Can't Find Settings Answer for 60D

[Lisa Maxwell]

OK, if this is somewhere easy to find, please direct me, I can't find this answer. What settings in FCP 7 do I use for 1920x1080 24p? I'm confused because there's an option that says "HDTV 1080i (16:9), but I DON'T WANT the "i" for interlaced, right? I want a "p" for progressive. Do I set it to "custom" for frame size then?

[Jeff Troiano]

I've never worked with 60D footage, so I could be way off base for this.

Can't you just drop the footage into a time line, and allow FC to conform the sequence settings to the footage? That way you don't have to change any settings. I am a newbie to FCP, but just finished a project, where I had footage from 4 different types of cameras, I imported the footage, dropped the first clip into the time line, and allowed FC to adjust settings to my footage settings.

[Lisa Maxwell]

Yes, you're right. I was combining two different synced clips and got all confused as to the settings I should set and forgot that once I put the silly things in the timeline FCP will set it anyway. I still don't understand why FCP chooses 1080i though. Makes no sense to me.

[Jeff Troiano]

Originally Posted by Lisa Maxwell

Yes, you're right. I was combining two different synced clips and got all confused as to the settings I should set and forgot that once I put the silly things in the timeline FCP will set it anyway. I still don't understand why FCP chooses 1080i though. Makes no sense to me.

Again, don't know if this is correct info, but I thought I read someplace (went to look for it, but couldn't find, to reference here), that the 60D supports the many different frame rates, but they are all wrapped in a 50/60i wrapper, so the 1080i setting from FC may just be showing that.

[Jordan Hooper]

The footage coming off the 60D is in H264, which isn't really edit friendly. I think you'll find FCP running poorly. The footage should first be converted to a ProRes format before you put it in the timeline.

Maybe someone else will confirm this, or hopefully set us straight.

[Lisa Maxwell]

Yes, absolutely convert 60D footage to ProRes! I use (LT) and others all over the web say it's indistinguishable from HQ but much smaller for our type of work.

[Erik Andersen]

Originally Posted by Lisa Maxwell

I'm confused because there's an option that says "HDTV 1080i (16:9), but I DON'T WANT the "i" for interlaced, right?

Note that this is the option for "Frame Size" not editing timebase or field dominance. "HDTV 1080i (16x9)" is a standard frame size. 1920 lines by 1080 columns, that's it.

So you have the correct Frame Size setting, just make sure that the editing timebase is 23.98, the field dominance is none, and the pixels are square (which is exactly what you have) and you're good to go.

[Lisa Maxwell]

Thanks Eric!