cut brink better or worse picture.

What if my camera doesn't have an "off" convert option?  The Sony HVR-A1J (same as A1U series) only gives those 3 options: Squeze, Letter Box, and Edge Crop.  One is always selected. 

My Capture "V" option isn't coming up either!

What do I pick?

My System: 
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz
6Gb RAM
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
GeForce GTX 640 Video
LG BluRay/DVD/CD Burner
4 Tb Memory
AVID MC5

What if my camera doesn't have an "off" convert option?  The Sony HVR-A1J (same as A1U series) only gives those 3 options: Squeze, Letter Box, and Edge Crop.  One is always selected. 

My Capture "V" option isn't coming up either!

What do I pick?
 
My System: 
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz
6Gb RAM
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
GeForce GTX 640 Video
LG BluRay/DVD/CD Burner
4 Tb Memory
AVID MC5