While not really answering the question:
if the camera captures at 30 frames per second progressive then an output of 1080i at 60 fields per second will be same quaility as even simple deinterlacing will recreate the progressive frame.
That being said it would be nice to use the native format all way through editing process. Who knows if PD stuffs up when converting to field based format.

I'm a bit disappointed also that I have spent the money to buy a 1080P camera and not be able to edit full HD. I really like Cyberlinks approach to rendering video and performs very well compared to Videostudio however if you are really serious about keeping the best quality converting to 1080i is not the best option. I was caught off guard with this technicality and was very disappointed after I purchased the product. Note: The company has responded stating that this is not an option currently, I hope after seeing their competition now supporting 1080P, that they'll provide an update to support 1080P.

Hi C,

Hate to go on but at the moment my version of PD edits my 1080p25 (25 full frames per second) clips quite happily. When I output to BD format, the resultant file is 1080i50 which has no loss of information at all and when played back even on a most basic 1080p display as even simple weave deinterlacing will reproduce the 1080p25.

if you chaps are talking about 1080p50/60 then you have better cameras than I

I don't know enough about video encoding to say anything about the veracity of what you say. But frame rate conversion has been a huge "Avoid if at all possible" whenever I've seen the topic show up. Also interlaced tends to give some visual issues at times when playing back on my devices, but that might be due to lower framerate interlaced of course.

Call me hung up, but it just annoys me. My playback device is progressive, my TV is progressive, my source material is progressive. I just don't want to add interlaced to the mix.

Either way, it makes no sense to me to not support it. The only reason I can think of is licensing issues. If that's the case they should just say so and we'll know it won't be showing up anytime soon.

I know what you are saying and don't get me wrong if you think PD shouldn't have a 1080p25 output. No licensing issues involved. But it still shouldn't make any difference to how your video looks.
It is not changing frame rate at all. All PD is doing is splitting the one frame into two identical fields. At the other end either you player or your panel is merely interweaving the two fields back to one frame again. No loss of info.
This is because the video was captured at 25fps but transmitted at 50 fields per second. (I am talking PAL counties using 50 Hz equipment. For NTSC countries it is 30fps at 60 Hz).

As it happens I don't like 1080p25 mode as the motion not as smooth compared with an interlaced mode (due to the double number of fields which are created in interlaced mode). If a consumer camera could capture at 1080p50 and I have an editing programme which could handle that then I would use progressive format.

It could be my playback solution is iffy, but if I playback interlaced content I sometimes see uneven edges while panning and such, same as if I watch on my computer without turning deinterlace on in the player.

Come to think of it, it's probably because my media jukebox outputs progressive constantly, so the TV has no way of knowing it needs to deinterlace, and the jukebox isn't doing it for some reason. I'll have a look at the settings. But I digress.

I can find no way in PD7 to change frame rate to anything but 25 and 30. And I have no interest in producing Blu-rays, I just want to output a file. Does it in fact output a 50i/60i file since that essentially translates to 25p/30p? Or is what's produced when selecting to create a BD not reproducible when creating a file?

I wish there was a tool that would actually tell me something about these files. Nothing I've found will tell me whether they're interlaced or progressive. Makes experimenting and checking the output rather difficult.

If there's no licensing issue it just seems like an arbitrary decision not to allow 1080p output. Unless the encoding engine does not support it, but that seems rather unlikely.

Since my camera is still a few weeks away, I'll play around with it some more. Perhaps using ffdshow to output x264 isn't such a hassle as I imagine it might be and that might do the trick. Or I'll end up accepting the limitation given sufficient time to not find any suitable alternatives. Either way, thank you for your time.

Quote: I can find no way in PD7 to change frame rate to anything but 25 and 30.

PD isn't the most flexible when it comes to output settings .

Quote: Does it in fact output a 50i/60i file since that essentially translates to 25p/30p?

Yes

Quote: Or is what's produced when selecting to create a BD not reproducible when creating a file?

It creates the same video file but in a folder structure which is compatible to play back on BR player. You can create a "disc" on your hard drive even without a BR burner and retrieve the resultant video file. It is the same output as from the "create file" module.

Quote: I wish there was a tool that would actually tell me something about these files. Nothing I've found will tell me whether they're interlaced or progressive.

Try mediainfo.

Thanks for Mediainfo. Been looking for something to replace Gspot for ages now.