HD 1080i or 1080p?

[Adam Mason]

Does anyone have any experience / opinion about which is best to film and edit in? 1080i or 1080p?

[xstr8guy]

I'm no expert on this topic but I can't help but to pass on my uninformed knowledge. lol

1080p is the ultimate I think. But I don't think any pro-sumer HDV cams are capable of filming progressive... yet. To get 1080p, I think you need to move up into the professional range and you pay an absolute fortune. Some 1080i cams capture video at double frame rates to kind of make up for the fact that it is interlaced.

Again, I may be wrong on this. Technology changes so fast, it's hard to keep up.

[gaybucks_chip]

Well, it's not just 1080i or 1080p, but also what the frame rate is... you can do 1080i60, 1080p30, or 1080p60. I don't think the HDV cams will do 1080p60.

I've had numerous discussions about this, and basically it boils down to what you're shooting. If there's a lot of fast-moving action or "noisy" backgrounds (think leaves on trees rustling in the background), you're going to get noticeable artifacting on HDV with 1080i60 because of the interlacing.

1080p30 is better in terms of artifacting, because it's capturing a full frame each time instead of a half-frame interlaced, but it will also be more prone to motion blur.

We are currently shooting 1080p30 at 100Mbits (the DVC-Pro codec) which looks good, but does have some blurring. As Jim said, I don't think any of the prosumer cameras shoot 1080p60 yet. However, it was suggested by a couple of Hollywood cinematographer types that we consider 720p60 instead, because it's almost as hi-def as 1080, with full 60 frames progressive. I don't know if the HD cameras support it, because it might be too much data to fit onto HDV tape, but the Panasonic HVX recording to memory cards or hard drive does.

We are going to experiment with 720p60 and try shooting the same scene both in 720p60 and 1080p30 to compare. If/when we have something definitive, I'll post here.

One other thing: 1080p60 will take up a LOT of space and use tons of computer resources for editing and rendering. Even 1080p30 takes up about 1-1.5 gigs/minute if you're recording at full resolution DVCPro-HD, I'd guess that 1080p60 would take almost double that. 720p60, on the other hand, is a lot less resource intensive.

[xstr8guy]

One other thing: 1080p60 will take up a LOT of space and use tons of computer resources for editing and rendering. Even 1080p30 takes up about 1-1.5 gigs/minute if you're recording at full resolution DVCPro-HD, I'd guess that 1080p60 would take almost double that. 720p60, on the other hand, is a lot less resource intensive.

Tell me about it! lol

We shoot 1080i 50fps (PAL). And to edit that effectively I had to spend nearly $8000 on a computer. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to edit 1080p 60FPS.

[Adam Mason]

Thanks for the information. After all that, while my cameras can film in 1080p25, they get converted back to 1080i anyway! Don't ask me why, I'm just an amateur!