Broadcast standards – interlace or progressive?

[James Richard]

You can always use post production methods and tools to convert your interlaced video to progressive.
Most convertors will do that.

[Grzegorz Kwiatkowski]

Thanks for answer Dave,

but what is the standard now, from the producer’s point of view? If you want to sell a program to different tv stations, should you shoot interlace? I hear interlace is a standard in broadcast, either PAL or HD. My tv station for example rejects footage that is progressive.

I read that LCD tv sets (these days they dominate) can’t interpret interlace well, so why broadcast standards stick to interlace?

[Grzegorz Kwiatkowski]

Yeah, but PSF is still progressive in terms of motion fluency. I had many problems with my program which I shot progressive especially with swish pan shots.

[Andrew Rendell]

I’m in the UK and although there are some differences between stations (so you must check with the broadcaster you’re supplying to), the general rule-of-thumb is that broadcast specs are interlaced, PSF is fine for material that’s originated in progressive, but they don’t normally accept material that is shot interlaced and processed to make it progressive.

TBH, if you have problems with camera movement you ought to check where the issue lies, it might not be because of the difference between interlaced and progressive, it could be a camera setup thing like shutter speed or rolling shutter.

[Grzegorz Kwiatkowski]

Yeah, I’ve checked requirements of BBC channel at their website. In 2008 they accepted progressive, but now it’s only interlaced and BBC is a standard I guess.

Maciej