I've read so many posts and am still having a hard time with what workflow I should set up for my project. I have about 60 hours of HDV 1080i video that I need to chop up to form a 1 hour pilot that I will pitch to broadcasters. Some Avid members have said they'd:

"Capture in HDV, then transcode to DNxHD and work with that"

(but that will take up an incredible large amount of Harddrive space wouldn't it??)

Another said "capture downconverted to DV into a 1080i project switched to 30iNTSC; edit; switch to HDV and recapture tapes in HDV, then relink"

(how do I capture downconverted? And is this not a terribly complicated process that could lead me into problems or is it popular way of doing this?)

Please tell me what you think would be the best workflow. And don't be afraid to use detail in how to set it all up ... I'm dying to get this project moving but would love to figure this out first before I dive too deep.

Thanks!

one question comes to my mind.. are you still on version 5.5.3 as your profile states?

Menno

 DnxHD is how you can SAVE drive space compared to native HDV which takes up more drive space. The issues, from where I sit seem to be these:

1) Are you going to be able to handle all the technical ins and outs of getting your project into DnxHD or any other non-native format, editing there, then getting it back out into a format you can show the network. For a failry experienced editor this stuff is easy but there are (dont believe otherwise) always a lot of little things you need to fiddle with to get this right and in my experience, i get an ulcer. For this reason, I edit native HD... but others call me crazy

2) Do you have more than at least 1TB and is on a fast drive system? If you are going to dump a lot of footage into a FW400 drive with just a few GB and hope for the best? If you dont have much drive space and you have FW400 drives, you should definitely avoid native HDV as it will never run smoothly.

3) Is your system a newer one with good ram and processing and latest version of avid? If not, expect the machine to have trouble editing native HDV.

From what I can see? You defintely DO need to downconvert. So the question is to what... I recommend DNxHD since you will be closer in general to HDV than if you edit DV which is a whole different format.

as for the actual workflow, someone else can clarify where in the process the conversion take place

My 2 cents.

weekender:

Some Avid members have said they'd:

"Capture in HDV, then transcode to DNxHD and work with that"

(but that will take up an incredible large amount of Harddrive space wouldn't it??)

Yes it will.  HDV takes roughly the same space as DV.  Depending on the DNxHD codec used you could take up to 8 times the space for your transcoded media.  The reason that other users suggest a transcode first is to lighten the load on the CPU, thus speeding up the responsiveness of the system.  Directly editing with long GOP formats typically will reduce the number of real time effects that you can use.  It can also make the system feel sluggish.

weekender:

Another said "capture downconverted to DV into a 1080i project switched to 30iNTSC; edit; switch to HDV and recapture tapes in HDV, then relink"

This is known as proxy editing - you're using not your original media but lower res proxies of that media.  Depending on your deck or camera you may be able to convert to DV on-the-fly in your playback source and directly capture that way.  This will take pretty much the same space as your HDV originals, but it is not as CPU intensive.

This also has had problems in the past with some decks allowing you to capture DV but not HDV via firewire.  If you want to go this path check the workflow before you commit too heavily.  Digitise a small section at DV, cut it, delete your media and recapture at HDV.  If it works you should be able to do that for the full project.