I have to put together a short 7 minute project with clips in a variety of formats for 1080 x 1920 bluray. I want to know what my "project properties", "render as" settings and DVDA settings should be as related to progressive/ interlaced. I am using clips from my Sony ex1r in 24P and 60i formats. I also have some 1080 x 1920 60i AVC.

I have tried a number of different combinations. "Upper field first" and "blend fields" in project properties along with changing "field order" in Bluray 60i video stream preset to "none" seems to yield the best looking output (to my eyes) when I preview it in DVDA. Then DVDA wants to resample the video due to "media not compliant with disc format" when I go to prepare for burn. Will this be big problem.

Does anybody have any hints or advice on which settings will be the best?
Thanks

Does anybody have any hints or advice on which settings will be the best?

How the video looks in DVD Architect is not how it will look on a television because DVD Architect deinterlaces frames during playback whereas a bluray player will bob fields. In particular, incorrect field order is a mistake that is only evident after mastering the disk and playing it in a real bluray player. Use upper field first and interpolate fields.

Can you explain to this noob (me!) what is meant by "1920x1080 Blu-Ray"? I thought Blu-Ray was 1440x1080.

Huh, that prompted me to look at Vegas's output templates and see 1920x1080 Blu-ray! Is that new? Will all Blu-ray discs and players take/play 1920x1080? Will DVDA encode it?

DVD architect manulal contains all necessary data
http://download.sonymediasoftware.com/manuals/dvdarchitectpro6.0_manual_enu.pdf
(pages 193-195)

Thanks Eric - I will try interpolate fields.I did burn a bluray jsut to see how it looked and I was pleased. I think the client will be happy. Have been working with HD for a while but didnt have much experience with 60i or bluray.

Thank for the link Juris. Hey, Latvia. Cool!

I believe 1080-1440 is a limitation of HDV, not bluray Shane.

Don't deinterlace for blu-ray if you are mixing frame rates on the time line. Remember, for NTSC countries, 1080 blu-ray is either 59.94i or 23.97p. If you deinterlace in Vegas, it's just going to end up getting reinterlaced again anyway in DVDA.

Instead, set your Vegas project properties to 1920x1080/60i (59.94i). For field order choose upper field first, and for deinterlace method choose 'none'.

Don't deinterlace for blu-ray if you are mixing frame rates on the time line. Remember, for NTSC countries, 1080 blu-ray is either 59.94i or 23.97p. If you deinterlace in Vegas, it's just going to end up getting reinterlaced again anyway in DVDA.

Instead, set your Vegas project properties to 1920x1080/60i (59.94i). For field order choose upper field first, and for deinterlace method choose 'none'.

The labeling of "deinterlace method" is misleading. If you set it to "none" then Vegas will perform all zoom, pan, crop, resize and rendering functions using progressive algorithms which is not what you want. Setting "deinterlace method" to "interpolate" or "blend" tells Vegas to use interlace aware processing, which is important even when the output remains interlaced and no real deinteracing occurs. Interlace aware proccesing is also important when working with a mixture of interlaced and progressive material using different frame rates.

It certainly is not as straight forward as it would seem. I think what Tom says does make sense, but after actually trying different settings, Eric's advice seems to look the best. At first this seemed counterintuitive to me. Eric's last post seems to explain what is going on and why blended or interpolate works. I am going to tinker a bit more and perhaps install some kind of virtual drive to save on expensive disks. Thankyou both!

for deinterlace method choose 'none'.
...only in the case where all source materials, project settings and render settings are progressive. In all other cases, forget about 'none'

So are you guys saying to set the Vegas project settings to match the final output vs what the project was shot on?

I am in a situation where I will now be doing my 3 camera shoots with either 2 HDV cameras and 1 AVCHD or 2 AVCHD and 1 HDV. Of course the HDV is 1440 x 1080 vs the AVCHD 1920 x 1080. Also the pixel shapes are different.

My final out put is Blu-ray discs, DVD, and Windows Media for computer.

I am in a situation where I will now be doing my 3 camera shoots with either 2 HDV cameras and 1 AVCHD or 2 AVCHD and 1 HDV. Of course the HDV is 1440 x 1080 vs the AVCHD 1920 x 1080. Also the pixel shapes are different.

Set all 3 cameras to the same thing (i or p) and you'll be fine.
Due to the PAR difference, 1440 x 1080 (PAR of 1.333) is the same as 1920 x 1080 (PAR of 1.0).

Mike, I do have all of the cameras set to record at 30p. My question is what project settings should I use in Sony Vegas Pro 11. Thanks!

D.J. set your project properties to match that of your AVCHD camera. As I said, the PAR of the other one means that all 3 will look the same on the timeline.

Be advised that the only currently acceptable formats for Blu ray are 24p, 50i and 60i so you might want to rethink shooting at 30p.

...only in the case where all source materials, project settings and render settings are progressive. In all other cases, forget about 'none'

If all source files and render settings are progressive, then it doesn't matter what setting for deinterlace method is chosen, including the choice of 'none'.