Deinterlacing issue with full HD

[Julienne Rathore]

Thank you guys!

I will export using compressor and sort out my personal issues with interlaced video that way 😉

Final note: this checked ‘interlaced’ box in the sequence settings -> compressor -> advanced – ignore it? leave it checked as it is? or should I uncheck it?

you are appreciated!
julienne.

[Andrew Kimery]

Don’t mess with the default sequence settings in FCP. Anything you do to deinteralce or convert your footage should be done outside of FCP.

[Julienne Rathore]

Fair enough. Is it safe to assume this is a default setting though?

thanks!
julienne

[Neil Patience]

Hi Julienne

yes that is the default as far as I can tell. The choice to shoot progressive or interlaced is largely an aesthetic one.
[julienne rathore] “I was always under the impression that progressive was superior to interlaced “

Progressive is not really superior but people like the look. Making video look like film has been somewhat of a holy grail over the years. Film is by nature progressive and people associate that look with quality. Its interesting to see peoples reaction to The Hobbit in 48 FPS – many dont like it, too clean, too “video” but it does seem somewhat incongruous that we base “quality” on something that is probably 100 year old technology.
As has been said deinterlacing plug-ins will often result in a poorer quality image as generally they reduce the resolution. The crudest of these literally throws out a field and just doubles up the remaining field, halving the resolution in a stroke. Other use more clever algorithms to average out the differences and interpolate the fields so not as much info is lost.
As Andrew suggests Compressor does a better job than FCP so I would finish your edit and go that route. But you can never judge the quality on a computer monitor. They simply do not process interlaced images correctly so you get a false impression of the quality.
You need a proper I/O card and a television monitor to make any kind of real assessment.
If you are delivering on DVD (not BluRay) then you are losing quality going to SD and that on top of deinterlacing may not show your footage in the best light. It would be interesting to burn a DVD from your interlaced sequence and another from your deinterlaced and then compare them using a DVD player on a decent TV. That will give you a much better indication than your MAC.

best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv

[Andrew Kimery]

[Neil Patience] “Progressive is not really superior but people like the look. Making video look like film has been somewhat of a holy grail over the years. “

I think what you are mentioning is more of frame rate thing than a progressive vs. interlaced thing. For example, I think 720p60 is better than 1080i60 for a few reasons but 720p60 looks nothing like 24p.

[Neil Patience]

[Andrew Kimery] “I think what you are mentioning is more of frame rate thing than a progressive vs. interlaced thing. For example, I think 720p60 is better than 1080i60 for a few reasons but 720p60 looks nothing like 24p.”

I get your point and I suppose it is frame rate thing. The point I was trying to make though was that in terms of Juliennes footage, his choice of wanting to de-interlace was an aesthetic one. Generally people associate progressive footage with a “filmic look” I have been in so many edits where clients want a “film effect” and given that the frame rate is fixed then the only variable is progressive v interlaced. I work in PAL land so generally the choice is 25P or 50i. So one frame rate.
(720 of any flavour is never used.)

To be honest when I see how many people have shot on 3 cameras with one at 29.98 one at 59.94 and one at 29.97
I am glad I never have to deal with that 🙂

best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv

[Julienne Rathore]

Thanks again!

Lets say I am going for that ‘film look’ – have added some grain and such…first time though and not completely sure how to achieve it – if it even is completely achieveable (I’m usually a documentary film person).
Any further suggestions for the ‘film look’?

Also this project is highly experimental and heavily based on reality, so perhaps aiming for any kind of ‘conventional look’ is unnecessary.

Would you advise deinterlacing via compressor? or leave as interlaced?

And if the way to go is deinterlacing, could you point me somewhere with an explanaition as to how to create a good custom preset to carry this out.

Sorry to keep asking you so many question!
Your answers are much appreciated!
julienne

[Neil Patience]

Hi Julienne

As Andrew suggested its best done via Compressor. So I would edit and finish your project as interlaced. Then export a self contained quicktime of your final sequence and then use that to create a deinterlaced version. You would then have a master QT file of both interlaced and deinterlaced.
From there you can easily make a DVD of each (or even just a section of each) to see which look you prefer viewed on a TV.
I dont really have a custom setting for that I can give you but Andrew or Dave or others may well.

In terms of film look, as I said is somewhat of a holy grail. However my favourite plug-in for this is Gen Arts Sapphire. There is a film look plug in there that can give pictures a really nice look. Sadly Sapphire is not cheap but you can download a full working demo for 30 days or you can rent on a monthly basis.
Maybe someone else has a different plug in suggestion but thats my fave.

If you wanted to give that a try I would wait till you had finished your edit then download and experiment. You would have 30 days to play around.
If you get something you like, export interlaced master as above and deinterlace that via compressor.

best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv

[Julienne Rathore]

Thank you again Neil!

hope someone can help me out with the custom settings to deinterlace via compressor – or point me in the right direction 🙂

julienne

[Neil Patience]

Hi

I dont really use Compressor that much and its ages since I had to deinterlace anything so I would hate to send you on the wrong path.
I tend to only have to do odd shots and for that often use the Nattress deinterelace plug in as its better than the FCP one.
I couldn’t say how that compares to Compressor though.
Going to be tricky to judge on a computer monitor.

Check this out https://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/using_frame_controls_in_compressor.html

Ignore the frame controls but about half way down it gives instructions on deinterlacing – I think the “Best” setting will be a long render but see how you go.

Also check this out – depending on how many cores you have this is a useful way of speeding up compressor with a virtual cluster. I have used this for DVD encoding and it certainly speeds things up on my 8 core machine.
https://www.devia.be/news/article/setting-up-a-virtual-cluster-to-speed-up-compressor/

hope that helps – sorry I am a bit vague on that point.

best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv