editing with NTSC and PAL HDV

Hi everyone
I have a tangle on my hands. I have not edited HDV footage before and this project has various issues. I am editing a short surfing drama that has been shot on both PAL and NTSC it needs to be sync and director had planned lots of speed ramps in editing.
I have 2hours which was shot on the Sony ZIP PAL camera as HDV 1080i50 and 3hrs that was shot using a 3 1/2 year old JVC camera as NTSC 720p. The project is supposed to be delivered on DVCPRO PAL tape. I have a FCP 5 and a G4 1ghz desktop with a sony HDV deck and a 20inch imac to edit on. All the footage has to be sync from DAT tapes. I am considering converting my NTSC footage to PAL (I am told there is no budget for this but I think converting NTSC footage in FCP will look jerky - not good for a sufing film I think).
Q.1
Can I capture the HDV NTSC 720p footage into FCP using the sony HDV deck? otherwise I could get the JVC camera to capture from.
Q.2
Is it better to sync the NTSC footage in FCP first and then play it out to HDV sony deck (not sure if deck can record NTSC 720p on the SONY HDV deck though) then convert this to HDV 1080i50 PAL and then capture this to edit in FCP or can I convert NTSC footage to PAL HDV (or mini DV pal) and then capture this in FCP and sync it up without sync drifting?
Q.3
Is the any point in capturing HDV footage and editing natively since I am to deliver on DVCPRO PAL? Will speed ramps look better when done natively rather than with DV PAL compressor?

Got lots to learn on this project. thanks for help

Boots

1) No. You need JVC gear to capture JVC footage
2) Sony doesn't support 720p.
3) yes, as the in-camera downsampling to DV rez is very poor. You get better results on software.

But you've got a problem- 30p, which is what the JVC shoots doesn't convert cleanly to PAL at all. It'll cost you big $ to get it done on a Snell and Wilcox, my standards converter plugin doesn't do 30p to PAL, and you can try the high quality mode on compressor, but you'll be rendering for 30 years.....

Can you just think of all the 30p as slowmo footage, and use cinema tools to conform it to 25p for PAL use? You'll need to be in another codec other than HDV for this trick to work though.

Graeme



[www.nattress.com] - Plugins for FCP-X

Hey Graeme
Thanks for your prompt advise! It was great to have this advice before heading to the edit suite! I am now editing the NTSC 720p footage in a NTSC sequence. We will spend money on a good standards converter when I have cut the NTSC footage down to save on costs.

cheers and many thanks

Rowena.
boots73