I am about to start the production of a docudrama. The acquisition will be XDCAM HD 422 LONG-GOP through camera PMW EX3 and Nanoflash recorder .The frame rate is 1080p25p

What should be the correct editing path for convertingand making masters in 1080i59.54 for Discovery HD without loss of quality?They are very strict in terms of quality.
Please help me.

If at all possible you should consider shooting 23.98 (with equivalent shutter angles to account for PAL powered lights), if Discovery is your primary delivery. This will allow your final delivery to be converted to PAL with a simple 4% speed up and to 59.94 with pull down.

If your work flow primary delivery precludes this, you'll be looking at hardware conversion for best quality results - I'd contact post houses who do a lot of HDCAM SR mastering.

Thank you Craig.
Is there some quality loss in pulldown?What should be the shutter angle ?please help.

Ramji... If you have to deliver 1080i59.54 (shorthand is 60i) then you'd be better off shooting 30p. Conversion is a simple matter of duplicating frames to get the proper number of fields. No concern over pulldown or possible cadence issues.

Shooting more frames gives you more data to work with. Any speed changes are more accurate going from a higher frame rate to a lower one. If you have to do a slo mo effect, you have more to work with. If you have to track and stabilize and match move, you have more to work with.

For the show I do, I always convert from 30p to 60i. It's quick and painless.

And I use Compressor for the conversions. It takes advantage of multiple processors.