Canon HF21: Best Frame Rate And Resolution For YouTube?

For uploading sports, what's the best way to go? There's 3 frame rates the camera lets you choose: 60i, PF30, and PF24. I don't understand why it's called "PF30" and "PF24" in the menu screen. Is that the same thing as 30p and 24p?

Is there a way to make it 720 or 480 instead of 1080? I'm assuming 1080 is all the camera gives you no matter what? If I set it at MXP for the video quality, is that how I tell it to do 1080?

No matter which one of the frame rates I choose, opening the .mts files in Media Player CLassic always show as 29.97 frames per second. What a weird number. How do I actually get the 60 frames per second?

When I set the camera to 60i, edit the video in Sony Vegas, and save it uTube, the playback if you choose 1080p on youtube always looks a little jumpy. And how come youtube shows an option as 1080p instead of 1080i if I used 60i in the camera settings? What the best settings for smooth motion like someone running or a golf cart driving by?

Sorry for all the questions, but there's nothing out there that seems to clearly explain this whole frame rate mess.

Originally Posted by JohnnyGalaga

For uploading sports, what's the best way to go? There's 3 frame rates the camera lets you choose: 60i, PF30, and PF24. I don't understand why it's called "PF30" and "PF24" in the menu screen. Is that the same thing as 30p and 24p?

First issue, do you also want it to look good on a large screen HDTV or is YouTube all you care about?

Second issue, will you be hand shooting or on a tripod?

60i is 1920x1080 interlace. This will look best on an HDTV but will need conversion for Youtube.

PF30 is 30p sent as 60i fields. In Vegas you can import it to a 29.97i or 29.97p timeline.

PF24 is telecined 24p transferred as 60i. This is not recommended for fast action sports unless you are going for the artsy NFL Films look (usually shot from the goal line). You can edit as 60i or inverse telecine to 23.976p before editing.

Well, I'd like ti look good on a TV or Youtube, but if I had to choose, I'd say youtube is the most important. I usually shoot with a monopod. How do I import an .mts file as 29.97i or 29.97p on V-e-g-a-s and why can't it just be 30 or 60 (How can you possibly lose .03 frames per second of all things)? Why does this 29.97 number keep coming up? Why not 29.96 or 35.87 or something?

Originally Posted by JohnnyGalaga

Is there a way to make it 720 or 480 instead of 1080? I'm assuming 1080 is all the camera gives you no matter what? If I set it at MXP for the video quality, is that how I tell it to do 1080?

The Canon HF21 shoots 1920x1080, 1440x1080 or 720x480i.

Assuming you shot 60i or 30p 1920x1080i, you can downsize in Vegas to whatever you want. For Youtube, it is best to deinterlace to 1920x1080 30p or 1280x720p 30p encoded to h.264. Vegas can do this but you can get a higher quality result using AVISynth filters for deinterlace and resize.

Originally Posted by JohnnyGalaga

No matter which one of the frame rates I choose, opening the .mts files in Media Player CLassic always show as 29.97 frames per second. What a weird number. How do I actually get the 60 frames per second?

MPCHC is applying a Yadif deinterlace 60i to 60p optimized for computer display. It is not changing the file.

Originally Posted by JohnnyGalaga

When I set the camera to 60i, edit the video in Sony Vegas, and save it uTube, the playback if you choose 1080p on youtube always looks a little jumpy. And how come youtube shows an option as 1080p instead of 1080i if I used 60i in the camera settings? What the best settings for smooth motion like someone running or a golf cart driving by?

If you send 60i to Youtube, they will apply crude deinterlace filters as it converts to a low bit rate 30p. Youtube only does 30p so best to deinterlace or resize yourself to 29.97p before uploading to Youtube. Also send them high bit rate (within their file size limits) because they are going to recode again in all cases.

Note that 60i records with 59.94 fields per second motion sampling. This will give best realism for HDTV display. The HDTV will deinterlace 60i to 60p or 120p. The camera 30p mode samples action at 29.97 frames per second. Playback will be somewhat motion stepped during action. This why I'd recommend the 60i camera setting and edit 60i for HDTV playback but convert to 29.97p for youtube.

Originally Posted by JohnnyGalaga

Well, I'd like ti look good on a TV or Youtube, but if I had to choose, I'd say youtube is the most important. I usually shoot with a monopod. How do I import an .mts file as 29.97i or 29.97p on V-e-g-a-s and why can't it just be 30 or 60 (How can you possibly lose .03 frames per second of all things)? Why does this 29.97 number keep coming up? Why not 29.96 or 35.87 or something?

Without getting into the technical history, "NTSC" TV is always 59.94, 29.97 or 23.976 rates. The camera and TV manufacturers use slang, Vegas uses the precise terms because it makes a difference during editing.

Slang to precise

60p = 59.94 frames per second
60i = 30i = 29.97 frames per second (59.94 fields per second)

30p = 29.97 frames per second

24p = 23.976 frames per second

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'm just not understanding a lot of what you're saying about all the converting and deinterlacing etcetera. I don't understand what I'm actually suppoed to be doing with the software. It's been so damn frustrating trying to really learn camcording because there's nothing out there that seems to really explain all this. These companies are making camcorders but giving almost no technical guidance.

So let's do this. From start to finish.

1. What are the best camcorder settings like frame rate, shutter speed, video quality, MXP, FXP, etc.

2. What's the best method for dealing with .mts files in V*gas software? How do I import the .mts files the best way, and then once the editing is done, what's the best way to export and save the final video (.m2ts, .avi, .wmv, etc.)?

Thanks.

Canon HF21 settings - Sports should use maximum quality settings

Resolution/Framerate - 1920x1080 60i
Compression - MXP 24 Mbps

The following settings are for Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 10. Earlier versions may not support AVCHD.

New project setting

Project setting custom view



For export (Render as) for HDTV viewing (AVCHD disc or media player) use these settings



For Youtube upload. Adjust bitrate to fit content to Youtube max file size.



For longer clips, you may want to reduce resolution to 1280x720 30p

Awesome! Those screenshots are a big help and this thread is going in my browser favorites.

Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. What's the best shutter speed? This is another camera setting. Should it match the frame rate? Like if I set the camcorder to PF30 then should it be 1/30 and 60i would be 1/60?

I'd leave it at Canon default unless you are going for a special effect. Generally this is 1/60. A slower setting like 1/30 opens the shutter longer for more motion blur. A faster shutter narrows the motion window (for less blurred still capture) but also opens the f stop in auto mode causing focus issues. Also going too fast on shutter causes a more stepped video playback. You need to experiment for your particular camera.

Generally the tradeoff is sharp action vs. exposure noise. In a night game you may need to trade off shutter for lower noise. In bright sunlight you have more shutter options.

Another question has come up. When I use the setting you posted above "For Youtube upload. Adjust bitrate to fit content to Youtube max file size," it won't lemme save it as an .m2ts file. It keeps changing the file extension to .mp4 even though I typed .m2ts. Any idea why it's doing that? Will .m2ts be the better quality one to use?

Thanks.

I don't have access to Vegas Platinum from here but from memory ...

If you use the AVCHD template, you should get m2ts. It will also be interlace. Youtube probably doesn't accept m2ts. Blu-Ray requires m2ts.

If you use the "Internet" template, you should get mp4 which is desired by YouTube.

I'm recommending you do both. 1080 60i for HDTV/Blu-Ray and 1080 30p for YouTube.