De-Interlacing within Final Cut Pro (Correct Method/Project Settings)

I believe that your option 2 is the way to go.

Make sure that your project is created as progressive, and then just add the clips to it and let FCP handle the deinterlacing. NOTE: don't let the project be created with "automatic" settings, or it will pick up from the first clip that is added and probably end up interlaced.

That is what I'd do, but then I have not worked with interlaced material in years, so maybe someone who does use it can give another perspective.



You don't need a specific frame rate for youtube - but it should be progressive, not interlaced.

What you should consider is which frame rate better matches your content. That "60i" will probably have a fractional frame rate, so 29.97 is probably the correct one (remember that the "60" is fields, so half it would be 30, but in reality it is probably 59.94 and therefore ...)

<rant>

And here we are in 2024 still dealing with a compromise that was due to the technological limitations of almost a century ago. Why won't interlaced video and fractional frame rates die already?!

</rant>

BenB wrote:

Because that means millions of TV stations and broadcast facilities would need to change out TONS of equipment for billions of billions of dollars. Fact.

Ben I know you have a lot more knowledge of the broadcast world, and I have great respect for you, but I have difficulty with this argument.

I understand that you say is probably true for traditional over-the-air broadcast, but how relevant is it today?

I am not sure about the US, but in Europe all broadcast is now digital. Analog tv is dead.

So there was already the need to invest in a lot of new equipment in the last ten-twelve years or so. The bandwitdth requirements of DVB-T are far less than analog, and can perfectly well accomodate progressive broadcast.

Plus traditional broadcast "over the air" has in large part been replaced by cable or fiber.

My tv comes together with my internet, over fiber, not the air, and the channels I get in my tv box come as 720p.

Some of those are the same legacy channels that are still broadcast (digitally) as interlaced 576i, so I presume the legacy broadcaster already gives a progressive feed to the distributors (or do they reencode on the fly?). Cable channels I am sure are all digital and have no reason to cater to legacy equipment or formats.

Because that means millions of TV stations and broadcast facilities would need to change out TONS of equipment for billions of billions of dollars. Fact.