Best to least quality

[MrLatte23]

Gotta new Sony set top DVD burner from Santa and I need to reconfigure my set-up to incorporate it. It'll be mostly used to master to when I don't feel like using DVD Studio Pro for a quick Disc. So I'm wondering what's the best and worst of my available choices for inputs and outputs.

I'm basically using:
Canon HV20: (HDMI/Firewire/Component/Composite)
BlackMagic Intensity Pro Capture Card: (HDMI/Component/S-Video/Composite)
DVD Burner (OUTS: HDMI/Component/S-Video/Composite - INS: Firewire/S-Video/Composite)
SD Monitor (INS: Component/S-Video (looping)/Composite(looping))

So I have the general idea that digital is better than analog but what's the best choice for HDV off tape: HDMI or Firewire? And then Firewire is better than S-video going into the DVD burner? And then Component is better than S-Video feeding the monitor.

Is it: HDMI>Firewire>Component>S-video>Composite?

 

[DPA]

If you are looking to make a DVD then you should have a MPEG-2 file which is what video DVDs are written in. If you want to use DVDSP then you can use your Final Cut Pro Movie file directly with it and when burned it will create the MPEG-2 file.
As for the quality, you should search around on google and this forum about video qualities. The quality and resolution depends on how you shot it, how you captured it, how you exported it, and how you compressed it.
Firewire is a data transfer cable and HDMI is a A/V transfer cable. The too are totally different. As we are seeing more and more HDMI ports on monitors, they still cannot transfer files (data). Firewire cannot (as of now) be hooked up to a monitor and have the monitor run. it can be hooked up between a monitor and a computer with a DVI, VGA or HDMI connection running the monitor. Hope this helps!

Regards,
David

 

[bigbossbmb]

capture the HDV with firewire (HDMI will not give you any improvement if it's already written to tape).

try going FW to the DVD recorder. it'll send a DV25 signal which will be pretty clean. If it doesn't work, you'll probably just need to use composite.

absolutely use component to go to the monitor.

 

[MrLatte23]

Thanks All...

capture the HDV with firewire (HDMI will not give you any improvement if it's already written to tape).

try going FW to the DVD recorder. it'll send a DV25 signal which will be pretty clean. If it doesn't work, you'll probably just need to use composite.

absolutely use component to go to the monitor.

I wasn't sure if the HDMI got me any better quality and prefer Firewire since I get camera transport control. I usually use ProRes (HQ) just to maintain a decent picture. I also want to minimize swapping cables repeatedly when shuffling footage and viewing different sources on the monitor. Luckily it has composite x 2, S-video and Component in, so I can monitor my DVCPro deck as well. I'll make FW into the DVD burner my first choice.

Thanks