Am I going from HDV to SD DVD properly?

[Daniel Wilson]

Hi,

I've been using a workflow which is roughly based upon Nate Weavers guide lines about the HDV - SD workflow but recently I'm wondering if I'm getting it wrong. Mostly, I'm concerned with what's happening regarding the conversion from progressive to interlace. Here's what I'm doing:

Shoot HDV 720p50 on HD-200 / DR-HD100
Bring the files into FCP and use the Media Manager to convert it into ProRes422
Work in a ProRes422 50p sequence
Export to SD Mpeg2 from compressor, trying progressive, and both upper and lower dominance options to see what works best.

When I choose upper for example, I'm assuming that compressor is creating an upper 1/50th of a second field from the original 50p frame, then creating a lower 1/50th of a second field from the next original 50p frame. I'm also assuming that if the original clip was 25p, each pair of fields would be taken from the same frame instead.

Is this correct? if so, should I be using upper or lower for SD PAL DVD?

If I choose progressive in compressor, will it be creating a 50p or 25p Mpeg2?

Can SD DVD players even output an SD 50p signal?

Does this workflow seem solid enough or am I doing something unnecessarily destructive along the way?

Thanks,

Dan