I own a Canon XH A1 and typically shoot exclusively in 60i as I think it gives me the most latitude in post.

I am considering changing my standard workflow to the following:

1. Capture to .m2t using HDVSplit
2. Convert to Cineform .avi using HDLink
3. Open Batch in TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress perform:
a. Deinterlace (deinterlace always, interpolation - animation II)
b. Resize (1280x720)
4. Edit in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 using Cineform preset HDV 720p

Here are the attributes as I can see them:

Pros:

- 720p provides a MUCH smoother editing experience
- better playback performance (especially on computer--progressive)
- much improved result when changing speed of footage (slow motion, acceleration)
- better results with other effects as well (progressive image)

Cons:

- very slightly reduced image quality (barely perceptible to me thus far)
- additional processing time (deinterlace, resize step)

Any thoughts on this approach? Any side effects I haven't considered or minimized?

Steps 1-3 can be done entirely in HDlink as you capture.

I was having a consistent problem with HDLink's capture/conversion stopping or hanging after a few seconds of capture on the A1. Others were reporting similar issues and suggested using HDVSplit to capture (and split scenes) which has worked flawlessly for me. To be fair, this may have been fixed in a recent patch release of AHD 5.x and I haven't re-tried. Feedback on this would be appreciated.

What is the resulting quality of the deinterlacing and resizing by Cineform's HDLink to 720p? Is it something others do as a matter of course as well?

Even if you capture with HDVSplit, you can still do steps 2 and 3 in HDLink using the conversion tool, and select the entire capture folder for batch process. In prefs you can select Deinterlace, and resize to 720p.

As a note, I always keep the last install of the cineform codec, in case I have to step backwards should an update prove to have issues -only had to do this once due to deadline. (I'd still work with Cineform support on the present issue to get it fixed).

Never upgrade while in the middle of a project, unless the upgrade addresses a project stopping issue.

I regularly edit in 720p that started life as 1080i ... although rather than using HDLink I do a 'bob' deinterlace in Virtualdub or Avisynth to get 720p59.96 (so as to maximise the motion info). Just my $0.02.