1080i footage: Convert to 720p30?

[Chadfish]

Hi

I am inheriting footage shot at 1080i, probably HDV, to use for future projects. It's footage shot of a casino by someone else, and now it's becoming my stock footage of the casino to use for future ads. I normally shoot with my EX1. I shoot for TV ads at 720p30 XDCAM. I would like to blend the stock footage with my own. I use Final Cut Studio.

• What is the best way to blend the 1080i footage with my 720p30 in FCP?
• Can I convert the "i" stuff to "P" by simply dropping it into a "p" sequence?

I'd rather not edit an interlaced project.

Thanks.

Chad

 

[Chadfish]

bump...

Anyone?

 

[Cranky]

My 2 cents:

I don't know can you set deinterlace options in FCP on clip level. In Vegas, one can select deinterlacing only on project level, which sucks. You may want to convert the original footage into 720p30 or 720p60 first and keep it as your stock footage.

Footage with no or very-very slight movement (wide shots of some scenery) you can deinterlace with weaving both fields into one frame, this will give you 1080p30 with high vertical resolution, or you can export it into 720p30.

Footage with movement can be deinterlaced into 720p60 by converting each field into a frame. Later, you will be able to use 60p in 30p projects either by dropping every other frame, or by time-stretching it and geting 0.5x slo-mo.

 

[Chadfish]

That's what I want - to convert the files, then have them as my stock footage. Is it the cleanest conversion to make a 720p30 project, drop the 1080i into the project, then export? Or could it be done better in something like Compressor?