HD footage to SD DVD with FCE

[twalker294]

First let me say I am pretty new to this "prosumer" video stuff. I have a Panasonic GS-150 right now and I've been using it with iMovie for a couple of years but I decided I am ready to take the next step so I got FCE4 for Christmas. Please excuse the noob-ness of my questions. I read the FAQ but didn't find any answers so forgive me if they are there and I just overlooked them.

OK, I am about to buy an HV20. Of course I want to capture all my footage in HD but since neither I nor anyone who I will be sharing DVDs with have an HD DVD player, I will want to create SD DVDs. How difficult will this process be with FCE? Can it take HD source material and output an SD Quicktime file for iDVD to put on the disc? What will the quality be like? Would the quality be better shooting SD in the camera to begin with?

Before anyone asks, I will also be sharing video on the web with Vimeo so that's why I want to shoot in HD in the first place. I would also like the option of creating HD DVDs with footage that I am shooting today, in a year or two when they become more mainstream.

Second, I read all this stuff about FCE not handling 24p correctly -- exactly what does it not do? I assume I can import the 24p into FCE because it's actually in a 60i wrapper, correct? So what exactly is the problem with 24p and FCE?

Thanks
Todd

[scotthv20]

You should be able to resize (but I don't use FCE myself). You can also set the camera to output DV format if you wish to capture and edit DV for now and capture HD version later.
24 fps provides the motion look of film. It still does this even in 60i stream just like VHS tapes from movies. You can capture 60i and edit within FCE and it will have the 24 fps look. HOWEVER, you're out of luck if you ever want to take the edited footage and make a pure 24p video. (no interlacing) When you edit you may cut on a frame that is 1/2 one frame and half another. You're also likely to cut on different cadences (5 frame phasing).
Once that happens it's impossible to cleanly convert it.

if you want to work in pure 24p you'd have to look at FCP since neither iMovie or FCE allows a 24fps timeline. But as you noted you can edit the raw 60i which has the 24 fps look.

[beta75]

To make an SD DVD in in FCE from HD-timeline you just export a quicktime movie with the right settings for DVD ( exampel, apple inter. Codec 1024x576 pixlar)
Drop that file in iDVD and render.

/KN

[Lunchbox]

Don't want to get you hope too high. HV20 is a consumer camcorder but not a Prosumer.