When will FCP support 720p PAL 25fps?

I'm in Australia (PAL), like using Final Cut Pro and I'm thinking of buying the new JVC camera GY-HD101E.
There's many reasons for this such as manual lens, good telephoto, and the fact that prgressive is the way we're going now with LCD high def screens. (?) Therefore rather not do the 1080i Sony or Canon HD system.

My questions:
I hear that even latest versions of Final Cut Pro still don't support PAL 720p (24fps is ok of course but no good for 25 fps).

Is this so?
Will it be fixed in new versions of FCP? (Version 6.0?)
When will it be available?

Perhaps I should not get the JVC HD101E after all?

Any ideas?



David Pollock
Northern Territory
Australia

Actually 720p24 is not supported either, only 720p30 in HDV. DVCPROHD is supported in 720p24. There are no 50p or 25p formats supported at all.

Whether a future version will support it is anybody's guess, and anybody who knows can't say, and when that might be nobody can say either. I suspect at the moment it's all Universal Binary all the time, until that's shipped. Whether it's there already in the new release I don't know. We should all know in about a month.



All the best,

Tom

The Sony HVR Z1U shoots in PAL 1080i 50i
Why not use that? You can de-interlace to 25 FPS and you'll end up with progressive. Is my thinking correct on this?

>>Is my thinking correct on this?<<

Yep. That's how we do it for the time being in PAL-Land with HDV or DVCProHD. Bring it in 1080i50. Edit in a 25fps timeline. Deinterlace at the end.

"The Sony HVR Z1U shoots in PAL 1080i 50i
Why not use that? You can de-interlace to 25 FPS and you'll end up with progressive. Is my thinking correct on this?"

-Wont that make the quality poorer if you want to use the footage for compositing?

Thanks everyone for your help on this.

"Wont that make the quality poorer if you want to use the footage for compositing?"

Yes, thanks Johan. I was also wondering if de-interlacing 1080i 50 back to 25p made quality poorer than keeping it in original 720p. JVC seem to say that their reason for using this format in the GY-HD101E is that it's better than de-interlacing 1080i.
They say in thte technical report for this camera that progressive scan "offers superior compatability with related equipment such as flat panel displays and DVD."

Is this just advertising hype or is it true?



David Pollock
Northern Territory
Australia