HV30/Premier worflow advise please

[SloYerRoll]

I've had this awesome camcorder for quite a while now and just haven't broken it out to play w/ it yet. Fortunately I now have a paying reason to use it, but am finding out that the world of video makes photography look like child's play (at least to me). So I need some help from you video heads :)

What I'd like to do is share my existing workflow that I came up with and see if it needs adjustment then I'll have a few questions after that.

1. I capture the footage via FireWire using HDVSplit (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/HDVSplit).
2. I then batch convert files using Ultra Video Converter (http://www.aone-media.com/videoconverter.htm).
3. I then edit the video files to taste using Premier CS4.

Is this an acceptable workflow? Too much? Not enough?

Now onto questions :)

A: Right now I have the HV30 set to capture using 24p HDV. I've read about having to do a "pulldown removal" if you record using 24p. but am not sure what it is. I've seen images that show how doing a pulldown removal properly can remove quite a bit of ghosting on each frame (one source here (http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/07/13/canon-hv20-24p-pulldown/). Sample images here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/missilemike/494788323/) vs here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/missilemike/494788313/in/photostream/).). But I can't figure out how to do this or if it's even for my needs.

B: What options are out there to reduce file size so I can make videos more web friendly? I've tried handbrake w/ limited success. But just want a simple way to convert my videos to common formats such as Vimeo and YouTube. *Vimeo is a big deal because one of my next projects will involve HD Vimeo footage.

C: From my still camera knowledge, Using "auto" is about as cardinal as the sins get. But auto on my HV30 seems to do just fine by me. Do you feel the same way? Or are there certain "must have" manual settings that should be in my bag of tricks?

D: I definitely see the "HD" part of the footage when I record. But it seems like there's an excessive amount of "ghosting" (for lack of better words) on the video I see. Here's a sample footage clip (http://video.jonbrittstudios.com/sample.avi) (108MB). Do I just need to get over this and accept it? Or are there options to reduce this blurry look/feel?

I guess it would also be good to know what I intend to use this camcorder for to better answer any of these questions.
1. It will be for family videos just to create memories.
2. It will be used on a tripod in a dark room to tape demo's of computer applications.

TIA,
-Jon

[SloYerRoll]

Don't everybody jump up at once to answer this now :huh

[DavidTO]

Jon, I can't answer all of your questions, and I'm useless on a PC or with Premiere, but I can tell you about pull down.

In order to convert 24fps to 30fps, the film frames are labeled sequentially: A, B, C, D. Those 4 frames need to become 5, so they do this: AA, BB, BC, CD, DD or this: AA, BB, BC, CC, DD. I think. That's close, anwyay. In this notation the first letter is the first field of video and the second letter is...the second field! I hope you understand fields, and how NTSC has traditionally scanned the entire frame 2x, first the odd lines, then the even lines, hence "interlaced" The important thing is that when you're converting from one to the other the software needs to know where it is in the sequence in order to decode it properly.

When I was working in 24fps Avid, we would get feature reels in on 30fps video. I had to tell the software where the A frame was, and it was good to go. It simply pulled out the extra fields. If you mess this up, you'll end up getting a frame of BC, or whatever.

A much better explanation is here (http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/12808).

[SloYerRoll]

TYVM David. I read the link and your explanation, while yours was abridged it still brought clarity to it :)

I tired loading FCP on my MBP and it almost had a heart attack after I tossed a few gigs at it. Looks like premier for a while :rolleyes

[Halite]

I can't help you a whole lot with your questions, other than ask more questions. Why have you set the camera to 24p? Isn't that supposed to be a mode to simulate a more 'cinematic' look? Couldn't that be responsible for some of your ghosting?

Why do you not capture straight into Premiere CS4? My experience with the HV20 and HV30 and CS3 is that a) CS3 didn't recognize the HV30 and b) Premiere does a poor job of synchronizing audio and video on HDV captured straight into it. Has CS4 not fixed these issues, or are there other benefits to your workflow?

As far as settings beyond full auto to explore: I would suggest looking at playing around with the aperture settings. Just as in still photography, it's sometimes beneficial to open up the aperture to blur a distracting background.

[Dusty Sensiba]

I would personally not recommend using the 24P mode on your camcorder. 30P gives similar results with much less effort and the result is much more web-friendly.

Before selling it to upgrade, I used an HV30 and Premiere Pro. I would use Premiere Pro to capture the 30P footage directly from the camera and would then use Adobe Media Encoder for the best web file sizes.