[Michael Sacci]

You are swapping fields, HD interlace is Upper first, SD is Lower first. Run your footage through Compressor for a cleaner down convert. Turn on Frame Control.

For a quick fix you can try applying a Shift Fields filter to your HD footage in the sequence.

[Michael Sacci]

A DVD-9 is normally referred to as DL (Dual Layered) disc when authoring. A quick look at the manual would help you out a lot.

but,

with the inspector on the main disc
Disc/Volume tab > Layer Options > select DUAL

[Michael Sacci]

Was this shot on tape? What type of drive are you capturing to? What capture preset are you using?

[Michael Sacci]

Read the specs carefully, that is only a bluray player, will only burn SD DVDs. Need to go to the $340 model to burn BR.

[Michael Sacci]

Click on the new folder in the Settings List, if will show up in the Inspector, there is a Name: box, double click on Untitled and rename it to whatever you like.

[Michael Sacci]

Have you tried that suggested workflow, it never hurts to try something.

You can remove Advanced Pulldown with Log and Transfer (as well as Capture) but this is normally only found on higher end cameras, especially the Panasonic’s. They use a cleaner Pulldown (telecine) scheme that pulls out cleaner.

Your footage should act very much like HDV. Bring it a go. The key is when you bring it into FCP it will say that it is 23.98 and if you step through a clip each frame will look clean.

[Michael Sacci]

Import clips into a real NLE, if sorted by default name they will be in order, select all the clips and place on timeline, export a movie with the same settings.

This is something that should be relatively quick compared to your log and transfer scenario.

[Michael Sacci]

A word of caution, the Firestore does not like shooting in different modes in the same session. It wants you to choice one way, then offload the footage and reformat before changing settings, why, no idea, just one of the must know facts.

With that said here is what I hope is a clear explanation of pN settings.
Camera side, pN setting will not send a signal out the Firewire so it is ONLY to be used when you are writing to P2 cards.

FS-100 side, pN mode removes the duplicate frames or advanced pulldown that the camera sends over firewire. This set can be down on transferring P2 footage but by doing it at the time of recording you get much longer recording times out of the FS plus it the best way to remove the frames if you use QT recording format.

So you CANNOT use pN in camera and in Firestore at the same time.

For VFR (this is straight out of the manual)
AG-HVX200 Camera Settings
1. Set SCENE FILE > OPERATION TYPE is set to FILM CAM.
2. Set SCENE FILE > FRAME RATE to the appropriate FPS.
3. Set RECORDING SETUP > UB MODE to FRM.RATE.
4. Set RECORDING SETUP > RECORD FORMAT to:
NTSC: 720/24P or 720/30P.
PAL: 720/25P.
See the camera’s documentation for more details.

FS-100 Settings
1. Set DV FORMAT to QUICKTIME PN or P2 PN.
2. Set SETUP–>VFR MODE to the appropriate base frame
rate: 720/24P 24
720/25P 25
720/30P 30

While recording in VFR mode, VF is displayed on the HOME
screen below the battery indicator. If the VF is not displayed
there is a setup issue: please, review the settings shown above.
For more information, see VFR MODE on page 66.Input Stream VFR MODE

WARNING:
It is critical that the VFR MODE is set properly prior to doing a
VFR mode record. This setting is set to OFF whenever the
unit is powered down or the DV FORMAT value is changed.
When VFR MODE is set to a value other than OFF, all PN
recordings will have the audio MUTED.

[Michael Sacci]

As for mastering (not duplication) I have been using 8x Maxell DVD-Rs Plus Series for years and burning full speed and have zero problems with them playing back in players and being used as pre-Masters.

I would buy the fastest drives and then throttle back the burn with disc speed or burn in Toast (I always burn in DVDSP and like I’ve said I get as close to 100% playable as one could hope for)

[Michael Sacci]

Camera in Tape mode > VCR mode (just hit and release the select button when in Record mode, do not hold in for the 2 secs. The in FCP (or what ever NLE you have) you need to go through Log and CAPTURE.