I posted this in the DVD section but the more I think about it, this is really a PP question and I wasn't getting any love over there. If I've gotten anyone's knickers in a twist for the cross-post... sorry.

I've shot and edited a 2:15 car racing project. It was shot HDV 30i and I want to output the video in SD at 30i because the action looks better, to my eyes at least, with interlaced footage rather than progressive.

What would be the correct PP export settings (using Export to Encore) to output SD 30i? I've tried setting the fields option to lower to conform to SD and the fields come out reversed yielding jittery video especially on source footage slowed by 50%. Since it takes 8 hours to render the project, I thought I'd ask if upper fields first would work.

Also, I left the "deinterlace" box on the output tab un-ticked. Anyone know how that may or may not help me preserve the interlacing on the footage?

My problem is that I don't want a progressive DVD. Interlaced should give me better slow motion sequences, of which there are a few. However, I don't know how or where to make the conversion from HDV with upper fields first to SD which needs lower first. PP or Encore? A little in both? It's a black art I don't quite grok.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm not exactly certain of which settings will work for you because I just usually leave the settings as "Same as source" at first, but why don't you pick a 10-20 second piece of your project and try exporting it a few different ways and then burn a test disc in Encore to see which came out best. I would suggest whichever part of your video seems the most effected by the wrong field issue.

Its never the most efficient, but trial and error always gets me there...

As for slow-mo, I have found that the only real way to make it look really good is to do it in After Effects, but there's more time for ya!

Ryan... I'm the crash test dummy for trial and error. I was looking to spare myself another bruise, but you're right... it'll get me there. Thanks.

Actually there is another way for slomo. I get the clip I want, the way I want in the timeline. If I need it longer for handles, I raise it to a higher track and stretch it at each end, then I render it out from the timeline using Export/Movie using QT and the animation codec. So far, so good. It seems easier than dumping a 10-15 sec clip to AE.