I heard that there is a free, downloadable software that makes it possible to capture 16:9 HDV directly into 4:3 SD in FCE.

True? Where can I find it? If so what is your experience?

If it is not true, Apple please develop it!

Kind regards Erik

My camera will do this on the fly.

I heard that there is a free, downloadable software that makes it possible to capture 16:9 HDV directly into 4:3 SD in FCE.

True? Where can I find it? If so what is your experience?

If it is not true, Apple please develop it!

I am not sure how it works on Apple OSX. But OSX is built on open source FreeBSD (which I use) and a modified version of the FreeBSD ports tree should be included with OSX.

It should be possible to install free applications that can handle a number of conversions, they have some cryptic names and may not have a graphic interface: ffmpeg, mplayer, transcode. I have used ffmpeg on FreeBSD to downconvert HDV, although I didn't convert to SD/DV, just lower resolution so it would fit on my screen.

If you can get your camera to send SD, that may be the easier solution.

Cheers, Erik