So, I should always set my timeline to be what I've captured at, correct? So for 59.94 1080i coming from my XL H1a, my timeline should be 59.94 as well. If I want to export for viewing on the web, (computer monitors), then expert 29.97p, but for TV (dvd) keep it at 59.94, and for bluray export at 29.97p

Are my assumptions here correct? Are there any circumstances where I would want to import 59.94 to a 29.97 timeline? Maybe better for slow motion effects?

Appreciate the help :D

59.94 can be confusing once you bring interlacing into the picture. You HDV camera shoots 1080i at 29.97 frames per second, which get divided into 59.94 fields per second. The correct setting in C5 is actually called "HDV 1080i30 (60i)." For best results, if your computer exports are 960x540 or lower, I would use 29.97p, while for both BluRay and DVD I would export 1080i29.97 Upper Field First. While that format will work fine on BluRay, for DVD you will need to downconvert to 480i29.97 Lower Field First, which is best done in After Effects with the field renderer turned on. When setup correctly, this will take the first upper field of your 1080i to create a 480 frame and then the lower field to generate another 480 frame. It will then interlace those together lower field first, for the first frame of your 480i MPEG encode, and then follow that pattern for every frame after that. This will give you the best DVD encodes from your HDV source footage.

Thank you very much for that incredibly helpful response!!