Have Canon HDV A1 footage to convert to SD

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

What would be the best way to utilize the available tools here in this forum in order to:

1) Yield best quality?
2) Easier/less complex process with at least very good quality?
3) Easy, no brainer solution which would result in good quality?

If successfull, I may just buy a used one.

I need to know how to do this so I can match/downconvert any A1 footage to "match" my GL-2's.

Thanks in advance.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

What do you guys think about Xilisoft HD Converter 6 and the like?

[guns1inger]

I think anything by Xilisoft should be looked at pretty skeptically. There are plenty of quality, free solutions.

What is your target format ?

[greymalkin]

My vote is for AviSynth and HCEnc (both free) for transporting to DVD.
in a nutshell:
1) Edit your video (trims/color correction/etc) and output to high quality codec (HDV?)
2) Make AviSynth script to deinterlace/resize/interlace/etc.
3) Open script with HCEnc and encode to a pristine mpg file

the scripts are intimidating but there is plenty of help here..I'll show you the one I used for converting my 1080/60i avchd stuff to 480/30p

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Gunslinger: My target/initial format will be plain old .avi or maybe MPEG-2 since TS files are so huge to begin with.

I probably could just rename the file extension I guess in the latter case.

Ultimately, the end result will be put on a dvd.

How to fit in on there will be another story/ future thread.

Please, what would please explain in some detail your top solutions for this mission factoring in I'm a nubie to down-conversion?

GreyMalkin: I know nothing about Avisynth nor scripts so I'll leave that to the programmers and experts!

Thanks to you both.

[aedipuss]

export from the a1 as DVavi. the camera's hardware conversion can't be beat by any software.