Lets start with the basics. Your Canon HF-200 is the same as mine - a HF11. I record MXP at 25p (its PAL whereas yours is NTSC).
Your main question is the interlaced vs progressive issue. For high speed shots (sport, wildlife) then interlaced is theoretically the best. What I have found though is that through the edit process, I'm having to remove the interlacing to give me the progressive output. There is possibly something I'm missing in my workflow to preserve the interlacing.
If you do shoot interlaced, and you want progressive output, I would de-interlace as soon as possible (in the transcoding stage).
From a general workflow perspective, I tend to work in Full HD and just downgrade at the end.
Since you are targetting SD output, its tough to answer the HD workflow questions. My personal preference is to shoot progressive, take the lower 25p/24p frame rates and work in 1920x1080 25p AIC or ProRes. When complete, I export to the required target from Final Cut.
For pure HD workflows, we are half-way to a native AVCHD end to end editor. We've got the previewing and trimming happening and now need AVCHD output. Once we have that you will be able to edit without any transcoding, and play the AVCHD files on a HDTV or PS3. This workflow will allow you to get 60i footage edited and into playback on a HDTV with no loss at all.
Workflows
Wow - thats a lot of questions :)
Lets start with the basics. Your Canon HF-200 is the same as mine - a HF11. I record MXP at 25p (its PAL whereas yours is NTSC).
Your main question is the interlaced vs progressive issue. For high speed shots (sport, wildlife) then interlaced is theoretically the best. What I have found though is that through the edit process, I'm having to remove the interlacing to give me the progressive output. There is possibly something I'm missing in my workflow to preserve the interlacing.
If you do shoot interlaced, and you want progressive output, I would de-interlace as soon as possible (in the transcoding stage).
From a general workflow perspective, I tend to work in Full HD and just downgrade at the end.
Since you are targetting SD output, its tough to answer the HD workflow questions. My personal preference is to shoot progressive, take the lower 25p/24p frame rates and work in 1920x1080 25p AIC or ProRes. When complete, I export to the required target from Final Cut.
For pure HD workflows, we are half-way to a native AVCHD end to end editor. We've got the previewing and trimming happening and now need AVCHD output. Once we have that you will be able to edit without any transcoding, and play the AVCHD files on a HDTV or PS3. This workflow will allow you to get 60i footage edited and into playback on a HDTV with no loss at all.
I hope this helps
Justin