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frame rate setting for Canon HF M41

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I just recently placed an order to purchase a Canon HF M41 camcorder after many years of holding off on buying one. I mainly plan to use it film footage of my family, specifically kids.

I have a question about the frame rate and what I should set it to. Canon says that the camcorder will record 60i as it's default setting but you can set "the frame capture rate to 24p (recorded at 60i)" or it can "capture video in 30p(30 progressive frames, recorded at 60i)." I have no idea what that means to say that it can record in 24p or 30p, recorded at 60i. Can someone help explain what this is exactly saying and also give me some guidance on which frame rate I should select? Also, does selecting any of the available frame rates affect iMovies or iDVD one way or another? (better or worse?)
 
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chas_m

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Standard-definition in the United States (NTSC) is recorded at 29.97fps (usually rounded up to "30" in consumer documentation). HD can be recorded at 60 interlaced fps (60i) or 30p (stands for "progressive," meaning no interlacing).

If you are in North America, you should probably set it for 30p. This will look better when you are editing it on a computer. Recording at 60i or 30p doesn't really make a difference in the end product, but interlaced video looks "odd" on a computer (because the monitor is progressive) sometimes, particularly in action sequences.
 
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Standard-definition in the United States (NTSC) is recorded at 29.97fps (usually rounded up to "30" in consumer documentation). HD can be recorded at 60 interlaced fps (60i) or 30p (stands for "progressive," meaning no interlacing).

If you are in North America, you should probably set it for 30p. This will look better when you are editing it on a computer. Recording at 60i or 30p doesn't really make a difference in the end product, but interlaced video looks "odd" on a computer (because the monitor is progressive) sometimes, particularly in action sequences.

Aside from the breakdown that you gave above, do you have a recommendation of which frame rate setting will work best with iMovie 11?

Our family is going to Disneyland and I would like to have the "correct/best" frame rate setting so I don't waste all of the footage in case iMovie11 can't work with a particular frame rate setting that I've chosen. It seems that iMovie has a hard time working with 1080/60p but the hf m41 doesn't record in 1080/60p so I'm fine there.

I believe the default setting is 1080/60i. If I leave it as that, do you think or know if iMovie11 will have any problems working with the footage or do you think it'll be better to select 30p, although I don't believe it's a true 30p as Canon's material all says that it's "30p" but recorded in a 60i wrapper. (Please explain what exactly that means if anybody knows.)
 
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Most AVCHD cameras record a 24p video as a 60i signal. Some software can process recovers the true 24 frames per second progressive scan video from the 60 frames per second interlaced encoding.

24p videos are therefore deinterlaced, which simply makes them look way better.

In your opinion, what would you select the camcorder to record in? 24p or 30p? Please keep in mind, I'm just using the camcorder to record family footage and I have iMovie 11.
 

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