If I am going to archive my finished projects on DVD (not mpeg-2 but as avi), is this when I should use Sony's YUV codec? I guess my main misunderstanding is when I should use YUV or should I be using that all the time if I am not going back out to tape?
Depends on where the project originated. Was it DV? If so, you'll gain little by going to the 4:2:2 codec, unless you've done a lot of compositing or processing. We archive our work at 4:2:2 simply because we never know when we'll be taking it to MPEG or maybe repurposing for another format. Much of our work is processed pretty hard anyway.