Look at the manual, it says the camera support a 1080/30F playback function, but I do not see any information about the various record modes. Are they only 1080/60i and 1080/24p? Or is there some capacity for a 1080/30F or 30P mode? Or would I need a post deinterlace to achieve a 30P with this camera. TIA.

Hi Andrew, while the HV20 will indeed play back 30F mode from either the XL or XH series Canon HD camcorders, unfortunately there is no actual 30P recording mode in the HV20 itself. The HV20 is capable of recording only in 1080i60 and 1080p24. In my opinion the lack of 1080p30 recording capability is the one of the most annoying drawbacks of the HV20, which fortunately has very few drawbacks... otherwise it has a stellar feature set and an amazingly high bang-for-buck ratio.

That is most unfortunate. I exe. produce a TV show for our local cable market. I really like the look of 30P over 24P - which I think is great for narrative, but adds too much shudder under the hand held conditions conditions I use. 30P has always worked well for my production needs and there's no additional post pull-down - it really is too bad the HV20 doesn't have it, b/c it will probably keep me from buying it. Chris put in the good word with Canon, keep that 1080/30P function (even in the consumer cameras)!