If you are importing or linking to (in my experience Sony, but maybe other varieties of) AVCHD footage shot 29.97P and working in a 29.97P Project, Avid Media Composer interprets it as INTERLACED and defaults to Duplicated Field.
This gives it a blocky, less sharp look. My work around (for the past 3 years or so) as been to LINK TO MEDIA and rough edit the clips into the sequence. They appear in the timeline with the Little Green Dot indicating there is an effect applied. Then I will highlight the clips in the timeline and hit "Remove Effect" or 'delete' key and then the unnecessary/stupid field duplication effect is removed and my sharp, progressive image appears. If I need a responsive timeline (which is most of the time), I will then transcode that timeline and have it create DNxHD files on my media drive.
(Major bummer: if you import the files you cannot 'undo' the improper field interpolation and looking in "Source Settings" Avid doesn't even give you the option to see these AVCHD files as progressive, you are locked in to Interlaced video)
And I'm not dealing with consumer level cameras. These AVCHD files are coming off of the FS700 (and FS100)
TWO QUESTIONS:
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
Why hasn't Avid found a way to interpret these properly through Source Settings or on Import? (or have they?)
(I'm sure that the AVCHD files are encoded as interlaced, much like the old HDV M2T files were, but there must be a way to correctly interpret them without having to go through all these steps)