Thank you for the help. You are correct - I had it set to 'none'! I will try changing that and see how it looks.

~Wayne

Also, the render quality must be set to Best because you are resizing.

In a recent post, another user (johnmeyer?) commented that "Upper Field First" also improves results for certain down-Rez / resizing. That may have been for progressive footage only, but never hurts to verify your field order for interlaced.

Regards,

Kimberly

[I]In a recent post, another user (johnmeyer?) commented that "Upper Field First" also improves results for certain down-Rez / resizing. That may have been for progressive footage only, but never hurts to verify your field order for interlaced.[/I]Well, the big elephant in this problem is the deinterlace project properties. If you start with interlaced footage, this [I]MUST[/I] be set to either blend or interpolate. "None" will ALWAYS cause huge problems. If you have progressive footage, this can be set to none.

As for "Upper Field First," if you start with HD interlaced and are going to SD interlaced (e.g., for DVD), I did testing several years ago, which I reported in a thread back then, which showed a subtle but important improvement in quality when the field order of the render matches the field order of the source. If the software is written correctly, this shouldn't matter, but there is what I consider to be a bug in Vegas, where it doesn't handle correctly any change in the field order.

NOTE TO SONY (if you are monitoring this thread):

[I]PLEASE[/I] add an alert to the project properties that scans the Project Media pool and, if it finds any interlaced content, puts up an alert if the user sets Deinterlace Method to "none." If that is too much work, then simply add an alert that [I]always[/I] pops up any time you change the setting to "none." Way too many people are ruining their work as a result of mistakenly setting this to "none."

"when the field order of the render matches the field order of the source."

Is there a way one can one determine the field order of their source footage so that they can ensure they select the correct setting in Vegas?

[I]Is there a way one can one determine the field order of their source footage so that they can ensure they select the correct setting in Vegas? [/I]Yes. Usually you can right-click on the media (or on any event which uses the media) and then click on Properties. You should be able to find the field order there. You can also use the Project Media dialog to see this information for dozens of clips, in case you have media from multiple sources and want to check them all at once (just by scrolling down the dialog listing).

Thank you! I'm also going to call Canon, because my camera does have a progressive option, but in the footnote it says it's 60i, which makes no sense to me.

[I]Thank you! I'm also going to call Canon, because my camera does have a progressive option, but in the footnote it says it's 60i, which makes no sense to me. [/I]Progressive video can quite definitely be manipulated and encoded as interlaced. It will still be progressive, however, because there is no temporal difference between odd and even fields.

I do this almost every day when I edit film that I have captured as progressive, but edit using the DV AVI codec, with the frame rate manually set to something other than the hard-wired 29.97 or 25 fps interlaced.

However, if the Canon manual says your camera is shooting 60p but then storing it as 60i, then I agree with you that this makes no sense. True 60p video cannot be encoded within a 29.97 interlaced video stream (a.k.a., 60i) without losing half the spatial information: the encoder would need to throw out either the odd or even fields.

Thank you to everyone for your replies.

I double checked 'Field order' and it matched (Upper first) as well as the 'Interpolate' settings (which I had set to 'None') and all is now well.

Again, a huge 'Thank you'!

I don't post a question here very often, but when I do I am always helped out - a testament to the knowledge and helpfulness of the Vegas community here!

Correction, the manual says:

PF30: Shooting at 30 frames per second, progressive*. Use this frame rate to easily edit your recordings, for example, to post them on the Web.

And then down below, the footnote:

*Recorded as 60i.

If I intend final delivery formats for both DVD and downloadable MP4 files, should I just shoot in 60i and ignore the PF30 mode?

Yes, that quote from the manual makes sense, and is exactly the same as what I do when I capture film at 16, 18, or 24 fps progressive, but then store it in a 16, 18 or 24 fps interlaced (DV) format.

As to which mode to shoot, that is a matter of aesthetics. 29.97 interlaced video (a.k.a., "60i") contains sixty discrete temporal events every second. This is why fast motion sports and rapid horizontal camera pans look so smooth. By contrast, regular sound film, which is 24 frames per second (progressive) makes fast motion and camera pans look quite jerky or "juddery." The thirty frame per second progressive video mode of your camera (30p) is only slightly faster than 24p mode, and a long, long way from 60i, in terms of temporal smoothness. If you prefer that "once removed" feeling which this cadence imparts to your work, then you definitely should use it. On the other hand, if you want the smoothness of "regular" 60i video, then you definitely should not shoot in 30p.

Thank you for the clarification on the frame rates. It sounds like the 60i would be a better source format, as I will have to deliver the edited video in two formats, on DVD, as well as individual H.264 files.