Why is my 1080i/60i DVCPro HD footage a 29.97 fps video rate?

[John Pale]

You thought wrong.

1080i/59.94 refers to fields per second.
It’s 29.97 frames per second.

720p is actually 59.94 progressive frames per second.

[Shane Ross]

1080i60 and 720p60 mean different things. The clue is in the LETTERS. 1080 “i” means INTERLACED. Interlaced indicates that we are talking about FIELDS per second, and since there are two fields per frame, so 30 frames per second.

720 “p” means PROGRESSIVE…progressive means full frames, not fields. So 60 full frames per second. 720p is a 60 frame format…1080i is a 30 frame format.

1080i60 runs at 30fps…at 29.97.

Is it stupid and confusing? Yes, it is.

Shane

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[Shane Ross]

Gah, I was late.

Shane

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[Robert Waldrep]

Thanks Shane.
So if I’m going turn over footage from my P2 cards in the requested “1080i 59:95” format for the clients avid editor….I’ll be fine shooting at 1080i/60i and giving them the MXF files to import?

[Shane Ross]

Yes, you would.

Shane

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Shane Ross] “Is it stupid and confusing? Yes, it is.”

As I’ve said before, I would like to find the person who decided to create the naming conventions 1080i/60 and 1080i/50 and just strangle them. Completely unnecessary and confusing naming conventions.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Omer Dagan]

So all the footage I shot of surfers in Rincon, Puerto Rico @ 1080i/60 (Panasonic HMC 40) thinking I was shooting at 60 so I could then conform in Cinema Tools for the slow mo is now caput? FML.
I shot 720/60 on my T3i and conformed to 30fps of planes landing at LAX and was amazed by the thought that it would look way better if I shot at 1080/60 in the HMC 40 cam I rented.. I was wrong.

[Shane Ross]

[Omer Dagan] “So all the footage I shot of surfers in Rincon, Puerto Rico @ 1080i/60 (Panasonic HMC 40) thinking I was shooting at 60 so I could then conform in Cinema Tools for the slow mo is now caput? “

Correct, you shot 29.97. I REALLY hate that they call it 60i. They should call it 30i. Because when someone looks at 1080i60, you think 60FPS. But the “i” indicates INTERLACED, so the number means FIELDS per second. P indicates PROGRESSIVE, so it means FRAMES per second. Confusing, and I hate it.

Sorry, you didn’t shoot 60fps. There are some Panasonic cameras that do shoot 1080p60, but they are consumer level, and FCP can’t deal with the footage directly. NOn-standard format. 60p is 720p territory, there is to 1080p60 or 1080p50 standard.

Shane
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