Comparing options for editing XDCAM in FCP?

Hello, I'm setting up an edit with 200+ hours of footage for a 90 minute project. It's shot mostly in XDCAM HD 60i. My goal is to get 2 or 3 editors through a multi-month edit while minimizing crashes as the assembly gets longer and the FCP projects get bigger... We expect to have a few other sources that come in as Apple Pro Res 422 or HDV. As far as delivery, we don't know of any reason why we'd have to deliver in XDCAM. We think it'll be graded in Pro Res 422.
Here's what I think I understand from poring over the forum... 3 project setups to choose from, The question is, if you can afford to do it, is C the preferred setup in terms of project stability for a long-haul edit?
(Setup A) The most basic route, editing natively in an XDCAM sequence, with render setting switched to Pro Res 422, has worked for some editors... but not if they start mixing codecs in their sequence...
(Setup B) Shane has suggested a few times to just edit in a Pro Res 422 Sequence. Shane, or others--could you clarify please, do you mean keep the XDCAM media but edit it in a sequence with Apple Pro Res 422 Preset? Also, what does it do better than the above? (Is it less crashy or does it let you mix formats?)
(Setup C) Several  editors here have suggested transcoding all the XDCAM camera footage to Apple Pro Res 422 and editing in that... If you can afford the storage space and the transcode time. Is that the clear winner?
If so, what's the best way to transcode in terms of video quality & workflow -- Media Manager, Compressor or any other software? Within compressor, is it better to choose "Apple Pro Res 422 for interlaced media" or just plain "Apple Pro Res 422"? (Again, shot in 60i) Would anyone recommend modifiying a Compressor setting for better results?
Also, this last one is just for curiousity... why is a clip in .MXF so close in size to the .mov that is produced when you import to FCP with XDCAM browser? My colleagues and I were thinking of .mxf files as "compressed" versions of the clips you'll edit with, but do they have the same  amount of compression, just one is in an .mov wrapper?
Many Thanks to all!
Jen

>(Setup B) Shane has suggested a few times to just edit in a Pro Res 422 Sequence. Shane, or others--could you clarify please, do you mean keep the XDCAM media but edit it in a sequence with Apple Pro Res 422 Preset? Also, what does it do better than the above? (Is it less crashy or does it let you mix formats?)
Yes, that is what I mean.  Make a 1920x1080 ProRes 422 sequence, and edit the XDCAM in that sequence. If you have other formats, convert them to ProRes 422 if you can, or if they are other native formats like DVCPRO HD or HDV, they will mix fine. AVCHD, H.264...those get converted to ProRes.
This is better than Option A when mixing footage types. So if you have ProRes, XDCAM, HDV, DVCPRO HD, DV...this is the way to do it.
Setup C...if you have the time and space....is a fine option too.  But Setup B has always worked fine for me and I see no benefit to transcoding, other than not having a render bar.
>Also, this last one is just for curiousity... why is a clip in .MXF so close in size to the .mov that is produced when you import to FCP with XDCAM browser?
MXF and Quicktime are just "wrappers" that house the footage CODEC.  Like AVI is the Windows wrapper of choice.  MXF can be DVCPRO HD, XDCAM...a host of other formats.  What FCP does is take the MXF media, the codec, and just wraps it into Quicktime so FCP can read it better.  Just changing how it is housed, not the codec. So the sizes are exactly the same.

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