60i or 60p?

[Hotpeppa1]

My camcorder has these two settings at 1080p, and I will be viewing the video on a 1080p LED tv. Which one would be better?

[PlayStation 2]

60p

60i is interlaced which is effectively 30p. 60p is progressive scan which is he whole frame =60fps

[Godlygamer23]

Progressive will look better.

[EposVox]

You want 60p. 60i is 1080i and interlaced, and you quite literally will never want that. Just a heads up for all future encounters with interlacing.

[nickl]

60p.

[flibberdipper]

Oh lordy, 60p all the way. It won't look like dick when you render it, trust me.

[Captain_Slow]

60p

60i is interlaced which is effectively 30p. 60p is progressive scan which is he whole frame =60fps

 

no, 30p looks better than 60i

[ALwin]

My camcorder has these two settings at 1080p, and I will be viewing the video on a 1080p LED tv. Which one would be better?

 

I'm going to jump in here because while people are telling you that 60p is better than 60i, which is generally a true statement, they haven't fully explained why.

• I'm going to safely say that for 99% of what you will be doing with the camera 60p or 30p, 25p, 24p will be the only frame rates you use
• Unless you happen to work for a TV/Cable station where they might require the use of Interlaced signals for broadcasting
• For Internet streaming, broadcasting, Youtube channels, etc. as long as the video is being uploaded to the Internet, Progressive is what you should use
• Interlaced is a standard that is still in use, in few cases, and is being phased out as current monitors in production (on the market) are capable of Progressive

Here is a link that briefly explains the difference between Interlaced and Progressive

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/interlaced-vs-progressive-scanning-methods.html

 

Additionally, 60p does not equal 60fps.  If the manufacturer has implemented the standard correctly it should be 59.97fps

30p = 29.97fps, if the manufacturer has implemented 30p to equal 30fps they have not followed the industry standard like Nikon and Canon in their early DSLRs capable of video

25p = 25fps, 50p = 50fps (You'll find this in camera systems that are designed to be used in PAL regions, or cameras that can switch between NTSC and PAL*)

24p = 23.97fps

 

A use case for 60i, outside of TV/Cable broadcasting:

If you have a camera that is capable of only recording 1080@ 60i or 30p and there is no option for 60p and you want to record slow motion, then using 60i will be better than 30p.  Quality might slightly suffer and there will be issues of de-interlacing if played back on a monitor that supports Progressive inputs.

 

I believe in the US, several sports broadcasters still use Interlaced because it has some advantages when it comes to fast motion.  So if you plan to work in broadcasting (not over Internet) in a particular country, you will have to know the standards they allow you to use.

 

FYI, 60i is not 30p frame rate.  60i captures motion slightly differently than the frame rate used by 30p.  60i works at a higher frame rate than 30p, but each frame captured by 60i has less information than a frame captured by 30p.  So as stated in the previous link, each frame in a Progressive format is a full scan of the entire scene, while with Interlaced format it only captures for example odd or even lines alternatively during each "frame or better to state it as half-frame".

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/video-frame-rates-24p-25p-30p-60i.html

 

*Additionally, you will not be able to select 25/50p if your camera is set to NTSC region or 60hz flicker reduction mode in the camera settings, and vice versa for 24/30/60p if the camera is set to PAL/50hz.  Of course this depends on how the manufacturer designed the camera, but for the ones I've used this is the default.

[PlayStation 2]

no, 30p looks better than 60i

i mean in terms of effective frame rate

[.spider.]

60i is interlaced which is effectively 30p. 

Depends, if it is 60i psf it is effectively 30p only the color resolution is a bit lower in comparison to native 30p

 

If it is "real" 60i its temporal resolution is as high as 60p's but its spatial resolution is 1/2 on the horizontal axis(only if there is motion)

[Captain_Slow]

i mean in terms of effective frame rate

 

well effective "frame" rate of 60i is still 60 frames per second, just that each frame contains only half the information interlaced.