HDV conversion to SD

I Have spent hours on the Apple site trying different ways to convert my HDV footage to SD. Most seem to use the Sony camera and can down convert in the camera, but I have the JVC 111 and it doesnt have this feature.
I produce TV commercials for broadcast and 3 minute videos for DVD or the web so dont have a lot of footage in my projects.
I am in Pal 720P/25 and starting to get used to the progressive judder. I mainly shoot DV50i and it is great but I feel I should be shooting HDV as to have stock footage for later.
At the moment, I am shooting some footage in HDV and selecting DV so I can have the same footage in DV format.
A bit silly but I have not had this camera more than a month and want to play it safe.
What is the best way for me to downconvert do you think?
The best I have done so far is to use Compressor and select 8 bit uncompressed to make a movie and it looks great. File size is way up but it doesnt matter that much as i only capture enough footage for a 30 sec TVC. I simply bring the uncompressed clip into a new DV sequence and work as per normal. Is this a good way to do it?
I would also like to know why the file size grows in 8 bit. Where does the extra data come from. The vision sure looks better than the original footage ... colours are much deeper..but why?
I have also exported the HDV clip thru Quicktime pro and it looks great too, but if i add the clip to the DV sequence, it seems to have a bit of a shudder to it.
I have FCP5.1.2

If you're downconverting your HDV to SD 8 bit uncompressed, you should be also using that same setting for your sequence presets.... so what I'm saying is that you need to create a SD sequence that matches your now converted source material and edit using that sequence setting. (before you edit in a sequence make sure it matches the setting of the source material...).
Jerry

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