Sony 1080i30 to 720p60
 

Graeme Natress commented in a recent thread that one advantage of the Sony cameras vs. the JVCs is that one can easily do a full-frame deinterlace to 720p60. I just gave that a try via Avisynth and a deinterlacer I hadn't used before, Kurt Prunner's LeakKernelDeint (available here: http://gast3.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at/~kp/AviSynth/).

With simply the default settings, the results are really rather impressive - both for computer playback and as a WindowsMedia9 file played on my Linkplayer2. (The kernal deinterlace seems to provide some subtle denoising and sharpening.) For those interested, here's a basic avs script:

Avisource("Cineform1080i30.avi")
LeakKernelBob(order=1)
lanczosresize(1280, 720)

Just as an aside, am I correct in understanding there is no valid MPEG2 encoding option for p60 footage? - i.e. that the MPEG2 spec maxes out at p30?

That doesn't sound right - surely some broadcasters use MPEG2 to broadcast 720p/60?

You can encode 720/60p video with MPEG-2.

Well I thought so too too...but then none of the encoders I have (Procoder, Adobe Media Encoder, TMPG Xpress) seemed to accept 60p as a legal request. And then I found several webpages saying 60p wasn't "legal" at all!

Could someone tell me which software encoders support 720p60 - maybe I am just setting up my profiles incorrectly?

OK I'll answer my own question: Adobe Media Encoder in PPro2 will do 720p60 encoding (I somehow missed this the first time I looked).

Procoder, Procoder Express and TMPGEnc Xpress do not support it.

CORRECTION : Oops! Procoder and Procoder Express DO support 60P, provided the mpeg profile is manually switched to MP@HL (see below)

TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 will encode 60p.

So it does - thanks. I (now) see that it's the Main Profile Main Level spec thats limited to 30P, not MPEG2 itself:

MP@ML (Main Profile Main Level) upper bound:
720 x 576 (PAL) or 720 x 483 (NTSC)
30 Hz progressive, 60 Hz interlaced
Maximum bit rate is 15 Mbits/s

MP@HL (Main Profile High Level) upper bound:
1152 x 1920, 60Hz progressive
80 Mbits/s