I have been using DVX100 (PAL) for two years, but never captured or edited 25p video. Now I want to try 25p from capture to DVD-project. How do I start? Is it just recording 25p and then capturing to FCP(5) and editing as normal, or do I need some special settings i FCP before I log and capture my footage?

Bjorn,

No need to do anything special. Switch the DVX to 25P and you're good to go. Capture, edit, and output just like 50i.

Jon,
It's also a matter of setting the field order in FCP (like in other editing software) to Progressive. This way the motion effective effects are treated with a 25 frames per second candans, in stead of a 50 interlaced frames per seconde candans.
I work with 25P and the DVX100 (with Vegas) and I always set the project to progressive, also when I render to MPEG2 to go to dvd.

D'oh! I should have known better than to have tried to speak with authority on something I wasn't 100% on. I'm not a big post guy. Being a cinematographer, I do very little sitting behind a computer to cut anything. So setting the field order is something that I was unaware of.

But aside from setting the field the order, you can capture and edit 25P/30P material just as if it was 50i/60i, correct? Regardless of rendering trasitions and fx progressiviley, is there anything else special that needs to be done when working with progressive footage? Does setting the field order to progressive apply when working with a 23.98 timeline as well? I would assume so...

Yes, you can work with progressive video in a 50i/60i timeline without any progressive setting. Afterall, the info on the mini-dv tape is the same as with interlaced video. Except that the source is (for PAL) not 50 fields per seconde but 25 frames per second.

Regarding the 23.98: I have no experience with NTSC. But I think you're right. But with 24P you have to do some (advanced) pull down for a proper motion. As converting 60i info from tape (that's the way 24P video is written to tape) to 24P editing needs a proper conversion. With PAL 25P and 50i is much easier.

Actually with a 24 frame timeline, you can use either the advanced pulldown removed upon capture, or standard pulldown reversed through Cinema Tools. Both will produced the same motion signature once the pulldown is removed and they hit the 24 frame timeline. But for proper motion signature without removing the pulldown, you have to use the standard pulldown, not the advanced.

I shot a film recently with the DVX using standard pulldown, reversed through Cinema Tools, and cut in a 23.98 sequence. I'm curious now, to know if the editor had to set the field order to progressive for the 23.98 sequence...