There are several threads on downconverting in the camera vs. HDV project & PrPro downconverting to burn a disc. The latter being the better. I have a large project and thought it would be easier to work with SD project in Pro & AE since the output is SD. Normally I have an HDV project to widescreen SD and wanted to try the other approach.

In the HV30 changed the playback setting to DV Lock. Captured the video and was surprised that this is not widescreen. Things don't quite look like they should. Is this correct? Do I need to change another setting in the camcorder?

It sounds like you need to right click in the organizer and select Interpret Footage, and then use the 16:9 setting (my editing PC is not fired up right now, so can't be positive). I have to do that with PE7.

I went through the same decision process, but finally decided to go with using an HD workflow, and then outputting to whatever resolution is appropriate (i.e. SD for DVDs). I found no difference in quality of the SD, but of course have the HD when I want it.

Thanks Bobby! The Interpret Footage worked. Yes, lots of decisions on which way to edit. Have only had 2 HD projects with the HV30 and went the edit in HDV and burn SD. If this was only video project then that route would be best. I plan on making a slideshow montage and using AE for segments and wanted to reduce the AE megafiles. Hopefully the MBQL will work as good on SD. I still have to resize my gradient wipes from SD to Widescreen. Thanks.

Captured 3 tapes (3hours). Odd thing is the first 2 tapes had to interpret footage and the last tape didn't except for the first clip.

That is odd. But it is still OK to use Interpret Footage as it (in this case) just tells the program to interpret the pixels as rectangular (yielding 16:9 ratio) instead of square (yielding 4:3) - same number of pixels, no loss of resolution.

My experience so far (I think) is that 100% of my files needed IF.