Dear all,

Is it possible to mix progressive and interlaced HD footage in the same film, if you fiddle around with the two in post production (FCP 5)? I am interested to know this because we may have a JVC GY-HD101e and a Canon XL-H1a available to our company for two camera shoots and back up purposes. Can these two cameras co-exist on the same production?

Many thanks
Simon

Is it possible to mix progressive and interlaced HD footage in the same film?
Yes, but you'll want to make a decision as to whether you want your project to ulimately be progressive or interlaced. you could bounce back and forth, but it could look funny. I would recommend either progressive or interlaced.

I'm assuming it's all PAL, which can be simpler than NTSC in this situation. I do not understand why you don't chose to shoot in one frame rate or another. It would be easier overall.

Can these two cameras co-exist on the same production?
Sure.

Hi there,

Is this for broadcast? If so, you may run into strobe/jitter/flicker issues. While FCP can
deal with mixed footage within a sequence, it's not to be relied upon if you're dumping
out to a VTR.

If you have no choice and are forced to mix interlaced and progressive on the same
sequence, you can try de-interlacing your interlaced footage, which will take care
of strobe/jitter/flicker, but you'll lose quality and the network may still bounce your
master.

It's probably best if you pick one output format and then you can use Media Manager
or compressor to re-encode the other footage used in your final edit. This works better
than rendering from within the FCP sequence.

Hope this helps,

Sandeep

Tripp and Sandeep,

Many thanks for your helpful replies!

All the best
Simon

If you haven't shot your project yet, why not switch the Canon to frame mode. True, the camera is not shooting true progressive scan, but it is converting the interlaced picture from the CCDs to a progressive signal. This would allow you to edit on a progressive scan timeline and have no interlace vs progressive scan issues mixing the footage.

Cheers Adam! I'll look into that...

All the best
Simon