I shot 8 hrs of footage on a JVC HD-250 at 720p 30p onto tape. I am capturing that footage into FCP in ProRes HQ 1280x720

The project will end on a DVD and maybe broadcast. We are in a time crunch, and don't plan on any online at this stage...ie loading in at ProRes, cutting and exporting to burn a DVD. This is for a client, so it must look as good as possible.

How does ProRes compare to native HDV in quality when going from FCP to DVD without onlining? Should I be loading in as HDV footage instead?

thanks all

How does ProRes compare to native HDV in quality when going from FCP to DVD without onlining? Should I be loading in as HDV footage instead?

thanks all

ProRes will hold up far better to color/graphics than hdv, and it takes up less processing power. The flipside is drivespace.

Do a search here, prores isn't perfect, but it's far better than hdv.

I work in ProRes (non-HQ) at 720P60 and wouldn't change anything for the world. Editing is responsive. I do colour correction on every clip as I shoot my JVC HD200u with wide gamma for correction and ProRes holds up well.

Half my stuff ends up on DVD and probably half makes it to broadcast (SD local market).

Thanks guys. I feel good about the ProRes...what I don't feel good about is the fact that my captured footage is broken into 50 clips. I am using David Knaggs workaround with DVHSCap and MPEG streamclip, but I am losing audio sync on a full hourlong clip.

Any ideas how to fix that?

I only get breaks at tape start/stops (which I attribute to the MPEG stream not being finished properly) and get my clips broken up whether I capture in ProRes (my USUAL workflow) or HDV. My assumption is that any break in the MPEG stream cannot be 100% reconstituted for seamless playback without some kind of error or else there wouldn't have been an error there in the first place. FCP USED to capture over dropouts without failing BUT ended up with all sorts of audio/video sync issues after the fact. As much of a pain as it is, I work around this limitation by just lowering my Preroll to 1 second (the lowest I can get my system to be stable at) and deal with it. Again, my broken clips ONLY occur at start/stop points and I'm adamant about a 5 second speed call before commencing action or interview so it almost NEVER bites me. It sounds like your having issues in the middle of an extended clip, no?