SilverWook said:

How does the pan and scan process actually work? I can't recall reading anything that went into the nuts and bolts of the process. Are shots panned and scanned during the transfer process or after?

I have no idea how it really worked, sometimes the operator was even forced to make new cuts in the middle of a scene instead of panning back and forth between the important sections of the action, IIRC it happens several times in the SW transfers.

reave said:

Fingers crossed that your tape looks decent, but even if it doesn't, I would still like to make a preservation disc of it.

If the version aired on HBO really is the one used on the LD's and CED, you could maybe take use of those if you want better quality for the main feature. Like russs15 described, time-compressed meant it was just sped up by 4% just like PAL-speedup, so I think a simple conversion should do the trick.