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Interlacing progressive footage – how to really do it
I’ve done numerous web searches on how to interlace progressive footage for broadcast, but none of the responses I’ve seen actually say HOW to do so. There are usually vague references to Apple Shake, Quicktime 7, or Compressor being able to make the conversion, usually by simply exporting interlaced. This hasn’t worked for me. The only time I got it to work before was on some 29.97fps video using After Effects, and the result was less than stellar.
What I have is this:
– Format: Apple ProRes 422
– Bitrate: Max.: Undefined / Average: 111 Mbps / Min.: Undefined
– Frame rate (fps): Max.: — / Average: 59.940 / Min.: —
– Encoding profile: Normal
– Width (Pixel number): 1280*720
– Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1:1
– Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9
– Interlacing: Undefined (this is what VideoSpec reports. It’s progressive)What I’ve got to end up with is 1920×1080, 59.94i.
Anybody know the fastest way to do this? I’ve got to convert 50 episodes and get them on the air.
I can use Shake, Compressor, FCP, After Effects, or Quicktime Pro 7, but I need pretty specific instructions. Anybody know how to do this? -
16 Replies
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This shouldn’t be much of a problem, looks like you are working on a MAC system and I’m not familiar with Compressor, but you should be able to bring your footage in as a source. Make sure that all the source settings are being interpreted correctly. Choose an output format of 1920×1080 59.94 and make sure that the fields are upper first. If compressor is like Media Encoder, you should have a preset to choose from and you’ll be good to go.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
If this is going to broadcast, every station you deal with (unfortunately) is going to have a spec sheet with all the details you’ll need to supply, and there’s way more information than just
1920×1080, 59.94i. Generally, either the production manager, or the sales rep for the station can point you to the file. Here’s a sample of Fox’s requirements:https://www.fox.com/_ugc/pdf/commercial_guidelines.pdf
Back to your question – interlaced footage requires Fields – depending on what you want to output, there are lots of variables which you have to be very aware of. If you have camera footage, what was it shot with? If it’s already got fields, is it upper field first (1080 video is), or lower field? If not, you can just create an output template in AE which follows the specs the broadcaster gives you. Here’s all the critical information on Outputting Separate Fields, which is another name for Interlacing, and may be what’s confusing you:
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f42a.html#WS725e431141e7ba651e63e3d124985b84f9-8000Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said “footage” — I have complete episodes that are 720p. There are no fields. I’ve tried exporting UFF in both After Effects and Compressor, but neither results in interlaced footage.
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If you want to render out interlaced from AE you need to choose the correct field from the Field Render pulldown menu in Render Settings. Your job would be really easy with Adobe Media Encoder.
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Oh, I have Adobe Media Encoder, too; I’ve just never used it. Can I ask how to do so in Media Encoder?
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Absolutely, you can use ME. Without knowing your exact specs(so I can’t comment on codec), you would follow these general steps. Take your 720p file and drop it into ME and chose the format(codec) you need to deliver to the station. There is probably a preset that will be close to what you need, but you may need to tweak. Click the preset button, click the video tab and there you will be able to specify 1080i 59.94
You can make a preset of your settings also, so once you are sure of it, you can just apply that to all your files at once.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
Yes, I just did all of that, but it didn’t produce an interlaced video.
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What are your exact settings, posting a screen capture here would be helpful, you can embed one using the third icon from the right in the reply dialogue.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
When going from 59.94 progressive to 59.94 interlaced, what is your expectation? Mine is that you’ll end up with a single frame across two fields. This means it will still look progressive. The only way in which it might be different than progressive is if the format you transcoded to includes some flags/metadata about interlacing and fields.
Darby Edelen
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Just realized that I made an incorrect statement in the previous post. You should be able to get from 59.94 frames per second to 59.94 fields per second and have each field represent a different instant in time (it should look “interlaced”).
However, depending on the application you’re using to create the interlaced file you may want to choose a 29.97 interlaced output rather than 59.94 interlaced. Both After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder work that way. You first select the 29.97 frame rate (not the field rate 59.94 as reported in 1080i 59.94) and then define whether the output should be progressive or interlaced.
Darby Edelen
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