An HDV newbie question on capturing
 

Hi all,
My NLE is a SD one: Targa3000 + PP6.5 + Combustion4
I will shoot with a Sony Z1E (PAL) a corporate video.
I will shoot HDV and downconvert in the camera, and output a PAL squeezed video, later on.

What will be the best video signal that I get:
- from the YUV out, and then captured in YUV uncompressed or MPEG-I frame at 50Mbps
- from the I-Link in DV quality.

My question comes because I'm not sure that the YUV out comes from the DV signal or not.
I mean, when a tape plays back an HDV signal, what signal comes "directly" from the tape: the DV or the YUV ?
Witch one is generated from the other ?

Because if the "main" signal is the DV, there's no point in capturing in YUV (file size is BIGGGGGG)

Thanks for any input.
Carlos

Think of it this way, once you lay to tape, your footage is now HDV with mpeg compression. So YUV out or I-link just becomes the transfer cable. So I'd stick with i-link if you're transfering from tape.

However, if you can do a 'live capture' and record directly to your NLE via the YUV out, then you're bypassing the HDV compression and you can get an VERY nice uncompressed capture. But this requires a fancy setup (dual opteron, 200 mb/s raid, etc...)

Will a HDV timeline/footage be down converted if I record straight back to Mini DV tape or will it be full resolution?

Can this be done on either Avid or Mac?