I thought that the Magic Bullet plugin for Vegas had a function to convert framerate, but it doesn't. I want to deinterlace and turn 60i video to 30p or 24p

Anyone know of plugins that work to this end?

(And yeah, I know Vegas 6 does a pretty good job of it, anyway, but I'm looking for comparisons)

Thanks

DJ

Try smart de-interlace by Mike Crash
http://mikecrash.wz.cz/
60i --> 30p conversion with higher resolution than de-interlace by blending or interpolating fields.

Any tips for a workflow on the best way to use this?

Important: Set project properties to progressive, deinterlace method to NONE.

When done project, apply the deinterlace filter at the media FX or video FX level (it'll come after other filters, so things might be screwed up if certain filters don't handle the interlacing correctly; the image hasn't been de-interlaced yet).
Media pool will show how many FX are on each media.

The secret to getting good results out of Vegas for a 30p or 24p render is to use version 6 of Vegas rather than version 5 or earlier. Sony redid how they do frame rate conversions for version 6 and the difference is immediately obvious. If you simply choose 24p or 30p in your output options as you render from version 6 you will get results that are as close to perfect as I've yet seen. You can even turn off resampling entirely and get a perfect 24p render! Sony is being kind of tight lipped about what they've changed for this release, but whatever it is, it really looks good.

To turn off the resampling, is that in the clip's properties menu? Or in the project properties?

Resample is in the event (clip) properties.

So I rendered a 60i project to mpeg2 24p using the render template in Vegas 6.
I used 29.97 for the project settings DV 4:3 lower fields template.
I placed a 16:9 setting crop on the footage.

When I rendered, the crop did not show up for the first 10 seconds of the footage, then all of a sudden it shows up. It is there in the project preview...

Very studdery ouput stop starts flow.
What did I do wrong?

Wait wait, it looks studdery if I try to play back the file on my pc using nero media player, and it looks funny from within DVD workshop 2, but in DVD Architect it looks fine. I am going to try a burn of a DVD now and see what I get on set top dvd player.

But I am unclear on how to render a proper dolby ac-3 file to go along with it. Since the ac-3 does not have an option for 24fps, will it not render at 29.97 and be out of synch with 24P video render?

Update: my vegas 6 60i to 24p 2:3 mpeg2 24P template conversion plays great on the set top dvd player to the TV. It is missing the 16:9 crop for the first 2 minutes of play but then all works great.
However, I was only able to use DVD architect 3 to make dvd that would play the 2:3 smoothly.

Resample is in the event (clip) properties.

Normally, should one disable resampling when doing
60i to 30p? What would be the difference if force resampling
or smart resampling is selected?

Resampling blends leading and trailing fields so you get a smoother image. It takes a lot of the judder out of the conversion. Whether or not you want it is based on the look - there's really no right or wrong =)