Final Cut Studio 2 Impressions with HV20 and HDV Impressions

Question

Ok, so I got FCS 2 up and running Monday evening. I took work off yesterday to watch all the tutorials and to play with all the new software. I got a good grip of Motion 3, FCP6 and Soundtrack. I didn't bother with DVD Studio Pro, and Color is confusing as all get out. I'll be focusing more time on Color this weekend since I hear I should probably read the whole manual.
The camera I'm currently using is a Canon HV20 which is an HDV camera. I've found that the cadence issue is still not resolved (not that Apple said they would, but in case anyone was wondering, it's all the same) and the drop frame issue during capture, especially batch capture, ALSO hasn't been resolved (again, not that Apple said they would).
If you're upgrading from FCP 5 to 6 thinking your HDV issues or HV20 issues will go away, you're mistaken. It's all exactly the same. Batch capture can be finicky and the cadence issue still needs you to either import through AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) OR you have to batch capture then export all your clips as AIC so you can remove each clip's interlaced frames. The resulting clips will be true 24p, and they look awesome for such a cheap camera. However, you have to figure out which process works best. I like logging and capturing if for no other reason just to be organized. However, with an HV20, importing the whole tape through AIC, removing the interlaced frames and then, within Final Cut, cutting up the scenes you need might actually take less time. It's up to you.
The silver lining comes in with the new software: Color. AIC tends to wash the image out just SLIGHTLY. It's not too noticeable, but it's definitely there. With Color, you can take your AIC'ed clips and tweak them to look as good (or better depending on how good you are) as the image would've looked had it come in via HDV codec. Of course, there's technicalities and there's still some quality loss no matter what, but Color is superbly powerful as my friend showed me.
ProRes codec isn't very good, IMHO. I imported some clips on my buddy's computer as ProRes and I even made some of my HDV clips at home with ProRes, and there seems to be a lot of artifacts especially around any movement in the scene. I actually don't like the codec at all. Maybe it's just me.
Otherwise, I really love FCP 6. The multi-codec timeline is pretty freakin fun, and I love some new interactions with Motion. Time tweaking is more approachable this time around through Motion AND Final Cut. It's fun to play with.
I found that smooth cam's a bit annoying. Even on an original imported clip that was only a minute long, the subclip that was only 20 seconds, took 10 minutes to analyze. I understand that it's analyzing the full clip, but Apple should figure out a way to have it simply analyze just the subclip in the timeline. Also, you have to know when to use smoothcam. There were a few tests I ran, and some resulted in BIZARRE movement and others the thing worked nicely after some tweaking. So be aware it's not something you can always fall back on.
That's all I can think of right off the bat. If you have questions or more comments, please post

Answer 1

I've found that the cadence issue
is still not resolved
Well, I'm not a very technical person, so I'll explain this the best I can. The HV20 can record at 1080/24p. However, no matter what, it'll always record to tape in 60i, but it does so by recording 3 progressive frames and 2 interlaced frames. I'm not sure why, but that's how they figured how to do it. Which means, when you import it to the computer, it doesn't recognize your 24p as 24p, it sees it as 60i.
So now you have a few extra steps you have to accomplish. In order to do a reverse telecine on the sequence, you have to use Cinema Tools so you can take out the interlace frames and leave the progressive frames leaving you a true 24p sequence. But Cinema Tools can't do that to a strictly HDV encoded sequence, so you either have to import it from your camera using AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) or via HDV 60i which you then have to take those clips and turn them into AIC clips. When you capture using AIC, you can't batch capture, you have to capture chunks at a time, but when you capture using HDV you CAN batch capture (although it has some issues), but you then have to make those clips into AIC anyway.
Then you'd take the AIC clips, put them into Cinema Tools, figure out the Cadence of the clips (I(Interlaced)I_P(Progressive)_PP) etc and choose a reverse telecine setting which would then remove the interlace frames. This takes more time than one would like, and I was hoping FCP 6 might have dealt with that issue.
the drop frame issue during capture,
especially batch capture, ALSO hasn't been resolved
HDV cameras in general have problems in FCP it seems. When you try to batch capture, FCP says it can't find the right timecode even though there's no timecode breaks or anything. Frankly, when it tells you it can't find the right timecode, you simply tell it to look again and, oops, there's the right timecode. Not sure which end has the problem, but it's annoying.
This will help you with the Cinema Tools Cadence settings:
http://file.meyersproduction.com/hv20/reverse%20telecine%20READ%20ME.rtf
And this is another thread that might be useful to you:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4297639&#4297639