Like many forum members I have watched the evolution of the NLEs this year and have now switched to HDV. I am happy with my choices - for someone with my needs.

I use a Canon XHA1 and Premire Pro CS3 on a quad processor machine with 4G of Ram running Windows XP Pro. I capture with HDVsplit because I have seen some audio drift capturing from Premiere but some tapes with many scene changes don't do this.

I edit in HDV then use the Adobe Mainconcept encoder to transcode to SD. These files are imported into Encore CS3. I use Encore with Photoshop CS3.
I am very happy with the results and the system just works. The quality of the SD DVDs seems almost as good as DVDs made from DV source matrerial shot on my GL-1. and are much bettter than the SD output of HDV material from prior versions of Premiere Pro. I don't use an intermediate codec or After Effects. I've had manybe one crash - perhaps not Premiere at all.

The machine handles native HDV material unbelievably well. Scrubbing the timeline is no problem...

Overall this combo just seems to work - just an FYI

Kevin,

What moterboard are you using? What quad processor? Also, when you are scrubbing on the timeline are you out putting to a second monitor with or without some type of "realtime" output card?

Great question!

Asus Striker Extreme motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 2.66 GHz
2GB (two 1GB) Corsair PC-8500 Dominator memory
Seasonic S12 600W Power Supply
Windows XP MCE 2005 (not Win XP Pro)
XFX GeForce 7600GS 256MB DDR2 DUAL DVI TV
Zalman CNPS9700-CU LED CPU Cooler
Zalman ZM-CS1 Socket 775 Adaptor

No "real time" card

Nice setup. Its always good to hear from someone who has a smooth working system. Its a good reference for the rest of us.