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PAL interlaced content field ordering for DVDs doesn’t seem to match prescribed standard
So I’ve trawled through creative cow’s many posts on the matter and various other forums and blogs and wikipedia and asked online editors and all say, PAL DVDs are lower fields first order for interlaced DVDs.
I’m happy to accept this except for a weird situation I’ve been finding myself in. For the most part I use Sorenson to make DVD iso’s of content edited in Avid and exported as DV codec or Avid DNXHD185x (interlaced). The content is always PAL and always destined for PAL DVDs or PAL broadcast. I also use DVD SP sometimes with similar problems to what I’m about to describe:
For some reason, I can’t simply follow a recipe of DVD settings that work and leave them the same because every now and then (seemingly more often than not in fact), the resulting DVDs (with field order set to lower) will have a jittering effect like it’s playing 1 field, then the next, then the previous again, then the first field of the next frame and so on. This seems to be fixed by just changing the field ordering to upper and it still seems to play on my test DVD players. But why is this? It’s supposed to be lower fields first right? How can this change?
Why is it sometimes necessary for me to switch the field ordering to upper to fix apparent interlacing issues with my DVDs when the standard should be lower?
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3 Replies
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Well, I’m surprised at what you say about advise received on this matter. I encode my PAL DVD’s in BitVice and have always chosen Upper Field First for all my material whether it’s DV or ProRes. Perfect results.
Michael Slowe
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Michael,
but this isn´t correct!ALL DV-derivates, like DV, DVCAM or DVCPRO 25 and 50 are lower first within PAL.
but all others codecs normally have upper first, and this is opposite to mostly what happens with all NTSC-codecs.
and of course you shouldn´t forget that all HD-formats are upper first (also DVCPRO HD).
so IF you go need to create a PAL-DVD you should allways use the field-order of your original material.
there is NO sentence within the DVD-specs that DVD must be lower first, but I know some encoders+authoring-tools (like encore) is suggesting that.
danny
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Daniel, you’re right but also, so am I. I’ll explain. My editing system these last fifteen years has been Media 100, both for SD and HD, and for PAL Media 100 codec the correct field setting is Upper. It is the same for 1080i 25fps. Oddly, for NTSC Media 100 codec the field setting is Lower.
Sorry to have confused everyone but I’ve only ever edited in Media 100 so was under the impression that all DV was Upper field.
Michael Slowe
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