Getting 720p from HVR A1
 

Hi,

I am in PAL land and want to shoot a rock climbing doco. The A1 looks like the camera for me because of the size and XLR, but I'm wondering about converting/capturing 720p from the footage.

I'm thinking of using 720p because it's more manageable to edit, seems widely accepted and also I will do some animation over the top, it all just seems like it will be easier with square pixels.

How is it possible to get from 1080i to 720p? If I shoot in 50i, will it convert cleanly to 25p - can you just capture to FCP and it will convert, or you do you need a utility like CineForm? If so what are the rendering times like? It would be a bummer to buy what looks like the perfect camera otherwise, and then have to spend hours rendering footage just to get it to a usable state. I have a new mac pro so it'll cope, but I'd rather avoid that if possible.


I'm a relative newbie to video but have done a fair bit of reading, and I have a fair bit of animation/multimedia experience.

Thanks in advance,
Douglas

It's all about the NLE...What NLE do you use?
Yes, getting good 720 from 1080 is easy.

Thanks for your quick reply.

I will be using FCP or Premiere when it comes back to the Mac.