Lossless encoding and archival questions
 

I’ve begun to do research and testing for a project that was put on hold about 2 years ago. I hope to get to this project in a couple of months. I have about ten AVI-DV files that according to MediaInfo have color space of YUV and chroma subsampling of 4:1:1. I will do some editing such as cutting parts out and adding titles, and I may try some restoration. I want to put the final version on my NAS so I can use Plex or another media server to show them on TV or other devices. I may create DVDs too.
Because of the restoration and editing I want to convert the files from lossy to lossless. In order to learn how Virtualdub works, I’ve created a HuffYUV, 24 bit RGB copy and a Lagarith YV12, 4:2:0 copy of one video. Based on posts from the forum, I created an Avisynth script to crop and display the histogram using the Lagarith copy. I'm leaning towards using Lagarith versions for the editing and other work. More testing to learn more about both products will be done. I planned to use Premiere Elements to do the cuts and add titles, but I’ve learned that it doesn’t do smart rendering. If I have lossless input to Elements and it encodes to lossless, is that okay? If not, could you recommend something I should use to do the cuts and add titles?
I haven’t decided what product to use for encoding, and if I create DVDs, for the authoring. I do have a question about master copies. I consider the AVI-DV files to be the master copy, and I back them up. Depending on whether I use HuffYUV or Lagarith, should I consider that to be a second master? I plan to delete any intermediate HuffYUV or Lagarith files. Thanks for your help.