[Ken Hodson] "Well in a way the AspectHD codec does add information. It uses a form of intelligent upsampling where it creates colour info based on surrounding chroma info. I would recommend checking out their site. They have examples of where simply converting HDV to cineform codec increases the quality of the image. Real 4:2:2 is always prefered but the AspectHD codec comes very close."
I think it's probably similar to what the Canopus DV codec did with 4:1:1...it did a sort of interpolation.
My point was that, yes, technically the quality of the original does not get visibly better...but from the few, isolated comparisons I've done, there is an undeniable quality difference between editing and effects work done in HDV native vs. using an I-frame, 4:2:2 intermediate codec like CineForm (Canopus HQ is also a very good codec), or for that matter, bumping to uncompressed as Graeme states...
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