When I first got my Canon HF10 camcorder, I got a refresher lesson on the difference between interlaced video and progressive video. When I was making my first few videos, I could see those nasty lines from interlacing on a page wipe. Even when I set my camera to progressive, I found that the camera still outputs 60I. (I don't quite understand that)

Anyway, I learned about de-interlacing the piece when exporting a sequence and that solved my problem. Another fix I found was not not allow FC to change to the sequence setting it thought it needed, then I seem to be able to output without many issues. I digress...

I've upgrade my Final Cut Express to Final Cut Pro and I have an extra option under field dominance of "None" Now when I edit 1080/60i broll and set the field dominance to none, I don't seem to have to worry about deinterlacing.

My question is what is the best way to set the sequence setting now to get the best quality video. Is it setting the field dominance to none and not activating the progressive option in compressor or leave the dominance to upper and set the setting. I'm thinking that leaving dominance to none would be the way to go. Is that actually progressive anyway.

Thanks
Bryan

I have the same question, selecting "none" for field order does seem to effectively de-interlace. Someone else on this board guessed that it is only playing back one field, so I would think that would cut down on the resolution. Final Cut doesn't seem to know when something is interlaced or progressive unfortunately.

I shoot and capture HDV. What I do is edit in Pro Res HQ for the best quality, and set the fields to none. When I export a self contained quicktime for compressor or whatever, I choose "current settings". Thats because if you choose a pro res export settings from the drop down menu your only option is "60i". Honestly, choosing that seems to produce a progressive image anyway (if the footage is in fact progressive) but if I had any text or graphics I would be worried about introducing "jaggies".

If I am sure I shot interlaced footage and was really concerned with the best possible quality I would de-interlace elsewhere. I hate final cut's muddy de-interlace filter. You also have to keep an eye out that Final Cut does not automatically add a "shift fields" filter to your footage, without telling you. I just don't trust the quality of it's filters for things like that.