That's not the only way but it's a safe way. I went with a disc recorder when a couple of tapes suffered severe drop-outs. Believe me, drop outs on MPEG2 recorded tape can be terrible.

Working with MPEG2, HD or SD, has always been problematic and was predicted to be problematic when it was announced as the compression format of HDV. All of the issues Tim mentioned have always been known drawbacks to working with MPEG2 outside of transmission and simple video playback. In a way it's like how NTSC went from a black and white format to a color format. The conversion was essentially successful but we have been saddled with the drawbacks of cramming color information onto a format that was never formulated with color in mind. MPEG2 was never developed for editing , it was created to compress video information into small spaces with high quality. The only way to cram HD level quality onto economical tape formats with present technology is to use MPEG. That's it. Everyone has been trying to convert the MPEG signal into something with the flexibilty of frame-based video formats. That they (JVC, Apple & everyone else) have got it to work this well is remarkable. Otherwise we would all be editing at 6 or 15 frame intervals, OK for home movies and 1960's style high school science films.

I have found that I have to approach the camera and the editing process more like 16mm film (which I haven't touched in twenty years). The area around the camera stops and starts are liable to have problems (light leakage in 16mm, time code issues on the HD100). The viewfinder isn't very accurate in terms of image quality, that becomes a matter of experience with the cameras. And getting your edit started takes a little work but this seems to be improving with HDV.

JVC has created a very, very good camera for the price, nothing really comes close. Apple has created a very, very good production system for the price. The fact is the price difference for the next step up in HD quality shows we are in compromised territory. That we can produce such quality at this price level is worth working thru the hardships.

Or I'm just crazy.

No in my book that is 100% dead on and I agree with it.

In our post house we never do capture now (though it would be nice if it did work, but its not a deal breaker as we log and capture on all projects....its just the way we do it)

Now Tim, how bout that compatability info you talked about for fcp 5.1.2 and the "A" cameras needing a further update?

And can you explain again about genlocking a br-hd50u?
I've got one coming in tommorow and I need the picture locked properly.